The Lion King | 53
Movies about Africa
By Amaka agu
LK Movies
A
frica’s numerous struggles and victories have
inspired many great works of art including
internationally acclaimed award winning movies.
This is my list of favourite movies about the African
struggle.
Blood Diamonds (Sierra
Leone)
Set against the backdrop
of civil war and chaos
in 1990’s Sierra Leone,
Danny Archer (Leonardo
Di Caprio), a South
African mercenary, and
Solomon Vandy Mende
(Djimon Hounsou) a
fisherman are joined in a
common quest to recover
a rare pink diamond
that can transform their
lives. While in prison for
smuggling, Archer learns
that Solomon who was
taken from his family
and forced to work in
the diamond fields has
found and hidden the
extraordinary rough
stone.
Last King of Scotland
(Uganda)
Based on the Ugandan
dictator Idi Amin,
Last King of Scotland
details the brutal reign
of Ugandan dictator
Idi Amin’s regime as
seen by his personal
physician during the
1970s. James McAvoy
stars as the doctor who
slowly realizes that
he is trapped in an
inescapable nightmare
and Academy Award
winner Forest Whittaker
as the notorious
dictator Idi Amin.
Half of a Yellow Sun
(Nigeria)
Beginning in 1960 with
Nigeria’s independence
from Britain, we follow
Olanna (Thandi
Newton) as she marries
Odenigbo (Chiwetel
Ejiofor)and leaves her
wealthy, well-bred
existence in Lagos
behind for Nsukka, and
then to Biafra, all to the
dismay of her ruling-
class family.
The class tensions
between she and
her sister link with the
tensions rising between
the Igbo and Hausa
peoples at the same
time, as Olanna tries
to reconcile her own
background and
upbringing with the
revolutionary modes
of her charismatic but
complicated spouse.
Hotel Rwanda (Rwanda)
In 1994, in Rwanda, a
million members of the
Tutsi tribe were killed by
members of the Hutu
tribe in a massacre that
took place while the
world looked away.
“Hotel Rwanda” is
not the story of that
massacre. It is the story
of a hotel manager
who saved the lives of
1,200 people by being,
essentially, a very good
hotel manager. The
man is named Paul
Rusesabagina, and he is
played by Don Cheadle
as a man of quiet,
steady competence in a
time of chaos.
Mandela: Long Walk to Freedom (South Africa)
This movie is a chronicle of the late Nelson Mandela’s
life journey from his childhood in a rural village,
through his years in prison, to his inauguration as the
first democratically elected president of South Africa.
