Generational Conflict in a Four African Movies, Research Paper Example

Generation is a group of individuals who were born and lived together. The people can be in a family born and living during the same time or the average length of time between which the parents were born and the birth of their children. Generational conflicts arose when the ideals or interests of one generation colliding with those of another generation. In most cases, people are working colleagues in a span of closely to three or four generations. There is a high possibility that the team members misunderstand one another leading to generational conflicts. Generational conflicts arise when team members misunderstand one another when getting together, choosing when and where to work, to communicate among them, and learning new things or finding information.

The First Grader is a movie written by Ann Peacock and directed by Justin Chadwick telling a remarkable story of Kimani Maruge Nganga. Maruge was a member of Kikuyu tribe in Kenya who was illiterate and decided to enroll in a primary school in 2003 when free primary education was announced (Ukeje & Iwilade 2012, p. 342). He was 84 years when he enrolled in primary school. Maruge became lightning and inspirational rode when he claimed his right of studying at his age. He was invited to address a UN conference New York, but in Kenya, his embodiment of lifelong learning concept was seen as controversial. The film is providing a textured glimpse of Kenyan people and land in honoring both social and political complexities of Maruge and his uplifting aspects of experience. The ambition to provoke thoughts while tugging at heartstrings makes the movie frustrating and fascinating in almost equal measure.

Sometimes classroom scenes and unwieldy blended flashbacks shift the points of view forth and back between Maruge and his teacher. If it is occasional and messy mawkish, The First Grader is rarely dull. The drama of Kenya’s beauty landscape, its past, and tangle of its present makes that virtual impossible. Maruge as a benign local character participated in Mau Mau uprising and demonstrations against the British in 1950s. During that time, Maruge was tortured, spent years in British prison camps, and his family was killed. Before the independence, his memories of brutal years troubled the serenity of his old age. The conflicts of the past are also witnessed in modern Kenya, and most of the touching parts of The First Grader are rejected. The rejects are by the legacy of political score-settling and tribal conflicts, which has outlasted the British for long. Instead of being proud of Maruge, his neighbors and authorities are worried about the effects of Maruge and his motives against the children who crowd in the school run by Ms. Harris. After admitting and refusing to reverse his decision in her class, Ms. Harris risked her marriage, safety, and career because of an ambitious bureaucrat (Garritano 2013, p. 173).

Maruge’s tale was situated on the slippery ground in between suspense thriller and satire because the society begrudges the old man’s chance at literacy. Jane received threatening visits and phone calls from self-important officials in black sedans and dark suits because her pupil became famous. Government goons shook down Maruge, and her teacher and gangsters for the reduction of the money in which the extortionists assumed were attached to Maruge’s celebrity.   Maruge struggled to learn his numbers and letters to keep his earlier life nightmares at bay and help younger pupils. In the movie, there is a powerful drama but many of the scenes are handled with poor portentousness rather than subletting the story as rich as it deserves.

Yesterday (2004) is a South African movie directed by Darryl James Roodt. The film was screened when 25th Durban International Festival was opened. The movie portrays stereotypical African woman as a beast of burden, bearer of children, and collector of food. Yesterday became the first isiZulu fully fletched movie with English subtitles.  The movie was shot in Bergville an area of KwaZulu-Natal. The story is about an illiterate young mother who became ill and discovered that she was HIV-positive. The condition made her desperate situation worse because of poverty and an absent migrant husband. The story is set at a rural environment where yesterday was meant to show a rural woman. Yesterday was struggling to be in terms with illiteracy, poverty, HIV, poor health services, lack of water, and many other resources. The movie demonstrates absent husbands, unfaithfulness, domestic violence, and rural underdevelopment, which confronts African countries today. In all these issues, none of them is fully developed.

Yesterday is a modern remake of the stereotypic African woman as beast of burden, wood collector, and bearer of children. Her husband was a migrant mineworker who refused to take the responsibility or accept the status of his wife. As a result, Yesterday left to fend for her daughter beauty and herself. The husband arrived home in a bizarre twist showing advanced signs of AIDS-related illness (Cichy & Fingerman 2013, p. 35). It was the only time that he sought for his wife’s forgiveness. Her husband was not aware that the mine house was among the first companies to offer anti-retroviral drugs to its staff. He did not seek for such help from the company. At a certain stage, the big company in South Africa was sending home miners with  AIDS to die. In addition, Yesterday was not counseled when she was tested for HIV, and she was not aware of the anti-retroviral. At the opening, Yesterday was termed as a powerful movie, which confronts social stigma surrounding HIV/AIDS. The audiences were touched by the woman’s perseverance and struggle to survive all the odds.  The touch was not about the loneliness struggle but the opportunity that she missed producing great movie as a devoid of all neo-colonial stereotypes.

The movie perpetuates the social stigmas of HIV/AIDS instead of confronting them. When the village women heard about Yesterday’s plight, they threaten to throw her and her family out of the village. The viewers were surprised that no member of the community was enlighten about the plight even the teacher. Yesterday consulted a Sangoma, who was also a suspect hoping to get assistance after attempting to see a doctor two times, but in vain. Sangoma instructed her to get rid of all her anger, and he would heal her. Yesterday informed him that she had visited many sangomas even the fake, but no one has dished out the hogwash.  Sangoma did not assist her, but he led a bunch of women in the village to confront Yesterday about her diseased husband. Singh, who is the producer of the movie, claimed that way in South African communities. Yesterday movie demonstrates how the disease affects poor and illiterate people. In the movie if Yesterday and her husband were aware of the availability of the anti-retroviral drugs and their health, deteriorate. Each of the countries should take the responsibility of their citizens and educate them about how to live after contracting the disease. The community members should be advised not to neglect the infected individuals such that they can feel part of the country. The ARV drugs should be made available even in the rural health centers such that the community members infected can benefit from the drugs (Ukeje & Iwilade 2012, p. 346).

Life Above All (2010) is a South African movie offering a story of about a girl of extraordinary character who did something that few painful dramas can accomplish. The story tells about a tale of resilience without false promises of unclouded future or without platitudes of triumph of the human spirit. The 12-year-old hero fought the battle by struggling to save her best friend from prejudiced neighbors. The neighbors were like a mob, which might end when the movie is at its steering close, but the fight has no end. The movie is dedicated to children who are orphans because of HIV/AIDS. Chanda lives in the township near Johannesburg with her mother Lilian and having two sisters and a brother before one of her sisters died. Her newborn sister Sara has just died due to complications from AIDS. Chanda was in charge of the burial since her mother Lilian was bereft. Chanda was determined as she moved to the funeral parlor dry-eyed where she was shown a small coffin and assured that the infant will be pretty. Chanda remained wordless while scanning the room where the dead are prepared, and her eyes were falling on the metal table.

Chanda’s absence of tears showed that her silence was unnerving while her calms showed lifetime pain and preternatural strength of character. Children were not allowed to pick her sister’s coffin, but she picks it. She became the moral compass of the movie due to her authentic wonder. She was forced to be an adult yet she remained a child such that she could feel real. Chanda’s secrets indicated that Allan Stratton movie of 2004 thrown plenty to her including devastating illness, gossipy neighbors, and a drunken stepfather. When all these were combined indicated her tribulations made pathetic melodrama (Garritano 2013, p. 93). The episodes of the story showed Chanda as she was trying to bring her family together and to watch her best friend Esther and the snooping neighbors. Esther, who lives alone behind her family, abandoned house was pretty girl who’s face sometimes look frighteningly old. Her parents died due to HIV/AIDS and her siblings are living in a different place. She was smiling every time where the neighbors in the community were left surprised due to AIDS that has affected her yet she was still happy. The only kindness and assistance that she received was from her close friend Chanda, who kept on promising that she will not leave her alone. Esther feels that the world has abandoned her but Chanda’s assistance keep her moving.

The movie shows the difficulties that children face after losing their parents because of AIDS. It is a touching and pressing story that the leaders from different countries should turn to the children having the same problem and assist them. For example, Chanda taking courage as a young girl, bereaving her mother and siblings who were overwhelmed by their lost child and sister. She was responsible in all the activities in the burial without being prevented by her age. Neighbors should not fear the disease to the extent that they cannot assist the affected even during the burial process. It is a problem that affected everyone without discrimination, and they should stand on behalf of young children who are affected like Chanda. The case of Esther, a friend to Chanda, is also touching. Her siblings have abandoned her, and Chanda who is also a young child like her can assist her but she is determined to assist her in everything that she needs. Courageous children like Chanda should motivate the neighbors.

A child of South Africa (2008) is a movie about children who suffering without parents in the streets. The children found themselves in the streets because their parents died in the townships where they were working as laborers (Haynes 2011, p. 17). Laborers who were working in the townships were brought from near villages, and they were not allowed to move out of the townships. Due to high infections of AIDS and poor health, facilities offered to the laborers in South Africa t led to their death leaving their children. The children decided to live in the streets because no one was bothered about them after their parents died of AIDS. HIV/AIDS has remained a serious problem in many countries and the most affected are the children after their parents die. It is a greatest menace that should be visited through education and awareness to save the lives of people and children. Children who lost their parents should be assisted to access education facilities, health, food, and such that they can continue enjoying their lives like other people.

References

Cichy, K. E. & Fingerman, K. L. (2013). Conflict engagement and conflict disengagement during interactions between adults and their parents. The Journals of Gerontology Series B: Psychological Sciences and Social Sciences, 68(1), 31-40.

Garritano, C. (2013). African Video Movies and Global Desires: A Ghanaian History. Ohio University Press.

Haynes, J. (2011). African Cinema and Nollywood: Contradictions. Situations: Project of the Radical Imagination, 4(1).

Ukeje, C. U., & Iwilade, A. (2012). A farewell to innocence? African youth and violence in the twenty-first century. International Journal of conflict and violence, 6(2), 338-350.