African Studies Review: Volume 39 -

Review Essays and Book Reviews
Frank A. Salamone
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23 May 2014, pp. 179-185
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Caroline Bledsoe and Gilles Pison, eds. Nuptiality in Sub-Saharan Africa: Contemporary Anthropological and Demographic Perspectives International Studies in Demography. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1994. xii+312pp. Figures. Index. Tables. $65.00. Cloth.
Deborah Durham
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23 May 2014, pp. 155-156
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Lights…Camera…Africa: Images of Africa and Africans in Western Popular Films of the 1930s
Kevin Dunn
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23 May 2014, pp. 149-175
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The steady beating of the war-drums grows stronger. An exotically painted black face peers out behind a bush. The African porters drop their packs and cower in fear, but the tall, courageous white hunter forces them on. Suddenly a spear flies out of the bush and hits a porter in the chest. The rest of the porters, screaming, disperse into the jungle, only to be cut down by the savages. With his trusty gun, the white man fends off the brutes and retreats to a nearby cliff. As the tension mounts, the audience sits spellbound.
Such images became the staple for “jungle” movies in the early part of this century. During the Depression era, the economic importance of the West's African colonies greatly increased. What these celluloid images suggest is that, consciously or not, the filmmakers were acting as cultural colonialists by reinforcing and legitimizing Western political practices in Africa. These images contributed to the viewing audiences' misperception of Africa and Africans and helped to perpetuate and strengthen racist and colonialist modes of thinking.
For this study, I have chosen nine films from the United States and Great Britain that can be considered “popular” films based on their box office success and wide distribution: Trader Horn (1931), Tarzan the Ape Man (1932), Sanders of the River (1935), Tarzan and his Mate (1934), King Solomon's Mines (1937), Tarzan Escapes (1936), Tarzan Finds a Son! (1939), Four Feathers (1939) and Stanley and Livingstone (1939).

Review Essay: South Africa in Transition
J. Barron Boyd
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23 May 2014, pp. 186-192
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Suzanne Preston Blier. The Anatomy of Architecture: Ontology and Metaphor in Batatnmaliba Architectural Expression. RES Monographs in Anthropology and Aesthetics Series. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1987. xx+314pp. Bibliography. Figures. Index. Maps. Photographs. $17.95. Paper.
Julia A. Risser
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23 May 2014, pp. 157-158
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Sammy Adelman and Abdul Paliwala, eds. Law and Crisis in the Third World. Published for the Centre of Modern African Studies, University of Warwick. London: Hans Zell Publishers, 1993. xii + 332 pp. Bibliography. Index. $65.00. Cloth. - Ann Seidman and Robert B. Seidman. State and Law in the Development Process: Problem Solving and Institutional Change in the Third World. New York, NY: St. Martin's Press, 1994. xx + 413 pp. Bibliography. Figures. Index. Maps. Tables. $45.00. Cloth.
Otwin Marenin
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23 May 2014, pp. 192-196
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Beyond the Hobbesian Nightmare: The Prospects for Peace, Development and Ecological Revival in the War Torn Horn of Africa
Robert F. Gorman
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23 May 2014, pp. 177-186
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Herrmann Jungraithmayr und Gudrun Miehe, Hrsg. Mitteilungen des Sonderforschungsbereichs 268 (Burkina Faso und Nordostnigeria). Westafrikanische Studien. Frankfurter Beitrage zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte, Band 1. Koln: Rudiger Koppe Verlag, 1994. 224pp. DM 48.00. Paper. - Rudolf Leger. Eine Grammatik der Kwami-Sprache. (Nordostnigeria). Westafrikanische Studien. Frankfurter Beitrage zur Sprach- und Kulturgeschichte, Band 8x. Koln: Rudiger Koppe Verlag, 1994. xx+311pp. Appendix. Bibliography. DM78.00. Paper.
Maria Grosz-Ngate
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23 May 2014, pp. 158-160
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Books Received
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23 May 2014, pp. 187-193
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