The essay analyses two texts, Black Safari, a 1972 ‘mockumentary’ directed by Colin Luke, and Behind the Frontlines (1988), a travelogue by Ferdinand Dennis. Both texts operate a re-definition of Britishness, defined by Stuart Hall in his essay “Whose Heritage” as a process which implies not a simple inclusion in but a complete re-vision of the national tradition. Black Safari is a parody of the exploration documentary which presents the reversal of a colonial scientific survey: “Time has changed. It is time we have our Livingstones, our Mungo Parks, our Stanleys”. It tells the journey of a group of Africans approaching the “dark” coasts of Britain and sailing up the Liverpool to Leeds canal in order to locate the geographical centre of this “remote” island. The group is composed by a naturalist, an anthropologist, a reporter, and a navigator who find and discover a mysterious and hostile environment, collect specimens, rename places and plants, meet the local tribesmen and try to understand their customs and their “unintelligible dialect”. Behind the Frontline collects Ferdinand Dennis’ impressions after a journey undertaken in the late Eighties across the ‘Midlands’, from Liverpool to London-Brixton, via Sheffield, Birmingham, Cardiff, Bristol and Bath. He narrates his encounters with different black communities, searching for their physical and cultural space within a Britain in decline, still “struggling to come to terms with its loss of Empire and diminished world stature”.
Passage to Afro-Britain: Ferdinand Dennis’s Behind the Frontlines and Colin Luke’s Black Safari
Francesco Cattani
2018
Abstract
The essay analyses two texts, Black Safari, a 1972 ‘mockumentary’ directed by Colin Luke, and Behind the Frontlines (1988), a travelogue by Ferdinand Dennis. Both texts operate a re-definition of Britishness, defined by Stuart Hall in his essay “Whose Heritage” as a process which implies not a simple inclusion in but a complete re-vision of the national tradition. Black Safari is a parody of the exploration documentary which presents the reversal of a colonial scientific survey: “Time has changed. It is time we have our Livingstones, our Mungo Parks, our Stanleys”. It tells the journey of a group of Africans approaching the “dark” coasts of Britain and sailing up the Liverpool to Leeds canal in order to locate the geographical centre of this “remote” island. The group is composed by a naturalist, an anthropologist, a reporter, and a navigator who find and discover a mysterious and hostile environment, collect specimens, rename places and plants, meet the local tribesmen and try to understand their customs and their “unintelligible dialect”. Behind the Frontline collects Ferdinand Dennis’ impressions after a journey undertaken in the late Eighties across the ‘Midlands’, from Liverpool to London-Brixton, via Sheffield, Birmingham, Cardiff, Bristol and Bath. He narrates his encounters with different black communities, searching for their physical and cultural space within a Britain in decline, still “struggling to come to terms with its loss of Empire and diminished world stature”.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.
