The Gods must be Crazy, or the Rhetoric of Apartheid: A (Re)evaluation of Jamie Uys's Film in the Context of French Anti-apartheid Solidarity

ABSTRACT

Jamie Uys’s film The Gods Must Be Crazy (1980) became an instant blockbuster as it opened up in theatres worldwide. However, critics were quick to note that its humorous tone subtly propagated the central tenet of apartheid, namely separate development. This article analyses the reception of the film in France and places it within the context of growing anti-apartheid solidarity and rhetoric. Although journals such as Politique Africaine were quick to denounce the film’s racist undertones and implicit support of apartheid policies, condemnation remained limited to militant circles, which raises questions regarding the ways in which French society perceived the situation in South Africa. Drawing on the works of Keyan Tomaselli and Brendon Nicholls, this article offers a critical analysis of the film in the context of apartheid ideologies and growing anti-apartheid rhetoric by (1) looking at the state of the mobilisation and the specific context of cultural anti-apartheid manifestations in France prior to the opening of the film on French screens in 1981, and (2) analysing how the positive reception of the film inserted itself within a broader framework of European colonial discourse and thus effectively served as a tool of apartheid propaganda.

KEYWORDS:

• The Gods Must Be Crazy
• Jamie Uys
• France
• apartheid
• anti-apartheid
• propaganda
• culture
• protest

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

1 The use of the term “San” or “Bushmen” has prompted many academic debates, particularly within the field of anthropology. “San” is a Nama word that has been imposed by politicians and has been used to refer to “bandits” or “foragers”. However, as Robert Gordon has argued, since the Khoisan do not see themselves as an integrated people with a single homogenous name (1992, 4), this article shall use both terms interchangeably and in inverted comas, in keeping with Gordon's assertion that “[c]hanging the label does not reduce the racism … we need to confront the same terms and infuse them with new meaning” (1992, 6).

2 Including the Fédération des Étudiants d’Afrique Noire en France (FEANF), the Association Générale des Étudiants Martiniquais (AGEM), the Association Générale des Étudiants Guadeloupéens (AGEG), the Association des Étudiants Guyanais, and the Association des Étudiants d’origine Malgache (AEOM).

3 On this note, Tal Sela's article, in this volume, considers the links between Jean-Paul Sartre and the Comité Français de Liaison contre l’Apartheid, led by Jean-Jacques de Felice and Elisabeth Mathiot.

4 Two notable campaigns in France that brought attention to the anti-apartheid struggle, yet exemplified this ideological division, were the anti-Outspan campaign organised by the MAA in 1974 and the mobilisation for the release of the 27-year-old student Pierre-André Albertini in March 1987, conducted by the PCF.

5 All source material in French has been translated by the author.

6 The play was created by Anne Barbey in 1971 in Lausanne, Switzerland.

7 Archival material: De Seynes (1979) in UWC–Robben Island Museum Mayibuye Archives, Cape Town.

8 Notably, this initiative was supported by the UN's Special Committee Against Apartheid.

9 For more information on the capacity of race-based humour to uphold racial ideologies of white supremacy, see Pérez (2016).

10 Siclier, Jacques. 1983. “Les Dieux sont tombés sur la tête, de Jamie Uys à cause d’une bouteille vide”. Le Monde.

11 For more information on the Bantustan system of apartheid, see http://www.sahistory.org.za/article/homelands.