The view of Africa by American classical animation: A history weighted by racism

Abstract

The West has promoted for centuries a fragmentary and erroneous vision of the African continent, a territory subjected and enslaved by some of the great world powers. Colonialism helped foster a racist vision of Africa and its population from very early on, which was reflected in some animated short films made at the beginning of the 20th century. They did so by giving an archetypal vision of the African, both when they drew him as a human being -Jungle Jitters (Friz Freleng, 1938), The Isle of Pingo Pongo (Tex Avery, 1938)-and when they did it by providing him with features of a jungle animal -Africa Squeaks (Bob Clampett, 1940), Congo Jazz (Hugh Harman y Rudolf Ising, 1930)-, to increase the feeling of inferiority to which all these regions were reduced.