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23, 2004
Hollywood Heroes
Excerpts from a speech given in New Jersey on February 23, 2004
I joined the Biafran army at the age of 14. The break-away nation of Biafra fought a 30-month war in which one million soldiers died. At that time Americans were fighting in Vietnam. No American died in the Nigerian civil war.The heroes of the Nigerian civil war were the one million soldiers that died in it. The war superhero was the Biafran leader, Odumegwu Ojukwu.
But Hollywood understood that a black African superhero would not sell to white American audiences. In predictable Hollywood fashion, it retold and re-centered a Nigerian civil war story around American soldiers.
The recent movie “Tears of the Sun” was inspired by the Nigerian civil war. But it was a white American soldier that emerged as the superhero. In “Tears of the Sun,” an American superhero, played by Bruce Willis, risked his life, killed Muslim rebels and saved a trapped American missionary.
Ladies and gentlemen, after watching all Hollywood-produced movies about Africa, I reached the conclusion that Hollywood movies about Africa is really about "a white man in Africa."
I came to the conclusion that Hollywood is a cultural propaganda machine used to advance white supremacy. I concluded that schools are federal indoctrination centers for promoting white supremacy. I concluded that schools are America's battleground.
The result is that a generation of African children is growing up with American heroes.
Posted by emeagwali at 23, 2004 01:58