Darkest Africa: Difference between revisions
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{{trope}}
{{quote|''The story of Africa in the modern age is one of war, disease, corruption, repression and poverty. On the upside, there are [[
{{quote|''Darkest Africa is only dark to those wearing blindfolds,''
''to him who cannot think''
''whose brain is hardened and dusty''|Fokofpolisiekar, ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v{{=}}9MdSh8OGCGw "Antibiotika"]'' [Afrikaans]}}
A great favourite of stories involving the Colonial period of the 19th and early 20th centuries, Africa has lent itself well to many stories. Its breadth of landscape includes the immense sandy wasteland, the grassy veldts and savannahs, and thick, treacherous jungle. The history includes the ancient sophistication of the Egyptians, rich ancient kingdoms like Kush and Mali, and mysterious tribal groups— as well as the more recent European colonies and military juntas. And always, there is the wildlife, some of which may be [[Misplaced Wildlife|misplaced]].
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You might be able to get away with replacing "Congo" with "Amazon", however.
See also [[Ancient Africa]] and [[
{{examples|Examples:}}▼
== [[Anime]] and [[Manga]] ==
* Pyunma/008's home country looks like this the first time we see it in ''[[Cyborg 009]]'', but in subsequent stories, [[Shotaro Ishinomori]] tried to portray a slightly more realistic version of modern Africa, with cities & cars & things like that (and also changing Pyunma's backsotry from {{spoiler|a former tribal prince turned into}} [[Made a Slave|an ex-slave]] to a former guerrilla fighter caught an injured in a crossfire). Actually [[Lampshade Hanging|lampshades]] this trope, with 009 saying that Africa's nothing like what he read about in books when he visits.
* ''[[Kimba the White Lion]]'' takes place in an African jungle most of the time.
* Subverted in [[Hana
* The ''[[Pokémon]]'' anime episode, "The Kangaskhan Kid" had Ash and friends lost in a jungle-like area of the Safari Zone.
== [[Comic Books]] ==
* [[Marvel Universe]]: Wakanda, the kingdom ruled by T'Challa ("Black Panther") has ''laws'' that maintain "tribal customs" despite being extraordinarily wealthy - a convienent way to maintain its [[Lost World]] flavor.
* The home and main headquarters of [[The Phantom (
* [[Carl Barks]]' [[Donald Duck]] yarn "In Darkest Africa".
** Voodoo Hoodoo also contains elements of this.
* The early ''[[Tintin]]'' adventure ''Tintin in the Congo'', infamous for its condescending depiction of African natives and senseless slaughter of wildlife. It's been intermittently available in English; current print runs are aimed largely at older fans and put out in an almost embarrassed fashion.
** Mind you, that's the ''revised'' colored version, where Herge rounded the sharpest corners and excised the parts that caused the most criticism. The original black-and-white comic was ''[[Up to Eleven|much]]'' worse.
* The setting for ''Sheena, Queen of the Jungle''.
* ''[[Wonder Woman|Wonder Woman (1987)]]'': Cheetah's post-Crisis backstory plays this entirely straight, with the source of her powers stemming from a cannibalistic cult deep in Africa's jungles.
* ''Simba, King of the Beasts''
* From the ''[[Popeye|Popeye the Sailor comics]]'', it states that Jeeps originated from this place.
== [[Film]] ==
* ''[[The Gods Must Be Crazy]]'' has been criticized for its portrayal of the Bushmen as entirely ignorant [[Noble Savage
* ''[[George of the Jungle]]'', as a parody of ''Tarzan'', by necessity is set here.
* ''[[Jumanji]]'', in which the board game draws out dangerous elements of a distilled "Darkest Africa"-type jungle located within itself. The jungle is not seen in the film, or even seen by any of its characters save for the main protagonist who is trapped there for years.
** More so in [[Jumanji (
* ''[[Road To]] Zanzibar''
* Most of ''[[Ace Ventura|Ace Ventura: When Nature Calls]]''
* ''[[The Three Stooges]]'' short ''Three Missing Links'' had the trio traveling to Darkest Africa to film a movie with Curly being casted as a gorilla until a real gorilla shows up and hilarity ensues.
* ''[[Curious George]]'' takes place here during the first half of the film.
* ''Jane and the Lost City'', sent during World War II, plays with this trope a bit by introducing a jungle tribe led by the "Leopard Queen" - a scantily-clad African woman who speaks perfect English, and with the proper "colonial" accent to boot.
* In ''Five Weeks in a Balloon'', the heroes go on an expedition into this setting to claim unexplored territory and prevent ruthless slavers from doing the same.
* ''Trader Horn'': Mostly played straight, as the natives are portrayed as either savage or childlike, and in the business of crucifying people and making mounds of skulls when they're in savage mode.
* Averted in the Film Serial ''Secret Service in Darkest Africa'', which takes place entirely in the North African desert in WW2. So plenty of sinister Bedouins and scheming Nazis, but no jungles or spear-wielding natives.
* The [[Tarzan]] film series is always about white people in Darkest Africa; see also the Literature entry below. In ''Tarzan and His Mate'', Harry Holt says specifically that the [[Elephant Graveyard]] the expedition is setting out to find is in a part of Africa where no white man has been before, except for Harry and Tarzan.
* ''[[The African Queen]]''.
* In keeping with its source material, the second half of ''[[Heart of Darkness|Heart of Darkness (1958)]]'' takes place in an African jungle full of Hollywood Natives. (But the setting might be a product of Marlow's imagination.)
* ''Mighty Joe Young'' (1949)
* The Bud Abbott and Lou Costello film, ''Africa Screams''.
* ''[[Kirikou and The Sorceress]]''
* ''Congo Bill'' (1948)
* ''The Naked Earth'' (1958)
* ''Africa Speaks'' (1930)
* ''[[Looney Tunes: Back in Action]]'' had the protagonists going here to search for Drake's father and the Blue Monkey Diamond.
* ''The Lost City'' (1935)
* The 1975 film ''Hugo the Hippo'' takes place in Africa.
* ''Stanley & Livingston''
* ''The World's Greatest Athlete'' (1973)
* ''Jungle Jim'' (1948)
* ''Lost in Africa'' (1994)
* ''West of Zanzibar'' both the 1928 and 1954 versions.
* ''The Jungle Princess'' (1920)
* ''Jungle Drums of Africa'' (1953)
* ''The Jungle Goddess'' (1922)
* ''Tarzoon: Shame of the Jungle'', being an animated parody of ''Tarzan: King of the Jungle''.
* ''Simba: The King of the Beasts'' (1928)
* ''In the Shadow of Kilimanjaro'' (1986)
* ''[[Madagascar|Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa]]'' takes place entirely in Africa.
== [[Literature]] ==
* ''[[Tarzan]]'', in most incarnations, relies on the African dichotomy for its stories.
* [[H
* The book and movie ''[[Michael Crichton|Congo]]'' has the (fictional) ruined city of Zinj populated by evil gorillas.
* Gregory
* In [[
* Subversion: pretty much everything Chinua Achebe has ever written (the most famous being ''[[Things Fall Apart]]''). He is very keen on dispelling this particular trope.
* An early section of ''[[
* The first [[
* The sword and soul sub-genre of [[Heroic Fantasy]] often is set here or in [[Fantasy Counterpart Culture]] versions of Africa with black heroes instead of [[Mighty Whitey]] heroes.
* Most of the ''[[Babar the Elephant]]'' stories take place here.
* The Oompa Loompas from ''[[Charlie and the Chocolate Factory]]'' were originally attended to be African slaves from the jungle, but the film adaptations changed their backstories.
== [[Live Action TV]] ==
* Spoofed in episode 29 of ''[[Monty Python's Flying Circus]]'', in which a band of pith-helmeted explorers discover a restaurant in the middle of the jungle.
* ''[[The Twilight Zone]]'' episode, "The Jungle", had Alan getting haunted by the sounds of Darkest Africa after a witch doctor placed a curse on him for building a dam in Africa.
* The [[Magical Native American|Magical Bushman]] arc from Season 3 of ''[[Heroes (TV series)|Heroes]]'' provides a slight example of this trope. The character himself is something of an aversion: despite making his home in the brush, he has a Walkman and keeps abreast of current events. However, places in the series are usually addressed as "Odessa, Texas," or "Tokyo, Japan." Whenever the action cuts to that plot? "Somewhere In Africa." Yeah...
** Only because the character that was there didn't actually know where he was, he just kind of appeared there, and mysterious painter man isn't about to tell him that "you're twenty kilometres northeast of Mombasa, you can make it there by nightfall if you hurry", the man's got lessons to learn first.
* The episode, ''A Thousand Tiny Wings'' from ''[[Big Finish Doctor Who]]'' takes place in Kenya during the 1950s.
* Israeli brief comedy series ''Lost in Africa'' features an Israeli fashion modeling company flying to the fictional country Abuna Kilosa, which borders on Chad and Sudan ([[Shown Their Work|most likely where RL Central African Republic is]]), for a photo shootout with a Swedish model and an English photographer. The show averts, plays with, and [[Deconstruction|deconstructs]] the trope.
** While the people there are shown as rather primitive, sporting:
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** They also seem to be very aware of their position:
*** when one of the Israelis asks for a doctor to see him at his hotel room and asks him to give him a treatment ‘for tourists’, the doctor does some silly ceremony to please said tourists for an absurd amount of money (hillariously threatening to put a curse on him if he isn’t paid);
*** {{spoiler|and Suliman, the group’s driver seduces Shlomtsiyon, the company’s secretary, in an attempt to make her bring him with her back to Israel, [[Subverted Trope|subverting]] [[Where Da White Women At?]] (this fails, as she angrily dumps him the moment she realises his true plans, which leads to his death in the Tutsi-Hutu fight later on)}}.
** Also, the company’s boss wants to adopt a very bright kid he meets at the local village, who shows a remarkable talent in math and even learns to say ‘good morning’ in Hebrew (albeit mispronounced), even competing over him with the Swedish model. The Israelis treat the place they're in mostly with [[Deadpan Snarker|condescension]] (as one of them phrased it: ‘Everyone’s a shell-shocked darkie around here!’) and occasionally with some romanticising ( {{spoiler|Shlomtsiyon’s argument with Suliman about their future revolved around this: she wanted to get away from the commercialised, competitive West, while he wanted to leave Africa; this is what lead her to realise his true intentions and dump him}}), and the two Europeans seem to regard Israel with the same condescending tone the [[Hypocritical Humor|Israelis treat the Africans]] (when told that the Israeli model is ‘very popular in Israel’, the English photographer says, ‘Yes, but so is war!’), while both Israelis and Europeans display [[Rousseau Was Right|every possible vice of Western society]].
== Multi-media ==
* Many an adventure or treasure hunt involves a search for something "lost in the African jungle".
== [[Music]] ==
* The 1947 American song, ''Civilization'', is a humorous satire of this trope. It's about a native of The Congo who learns about the "civilized" world from a missionary. From the Congolese native's perspective, the "civilized" lifestyle is actually uncivilized.
* Vulvodynia's ''Mob Justice'' is something of a Deconstruction of this, as the album lyrically focuses on the dark side of modern South African life and the violence, poverty, widespread economic stratification, drug addiction, and lingering scars of apartheid and past oppression that never quite healed.
* "In the Jungle, The Mighty Jungle, ''The Lion Sleeps Tonight''".
== [[Poetry]] ==
* As [https://web.archive.org/web/20190823051908/http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/world/readfile?fk_files=37133&pageno=11 Vachel Lindsay so well put it,]
{{quote|
Cutting through the jungle with a golden track''
Then along that riverbank, a thousand miles
Tatooed cannibals danced in files... }}
== [[Puppet Shows]] ==
* Subverted in a 1970s ''[[Sesame Street]]'' segment. [[Know-Nothing Know-It-All|Smart Tina]] claims that Africa is just one big jungle because she saw it in a Tarzan movie. But Roosevelt Franklin shows on a map that only a small portion of Africa is jungle. The continent is really a mix of different environments dotted with big cities and valuable resources.
== [[Radio]] ==
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== [[Tabletop Games]] ==
* The ''[[
* The pulp themed ''[[Spirit of the Century]]'', set in the 1920s, actually refers to Africa as
* The new [[
* Spoofed in ''[[Toon (
* [[
== [[Theater]] ==
* Eugene O'Neill's play ''[
* ''[[The Book of Mormon (
== [[Theme Parks]] ==
* Disney's ''Adventureland'' at ''Disneyland'' parks has some elements from Darkest Africa in a 1930's like setting.
** Disney's ''The Jungle Cruise'' has the Congo river and Nile river portions.
* ''Busch Gardens'' at Tampa Florida is themed to Africa, in fact, it was once called ''Busch Gardens - The Dark Continent''.
== [[Video Games]] ==
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* ''Congo Bongo''
* Kemco's ''Ghost Lion'', which is probably the ''only'' RPG in the world set in (non-Egypt) Africa
* The first ''[[Donkey Kong Country]]'' game's Kong Island is loosely based on this.
** ''[[Donkey Kong Country Returns]]'' takes a much bigger approach with the African jungle setting with the introduction of the Tiki Tak Tribe.
* The second continent ''Wiggly Wilds'' from ''[[Wario Land|Wario Land: Shake It!]]'' is based on the African savanna.
== [[Web Animation]] ==
* Parodied in [https://web.archive.org/web/20130811100957/http://www.weebls-stuff.com/toons/The+Cheese+Family
== [[Western Animation]] ==
* Wackyland, from the [[Looney Tunes]] short ''[[Porky in Wackyland]]'' (and it's color remake ''Dough for the Do-Do''), is located here. Porky Pig has to fly over Dark and Darker Africa to get there.
** Porky also traveled to Africa on ''Porky in Egypt'', ''Porky's Ant'', and ''Africa Squeaks''.
** ''[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Djxnw090EeE Inki and the Minah Bird]'', an obscure [[Looney Tunes]] short, also takes place in there.
** ''Congo Jazz'' is an early example of this trope.
* Many, many episodes of ''[[Danger Mouse (Animation)|Danger Mouse]]'', mostly because it was parodying old adventure serials of the kind that inspired the ''[[Indiana Jones (Franchise)|Indiana Jones]]'' movies. (Weirdly, ''The Bad Luck Eye of the Little Yellow God'' was ostensibly set in Brazil, but is in all other respects Darkest Africa.)▼
** The first and last halves of ''Nelly's Folly'' took place in the jungles of Africa.
** The Frank Tashlin short ''The Major Lied Till Dawn'' takes place in Darkest Africa.
** The infamous ''Censored Eleven'' short ''Jungle Jitters'' has this setting.
** The Beaky Buzzard cartoon, ''The Lion's Busy''.
** Another two [[Bugs Bunny]] short's entitled ''Hold the Lion, Please'' and ''Which is Witch'' have Darkest Africa as their setting.
* ''[[George of the Jungle]]'', both the original and 2007 reboot take place in this setting.
* The Classic Disney ''[[Goofy]]'' short, ''African Diary'' has Goofy writing about his past experiences in Africa.
** The [[Donald Duck]] cartoon ''Frank Duck Brings 'Em Back Alive'' and the [[Mickey Mouse]] shorts ''Jungle Rhythm'' and ''Trader Mickey'' also take place here as well.
* The very rare ''[[Oswald the Lucky Rabbit]]'' cartoon ''Africa Before Dark'' has Oswald hunting in Africa.
* ''[[Tex Avery MGM Cartoons]]'': ''The Half-Pint Pygmy'' has George and Junior trying to catch the world's smallest pygmy in Darkest Africa.
* At least four of [[Van Beuren Studios]] cartoons are set in Darkest Africa; one of them is even called "Darkest Africa", with the other three being "Jungle Jazz", Mild Cargo" and "Plane Dumb".
▲* Many, many episodes of ''[[
* The ''[[Tom and Jerry]]'' cartoon ''Sorry Safari'' had this theme.
* The ''[[Betty Boop]]'' cartoon ''I'll Be Glad When You’re Dead, You Rascal You'' takes place in the jungles of Africa.
* Parodied on ''[[SpongeBob SquarePants]]'' on ''Club SpongeBob'', where SpongeBob, Patrick, and Squidward get lost in Kelp Forest and get found by an explorer.
** Also parodied on the comic story ''Sponge Monkey'' when SpongeBob and Patrick get lost in Kelp Forest and Squidward and Mr. Krabs have to look for them and find out that they were raised by Sea Monkeys.
* ''[[Popeye (cartoon)|Popeye]]'' once treveled to Darkest Africa searching for Bluto in ''Fightin Pals''; the short shows him actually going through Dark Africa and Darker Africa before getting to his destiny.
* Parodied on ''[[The Ren and Stimpy Show]]'' [[Nature Documentary]] parody ''Lair of the Lummox'', with Ignoranium being a parody of Africa.
* ''[[Animaniacs]]'' had Flavio and Marita moving from the African jungles to the big city on "The Big Move".
** The Warner trio also traveled here to find a cure for Wakko's hiccups one time.
* An episode of ''[[The Alvin Show]]'' had Dave and the chipmunks in Africa searching for jungle sounds for their songs.
* The 1943 ''[[Superman Theatrical Cartoons|Superman]]'' cartoon ''Jungle Drums'' has Lois Lane crashing her plane in Africa and she and Superman come across the Nazis' base.
* ''[[Johnny Bravo]]'' got lost here on ''Bungled in the Jungle'' when he broke Jungle Boy's foot after falling from a plane and gets chased by all the animals of the jungle.
* At least three ''[[Terry Toons]]'' take place here, ''Who's Who in the Jungle'' with Gandy Goose and Sourpuss, ''The Lion Hunt'' with Heckle and Jeckle, and ''The Hapless Hippo'' with Mighty Mouse.
* Two ''[[Pink Panther (Animation)|Pink Panther]]'' cartoons had this setting on ''It's Pink, But is it Mink?'' and ''Sink Pink''.
* Some episodes of ''[[Jonny Quest]]'' take place here.
* The ''[[Casper the Friendly Ghost]]'' cartoon, ''Spooking About Africa''.
* The ''[[Pinky and The Brain]]'' episode ''Welcome to the Jungle'' had Pinky and the Brain getting mistaken for monkeys and get taken to an African-like jungle where they meet Snowball.
* The ''[[DuckTales]]'' episode ''Jungle Duck'' takes place here.
* Famous Studios' ''[[Screen Songs]]'' had an entire short revolving around Darkest Africa called ''Jingle Jangle Jungle''.
* Jungle Land from ''[[The Super Mario Bros. Super Show!]]'' has several African elements.
* The ''[[Samurai Jack]]'' episode ''Young Jack in Africa'' had a young Jack training and getting raised by an African tribe.
* An earlier 1930s ''[[Silly Symphonies|Silly Symphony]]'' called ''Cannibal Capers'' revolves around African cannibals in a jungle.
== Other ==
* Lampshaded and [[Take That|parodied mercilessly]] in this article by Kenyan blogger Binyavanga Wainaina, [https://web.archive.org/web/20120111100454/http://www.granta.com/Magazine/92/How-to-Write-about-Africa/Page-1 How to Write about Africa].
* The physical anthropologist and white supremacist Carleton S. Coon was fond of using "congoid" instead of "negroid". On the one hand, the Congo is an actual place, and an autonym at that. On the other, Congo represents this trope in the Western mind more than anywhere else.
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[[Category:Hollywood Atlas]]
[[Category:Darkest Africa]]
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