African American & Africana Studies

Non-theatrical movie distributor, online CE/CME education distributor and public performance licensing agent in venues where feature movies are shown. Provides 1 or 3 year streaming licenses for films. Iwasaki Library's Swank collection is built from faculty requests. Swank will not work in the Safari browser. If you are experiencing technical difficulties accessing Swank films, your VPN may be the problem. Contact reference@emerson.edu for assistance.

This program explores the pressures on female adolescents in the Third World through the stories of four young Kenyan women growing up in a time of cultural upheaval: Christine, a Masai who escaped an arranged marriage so she could study law; Dekha, brought up in a rigidly patriarchal Muslim town, who aspires to be a doctor; Anastasia, who works on her family’s farm while yearning to become a Catholic nun; and Mboone, who dreams of exchanging her affluent urban lifestyle for a career of service in the UN, to help improve the lives of women all over the world. Female circumcision, polygyny, AIDS, reproductive choice, equal access to education, and other issues are discussed with candor. 58 mins

Throughout history, humanitarian military interventions have had mixed results. Colonial powers used the cover of humanitarian intervention to subjugate “savage” or “barbaric” cultures and “civilize” these countries through occupation. This episode examines the interventions in Somalia, Sudan, Liberia, and Rwanda, and their impacts on human rights. 27 mins

In the villages of sub-Saharan Africa where traditions are still strong, art is an integral part of daily life. This illuminating program examines the symbolism, aesthetics, and functionality of African art through the vast region’s sculpture, masks, architecture, ornaments, clothing, and utensils. In addition, indigenous African religious beliefs are explored through rituals—a spiritual form of performance art—and funerary statuary. Prehistoric rock art is also presented, and the conceptual nature of African art is stressed. Location footage underscoring the rich mosaic of cultures to be found in sub-Saharan Africa provides the backdrop for the program. 22 mins

Things Fall Apart has been translated into 50 languages, has sold over 8 million copies, and is considered one of the 20th century’s literary masterpieces. This program analyzes the impact Chinua Achebe and his writings have had on world literature, as well as his influence as an editor and a spokesman for a generation of African writers. Dr. Achebe, noted professors Abiola Irele and Gerald Graff, and Charles Larson, editor of the anthology Under African Skies, discuss the characterization, social implications, and levels of interpretation of Things Fall Apart. Vital concepts indigenous to the Ibos of southeastern Nigeria such as oral culture, reincarnation, and negotiation—concepts essential to a deep understanding of the novel—are also presented. This program is an indispensable supplement to Achebe’s best-known novel that elucidates Nigerian history and culture and the impact of colonialism.

Emerson Teaching Media - Ask at Service Desk [VIDEODSC] DVD 3699
Seven documentary stories, produced and directed by Connie Field, chronicling the history of the global anti-apartheid movement that took on South Africa's entrenched apartheid regime and its international supporters who considered South Africa an ally in the Cold War. 530 mins

In the 1950s Albert Van Haelst, a Belgian missionary and film fanatic, made some twenty films in the Congo: the Matamata and Pilipili series. These comic heroes, an African answer to Laurel and Hardy, delighted Congolese moviegoers.
The films disappeared at the close of the colonial period. Until Tristan Bourland recovered the original negatives from archives in Belgium and produced Matamata and and Pilipili, the films had never been viewed outside of Africa. 58 mins

A collection of extraordinary plaques, seized as loot during the colonial aggression that ended the powerful Benin Empire in 1897, depict life in the African kingdom’s royal court at its height. In this program, art historian Gus Casely-Hayford travels to legendary Timbuktu, the Great Mosque of Djenné, the Oba Royal Palace, and Dogon country to learn more about how the plaques were made and what they reveal about the continent’s sophisticated precolonial civilizations. 49 mins