Beast of No Nation: A Stereotypical Representation of Africa Essay

Human beings have been at war, with their kind, communities, and nations at large. The dark desire to dominate each other has been in existence since the dawn of history. Going the biblical analysis of the first humans, the first crime committed by man against another man was murder. Due to jealousy and pride, Cain killed Abel and carried no guilt over his actions until God punished him for his sins. Looking at the scientific explanation of survival through the Charles Darwin rule, the survival is for the fittest while the weakest perish. Therefore, violence and dominance have been part and parcel of our society. The dark side of human nature has always been inclined towards thriving at the expense of their neighbors. However, people have developed a stereotype notion of viewing some societies and regions as more inclined to violence and social disorder than others. Painfully this is the case in the in the movie "beast of no nations" based on Uzodinma Iweala's novel that tells the story of a child soldier's life. Mr. Iweala depicts a young boy, Agu, who is recruited by an influential commander, Idris Elba, and is manipulated together with other children to form an army in an unnamed country in Africa. The book and the movie depicts a skewed perception of Africa as a war-torn continent that is revenging in poverty, endless chaos and of people who have no value for human life.

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Beast of no nation tries to tell the tales of the horrors faced in regions that have a non-functional government. Indeed it is a fact that many African countries have the unfortunate history of the civil war which has caused destruction, loss of life and breach of human rights. Despite this fact, it is historically inaccurate to assume that Africa as general is a chaotic continent that is at the hands of warlords who have no regards for life other than advancing their agenda. Therefore, by the author not choosing a particular country where the violence took place, he furthers the stereotypical belief of Africa as a violent country. Africa is not a country, and violence is not the way of life in Africans. Contrary, only small regions that have been marred by war and use of child soldiers by warlords to advance their agenda. Even though Iweala is an African writer who has lived in Africa for the most of his life, he seems to fall into the tailored mold of western authors who only tells the tales of Africa from a negative perspective. Instead, beast of no nations should have captured a specific part of Africa, in this way, the movie could have served as an eye-opener to the human right organization and the world at large of ongoing violence and atrocities towards children.

The issue of gender biasness is present in the movie beast of no nations where all the children who are recruited to fight are male. However, this is not usually the case in places where children are recruited to fight. In other regions where cases of child soldiers have been established, both boys and girls are recruited into the war fronts. Such a stereotypical view of an endangered boy child than the girl child might affect how policies are formulated and how the world looks at violence and child abuse in war-torn countries. Actually, in cases of conflict and collapse of distinct structures of governance, the female children suffer most atrocities where other than fighting, they are used to smuggle weapons as they will be less likely to be suspected and undergo sexual abuse where they are used as objects of pleasure for the warlords and the soldiers. All those features which tell the complete stories of war should have been present in the book and the film. Otherwise by the author, telling an incomplete story that shows the main character as a boy who has seen all the horrors of war and ultimately failing to include any female child character to illustrate the challenges experienced by the female children it could marginalize one gender.

How Agu I portrayed in the movie is a classical representation of an African child in the eyes of foreigners. Most people view African children as hardy people who are capable of performing complicated tasks which cannot be accomplished by even teenagers of the white race. In the movie, when the commander finds Agu in the forest, he proclaims to the other soldiers that, "I will make him be a warrior!" he then hands him a machete which he uses to kill an enemy soldier as an induction to the group (Iweala 15). When he successfully makes the killing, the commander gives him a gun. Agu, in this case, is portrayed as a heartless monster who is capable of killing without conscience. Even though this is a deliberate attempt by the author to show how violence corrupts the innocent, Agu doesn't have a problem killing and does it with a little persuasion.

The harshness in the young boy and the lack of emotions only serve to advance to the notion of African children as heartless and one who is capable of challenging tasks. This notion has been existence for many years which has seen African people get poor treatment and it was the same ideology behind slavery that saw people of color more as work machines than humans. Instead, the author should have shown the fragility of the young boy and how he is transformed from an innocent character to a ruthless soldier.

On the other hand, the ubiquitous image of a child soldier wielding a weapon is inaccurate. In most cases, children involved in war never touch a gun, they perform various duties in the war camps such as cleaning, preparing meals, messengers and as spies. Such misrepresentation has prompted the creation of programs in war-torn countries which require children to hand in weapons so that they can undergo rehabilitation. Research has shown that nearly eighty percent of children involved in combat are excluded based on that criteria as they do not possess weapons to surrender. The exclusion could be associated with the high likelihood of failing to reintegrate back into their communities and eventually return into fighting.

Conclusion

In conclusion, the movie "beast of no nation" tells the tales of war and how children are corrupted into fighting wars that damage their lives forever. The child soldier Agu is hardened by violence that he has seen and done. However, the movie misses an opportunity to challenge the stereotypes that people have towards child soldiers. These misinformed views exclude a lot of children in war areas from rehabilitation programs. It also reinforces the notion of Africa as a country but not a continent, a country that is marred by violence, disregard for human life and in the state of anarchy. Authors and filmmakers have a role in telling the actual stories of societies by being precise, factual and avoiding falling victim of the stereotypical view of regions and people. For as long as social views remain about children in some areas of the world, these kids will stay trapped in continuous cycles of violence.

Works Cited

Iweala, Uzodinma. Beasts of No Nation Movie Tie-in. Harper Perennial, 2015.