Violence in the Postcolonial Ghetto: Ngozi Onwurah's Welcome II the Terrordome (1994)

Emilie Herbert

Abstract


As a film-maker who likes to transgress ideas of what is commonly expected from a black female artist to be making, British-Nigerian director Ngozi Onwurah has shown a particular interest in the various expressions of violence throughout her filmography. Her first feature film, Welcome II the Terrordome (1994), specifically grapples with themes of violence, memory, reincarnation and embodiment. The film follows the story of the McBride family : first as slaves, as the filmmaker evokes an ancient Igbo legend, and in their reincarnated life in the ghetto of Transdean, better known as the ‘Terrordome’. More than twenty years after its release, I will question Welcome II the Terrordome’s representations of violence through the ideas of postcolonial theorists Frantz Fanon and Achille Mbembe.

Keywords


Black women filmmakers; Black British Cinema; Violence; Ghetto Cinema; Postcolonial theory

Full Text:

PDF

References


Beard, S. (2008) "Welcome II the Terrordome Review", Empire. Retrieved from : https://www.empireonline.com/movies/welcome-ii-terrordome/review.

Borden, A. (1994) Heroic "Hussies" and "Brilliant Queers": Genderracial Resistance in the Works of Langston Hughes, African American Review, Vol.28(3), p. 333-345.

Ciecko, A. (1999) "Representing the Spaces of Diaspora in Contemporary British Films by Women Directors", Cinema Journal, Vol.38(3), p. 67-90.

Dorlin, E. (2007) "Décoloniser les structures psychiques du pouvoir. Erotisme raciste et postcolonie dans la pensée d'Achille Mbembe", La Découverte, Vol.3(51), p. 142-151. Translation by me.

Elley, D. (1995) "Welcome II the Terrordome", Variety. Retrieved from : http://variety.com/1995/film/reviews/welcome-ii-the-terrordome-1200440725.

Fanon, F. (2004 [1963]) The Wretched of the Earth, New-York:Grove Press. Translated by Philcox, Richard.

Fanon, F. (2008 [1952]) Black skin, White masks, New York : Grove Press. Translated by Philcox, Richard.

Fee, C.; Webb, J. (2016) American Myths, Legends, and Tall Tales: An Encyclopedia of American, Santa Barbara : ABC-CLIO

Foster, A. G. (1995) Women Film Directors: An International Bio-critical Dictionary, Wesport - London : Greenwood Press.

Foster, A. G. (1997) Women Filmmakers of the African & Asian Diaspora: Decolonizing the Gaze, Locating Subjectivity, Carbondale : Southern Illinois University Press.

Gilroy, P. (1995) "Unwelcome", Sight and Sound, Vol.5(2), p. 18-19.

Gilroy, P. (2002 [1993]) The Black Atlantic. Modernity and Black Consciousness, London - New York : Verso.

JanMohamed, A. (2005) The Death-Bound Subject : Richard Wright's Archaeology of Death, Durham - London : Duke University Press.

La Libre (2015) Le film "Black": un cocktail de racisme postcolonial! Retrieved from : http://www.lalibre.be/debats/opinions/le-film-black-un-cocktail-de-racisme-postcolonial-565343d63570ca6ff91fc480.

Mayer, S. (2016) Political Animals: The New Feminist Cinema, London & NYC: I.B. Tauris.

Mbembe, Achille (2003) "Necropolitics", Public Culture, Vol.15(1), p. 11-40. Translated by Libby Meintjes.

Mercer, K. (1988) Recoding Narratives of Race and Nation, London : Institute of Contemporary Arts.

Roddick, N. (1994) "Welcome to the Multiplex", Sight and Sound, Vol.4(6), p. 26-28.

RTBF (2015) Incidents au Kinepolis lors de la projection du film "Black": les vidéos, Retrieved from : www.rtbf.be/info/regions/bruxelles/detail_incidents-au-kinepolis-lors-de-la-diffusion-du-film-black-la-video?id=9133546.

Stringer, Julian (1995) "On the Rise : the Work of Ngozi Onwurah", Cineaction, p. 38-49.

Varaizdo (2017) "Ngozi Onwurah: the forgotten pioneer of Black British film", Gal-Dem, 2017. Retrieved from : http://www.gal-dem.com/ngozi-onwurah-the-forgotten-pioneer-of-black-british-film.




DOI: https://doi.org/10.5195/cinej.2018.201

Refbacks

  • There are currently no refbacks.


Bookmark and Share


Copyright (c) 2018 Emilie Herbert

Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.

This journal is published by the University Library System, University of Pittsburgh. 

ISSN 2159-2411 (print) 2158-8724 (online)