“These people, children as well as adults are on the long road towards eventual self-government. It will take time, it musttake time, because the gap between the primitive and the older civilisations cannot be filled quickly with benefit to the primitive. But a start has been made and the results are already encouraging”.

The final words in A Mamprusi Village outline the dominant colonial attitudes towards both the African people, and towards the process of self-government. The film creates a clear distinction between the ‘primitive’ Africans and the ‘civilised’ British. This is illustrated through ethnographic shots of bare-breasted women at work, but also through the commentary, which, in the film’s only reference to either religion or agriculture, describes the people of Mamprusi as a ‘cheerful, friendly lot. Simple, pagan, mainly occupied in farming’. The commentary states that ‘these people, primitive as they are, have a strong tribal organisation and a considerable momentum of self-government’. The film attempts to illustrate the development of the Africans, thus far, under colonial rule, while also highlighting the many developments still needed before these ‘primitive’ people can achieve self-government.

The film outlines the system of British rule within the area – a district officer shakes hands with the chiefs, who are shaded under umbrellas, while crowds of barely clothed Africans watch – representing an ideal of indirect rule in which the British ‘advise’ the chiefs and headmen. In highlighting the perceived developments under British rule, the film must emphasise the previously ‘undeveloped’ nature of the area. In doing so, it suggests that the British have removed the system of bribes that used to control the courts, they have brought law and order with the introduction of the uniformed mounted Police and they have brought education so that ‘the children are fed, clothed and educated’. Even the introduction of the head tax is presented as liberating for the local people, as now ‘by handing over a small fixed sum he is free of any obligation to work on another man’s land’.

The intended audience for the film, which was aimed at children in schools as much as adults, also influences the often-simplistic representation of the local people and their government. The annual budget is calculated by moving bags of money around – ‘discussion goes on until there are no more bags’ – while the justice system is represented by a case in which a man has stolen another’s wife: ‘Should he be made to return her, or if no-one is in favour of that, how many goats must he pay?’ However, the film does depict detailed aspects of local life that are rarely seen on film, while such a representation also serves to illustrate the continued need for British assistance. Yet, despite the film’s emphasis on gradual self-government (‘it must take time’), supported by the impending Burns Constitution, within thirteen years the Gold Coast would achieve full independence.

There are a number of notable omissions within the film. There is no mention of the War, even though the West African forces numbered 150,000 by 1945, while any local grievances or dissatisfaction with this feudal form of government are also overlooked. In attempting to illustrate the need for continued British assistance, A Mamprusi Village does suggest that ‘the Mamprusi district has none of the riches that its name [Gold Coast] suggests’, but the reasons for these problems are not readily addressed. For example, while the film illustrates the road building schemes initiated by the British, the lack of rail links within the Northern Territory greatly hindered the area. It depicts a traditional African marketplace, and refers to a flourishing export trade, yet economically the Northern Territories had few exportable products, such as the cocoa of the South, and imports regularly exceeded exports.

Tom Rice (February 2008)