Ghost and the Darkness

Quotes From the Critics

   Like the rest of Hollywood, The Ghost and the Darkness propagates the same African stereotypes about the environment.  The filmmakers show the East African environment in several different ways, varying with the mood they want to portray.  Very rarely, however, do they focus on actual Africans, or the realities of 19th century colonialism.  Though the film is based on James Patterson’s autobiographical account of these events, it has been westernized to fit with our cultural expectations and extreme ignorance of African history.  The autobiography itself is exaggerated and then modified to fit into Hollywood form.

   The movie contrasts England versus Africa in the opening scenes.  As mentioned in the film clip analysis, the shot of the steamy London dock immediately transitions into the scene of the crowded African market, thereby making it impossible for the viewer to miss the comparison.  These two urban environments are vastly different.  London’s bustling gentlemen donned with bowler hats, big stone buildings rising up, and tall ships billowing steam across the docks suggests a thriving economy and a “civilized” country. On the other hand, the African market that Patterson walks into has a different chaotic and busy tone. This market is full of the noise of many different vendors of all ethnicities trying to sell their wares in a localized economy.   Even though these scenes take place in an urban environment, they still present some of the same tropes applied to rural environments, particularly the idea of the exotic or sublime.  Africa is clearly not what the Colonel is used to.  It is alien, provocative, exciting, and exotically beautiful, but at the same time mysterious and possibly dangerous.  These elements of the environment are expanded on as the movie follows James Patterson to the countryside.

   The rural representations in the film are as exotic.  The movie was filmed on location in the Kenyan Tsavo National Park, and on the Songimvelo Game Reserve, in Mpumalanga, South Africa. These stunning locales have been some of the main influences on our media’s portrayal of Africa.  Since they are both wildlife parks, they are necessarily devoid of human settlement.  Since 1948, the lands have been dedicated to wildlife conservation. During the 1890s, when The Ghost and the Darkness is set, there were multiple cultures who used this area for grazing and hunting.  Nevertheless, the area outside of the Tsavo bridge camp is shown filled with wild fauna, but lacking people (until Remington shows up with a band of tribal warriors. 

   According to National Geographic, the outbreak of Rinderpest left the lions with a shortage of usual prey and prompted the real Tsavo Man-eaters to hunt humans. Frequent human deaths then gave hungry lions a new food source, as it is “estimated that a minimum of 80,000 people died annually along the treacherous northern caravan routes” (National Geographic).  Lions are social animals, which create culture to pass on survival strategies.  Thus, man eating lions are not as uncommon as we tend to think; even ones as notoriously cunning as the Tsavo man-eaters.  By learning and teaching others how to raid villages for humans, lions can be exceptionally deadly to us.  However, the 130 deaths that Colonel Patterson recorded were exaggerated by about 100.

   Why the death toll was inflated later on, nobody can be sure, but the most obvious explanation is the great story it makes. It is the rugged individualistic theme of man taking nature head on that has been so captivating to western audiences since these events took place. There is one final element in the story that is particularly fitting. It was the ivory trade that brought Colonel Patterson to Africa, just as it was the ivory trade that likely turned these lions into man-killers. In the film, it is implied these lions are spirits, who want to drive the whites back home. It is never revealed outright whether this is the case or not, but in a way they are: demons of the colonialists own creation.