Abstract
Through an interpretive analysis of the two Eddie Murphy films "Coming to America" (CTA) and "Coming 2 America", spaced nearly 30 years apart, this review essay underscores the persistence of Orientalist Othering of Africa. The negative images of Africa that are so engrained in people have been facilitated in significant part by a strategic, but perhaps unconscious, effort to socialize audiences into an identity construction process that casts Africans as inferior. Despite attempts at favorable depictions of Africa, these processes continue to play out.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
Bonsu, Samuel K. and Godefroit-Winkel, Delphine
(2021)
"Representing Africa in the ‘Coming to America’ Films,"
Markets, Globalization & Development Review:
Vol. 6:
No.
1, Article 4.
DOI: 10.23860/MGDR-2021-06-01-04
Available at:
https://digitalcommons.uri.edu/mgdr/vol6/iss1/4
Included in
African Languages and Societies Commons, Anthropology Commons, Economics Commons, Film and Media Studies Commons, Marketing Commons, Other Business Commons, Sociology Commons
Author Bio
Samuel (Sammy) K. Bonsu, Professor of Marketing and Responsible Business, is Rector (President) of the Ghana Institute of Management and Public Administration (GIMPA), Accra. He is fortunate to have been born to loving parents and relatives who nurtured his interests in markets and culture. He has parlayed this interest into something of a career that has been supported by University of North Carolina, Greensboro, Schulich School of Business, York University, Toronto, the Social Science & Humanities Research Council (SSHRC), Canada, Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) and Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Denmark, among others. He remains a closet politician! In spite of his charm, he has not convinced anyone to appreciate the inconsequential papers that he has published as book chapters and in prestigious journals like Journal of Consumer Research, Journal of Consumer Culture, Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Consumption, Markets & Culture, Journal of Business Research, etc. Really, nobody cares! Still, he dreams of a sweat lodge session devoted to his ideas and contributions to knowledge. Hope springs eternal.
Delphine Godefroit-Winkel is Associate Professor of Marketing at Toulouse Business School on the Casablanca campus, Morocco. Her research interest relates to retailing, gender, and climate change. She uses both quantitative and qualitative methods to grasp the cultural aspects of consumer behaviors. Her work is published in book chapters and in several academic journals such as the Ecological Economics, European Journal of Marketing, International Journal of Retail & Distribution Management, Journal of Business Research, Journal of Consumer Marketing, Journal of International Marketing, Journal of Macromarketing, Markets Globalization and Development Review, and Revue de Gestion des Ressources Humaines. She has presented her research at several conferences including the International Society of Markets and Development Conference, Association for Consumer Research Conference, Consumer Culture Theory Conference, Journée de Recherche sur les Pays d’Afrique, and the Academy of Marketing Science Congress. Delphine Godefroit-Winkel is also a board member of the International Society of Markets and Development, and ambassador for Morocco at the French Marketing Association.