Memory of Colonialism in Zulu and Battle of Algiers

Cinema of the Black Atlantic

A discussion of the pairing of Zulu and Battle of Algiers, with particular focus on how each films forms a memory of colonialism. What was the meaning of colonialism? What did it reveal about the colonizer? And who were the colonized, both in the moment of domination and in the moment of revolutionary struggle? I note how defense of the feminine - the missionary's daughter in Zulu, the distressed mother in Battle of Algiers - is central to both films, which links the colonial imaginary in each film while also setting the conditions of a very different politics.