Samson Kaunga Ndanyi is assistant professor of African history and Africana studies at Rhodes College, Memphis, Tennessee.
In this scholarly text, Ndanyi discusses the aims, strategies, expectations, content, and ulterior motives of colonial instructional cinema in Kenya, arguing that the racially stratified cinematic space aimed to consolidate colonial power and white hegemonic control over Black bodies. Ndanyi's versatility as a film producer and history professor shines throughout this illuminating work on African colonial cinema…. The marketing of products from companies like Unilever and Cadbury midway through the shows and the inclusion of propaganda about the British royal family and instructions on agriculture all exposed the colonizers' preoccupations and were effectively confronted by anti-colonial nationalists and movements such as Harry Thuku, Dedan Kimathi, and the Mau Mau rebellion (1952–60). Recommended. General readers through faculty * Choice Reviews *