Yellow Fever

Invited at Design Indaba 2015, Ng’endo Mukii started from her animation Yellow Fever to discuss the representation of people termed as ‘indigenous’ in ethnographic film and photography.

For my presentation at Design Indaba, I discussed the representation of people termed as ‘indigenous’ in ethnographic film and photography.

I compared the process of taxidermy and ethnographic filmmaking. Both practices involve an act of deletion, of editing, for the sake of presenting indigenous species as icons in a foreign context. They both depend on ‘looking real’ or being indexical to create convincing specimens.

I feel that the photo-realism of the indexical image presents a major issue when it is concerns ‘the indigenous.’ It has been used to present ‘absolute truths’ for so long, that the world, is not capable of digesting images of non-Western people, without carrying the weight of centuries of historical bias related to and created by these images. It has created ‘truths’ outside which, we as a people are not allowed to exist.

These images present a singular story. One that has been used to justify racism, colonialism, and slavery, that flattens and dries out the African story, to a pale version of itself. One that allows for no change, advancement or existence outside of the incomplete yet seen as absolute truth presented. As in taxidermy, the subjects of ethnographic film and photography, are reduced to icons of their respective species, and maintained in irrefutable stasis that only allows one interpretation of their entire culture or civilization. This interpretation has often been negative.

I presented my documentary-animation, Yellow Fever, as a means of showing how we as Africans (Kenyans specifically) have absorbed the absolute truths presented about ourselves over the years, to the point that our own media has become biased to Western ideals of beauty. In response, women and girls feel pressured to conform to these ideals that essentially go against the grain of our bodies. As a result, this has affected our own sense of self-image and we constantly use chemicals to straighten our hair and bleach our skin, in an attempt to emulate these ideals.

At Design Indaba, I proposed that Documentary-Animation could be used as a means of breaking the canon that exists concerning the image of ‘the indigenous.’ Animation is not tied to the ‘real’ image and through creative use is able to emulate human emotion and experiences on a universal level.

Since the artist’s hand is very obviously involved in bringing the images to life, the audience cannot deny the existence of many parallel and opposing possibilities through which to represent a truth. Unlike ethnography, it is not tied to an indexical image, nor to any singular story or absolute truths. Because of this, Documentary-Animation allows for multiple and diverse interpretations of the human experience, and can help re-humanize how we see ourselves and each other. Ng’endo Mukii

Yellow Fever
Design: Ng’endo Mukii

Yellow Fever

Invited at Design Indaba 2015, Ng’endo Mukii started from her animation Yellow Fever to discuss the representation of people termed as ‘indigenous’ in ethnographic film and photography.

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