Screening White Reassurance: Insecurity and Redemption in Four German Africa Films

The German corpus of films about Africa, or Afrikafilme, is almost as old as German cinema itself. German film-makers have long instrumentalized the African continent as a prop for national self-confidence, either through ‘jungle adventure’ movies telegraphing the sophistication of European technology and navigation, or through overt white savior films asserting a superior German race and culture. As much as the Afrikafilme function as vehicles for German bravado, however, they are also repositories of profound insecurity and self-doubt. This study introduces the concept of ‘white reassurance’ to describe a subgenre of Afrikafilm that addresses this more uncertain side of the German encounter with Africa. Rather than insisting on German dominance, as white savior films do, white reassurance narratives feature unsettled German protagonists who passively approach African peoples in hopes of receiving moral validation, praise, or comfort. The study examines four such Afrikafilme from the Weimar, East German and post-1990 cinematic traditions, dealing with four specific crises: decolonization, Holocaust guilt, the failures of socialism, and postmodern angst. Though each film reflects a distinct sociopolitical context, all four externalize insecurities to African settings in similar ways, betraying a persistent fantasy that Africa can provide relief, however vaguely conceived, from German disquiet.