Documantry on Congo Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1000 words

Documantry on Congo - Essay Example Throughout the Congo, families were held as hostages, and the families would be subjected to death-causing hunger, in the case that the working members did not cooperate in producing sufficient wild rubber. Further, the hands of the children held as captive were chopped off as punishment to the parents, in the case that they delivered the rubber late (Bate, Elie and Roger). The King is accused of killing more than 10 million people during his era of exploitation. This paper will explore the lessons taught by the documentary and also explore the classes of people that played a central role during the colonial era. The documentary gives an account showing that the colonialists went to Africa among other colonial nations, not for the good of the citizens of the colonized countries, but for their selfish interests of making more wealth for themselves and their countries (Bate, Elie and Roger). This reality is very evident from the experiences of the Congolese, during the 1880s, noting that they were subjected to forced labor and slavery at their own country. The selfish interests of the colonialist Belgium are evident from the death of the millions of the people that did not work towards meeting the rubber hunger of the King. Further, to conceal his plans and his strategies of exploiting the people of Congo, the king acted as a prototype of colonialists, by hiding under the veil of protecting Africans from slave trade (Bate, Elie and Roger). Unfortunately, it turned out that his system and model of slavery was much worse than that of the Arabs; it included the brutal treatment of the Congolese. For example, the documentary cites that the hands of the children, whose parents could not deliver rubber as expected, were chopped off. Therefore, the colonial operations of King Leopold II, which were similar to those of many other colonial nations, show that the colonialists went to Africa and other

How would a dalang create, produce, and perform The Pandawa's Saga Research Paper

How would a dalang create, produce, and perform The Pandawa's Saga from the Mahabharata using wayang kulit puppetry - Research Paper Example It uses Yudistira, Arjuna, Krishna and Bima as the key characters. They play with other characters in opposition. These include Karna and Duryodana. It depicts two families fighting, each desiring to inherit the throne. The Pandora family believes that they have the right as direct descendants. The Korwaa family opposes this idea since they believe they too have. This play uses the puppets to illustrate the fight to the viewers. The play further uses more characters than those counted (Oscar and Hildy, 2003). The Dalang therefore tries out the play to represent the variety of personalities. The study aims at providing ideas to the Dalang, to make the puppets alive and succeed as the new Dalang. Synopsis The story has its background from the ‘Wayang’ and ‘Kulit’. Wayang in the Indonesian Language means ghost or shadow. On the other hand, kulit refers to skin, hide or leather. The play uses puppets designed from the buffalo hide. It is played in darkness or sh adow to signify the mythical culture of the play. The same can be used in the today’s theatre among the dalang to perform traditional plays. The viewers prefer to identify with the theatre because it is familiar to their traditions. The dalang use the Mahabharata episodes to maintain their traditional lives technical skills to engage the viewers to avoid dozing off. The play is about rivalry between two groups (Hodge, 2000). The puppet player must understand the meaning and epitome of wayang kulit before he or she can play it. The player must distinguish it from the usual puppet play. One fundamental reason for this is that the puppets are hidden from the viewers Instead of showing them the puppets, the Dalang (puppet player) plays as a multiple character as an actor designer and a spirit. He uses the spiritual aspect not only to entertain the viewers but also to educate them about good deeds and wickedness. Statement of the Chosen piece The study selects tradition as the asp ect of investigation. As Harrison (1998) suggests, this aspect is appropriate because it focuses on â€Å"the good† and â€Å"the evil† of the society in the performance. This is based on the presence of the light, darkness (shadow) and the spirit. The puppet player must fully understand the behaviors of the puppets present their traits to the viewers. The puppet is brought in from the back of the light to present magical appearance. The distance from the puppet to the screen is regulated to control how crisper the puppets appear to the viewers (Meyerhold, 1991). The puppets that enter through the light are the â€Å"good† while those that enter through the dark side are the â€Å"evil†. The good characters are Arjuna and Bima. Their rivals are the evil characters. Chosen Aspect of the Play The selected aspect of the play is the traditional criteria in the practice of selecting the new Dalang in the traditions. This is shown in the rules of the play where a woman is prohibited from inheriting the seat of the Dalang. Principally, the Dalang has to select the appropriate music that links properly to the show. The Dalang must be strong and skilled to play, conduct the orchestra and control the distance of the puppets to the screen. The tradition dictates that the music must be an original Indonesian Music for it to qualify for the play. The sounds and the rhythm are very different from the Western styles. The Dalang uses his own feet to knock the rattle to signify the start of the play. The