Dark Continent

The boy is there to represent Africa or rather - in the words of the now long-forgotten artist, Sigismund Goetze - "our obligations and possibilities in the dark continent".

“If you wanted to be a missionary, do you go to the Bible Belt? Or do you go to the dark continent of Africa?”

It might have been the first time you saw Africa and its leaders depicted in this way—not as a “dark continent,” but as a land rich in history and accomplishment.

"Here you are the sultan, the despot, the colon, the white man exploring the dark continent with a whip in your hand. There are mysterious ladies to be conquered, from this passionate Viet Cong guerrilla in her black pajamas, fresh from the jungle, to this Palestinian freedom fighter just returned from hijacking a plane."

Step by step, we discover the rationale behind some of the staging decisions we have been watching — why Greenidge’s Marlow, for example, is now a Black female P.I., or why it’s Europe that has become a “dark continent” devoured by a “sociopathic capitalism.”