“Mama Majuto”: A Reflection on Playing Mzungu in Tanzanian Video Films

Abstract

ABSTRACT In this article, I analyse the ambiguous characterisation of the mzungu in Tanzanian films as well as the perception of the mzungu in general. Using the example of several films by Mussa Banzi, Mustafiri West and Kulwa Kikumba in which I acted, I discuss how, through the representation of common wazungu stereotypes, I have become the object of reflections and negotiations that – primarily satirically – process the relationship between Tanzania and Germany, East Africa and the global North. As a mzungu ethnographer and like the many white scholars before me, I was warmly and politely welcomed by the filmmakers to watch their work as well as to add a comical figure to the repertoire of Tanzanian movie characters. My performances in Swahili films opened up extraordinary opportunities to connect, become a scholar and even a “celebrity”. The Tanzanian filmmakers, on the other hand, benefited from the white guest actor as a teaser and especially as a comic extra for the films. I argue that, through this collaborative work, the role of the researcher as expert was challenged and, to some extent, the power relations between researcher and researched were reversed or at least disrupted.