Darwin’s Theory

“It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.” - Charles Darwin 

As you can see, Darwin’s theory suggested that fittest, the animals or the people who adapt to their environment best, will have the best chances to survive. In the documentary Darwin’s nightmare, this is shown to us in the lake, where the Nile perch has survived almost all the other species in the lake. However, it is not a battle for animals only. In the documentary, a scene shows how children have to fight for food. Only the strongest children will get the food and survive. Not our children, no, we leave comfortably and have plenty of food, while this happens in Tanzania. Are western countries thus the most adapted ones? Or is there a global complex structure that maintains these standards?

 

Darwin´s Nightmare

Industrial trawlers from the European Union, China, Russia and elsewhere, together with an abundance of local boats, have so thoroughly scoured northwest Africa’s ocean. The local economy now depends on Nile perch, fish that was  introduced to the lake and now is destroying their own eco-system. The introduction of Nile fish caused that today's fish population is just a quarter of what it was 25 years ago, and major fish populations that leave  in the lake before are collapsing. -“The sea is being emptied. (La Franiere. S, 2008)

Consequently, Local fishermen struggle to fish, to maintain their business, and their families. They can no longer afford to buy fish, the price of it increased since developing countries started importing them.  Local Fisherman can’t compete with the European Union and other developing countries that are overfishing in their coast.

Fisherman died of VIH, their wifes have to prostitute themselves to survive, kids die of hunger and drug themselves to be able to sleep, many of them don´t wake up anymore.

We have created a dependency in their economy. They need to export their fish because it is their only source of income, however this raise the price of fish and let them with not fish for their own consumption.

Catastrophe does not end there. The cargo planes that come to Tanzania to collect this specific fish, do not come empty handed. They come with planes filled with ammunition and weapons that are used in local guerrillas. It seems that we take their only source of survival and bring them horror.

 

Art & Globalization in Darwin´s Theory

In the documentary, there is a clear reference to the Global Age (Schäfer, 1995). You can see the local problem of the ‘fishing village’, but it is extended to the whole world by the modes of trade. This is a local, as well as a global problem. Since the trade for fish with the western countries, the people of Tanzania are part of the global economy too. They are a part of the great western industry with their fish and trade it for weapons. This maintains the globally connected economy, but sketches the problems for Tanzanian citizens. ‘While the flesh of millions of Nile perch is stripped, cleaned and flash-frozen for export to wealthy countries, millions of people in the Tanzanian interior live on the brink of famine’ (Scott, 2005). With investigating both contents, globally and locally (see above in the text Darwin’s nightmare: The merchants and the locals), the documentary will show a more complete image of the problems going on in Tanzania and the abuses of the fish trade done by the rest of the world (in this case mostly Europe). “Localism disregards global contexts focusing exclusively on local phenomena, while globalism fails to recognize local contexts, such as people’s languages, life-worlds, and cultures.”(Schäfer, 2010).
For this sake, you can maybe say this is an example of an area study, seen from a global and local viewpoint. In order to meet the conditions, the documentary has to do with one of the given academic fields in area studies. We link this film to field number 5, explained by Schäfer (2010): ‘multidisciplinary conversations often crossing the boundaries of the social sciences and humanities.’

In the documentary there is a multidisciplinary conversation between the west and Tanzania, because on the one hand there is an economical conversation. The European countries are buying the fish from the local population. They are not bringing any products towards Tanzania. Furthermore there is a political conversation. There are conferences in which political leaders from different countries are talking about specific problems, like the way this new fish outrules all the other species living in the lake. There also is a conversation about war going on between these countries, because the planes are bringing weapons to Tanzania. Often pilots are saying that they don’t know what is in their cargo space. Crossing with humanities: There is contact between the pilots and the local population, because the pilots are sleeping with the girls during their stay in Tanzania.
Also, in the documentary you can see a lot of the everyday life in Tanzania, while the reporter talking to the fishermen, the children of the fishermen and the people working for the fish factories. This is also where you hear the economical struggles and political lies told to them are coming back to the surface.

 

The art on Darwin´s Nightmare

"Darwin's Nightmare" is also a work of art: “there are images here that have the terrifying sublimity of a painting by El Greco or Hieronymus Bosch: rows of huge, rotting fish heads sticking out of the ground; children turning garbage into makeshift toys. (O. Scott, 2005).
For example one of the paintings of Hieronymus Bosch is ‘The garden of earthly delights.’ It consists of three pieces. “The left panel named ‘Garden of Eden shows God presenting Eve to Adam. The center panel depicts a wide garden-like landscape which gave the painting its name.  Here, the multitude of figures engages in lustful, sinful and bizarre activities. The right panel depicts Hell, while the  back sides of both side panels show the World before the creation of animals.” This can be linked to the documentary, because in the documentary you also see some very beautiful landscapes, hills and lakes, and some handsome Tanzanians. (O. Scott, 2005).But meanwhile, you see a situation that could be described as hell in the same framework. Furthermore, the painting shows how much disadvantage humans brought to the world, nature and to each other. This is also shown in the documentary.  “Because Mr. Sauper has allowed the dimensions of the story to emerge  through one-on-one conversation and acutely observed visual detail, he presents a richly illustrated report on a distant catastrophe that is also one of the central stories of our time.” (O. Scott, 2005)

Hieronymus Bosch
‘The garden of earthly delights'

What Darwin's nightmare has showen us

While African people struggle everyday to eat, we live a life of abundance and luxury. This documentary opens your eyes and remains you how millions of people live precarious lives and struggle to survive. Shows that we are all part of a system, whether we want it or not, and how our politicians participate in unethical practices.

However, this remains you how you as an individual can make a change even if it seems a superfluous change. We can make a difference by being conscious of our product choices. We can decide which products to buy and which companies we want to support. We have a vote with the products we buy and consume.
We can support organizations that help people in need, or  we can let people know what is happening in Tanzania. We definitely have the duty to be part of the change, since we had the luck to be born in the fortunate side of the world.

Darwin´s Nightmare shows you the horrifying reality which is never pleasant to watch. However, also gives you the awareness of what is happening to the less fortunate, and therefore the opportunity to do something about it.

 

To discuss

-  In our viewpoint, the documentary could have also shown what the consumers of this Tanzanian fish know about the origin of this product. Are they not aware of the problems, are they just being naive or is it ignored?

 

- The pilots say they don’t know what is in their cargo space. Do they really not know? Do they not want to tell? are they feeling guilty?

 

- Does this documentary had made an effect on your daily life? Or do we only see this, have a certain painful feeling, and go further the way we live, because we are used of seeing(short)movies with horrible stories the entire week?

 

Written by:
 

Alma Mayo Richart
Anouk van Vliet
Riane Rietveld
Lisa Prins
Lisanne Voorn

 

Reference list:

Coulorex. (n.d.) Hyronimus Bosch, The Garden of earthly Delights, ca. 1495-1505. Science and art initiative. Retrieved from:
http://colourlex.com/project/hieronymus-bosch-the-garden-of-earthly-delights/

Scott, A. (2005). Feeding Europe, Starving at Home. The New York Times, Film review. Retrieved from:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/08/03/movies/feeding-europe-starving-at-home.html

Schäfer, W. (2010). Reconfiguring Area studies for the Global Age. Center for Global History, 22. Retrieved from:
https://gsj.stonybrook.edu/article/reconfiguring-area-studies-for-the-global-age/