We all know the narrative, or rather, the reality; the “brother nation” or “sister nation” comes in the name of trade or international corporation and once they’ve sucked us dry, we’re left to salvage the spoils. Or when some appropriate our culture but underneath is a load of stereotypes. Let’s not forget the overpraisal of them by us while at the same time drooling over what they’ve done and still doing to us, that was what lingered in my mind after watching the Ivorian comedic satirical drama; À nous deux, France! (Take Care France).
In Paris, a young, elegant Black man wanders aimlessly, having come to find his young white wife and their little girl. Meanwhile, young Ivorian women try to prevent their compatriots from becoming attached to French women. In this witty and satirical musical film, Désiré Écaré (director) offers his own take on Western stereotypes about Black people.
À nous deux, France! does not take the binary route, where you lean into your pan-africanism all the way through. It lets you sit with the reality of survival in France for a black man and woman, what needs be done to assimilate since that’s where the next meal is. The character Tarzan best portrays this, as he dons dapper while recommending the abandonment of wigs to his African girlfriend (despite having a French wife) and adoration of African women fashion and the beauty of their bodies and being from a poem by Léopold Sédar Senghor. There are moments where he acknowledges the reality he left back home and the true nature of where he resides.
The film does not hide the reality of how hard it is to go back to one’s roots after such intense assimilation and indoctrination, done both at home and abroad, as two of the characters; Tarzan and Myriam perfectly portray.
À nous deux, France! sure has a lot of subtle political commentary that different people have different interpretations of, but one thing is for sure, every race conscious African will resonate with it.
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