Suffering Beauty: How to Save Africa without Changing It

Abstract

In 2006 Hollywood consistently rewarded Rachel Weisz’ performance in an otherwise largely overlooked film in the United States, The Constant Gardener. The film mixed action adventure with political thriller embedded in a critique of the global pharmaceutical industry’s use of Africans as cheap test subjects for new drugs. Rachel Weisz played an idealistic activist who dies in her crusade to expose corruption at the heart of the deals between the government of Kenya and an industry giant. In a year in which Hollywood congratulated itself on its representation of tough issues (Crash won best picture Oscar), its singling out of this portrayal of an aid worker in one film about Africa shows the extent to which humanitarian engagement in Africa had become an important story in America.