86 african appropriations
But it is not just this prominent feature—peculiar to Cameron’s own
Titanic—that we rediscover in at least two African copies. A number of
other significations transcend Cameron’s “original copy” and resort to
much older adaptations. The interpretation of the tragedy as writing on
the wall against hubris and naive belief in technical progress is one of
them. Cameron alludes to this trope when he has Rose’s fiancé boast:
“God himself could not sink this ship.” The trope of “speed and greed” is
another one. It is prominent in many versions, including Cameron’s, where
W hite Star Line’s managing director, Bruce Ismay, persuades Cpt. John
Smith to accelerate in a bid to break a speed record, despite the dangers of
navigating the North Atlantic. Moreover, the Titanic has long served as a
symbol of a society marked by social inequality. This was already cast into
the real ship’s architecture with its sharp divisions among first, second,
and third class, the latter being located in steerage. Cameron references
this interpretation, too—most prominently perhaps in the sequences
where the ship goes down and steerage passengers are forced to stay below
deck while the more privileged board lifeboats.
The dem i se of t he Titanic has been reworked in various media and genres
throughout the twentieth century (Bergfelder and Street 2004; Biel 1997;
Köster and Lischeid 1999). A historical event, meaningless alone, has thus
been given new meaning time and time again, each treatment adapting
t he “raw mater ia l,” as wel l as its for mer adaptat ions, to cha ng i ng socia l, po-
litical, and economic contexts (Howells 1999: 4). Unlike James Cameron,
African cultural producers have had only limited access, if any, to the vast
archive of treatments about the W hite Star Liner’s demise, the combination
of which turned the historical event into a myth in Europe and America.
Most seem to have encountered the Titanic myth initially through Cam-
eron’s film. They mediate a distant event of Euro-American history for
African audiences by adapting and remediating a Holly wood movie. In
this chapter I explore the meanings the Titanic myth—mediated through
James Cameron’s “original copy”—has acquired in its African versions.
A NIGERIAN VIDEO REMAKEThe Nigerian video remake Masoyiyata/Titanic (My darling/Titanic),
directed by Farouk Ashu-Brown and released on vhs cassette in 2003, is