ABSTRACT

The global-scale wars that plagued the early 1980s did not escape the notice of the Nigerian Afro-beat musician Fela Anikulapo Kuti. Following his release from a politically motivated imprisonment in 1986, he released an album with the title Beasts of No Nation. While the title track archives memories of conflicts around the world, the song was particularly inspired by one of the speeches of the then Prime Minister of South Africa P. W. Botha, who was quoted saying: ‘these uprisings will bring out the beasts in us’ in response to the many protests by the black population against white oppression. In 2005, the Nigerian-American author, Uzodinma Iweala, published a novel titled Beasts of No Nation, which chronicles a gruesome war in an unnamed African country. Ten years later, the Hollywood filmmaker, Cary Fukunaga, adapted the novel into a film. In this article, I examine how Beasts of No Nation has travelled not only across national borders but also across medial, temporal and contextual borders. Beasts of No Nation, as travelling schemata, has gone on to build a cultural life of its own through various forms of remediation, recycling, adaptation and trans-textuality.

摘要

困扰着1980年代初期的全球性战争没有逃脱尼日利亚黑人音乐人Fela Anikulapo Kuti的注意。在1986年从出于政治动机的监禁中获释后，他发行了一张专辑，标题为《无民族的野兽》。虽然标题曲目记录了世界各地冲突的记忆，但歌曲的灵感尤其来自当时的南非总理普瓦·博塔（PW Botha）的演讲之一，他被引述道：“这些起义将把我们身上的野兽带出来”。对黑人反对白人压迫的许多抗议活动的回应。2005年，尼日利亚裔美国作家Uzodinma Iweala发表了一部名为《无民族的野兽》的小说，这记录了一个无名非洲国家的一场残酷战争。十年后，好莱坞电影制片人福纳里（Cary Fukunaga）将小说改编成电影。在本文中，我研究了“无民族之兽”如何不仅跨越国界，而且还跨越内，时，境边界。无国界的野兽作为旅行图式，已通过各种形式的补救，循环利用，改编和跨文本性来建立自己的文化生活。