West Africa Reivew c  ISSN: 1525-4488 Vol. 3, No. 2 ( 2002) REVIEW OF VIDEO: ¡I¿RED HAT WHERE ARE YOU GOING?¡/I¿ Siendou Konate The documentary, Red Hat Where Are You Going?, examines the dynamics of colonial legacy in a modern African nation. European imperialist powers justified colonialism as a mission to save the backward, uncultured, primitive people. Hence, they referred to it as “mission civilisatrice ” or civilizing mission. But students of nineteenth century colonialism know that this explanation is false. The rationale behind that European foray into Africa and Asia was largely economic. Africa was colonized to both provide raw materials for the rapidly expanding industries of Europe and markets in which to sell the manufactured products. Definitely, the goal was not to civilize since complex cultures with complex histories and a relatively high level of development were already in existence. In more ways than one, colonization induced a relentless struggle between African traditions and European colonial ones. In the course of this battle, Europeans utilized the arsenal of propaganda to castigate African values and customs as “primitive” and “pagan.” By their departure in the 1960s, they had successfully left in place Africans who had received colonial education, and who had become the elite. Educated as these elites were in colonial and West- ern ways, they knew more about foreign values than their indigenous African values. Their internalization of the colonial perspective and its stereotypes of African cultures and values caused them to view themselves as the best possible candidates to rule their people. Afflicted by colonial mentality, they perceived any references to the high social, political and cultural achievements of the an- cestors as false. Such was the mindset of a lot of African chiefs, who became the guardian and interpreter of African values and mores. The documentary video produced by Emile and Maarten Adriaan Van Rouveroy Van Nieuwaal and Burkinabe historian Some Magloire captures this complex history and the political tensions that are spawned today by the legacy of colo- nialism. It visually portrays the multiple attempts by politically marginalized traditional rulers to retrieve and restore African traditional values and traditions that colonial legacy had left in a state of neglect. Bonnet Rouge Ou Vas-Tu? or Red Hat Where Are you Going? is about the traditional chiefs, the naabas, who wear red hat as a symbol of their authority. The video undertakes a multi-faceted look at the social, political and cultural analysis of these traditional chieftaincy institutions in former Upper Volta, now Burkina Faso (the land of the Honest Man), in West Africa. It reviews the role these traditional chiefs historically played, are now playing, and intend to play in