{"id":3821,"date":"2025-08-20T15:53:34","date_gmt":"2025-08-20T13:53:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.zflprojekte.de\/zfl-blog\/?p=3821"},"modified":"2025-09-09T16:44:14","modified_gmt":"2025-09-09T14:44:14","slug":"sandra-folie-appropriating-exoticist-codes-exposing-neocolonial-amnesia-in-sudabeh-mortezais-joy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.zflprojekte.de\/zfl-blog\/2025\/08\/20\/sandra-folie-appropriating-exoticist-codes-exposing-neocolonial-amnesia-in-sudabeh-mortezais-joy\/","title":{"rendered":"Sandra Folie: APPROPRIATING EXOTICIST CODES, EXPOSING NEOCOLONIAL AMNESIA IN SUDABEH MORTEZAI\u2019S \u201cJOY\u201d"},"content":{"rendered":"

In my project \u201cRe-imagining Europe in Neocolonial Enslavement Narratives,\u201d I examine fictional accounts of human trafficking, particularly those that focus on Black African women who migrate to Europe and end up as sex workers. I introduce the term \u201cneocolonial enslavement narratives\u201d to describe these texts as they depict late twentieth\/twen\u00adty-first century experiences of enslave\u00adment while exposing Europe\u2019s ongoing exploitation of its former colonies. Although these texts share a genre lineage with autobiographical slave narratives, which typically focus on U.S. antebellum slavery, they differ due to their fictionalization and contemporary European settings. A key strength of this emerging genre is its challenging of \u201cthe powerful narrative of Europe as a colorblind continent,\u201d[1]<\/a> supposedly untouched by the oppressive ideologies it spread globally. By decentering and appropriating the white<\/em> European gaze, films such as Sudabeh Mortezai\u2019s Joy <\/em>(Austria 2018) contribute to a Black re-imagining of Europe. They also challenge androcentric perspectives in Afropean cultural productions, amplifying the voices of an often-overlooked group within the African diaspora. <\/span><\/p>\n

Mortezai\u2019s feature film follows Joy and Precious, two Nigerian women in Austria. In Vienna, Nigerian trafficker \u201cMadame,\u201d who financed their journey to Europe, forces them to repay their debts through pros\u00adtitution.[2]<\/a> While Joy is older and more experienced, Precious, a teenager, has just arrived. Rather than explicitly emphasizing its Vienna setting, the film subtly hints at its location through casual references. In her review, Nancy Nenno highlights the story\u2019s sense of universality as a key strength since \u201cit targets all Western European nations as potential destinations for sex traffickers.\u201d[3]<\/a> From Precious\u2019 perspective, Austria\u2014representing both Western and Central Europe\u2014appears as a land of cleanliness, order, and perpetual light. \u201cLight is always here 24 hours,\u201d Precious marvels, \u201cNon-stop. They never take the light.\u201d[4]<\/a> Yet, this constant light, which exposes Vienna\u2019s comfort, progress, and prosperity, also reveals its flourishing red-light milieu.[5]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

\"Young<\/a>
Fig. 1: Young woman (Glory Aghastmwan) and priest (Eziza Isibor) performing a juju ritual. Still from JOY, \u00a9 FreibeuterFilm<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

However, instead of immediately foregrounding the women\u2019s struggles in the Austrian capital, the film opens with a juju ritual (fig. 1). Rooted in a West African spiritual tradition, these rituals are believed to harness supernatural power. In front of a shrine in a modest Nigerian dwelling, a priest chants an incantation in the Edo (Bini) language while ritually slaughtering a chicken. Beside him, a young woman must swear an oath before leaving for Europe. Repeating his words, she vows that the shrine shall kill her if she leads the police to Madame. Following Nenno, one might question if the explicit depiction of this ritual risks indulging in voyeuristic exoticism, which potentially undermines the film\u2019s efforts to foster identification with the trafficked women. The scene undeniably evokes a problematic white <\/em>gaze, which was established by ethno\u00adgraphic filmmakers like Jean Rouch and remains evident in recent productions such as Lars Kraume\u2019s Der vermessene Mensch <\/em>(Measures of Men<\/em>, Germany 2023). However, the depiction of the juju ritual\u2014characteristic of Nigerian human trafficking networks\u2014effectively conveys Joy\u2019s later fear of breaking her oath and testifying against Madame.<\/span><\/p>\n

Simultaneously, the film employs what Graham Huggan calls \u201cstrategic exoticism\u201d: it utilizes exoticist representational codes only to appropriate and subvert them. This approach becomes fully evident in a later scene that mirrors the juju ritual, reversing the gaze to portray Austrians as exotic and primitive. Madame commands Joy to deliver Precious to Italian traffickers, effectively selling her southward\u2014a direction that, in both historical and contemporary enslavement narratives, rarely signals a positive fate. However, due to an ID check\u2014which echoes a recurring trope in Afropean literature that references the widespread practice of racial pro\u00adfiling across Europe\u2014they have to get off their train early in the small spa town of Bad Gastein. The two women seek refuge at a local inn, where they are eyed conspicuously by the exclusively white <\/em>guests.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Precious<\/a>
Fig. 2: Precious (Precious Mariam Sanusi) and Joy (Joy Anwulika Alphonsus) with Krampus Pass. Still from JOY, \u00a9 FreibeuterFilm<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Suddenly, the lights dim, bells clang, and a deep roar fills the room. A \u201cPass\u201d enters\u2014Saint Nicholas, a basket car\u00adrier, an angel, and several \u201cKrampusse,\u201d young men who impersonate the devil by wearing horned wooden masks, fur suits, and cowbells (fig. 2). This performance is part of an Alpine pre-Christmas tradition. In some German-speaking regions, \u201cPassen\u201d visit homes in early December to reward the good children and punish the naughty. There are also public Passen performances\u2014often gaudy spectacles that attract adults as well. The media frequently criticize them for being associated with \u201csexualized violence, alcoholism, atavism, rural backwardness, low levels of education, and right-wing nationalism.\u201d[6]<\/a> As the audience is drawn to Joy and Precious, who appear visibly irritated and uneasy, the performance takes on an \u201cexotic\u201d and \u201cprimitive\u201d quality\u2014much like the opening juju ritual. This effect persists even for white <\/em>Austrians like me. In fact, the scene may be especially striking to viewers who are well-versed in the Krampus tradition, as it disrupts familiar viewing habits and employs \u201ca critical gaze, one that \u2018looks\u2019 to document, one that is oppositional.\u201d[7]<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

Following a raucous display, the Kram\u00adpusse kneel down as St. Nicholas begins to speak in an Austrian dialect that is probably just as incomprehensible to many viewers as the Edo language in the opening scene: <\/span><\/p>\n

Wir bringn nur des Liacht und holtn fest dagegn, gegn oll die dunkln Gstoltn, so bes, dass selbst die Eigenen in Kettn holtn. Siebn S\u00fcndn \u00fcbers Johr wern heute gstroft. Unschuldig\u2026 das hot noch koaner gschofft. <\/span>
\n(We bring only the light and we stand firm against the darkness, against all the dark figures, so wicked they even keep their own in chains. Seven sins committed over the year will be punished tonight. Innocent? No one\u2019s ever managed that.)[8]<\/a><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The phrase \u201cWe bring only the light\u201d carries a tone of appeasement, an assertion of good intentions laced with ambivalence. After all, the electric light symbolizes both Precious\u2019 initial enchantment with Vienna (and Europe) and her confinement to its red-light milieu. While the dark figures who \u201ceven keep their own in chains\u201d primarily refer to the Krampusse and the sins they embody, they also chime with the plight of Joy and Precious\u2014two Black women metaphorically shackled by Madame, a fellow countrywoman, and further burdened by their families\u2019 relentless financial demands.<\/span><\/p>\n

St. Nicholas\u2019 mention of \u201cchains\u201d also evokes the transatlantic enslavement trade, particularly the claim that it was Africans who first sold their own people\u2014a narrative often told by white <\/em>Europeans to deflect responsibility for colonialism and slavery. African and Afrodiasporic writers like L\u00e9onora Miano engage with the question of Black complicity in more nuanced ways. \u201cIf it is true that conqueror-Europe spread its inner darkness throughout the world,\u201d Miano observes, \u201cits effects became manifest only because other shadows responded to it.\u201d[9]<\/a> In Joy<\/em>, Mortezai explores the involvement of Black individuals in modern slavery, illustrating how trafficking victims can become complicit in ongoing cycles of exploitation. By delivering Precious to Italian traffickers in exchange for partial debt relief, Joy perpetuates the very cycle her family and her Madame\u2014herself once forced into prostitution\u2014had initiated with her. Ultimately, the role of Madame emerges as Joy\u2019s likely future once her debts are repaid.<\/span><\/p>\n

Although the film rejects the notion of \u201cBlack innocence\u201d (Reid-Pharr), I inter\u00adpret the Krampus scene as a reflection of Austria\u2019s \u201ccolonialism without colo\u00adnies.\u201d[10]<\/a> While Austria did not possess formal colonies, it was economically and ideologically involved in colonial enterprises and the transatlantic enslavement trade. Several West African coastal towns such as Benin City in Nigeria were pivotal transshipment points directly linked to Europe via trian\u00adgular shipping routes. In the twenty-first century, despite a change in transporta\u00adtion methods and destinations, human trafficking has revived the role of these cities. This shift is especially pertinent to Austria. Vienna has become a major hub for trafficked Nigerian women since the early 2000s. In this context, the white <\/em>guests in the restaurant, who re\u00adspond to St. Nicholas\u2019 speech with the German Advent song \u201cLasst uns froh und munter sein\u201d (\u201cLet us be happy and cheerful\u201d), exhibit (neo)colonial amne\u00adsia. Their call for pre-Christmas cheer starkly contrasts with the reality of the two trafficked women among them: Joy, who facilitates a resale for Madame, and Precious, who is about to be resold. As the film suggests, this trade is driven not by malice, as St. Nicholas implies, but by economic desperation in the age of neocolonialism.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mortezai\u2019s strategic use of exoticism highlights that what seems exotic\u2014and to whom\u2014depends on perspective. Through her skillful appropriation of exo\u00adticist codes in African European \u201cmirror scenes\u201d such as the juju and Krampus rituals, the director challenges viewers to reflect on their own viewing habits, situating them within a broader historical, geopolitical, and cultural context. Moreover, identification with Joy and Precious is not based on pity or sentimentality, as in many historical slave narratives and contemporary trafficking accounts, but on ambivalence. They embody both agency and powerlessness, sometimes blurring the lines between victim and perpetrator. By critiquing Europe and rejecting \u201cwhite <\/em>innocence\u201d (Wekker) while resisting a simplistic notion of Black innocence, the film captures some of the complexities of African European neocolonial realities.<\/span><\/p>\n

Sandra Folie<\/a> is a comparative literature scholar and postdoc researcher in the ERC project \u201cBlack Narratives of Transcultural Appropriation: Constructing Afropean Worlds, Questioning European Foundations<\/a>.\u201d\u00a0<\/span><\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Fatima El-Tayeb: European<\/span> Others: Queering Ethnicity in Postnational Europe<\/em>, Minneapolis: Uni\u00adversity of Minnesota Press 2011, pos. 82\u201383. Kindle.<\/span><\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> My use of both \u201csex work\u201d and \u201cprostitution\u201d acknowledges that voluntariness and coercion can coexist or alternate closely in the lives of these women. While most trafficked women are aware that they will engage in sex work in Europe, few anti\u00adcipate the harsh conditions or the significant difficulty of settling their debt.<\/span><\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Nancy P. Nenno: \u201cNenno on Mortezai, \u2018Joy\u2019<\/a>\u201d, in: H-Black-Europe<\/em>, Feb. 2020.<\/span><\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Sudabeh Mortezai (dir.): Joy<\/em>, 2018. Produced by FreibeuterFilm and ORF. DVD. 00:13:51\u201300:13:57.<\/span><\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> For more information on the ambivalent image of Europe in Joy <\/em>cf. Sandra Folie: \u201cThe White Continent of Night. Re-Imagining Europe in Women\u2019s Neocolonial Enslavement Narratives: On Black Sisters\u2019 Street<\/em> and Joy<\/em><\/a>\u201d, in: Sandra Folie and Gianna Zocco (eds.): CompLit. Journal of European Literature, Arts and Society<\/em> 6.2 (2023) \u2013 Sketches of Black Europe in African and African Diasporic Narratives, 91\u2013115.<\/span><\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Matth\u00e4us Rest and Gertraud Seiser: \u201cThe Krampus in Austria. A Case of Booming Identity Politics<\/a>\u201d, in: Ethnoscripts<\/em> 20.1 (2018), 35\u201357 (38).<\/span><\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> bell hooks: \u201cThe Oppositional Gaze. Black Female Spectators\u201d, in: Black Looks: Race and Representation. <\/em>Boston: South End Press 1992, 115\u2013131 (116).<\/span><\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> 01:09:55\u201301:10:15, my transcription of the Austrian dialect and my translation into English.<\/span><\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> L\u00e9onora Miano: Afropea. A Post-Western and Post-Racist Utopia<\/em>. Translated by Gila Walker. London: Seagull Books 2024, 156.<\/span><\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Patricia Purtschert, Francesca Falk and Barbara L\u00fcthi: \u201cSwitzerland and \u2018Colonialism without Colonies\u2019. Reflections on the Status of Colonial Outsiders<\/a>\u201d, in: Interventions<\/em> 18.2 (2016), 286\u2013302.<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

VORGESCHLAGENE ZITIERWEISE: Sandra Folie: Appropriating Exoticist Codes, Exposing Neocolonial Amnesia in Sudabeh Mortezai\u2019s \u201cJoy,\u201d in: ZfL Blog, 20.8.2025, [https:\/\/www.zflprojekte.de\/zfl-blog\/2025\/08\/20\/sandra-folie-appropriating-exoticist-codes-exposing-neocolonial-amnesia-in-sudabeh-mortezais-joy\/<\/a>].<\/span>
\nDOI: https:\/\/doi.org\/10.13151\/zfl-blog\/20250820-01<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n