Plot Details: This opinion reveals major details about the movie's plot.

What up, my brothas! Welcome to my Black Christmas (and I don't mean Q'Uanz'hah, or whatever the hell it is) write off. Come celebrate the best and worst of hard hitting, hard lovin', two fisted, no nonsense blaxploitation flicks ever offered by Hollywood (and of course from outside the studio system, too). The sleazy, the exploitative, the classics, the forgotten and the crap - all examined over the 12 days of Christmas. However, with this comes a disclaimer:

WARNING! Absolutely no one under 18 admitted to this review!

No, seriously. While I do try and keep in mind that epinions is an all-ages site and do try to mind my manners appropriately, there's no point in being polite when discussing movies like these. Salty language may and will creep in from time to time.

And with that, on to SHAFT IN AFRICA! Can you dig it?

Who's the black private dick that's the sex machine to all the chicks? Who is the man who would risk his neck for his brother man? Who's the cat that won't cop out when there's danger all about? If your answer to all of the above is "Shaft!", then you can dig it.

I wonder if Screenwriter and pulp novelist Ernest Tidyman knew he was about to tap into something big and create a 70's blaxploitation icon when he wrote the first Shaft novel (yeah, it was a book first. Shocked me too)? When MGM brought the tough-talking, take-no-bullshit private detective to the Big Screen in 1971, you can bet there were some sweating studio heads.

Black audiences were pretty much ignored by mainstream Hollywood. Sure there had been Cotton Comes to Harlem in 1970, and Melvin Van Pebbles Sweet Sweetback's Badasssss Song earlier that year, but the genre hadn’t taken off yet. Would a high profile black film piss people off? Would it loose money? Would a movie like this start a race war? The critics were, how shall we say - less than receptive about the film's appeal and ultimate worth. Most called it insulting to blacks, rolling out all the stereotypes that blacks had been trying so hard to play down.

But when all was said and done, the film made back its 1.5 million dollar budget in spades (oooh, bad choice of words. Forgive me). Coming in as the twelfth biggest film of the year and opening the door for other such blaxploitation classics, like Cleopatra Jones, Superfly and Dolomite - Shaft was indeed the man.

The third in the series, Shaft in Africa takes our black private dick out of Harlem and deposits him in Africa (duh), for a less streetwise, more James Bondian adventure where he must penetrate and expose (!) a global slavery ring dealing in young black virile Africans looking for good jobs in Europe.

We meet Shaft as in his daily routine, jogging, stopping punks from stealing hubcaps, bedding women (well, we don't actually see evidence of this in the opening credits, but this is Shaft - sex is simply a given with him) before he is kidnapped by a large African looking gentleman and his sidekick. Shaft wakes up in a stable, buck naked and with only a long wooden stick for defense. It's not seconds later when Shaft finds himself being attacked by the large African looking gentleman. Shaft managed to beat the other guy off with his stick (woah - bad choice of words again) before getting distracted and sucker punched (sucker sticked?)

Shaft wakes up naked (again!) in small metal room not too dissimilar from a room one would use for drying a freshly painted car, simulating 110 degree desert conditions. Being the resourceful guy that he is, Shaft buries himself in the sand covering the floor, impressing the Mysterious Voice that seems to be running things.

The man behind the voice is the Emir, is looking to hire Shaft to go undercover in Ethiopia and infiltrate the slaver's organization. Shaft, being the tough-talking, take-no-bullshit anti-authority figure that he is, tells them where to get off - until they offer him a cool quarter million for the job. Shaft then meets his African culture and language teacher, the beautiful Aleme (Vonetta McGee). Shaft being Shaft, he also decides to have sex with her.

During a layover (no pun intended) in France, a man dressed as cleaning woman attacks Shaft in a bathroom. But before Shaft can bust out a six-pack of Whupass on the would be assassin in drag, another secret agent shows up and saves his bacon.

In Africa, Shaft meets Q - um, I mean Colonel Gonder (Marne Maitland, the weapons dealer from The Man with the Golden Gun), who proceeds to outfit Shaft with all kinds of double-0 toys to the point where even Shaft mentions that he's more of a Sam Spade than a James Bond. Despite these protestations, he gets equipped with a spy camera in his staff (his fighting stick, you perv!) and a tape recorder tucked away in a belt pouch. Thus equipped, Shaft catches a bus to take him into the Bush (where most of the movies budget went - they actually shot on location in Nigeria, getting some really gorgeous scenery along the way). On the bus, Shaft avoids death at the hands of an assassin yet again and proceeds the rest of the way on foot.

Hey, you know what? Shaft hasn't had any sex recently! Fortunately for him, Aleme just happened to be driving past through the middle of the Nigerian savannah in a vintage pimpmobile and so they spend the night getting it on.

The next morning, Shaft catches up to the slavers and signs onto one of their press gangs (after delivering a savage beat down on one of the Slaver Goons to the amusement of the crowd). Along the way, there are several more attempts on Shaft's life, Shaft encounters slaver kingpin Amafi's Gun-moll (and promptly has sex with her), and a fire started by The Man in an effort to get Shaft accidently kills a full load of human cargo. This of course gives Shaft the Righteous Rage necessary to deliver a full on Third-Reel beatdown on Amafi, complete with plenty of gunplay and gratuitous property damage.

Shaft and Shaft's Big Score! both had full involvement from Ernest Tidyman and director Gordon Parks. Shaft in Africa, on the other hand seems to be considered the red-headed stepchild of the series. (It's the only one without a novelization by Tidyman and not directed by Parks). You know what - that's a damn shame. Having watched all three Shaft films back to back, I can say that Shaft in Africa is without a doubt the most entertaining of the trilogy.

Unlike most of the action franchises of the day, the Shaft films get progressively stronger as the series went on. Richard Roundtree is completely comfortable as Shaft, director John Guillermin knows how to handle a camera, the music is funky, there's some great action scenes and the script is chock full of one-liners and double entendres that never quite crosses the line into becoming a parody of the genre.

The supporting cast is pretty good too - Serbian actress Neda Arneric, who plays the oversexed and mind-blowing gorgeous girlfriend of the slavery kingpin, fleshes out the roll and shows some acting talent (well, in the blaxploitation sense of the word) and gets to show off her . . . um, natural talents with some of the better bedroom scenes to come along in a while. After Shaft finally relents in getting it on with Jazar, she looks dreamily into the distance and says: "You're the first man who's ever made love to me the way a man should." (Shaft's classic retort: "Fan-tastic baby. I'll write my congressman later.")

Oh sure, the plot is pretty threadbare, but it's like a shark - it's always on the move and looking for someone new to kill or something new to blow up. People kick in doors, run white people over with cars, engage in stick fights, make glorious love, and relentlessly cause as much over the top mayhem as humanly possible.

Is it any good? Probably not. Is it any fun? Oh hell yeah.

RUDY RAY MOORE OR PAM GRIER? No
BREASTS ON DISPLAY: Dozens
A BRUTHA GETS SOME: 3 times
MUSICAL NUMBERS: 0
EXPLOSIONS: 3
ROUNDS FIRED: 65
HANDRAIL DEATHS: 0
CAR CHASES: 0
AFROS: 3
F BOMBS DROPPED: 12
WHITEYS THAT GET IT: 5 (and not only that, the representative of The Man is a German - how much more White can you get that that?)
BEST LINE: Fuck the law! What does it do about the shitheads who charge 100 francs a month to stay in a craphouse like this? Why don't you really clamp down on the slave trade? I'll tell you why! The black ghetto of Paris is as far away from the Champs Elysees as 142nd Street is from Park Avenue! You need a bunch of poor bastards to work on your roads and in your damn kitchens! So, don't lay any of that law-will-punish-him shit on me!
SEVENTIES FASHION SENSIBILITIES: 34%
SOUL POWER 100%

THE DVD -
The Shaft in Africa DVD is of a little less quality than the first two. That's not in the picture at all - the picture quality is top notch. There is however a slight hiss going on in the mono channel. It's faint but there.

THE EXTRAS -
The extras are the three trailers, cast and crew bios (focusing again on Roundtree).

THE BOTTOM LINE
Sadly the increased budget and diminished returns did what The Man couldn’t do - finish off Shaft. MGM sold the series off to CBS for a short-lived television weekly show that quickly sputtered and floundered before fading into obscurity. While Sammy J would try and bring the series back in a roll he really was born to play, it didn’t have the same (if you'll excuse the term) soul as the 71 Shaft did. It was ok, but the original will always bring an afro wearing smile to my face.

We can dig it!

ON THE TWELVE DAYS OF BLACK CHRISTMAS, MY SOUL BRUTHAS GAVE TO ME. . . .
12) BLACULA
11) JACKIE BROWN
10) THE FINAL COMEDOWN
09) SHAFT IN AFRICA
08) UNDERCOVER BROTHER
07) DOLEMITE
06) BLACK MAMA, WHITE MAMA
05) MEAN JOHHNY BARROWS
04) TROUBLE MAN
03) SUPERFLY
02) THE MACK
And a LADY COCOA in a pear tree. . . .



Recommended: Yes

Viewing Format: DVD
Video Occasion: Better than Watching TV
Suitability For Children: Not suitable for Children of any age