22/12/2015
Blood on Their Hands
The movie ‘The Constant Gardener’ depicts that the activist woman ,who is called Tessa,
try at the risk of her life to uncover the issue which is using African population as test subjects
of a tuberculosis drug by powerful pharmaceutical company in Kenya. The poem ‘Power’ by
Audrey Lorde addresses the issue of killed a black ten years old boy by white policeman and
the justice of setting free although there is one black African American woman in the jury
with eleven white men. The woman characters in these two works have both similarities and
differences. These two women are similar in the following way which they fall as victim
faced with different kind of oppressive systems. On the other hand, Tessa differs from the
woman in the jury being activist and having passion to struggle against the system.
To start with, Tessa and the African American woman in the jury are both failed against the
different kind of despotic power. In the ‘The Constant Gardener’ the power cannot be
determined exactly who or what it is. It is like unseen web which everything and everybody is
connected to each other and to found who is responsible for the last decision is impossible.
Tessa is murdered by the power due to her works against the benefits of Drug Company. The
system exploits the African people in Kenya and uses them as a genuine pig to test a drug
which has many side effects on human. In the movie, Dr. Lorbeer said “Big pharmaceuticals
