CURRICULAR GUIDE FOR TEACHING ENGLISH LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE
Table of Contents:
A. Background Articles
B. Films and Videos
Allah Tantou
Aristotle’s Plot
Asientos
Black Girl
Barom Sarret
Battle of Algiers
Bopha!
Ceddo
Cry the Beloved Country (1952)
Cry Freedom
In Darkest Hollywood
A Dry White Season
Emitai
Everyone’s Child
Femmes aux yeux ouverts
(Women with Open Eyes)
Finzan
Flame
Le Franc
Generations of Resistance
Guelwaar
Guimba the Tyrant
Harvest: 3,000 Years
Heritage Africa
Hyenas
Jit
Keita: Heritage of the Griot
Lumumba: La Mort Du Prophete
Maids and Madams
Mandabi
Monday’s Girls
Neria
Sambizanga
Sankofa
These Hands
Touki Bouki (The Journey of the Hyena)
La Vie Est Belle (Life is Rosy)
Wend Kuuni
World Apart
Xala
Yaaba
Yeelen
Zan Boko
C. Distributor Information
D. Appendices
Africa On-Line
Other Lists
Web Sites On Africa and Related Topics
Internet Resources for Africa and African Studies
A. BACKGROUND READINGS
Ciccone,
A. (1995). Teaching with authentic
video: theory and practice. In
H. Eckman et al (eds.), Second Language
Acquisition: Theory and Pedagogy.
Lawrence Earlbaum Associates.
Diawara,
M. (1992). Anglophone African
production. In M. Diawara, African
Cinema: Politics and Culture. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Diawara,
M. (1989). Oral literature and
African film: narratology in Wend
Kuuni. In J. Pines and P. Willemen
(eds.), Questions of Third Cinema.
London: British Film Institute.
Gabriel,
T. H. (1989). Towards a critical theory
of third world films. In J.
Pines & P. Willemen (eds.), Questions of Third Cinema. London: British Film Institute.
Harrow,
K. (1995). Introduction: shooting forward. In Research in African Literature (Special Issue
on African
Film), 26 (3): 1-5.
Harrow,
K. (1997). Women in African Cinema. Matutu: Journal for African Culture and
Society, 19: vii- xii.
Racevskis,
M. (1996). Applications of
African cinema in the high school curriculum.
Research in African Literatures,
27 (3): 98 -109.
Tomaselli,
K. (1994). Decolonising film and television (teaching
film and TV in Africa). In MATHASEDI,
Nov/Dec.
Ukadike,
N. F. (1994). Introduction. In N. F. Ukadike (ed.), Black African Cinema. Berkeley: University of California Press.
B. FILMS AND VIDEO
ALLAH
TANTOU, 1991
62 minutes in French with English subtitles
Director: David Achkar
Distributor: California Newsreel
Purchase Price: $195.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Synopsis: This
film confronts the immense personal and political cost of human rights abuses
common to some evolutionary governments in post-independent Africa. Filmmaker David Achkar accomplishes this by
following the life of his diplomat father, Marof Achkar, who became a political
prisoner in Sekou Touré’s Guinea during the late 1960s.
Critique: Allah
Tantou is the first African film to confront the immense personal and
political costs of the widespread
human rights abuses on the continent.
It follows filmmaker David Achkar’s search for his father, his father’s
search for himself inside a Guinean prison and Africa’s search for a new
beginning amid the disillusionment of the post-independence era. One of the most courageous and controversial
films of recent years, Allah Tantou speaks in an unabashed personal
voice not often heard in African cinema.
“The life of Marof Achkar can be seen as emblematic of
much recent African history. In 1958,
his countryman, Sekou Touré declared Guinea the first independent French
African colony and became a hero of Pan-Africanism. Marof Achkar, a leading figure in the Ballets Africans, served as
U.N. ambassador for the new government.
In 1968, Achkar was suddenly recalled, charged with treason and vanished
into the notorious Camp Boiro prison.
His family was exiled and, only after Touré’s death in 1984, did they
learn of his execution in 1971.
“In a cinematic tradition which has privileged the
calm collective voice of the griot, Allah Tantou speaks with the
fragmented, uncertain rhythms of the individual conscience. Achkar juxtaposes diverse, sometimes
contradictory texts -- documentary, newsreel, dramatizations, photos, journals
-- to deny us a single, authoritative narrative space.”
(Critique quoted from California Newsreel’s Library
of African Cinema. 1995-96
Catalog.)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Topics for Discussion: Post-colonialism; African
politics; Art and Political Commitment; Biography.
ARISTOTLE’S PLOT, 1996
71 minutes French with English subtitles
Director:
Jean-Pierre Bekolo
Distributor:
JPB Productions
Purchase Price:
$295.00
Synopsis: This feature film examines the trials of
African movie-making in a humorous, and critical, manner.
Critique: In a southern African town, a group of
wanna-be gangstas hangs out at the Cinema Africa, subjecting themselves to
megadoses of the latest actions fests.
They’ve taken the names of their screen gods: Van Damme, Bruce Lee, Nikita, Saddam, and the leader Cinema. Africa
of Hollywood, replacing Schwarzenegger with Sembene. The government is indifferent and the gangsta won’t come quietly,
so he takes matters into his hands and becomes a vigilante for an indigenous
film culture.
“In its combination of critical questioning and
anarchic glee, Aristotle’s Plot harks back to Godard, but with a sense of humor
all its own. Instead of working toward
the end of cinema like Godard, Bekolo just wants a new beginning and a decent
middle.”
(Critique quoted from article by Cameron Bailey, Toronto
Film Festival Catalogue 1997)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Topics for Discussion: Post-colonialism; Aristotle’s Poetics; Popular Culture;
Film and Culture
ASIENTOS,
1995
52 minutes in French with English subtitles: 35mm
Director: Francois Woukoache
Distributor: Francois Woukoache
Synopsis: This film traces the connections between
the history of Goree Island and one man’s place in the present.
Critique: On Goree Island off the coast of Senegal, a
young man seeks refuge from present-day strife in
a journey into history. Though no pictures captured the brutality of Goree Island’s
slave trade,
it retains memories of profound horror and
strength. With keenly perceptive
narration,
Woukoache connects an unspeakable past with a
forgetful present. Asientos’s
closest relative is perhaps
Alain Resnais’s Holocaust reflection Nuit et
Brouillard. But this film remains unique.
Few have
photographed the coast of West Africa or the details
of black skin with such unerring beauty.
(Critique quoted from article by Cameron Bailey, Toronto
Film Festival Catalogue 1997.)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics: Slavery; The Slave Narrative;
Historical Memory.
BLACK GIRL,
1965
60 minutes in French with English subtitles
Director: Ousmane Sembene
Distributor: New Yorker Films
Rental Price: $125.00
Synopsis: A dramatization depicting the tragic story
of a young Senegalese woman who goes to the French Riviera to work for a French
family.
Critique: This drama is a powerful indictment against
neo-colonial and racial insensitivity and ignorance. In this early work, Ousmane Sembene uses the story of Diouana to
point out many injustices perpetrated by Europeans against Africans. The family that employs Diouana under false
pretenses actual perpetuates a slave‑master relationship that should have
ended with the abolition of slavery or certainly at Senegal's independence. The
pejorative comments of the whites about Africa and Africans are often spoken in
front of Diouana, as if she were not a thinking, feeling human being. The white men discuss the huge profits to be
made in Dakar, and the French women, themselves subject to gender
stratification, are able to afford domestics for every household chore. An African mask is used in the film as first
a gift to the white couple from Diouana, then a symbol o the European's
ignorance of African culture, and finally as an accusing reminder that a young
black boy wears to follow Diouana's employer.
The main flaw with the production is that it is literally unrelenting in
its one‑sided condemnation of French expatriate relations with Africa;
however, the power and message are worth the viewing of this somberproduction.
(Critique quoted from the African Media Program
Database of African Film, Michigan State University)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Topics for Discussion: gender and class relations,
racial & ethnic representations
BOROM SARRET,
1963
19 minutes in french with English subtitles
Director: Ousmane Sembene
Distributor: New Yorker Films
Rental price: $25.00
Synopsis: African cinema of a day in the life of a
Barom Sarret (horsecart driver) trying to earn a living in urban Dakar, Senegal.
Critique: A poignant depiction of the lives of the
urban poor throughout the Third World. The film is obviously slanted in order
to make its point. The point, therefore, is well made. The driver of the cart
cannot bring imself to charge his neighbors, and conversely he is cheated by
the wealthy customer. The driver's only crime is poverty, and the system is
geared to punish him for it. Sembene, in this early film, addresses the
problems that are common to most of his work: the futile dependence on religion
by the illiterate the insensitivity of the elite to the problems of their
poorer countrymen, and the loss of even
the most basic means of employment and dignity. The photography and technical
aspects of the film are somewhat
dated, but they only add to the overall impact of the compact indictment of the
exploitation of the poor in urban areas. (Critique quoted from the
African Media Program Database of African Film, Michigan State University)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Topics for Discussion: early post-colonialism, class
representations and relations, equity
BATTLE OF ALGIERS, 1966
123 minutes in French with English subtitles
Director: Gillo Pontecorvo
Distributor:
Macmillan Films
Purchase Price:
$59.95
Rental Price: This
film can be rented from some commercial video stores.
Synopsis: A
story reconstruction in documentary style of Algerian resistance to the French
between 1954 and 1957.
Critique:
“This powerful film is a documentary-style reconstruction of the Algerian
rebellion against the French between 1954 and 1957. It focuses on the FLN (National Liberation Front) guerrilla
underground and the tactics used by the French to destroy it. Flashbacks show the rebels’ terrorist
campaign and the escalation of torture, murder and destruction on both
sides. A dramatic example of the
tragedy of violent revolution. It is
useful in a larger study where alternatives to violent social change are
presented. Sympathetic to the FLN, the
film makers portray them as underdogs fighting valiantly for social justice,
because of this the film may produce support among viewers for terrorism.”
(Critique quoted from War and Peace Guide 1980,
pp. 75-76.)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics: Art and Politics; Colonialism;
Identity; Revolution
BOPHA!, 1993
120 minutes in English
Directors: Daniel Riesenfeld and Morgan Freeman.
Distributor: Viewfinders, Inc.
Purchase Price: $19.95
Synopsis: This video uses a dual media approach to
represent the harsh realities of Apartheid South Africa: stark and often
violent documentary footage which is interspersed with videotaped scenes from
an award winning South African play, Bopha!
Critique:
IN THE CLASSROOM
Classroom handout: The video addresses number of central issues in Apartheid South
Africa: life in the urban townships, severe racial prejudice and hierarchy,
endemic unemployment, inadequate and oppressive educational system, over‑crowded
housing, political oppression, and most centrally, police brutality.
The video captures, particularly in the powerful
scenes from the play, the deep wounds that Apartheid inflicted on individuals
and families. Of particular relevance
to our course is the (a) tension between Njandine (the father) and his teenage
son Zulakie, caused by their diametrically opposed perspectives on the current
(1970s) situation in South Africa, and (b) the internal angst experienced by
Zulakie as he struggles to deal with the deep ambiguities comforting youth in
South Africa.
To help us understand the scenes from Bopha! the
isiZulu word for arrest or detention, I
have summarized the characters that
appear in the play:
Njandine, the father and a sergeant in the infamous
South African Police force (SAP).
Njandine, as the narrator (Sidney Poitier) tells us, is a pejorative
term, used by township dwellers to describe black policemen. The word, in isiZulu, means "running
dog." Njandine, is the
quintessential "collaborator."
He does the dirty and violent work necessary to up‑hold the
apartheid system. However, though he does the work of the baas, and thus plays
an important role in maintaining the system, the play‑write portrays
Njandine as a more complicated and not totally unsympathetic character.
Njandine, represents the deep ambiguities and contradictions
of the apartheid system. In order to
survive and live a somewhat humane existence, many South African blacks where
forced to chose between occupations (such as the SAP, but also teachers and
many others) which helped reproduce the system or unemployment and a life a
misery. When criticized by his son for
being a policeman Njandine responds with biting sarcasm‑"When I a
vagrant where were you? When I was homeless where were you? When I was starving, where were
you?" When I was starving, where
were you?" Watch for ways in which Njandine's character demonstrates this
ambiguity and tension.
Lalanki, Njandine's brother, who has just moved from
his rural homeland (Qwa Qwa), to live in a township. Lalanki is, however, an "illegal" since he does not
have permission to be in the urban areas; his pass‑book does not have the
proper documentation. Consequently when
the police approach a group of men searching for work Lalanki's passbook show
that he his an illegal and he is given the choice of joining the police force
or deportation to Qwa Qwa. In
resignation he joins the police force stating "If you can't beat them,
join them." However, unlike his brother, Lalanki, is a very reluctant
"collaborator."
Watch for ways in which he demonstrates resistance and
opposition.
Zulakie, the son, is a student in a
"typical" township school. The play takes place in the late 1970s
when students in the townships took the lead in resisting apartheid. The immediate focus of their protest is
opposition to inferior education and particularly to the policy of using
Afrikaans, the "language of particularly to the policy of using Afrikaans,
the "language of the oppressor" as the medium of instruction, even in
mathematics. Zulakie is torn between
his familial duty to his father, who wants to him to follow him into the police
force, and his own sense of justice constructed from his very different
perspective (from his father's) of the reality of contemporary (1980s) South
Africa and his dreams for the future.
In addition to these three main characters several
other characters have "cameo" appearances in Bopha! There are
two white characters: the police captain who is in charge of the township
police station and training school, and a white employer who in his brief
appearance refuses to give Lalanke work because "he lacked proper
qualifications."
There is also a brief appearance by a black school
teacher, also portrayed as a collaborator, for his compliant role in carrying out the policy of teaching mathematics
in Afrikaans.
Glossary
Amandla! is the isiXhosa word for freedom. It was used with a raised right hand fist in
empathic defiance of the apartheid system.
(Used by protesting and arrested students in the play.)
Bopha (isiZulu) Roughly translated as
"arrest" or "detection"
Baas (or Bas) Afrikaans word for
"boss." African adults
(particularly men) were expected to
address all white men, regardless of age or status, as "master"
(English) or "Baas" (Afrikaans)
Homelands: rural areas "officially
established" as the "traditional" homes of the nine official
designated African ethnic groups.
Africans without permission to work and live in urban areas were forced
to live in their ethnically designated homelands, even if they (or their
families) had never lived in the designated area. The homelands (referred to at
times in the video as "Bantustans") were all in economically
depressed and agriculturally marginal areas. The nine designated homelands made
up just 13 per cent of the total land area of South Africa.
Passbook violation: occurred when an African was in an
urban area without permission of the district office. Permission to travel and live outside ones "homeland"
was indicated in ones passbook.
Liberation Now, Education Later‑‑a
frequent chant of protesting township students in the 1970s and early 1980s
when they shut down their schools for long periods of time.
Toyi Toyi: The township "dance of
resistance." In almost all of the
protest scene in the video students and other township residents are chanting
political slogans and dancing the "toyi toyi" (appropriated from
traditional "warrior" dances).
Preventative Detention: Official policy which allowed
those opposed to apartheid (from all "races") to be detain without
trial.
Suppression of Communism Act (1956). This legislation banned the South African
Communist Party and allowed for the detention, without trial of anyone
“accused” of being a communist. Note that Njandine accused Zulakie of
"becoming a communist" when he joined the school boycott. Anyone who showed opposition to apartheid
was branded as a communist.
(This handout was provided by Dr. John Metzler,
Michigan State University)
CEDDO,1977
120 minutes in
French and Wolof with English subtitles
Director: Ousmane
Sembene
Distributors: New
Yorker Films; Third World Newsreel
Purchase price:
$250.00
Rental price:
$125.00
Synopsis: An African
cinematic depiction of events of political intrigue in a fictional pre‑colonial
Wolof kingdom in what is today Senegal.
Critique: This production is Ousmane Sembene's most
ambitious film to date. Many levels of a traditional Wolof kingdom are explored
within the framework of a political thriller. The scope of events and the
character portrayals suggest a traditional oral epic narrative, while specific
themes deal with great political and religious changes which swept West Africa
in pre‑colonial times. Unfortunately, the historical content of the film
contains some distortions of the spread of Islam in l9th century Senegal.
Certainly, conversion was sometimes carried out by force, and Wolof kingdoms
only infrequently allowed missionaries or slave traders to live and operate
right in the capital. Under no circumstances would the branding of slaves by a
white man be allowed in a village. Sembene's period piece is decidedly an
impressionistic work, growing in great part from his feelings toward the
contemporary Islamic establishment in Senegal. He builds his narrative around
the great changes brought by Islam to aspects of succession, religion, participation
in government, and the role of women. Sembene creates his interpretation of how
a traditional Wolof kingdom came under Islamic rule, but he also is providing a
rich glimpse into court protocol, especially the use of griots to offer praise
of heroes and royalty and to act as mediators between king and the common
people. Sembene is suggesting that complex levels of checks and balances to
power existed in these traditional societies and that things have gotten
progressively worse in his nation since that time. He is creating a type of
origin myth, explaining what he perceives to be Senegal's contemporary
situation. While some may argue with the viewpoint, there is no doubt that the
production is designed on a grandly evocative scale which, despite its historical
interpretations and literary license, constitutes a complex artistic statement.
If viewed from the perspective of an impressionistic African cinematic work,
this is a production not to be missed by scholars of film or Africanists who
can unravel the many threads of the story and interpret its message for
students.
(Critique quoted
from the African Media Program’s Database of African Film, Michigan State U)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
History and Art; Colonialism; Religion
CRY THE BELOVED
COUNTRY, 1952
105 minutes in
English
Director: Zoltan
Korda
Distributors: Facets
Multimedia, Inc.; Afrovisions
Purchase Price:
$69.94
Rental Price:
Available at most commercial video stores.
Synopsis
A film adaptation of
Alan Paton's novel about South African race relations as seen through the
relationships among a black minister, a white farmer, and their families.
Critique
This is a highly
dated treatment of Alan Paton's novel.
Technically, the production is flawed on several levels. The sound is
often garbled or inaudible. The photography is often poorly lighted and
contrast is difficult to perceive. Dialogue is written by Paton and closely
follows the novel. The film's strength is the strong performances of the lead
characters, though the situations are often contrived. Age is the greatest
drawback of the production. The apartheid system simply can no longer be viewed
as the unfortunate misunderstanding of the black population by the whites.
Resettlement, bantustans, and 'independent homelands,' as well as the Soweto
and 1970s upheavals, have redefined the South Africa portrayed in the film.
There is never any hint of government policy intentionally dehumanizing the
black population and declaring them aliens in the country they have lived in
for hundreds of years. Despite the humanistic intentions of the producers, the
film at best stands as a period piece that should not be used to present modern
South Africa. It can be used as an example of an accurate adaptation of
literature and 1950s understanding of Apartheid by the small liberal white
South African community.
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
From novel to Film; Apartheid
FOR FURTHER READING:
'Illustrated London
News' 220 (May 17, 1952): 852
'Commonwealth' 55
(February 8, 1952): 446
'Ebony' 6 (July
1951): 57‑60
'Holiday' 11 (May
1925): 105
'Saturday Review' 35
(February 2, 1952): 31
'New Republic' 126
(February 11, 1952): 21‑22
'Time' 59 (February
18, 1952): 86
'Catholic World' 174
(March 1952): 457
'Our World' 6 (July
1951): 34‑36
'Christian Century'
69 (October 15, 1952): 1207
'New York Times
Magazine' (January 20, 1952): 22‑23
'Newsweek' 29
(January 28, 1952): 89
'Library Journal' 77
(February 15, 1952): 311
CRY FREEDOM,
1987
155 minutes in
English
Director: Richard
Attenborough
Distributor:
Viewfinders, Inc.
Purchase Price:
$19.95
SYNOPSIS
“The story of black
activist Stephen Biko and the liberal white newspaper editor who risks his own
life to bring Biko's message to the world.
After learning of apartheid's true horrors through Biko's eyes, editor
Donald Woods discovers that his friend has been silenced by the police. Woods then undertakes a perilous quest to
escape South Africa and bring Biko's remarkable tale of courage to the world.”
(Quoted from Indiana
University African Studies Program information)
FOR FURTHER READING
See: 'Film Review,'
Annual (1988?) For 11 U.S. reviews.
Greenberg, James,
'South African Papers Threatened Over,' 'Cry Freedom' Ads, 'Variety,' Jan. 20, 1988
Hoagland, Jim,
'Setback for 'Freedom' WP August 4, 1988
Hochschild, Adam,
'Hollywood Discovers South Africa' Mother Jones, December, 1987
Koapa, Ben, 'Cry
Freedom an Incomplete Story,' SASPOST, Vol. 4, No. 4, December 1987
Kraft, Scott, 'New
Hurdle for 'Cry Freedom', LA Times, July 26, 1988
'Cry Freedom' Viewed
as a History Lesson,' LA Times, August 2, 1988
'Cry Freedom' Gets
New Release Date in South Africa,' LA Times, February 20, 1990
Nixon, Rob, 'Cry
Freedom,' Cineaste XVI, No. 3, 1988
Pulmmer, William,
'Newsman Donald Woods Still Seeks Justice for Stephen Biko in the Film'
'Cry Freedom' on the
MOVE
Sampson, Anthony,
'The Political Implications of Cry Freedom,' Sight and Sound, 57 (1) 87/88
Stern, Gary, 'A
Black Gandhi, Horizon, November 1987
Tyson, Cicely, 'Cry
Freedom,' pp 61‑66, Ebony, December 1987
van Niekerk, Philip,
'Cry Freedom ' is seen as a test of Censorship in South Africa,' Boston Globe,
January 24, 1988
White, Armond,
'Apartheid Chic,' Film Comment December 1987
Washington Diarist,
'Plastics,' The New Republic, November 1987
Cambridge Diarist,
'Black and White,' The New Republic December 1987
IN DARKEST
HOLLYWOOD: CINEMA AND APARTHEID, PARTS I AND II, 1993
57 minutes in
English
Director: Peter
Davis and Daniel Riesenfeld
Distributor: Villon
Films
Purchase Price: 2 x
56 minute videos, $390.00
Synopsis
In Darkest Hollywood
examines
the role of cinema during the reign of apartheid in South Africa. A mosaic of clips from feature, documentary
and propaganda films with commentary by writers, directors and actors, this
film looks at the film makers whose films fought to destroy, and in some cases
supported, apartheid.
Critique
The following is an
except from an H‑NET BOOK REVIEW,
published by Afrlitcine@h‑net.msu.edu
(October, 1997) on the book on which the film, In Darkest Hollywood, is based.
Other Resources
Peter Davis. In Darkest Hollywood: Exploring the Jungles of Cinema's
South Africa. Athens/Randburg, South Africa: Ohio University
Press/Ravan Press,
1996. vii + 214 pages. Pictures, filmography, bibliography,
articles, reviews, index. $19.95
(paper) ISBN 0‑8214‑1162‑4 (Ohio articles, reviews,
index. $19.95 (paper) ISBN 0‑8214‑1162‑4
(Ohio University Press); ISBN 0‑86975‑443‑2
(Ravan Press).
Reviewed for H‑Afrlitcine
by Maureen N. Eke <Maureen.N.Eke@cmich.edu>, Central Michigan University.
In the Introduction
to his book, In Darkest Hollywood, independent filmmaker Peter Davis
states: "This book is about the
power of cinema, and about the
devastating impact of a generic 'Hollywood' that is constantly protesting that it is apolitical, even while
it stamps stereotypes and
projects behavior
that is as profoundly political as it is influential." Davis's critique of Hollywood focuses on
what he perceives as the legendary film
industry's influence on South Africa's popular culture. Davis, however, resists using the term
"cultural imperialism," stating that "people everywhere were not
coerced into going to the cinema," but
"eagerly allowed themselves to be seduced into an addiction that
is well‑nigh incurable"
(4). But, since Davis likens
Hollywood's "eagerly allowed
themselves to be seduced into an addiction that is well‑nigh
incurable" (4). But, since Davis
likens Hollywood's overwhelming presence in South Africa to empire building,
one wonders whether the same explanation of "voluntary seduction"
could be used to explain European colonization of Africa. The colonized must have "eagerly allowed themselves to be seduced" into
a state of subjugation. This framework
would make for an interesting and invigorating reading of cultural domination.
Davis argues that
Hollywood's representation of Africa replicates European imperialism in Africa, because Europe's
"literature of empire that had come into being during the nineteenth
century found its second wind in the cinema" (2), beginning with those
made in "the earliest years of the century to the latest." Most of these films "emphasized the supremacy
of the white race, directly and indirectly justifying conquest. Imperial and the white race, directly and
indirectly justifying conquest.
Imperial and racist images,
messages, codes, cyphers, attitudes and behavior were copied
indiscriminately" (2). "Up to
the present time, Hollywood perpetuates the ethos of empire" (2), he
adds. Consequently, Davis insists that,
like Western subordination of Africans even in stories about themselves, Hollywood's portrayals of
Africans placed them only at the periphery of the story. Africa, Davis says, "was a vast hunting
ground for the white man, and when Hollywood seized on Africa, this was the
Africa it offered" (2). In
Hollywood's Africa, "the pictures of the native people are scarcely
distinguishable from those of the animal trophies" (2).
But Davis is not
interested in exploring Hollywood's representation of Africa, that is, the
continent. His study is narrowly‑focused, specifically on the impact of Hollywood on
black South African culture and
the "creation" of black South Africa by subsequent film makers
through and the "creation" of black South Africa by subsequent film
makers through Hollywood's eyes.
Consequently, Davis' "principal concern is with an image‑bank relating to South Africa,
especially the way that black South
Africans have been presented on film, how the image‑bank changed
(or significantly failed to change) during this century" (5). Furthermore, the study is not a "comprehensive history of cinema
depicting that country [South Africa]."
It is rather a study of "selected genre films," the author
asserts. Also, the study does not
include Afrikaans cinema or African‑language film, because those
"categories are relatively narrow
cast."
Davis' book provides
a detailed documentation and discussion of the history and often unexplained
ideology behind several films about black South Africans and South Africa. The book explores nearly ninety years
of film making which has transformed
South Africa's popular culture. Using
a combination of archival research and
interviews, Davis unearths both the personal visions and politics of the film
makers, the actors, as well as the interpersonal relationships and conflicts
that developed during filmmaking.
Although the book occasionally reads like a popular magazine, especially
when Davis delves into the private lives of the film makers, much of the
information he provides about the historical and political conditions under
which the films were made is not readily available to the novice of South
African cinema. The filmography at the
end of the book identifies about ninety‑one films discussed, beginning
with the D. W. Griffith's "The Zulu's Heart" (1908), which according
to Davis is the earliest Western‑made film about South Africa, to
"The Power of One," the latest and a conflation of "Rocky"
and Robinson Crusoe.
From the inception
of cinematic production in and about South Africa, the film producers and directors were whites
(either expatriate or South the film
producers and directors were whites (either expatriate or South African), while
black South Africans and expatriate blacks were always cast in the roles of
characters, a role which Davis describes as "adjuncts to whites." Despite this unequal relationship between the producers and
actors/actresses there were a few periods which held out a ray of hope for the emergence of black South African
"voice," or presence in the cinema.
In the chapter "Towards a Black cinema in South Africa: The Promise of the 1950s," Davis asserts that the 1950s saw various
experiments in "black cinema"
articulated through a foregrounding of "African" thematic
concerns and actors/actresses. For instance, Africans began to play central
roles in feature‑length entertainment films. He credits this development to the efforts of three "outsiders": scriptwriter Donald Swanson and actor Eric Rutherford who formed
a triad with Gloria Green, the daughter of a
efforts of three "outsiders":
scriptwriter Donald Swanson and actor Eric Rutherford who formed a triad
with Gloria Green, the daughter of a wealthy South African Jewish family. These "outsiders" interrogated
established Hollywood and white South
African cinema traditions, which relegated
Africans to the margins, locating them off‑focus on the screen or
almost outside the frame of the
picture. According to Davis, these
"outsiders" asked, "why
not [have]...a feature film, a full‑length entertainment film, with African actors?'" (22). Conceding that "it is certain the film
they made, 'Jim Comes to Jo'burg,' was made with a particular kind of liberal
sensibility, a kind that today is sometimes despised" (21), Davis cautions, however, that "it is equally
certain that without it, an important
part of South Africa's black heritage would be totally lost to succeeding generations" (21). His application of "black
cinema," however, is problematic. He assumes that an African thematic content and an all‑black cast signify "black
cinema," even if the directors and producers all‑black cast signify
"black cinema," even if the directors and producers are white. The "new" cinema is defined as
"African cinema" because, at
the time, black South Africans were "thrilled" to see themselves
and their culture represented on stage,
even when such representations "upgraded" Hollywood's earlier images
of the culture.
A similar muddying
of terms is also evident in the discussion of "buddies," Davis' term
for the friendships and collaborations which developed across the color line in
the films produced outside South Africa
in the 1960s and later. These
interracial friendships which developed despite the increased racial divisions
within South Africa are noticeable in films such as "Dingaka" (1964),
"The Wilby Conspiracy" (1975), "The Gods Must be Crazy"
(1980), "Cry Freedom" (1987), and "A Dry White Season" (1989) to mention only a few. Davis explains that the cross‑racial
friendship existed only in a "fictive South Africa that bore little (1989)
to mention only a few. Davis explains
that the cross‑racial friendship
existed only in a "fictive South Africa that bore little resemblance to reality" (61). He adds that "the stories showed a
South Africa where black/white
friendship existed, by misrepresenting the harsh facts of real South African
life" (61).
Ironically, the
seemingly collaborative interracial environment which the films depicted were
often ruptured by the intrusion of the political and social realities of
apartheid South Africa into the lives of the black cast members. Many of the black South Africans and
expatriate blacks experienced various forms of racial discrimination, ranging
from denial of accommodation in hotels
to police harassment. Even as these
actors and actresses were being recognized internationally, apartheid South
Africa was denying their humanity. In
addition, these black artists did not have
the power to write or direct stories about their people.
On the contrary, in
his concluding remarks, "A parting of the ways," the power to write
or direct stories about their people. Davis perceives an improvement in the
representation of black South Africans since D. W. Griffith's "The Zulu's
Heart" (1908). These improvements
are evident especially in films produced by white South Africans. He cites
"Shaka Zulu" (1986), "The Gods Must be Crazy"
(1980), and "Mapantsula" (1988) as examples of films which end with
choices for the Africans, pointing out that the choices made "are not
those that whites in the films would
prefer" (189). These choices,
according to Davis, suggest "an advance in the way South Africa and its
black inhabitants were perceived, at least by white South African film‑makers"
(190). Certainly, while
"Mapantsula's" anti‑apartheid
message may be appealing, the other two films generally draw harsh criticisms
from audiences, although Davis seems to
suggest otherwise. Interestingly, while
admitting that "Shaka Zulu" appropriated the old stereotypical divisions of Africans into the
"Savage Other" and "Faithful
Servant," Davis identifies this film as a "progressive"
representation of Africans, because Shaka was "endowed with a personality,
as opposed to making him a cipher."
Truly, the film's representation of Shaka as a corrupt, dictatorial,
maniacal, and bloodthirsty leader would make an ideal prototype for African
leadership and identities in future films!
The film was the project of the South African Broadcasting Corporation,
which under the apartheid government engaged in various forms of media
propaganda for the then South African government. Davis' conclusions also seem to accept the refashioned
"Noble Savage" or "Man Friday" of "The Gods Must be
Crazy." We are invited to laugh
and overlook the old exotic images of Africa‑‑wild animals,
landscapes, strange and warring peoples for the sake of entertainment,
especially, when the "Noble Savage" is given a personality and choice. One can not resist wondering about the
impact of Jamie Uys' closeness to the apartheid hegemony on his construction of
the Africa and Africans seen in his film.
Structurally, the
book is divided into several chapters, although it is often unclear whether or
not Davis meant these divisions as chapters.
The chapters are occasionally
separated by a collection of photographs of actors, film makers, and shots from
some of the movies under discussion. In
spite of these minor structural and perspectival weaknesses, the book is an
invaluable resource of information on films about South Africa, especially
those films which now may be archived or lost.
In addition, Davis' interviews
with several of the film makers, as well as his insightful discussions of the
histories which inform both the subject matter, tone, and perspectives, help to
foster more comprehensive interpretations of some of these familiar films. Above all, this book, insightful discussions
of the histories which inform both the subject matter, tone, and perspectives,
help to foster more comprehensive interpretations of some of these familiar
films. Above all, this book, indeed,
reveals the overwhelming presence of Hollywood in South Africa's cinema
culture. In general, In Darkest
Hollywood is also a commentary on the consumption of Hollywood and American
popular culture by many African national governments and their citizens.
Copyright (c) 1997
by H‑Net, all rights reserved.
This work may be copied for non‑profit educational use if proper
credit is given to the author and the
list. For other permission, please
contact ‑Net@h‑net.msu.edu.
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
This film might be
used to provide background information to the teacher using African film in the
classroom. Discussion topics:
Construction of African Identity in Film; Art and Politics; Apartheid
A DRY WHITE SEASON,
1989
107 minutes in
English
Director: Euzhan
Palcy
Distributor:
Available for rental at most video stores.
Synopsis
”Ben du Toit is a
white schoolteacher in South Africa who thinks little about his way of
life. Ben is
politically awakened
as he investigates the 'suicide' of his black gardener, who has been killed by
the
police. Ben's transformation alienates him from his
family, friends, and the safety of South Africa's
white status quo
society.”
(From Indiana
University African Studies Program information)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Apartheid; Art and Politics
EMITAI, 1971
101 minutes Diola
and French with English subtitles
Director: Ousmane
Sembene
Distributor: New Yorker Films
Purchase Price:
$175.00
Synopsis
Emitai is a historical
film set in the final days of WWII. The
film depicts a conflict between the French colonialists and the Diola ethnic group
of Senegal. It is the Diola women who
initiate the resistance.
Critique
“ ‘Film should be a
school of history,’ says Ousmane Sembene of Senegal, widely considered the
father of African cinema. ‘We have to
have the courage to say that in the colonial period we were sometimes colonized
with the help of our own leaders.’
“Sembene made these
statements concrete with the 1971 premiere of Emitai, his visually rich
and complex drama set in the Diola
society of rural Senegal. Perhaps the
ideas struck too close to home. The
film was immediately banned in Senegal, indeed throughout Africa. Emitai tells the story of key incidents
that took place in French colonial Senegal during the Second World War. The film centers on attempts by the colonial
administration to impose a new rice tax in a Diola village and the resistance
that followed. The community becomes
divided over what strategy to take. The
traditional elders are backed into a corner and humiliated, while the village
women adopt new tactics and take strong action. In a series of startling and vivid scenes, visions of the gods
appear to the elders, while in another part of the village women rapidly
organize and hide the substantial rice crop.
“Based on his own
screenplay, Emitai was Sembene’s third drama and the film that launched
his world reputation. But reaching an
international audience was not his aim.
Rather he wanted to communicate directly with the Diola society. he is proud that the villagers ‘were happy
to hear that there was a beautiful language for them.’ The film is not about the elders, or the
women, the act of resistance, the cruelty of the French or the leading
characters. It is all these at once, touching
on economics, social structure, religion and culture. The pace may be slow for those of us raised on Hollywood action,
but there is a richness of gesture and a symbolic language that holds the
attention of any audience.”
(Critique quoted
from a review by Peter Steven in New Internationalist, February 1996, p.
33.)
FOR FURTHER READING
Cham, Mbye. “Art and Ideology in the work of Ousmane
Sembene and Haile Gerima.” Presence Africaine 129.1 (1984): 79-91.
Ghali,
Noureddine. “An Interview with Sembene
Ousmane.”
Film and Politics in the Third World.
Ed. John D.H. Downing. Brooklyn:
Autonomedia, 1987.
Peters,
Jonathan. “Aesthetics and Ideology in
African Film: Ousmane Sembene’s Emitai.”
African
Literature in Its Social and Political Dimensions. Eds. Eileen Julien, Mildred
Mortimer, and Curtis
Schade. Washington, DC: Three
Continents Press, 1986.
Vieyra, Paulin
Soumanou. “Five Major Films by Sembene
Ousmane.” Film and Politics in the
Third
World. Ed. John D.H. Downing. Brooklyn: Automedia, 1987.
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM:
Discussion Topics:
Gender; Film and Literature; Colonialism
EVERYONE’S CHILD,
1996
96 minutes in
English
Director: Tsitsi
Dangarembga
Distributor:
California Newsreel
Purchase price:
$195.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Synopsis
Everyone's Child is an eloquent call
for action on behalf of Africa's millions of parentless children.
Through the tragic
story of one Zimbabwean family devastated by AIDS, the film challenges Africans
to reaffirm their
tradition that an orphan becomes "Everyone's Child." Everyone's Child
is the most
recent production
from Zimbabwe's Media for Development Trust (MFD). This prolific production
company represents one significant trend
among African filmmakers: producing feature films to
intervene explicitly in urgent social issues.
For example, MFD's first feature, Neria, which called on
women to exercise
their newly won legal rights against patriarchal custom, broke box office
records so
that eventually one in three Zimbabweans saw
it.
Critique:
Everyone's Child was produced in
direct response to the prediction that by the year 2000 there will be
over 10,000,000 AIDS
orphans on the African continent. At the same time, the film focuses attention
on millions of other
children left homeless by civil wars or abandoned because their parents could
not
support them. MFD
first conceived Everyone's Child as a training tape for community‑based
orphan
care programs. But
the rapid spread of AIDS made the problem so acute they felt only a feature
film
could place the
issue at the forefront of the national agenda.
For their production team, MFD drew on
some of the most
creative young talent in Zimbabwe. The script was based on a story by novelist
Shimmer Chinodya,
author of Harvest of Thorns, and was directed by Tsitsi Dangarembga, author of
the novel Nervous
Condition. The exceptional soundtrack features 12 original songs by Zimbabwe's
most popular
musicians, including Thomas Mapfumo, Leonard Zhakata and Andy "Tomato
Sauce"
Brown. Leading
Zimbabwean actors star in the film, but many of the younger roles were played
by
actual
street-children trained in a special workshop.
Everyone's Child tells the story of
four siblings, Itai, Tamari, Norah and Nhamo, whose parents have
both died of
AIDS. After a traditional funeral, the
villagers, ignoring custom, shun the orphans
because of the
stigma of AIDS. Their guardian, Uncle Ozias, a struggling small businessman,
sells the
family's plow and
oxen to pay off their father's debts. Without the means to support themselves,
the
family inevitably
disintegrates.
Itai, the eldest
brother, chasing empty promises of high‑paying jobs, leaves for Harare
where, alone and
penniless, he
inevitably takes up with a gang of homeless boys. Their clothes, music and
attitudes
identify them as
belonging to an international fraternity of forgotten youth who look to each
other for
family and to crime
for a living.
Itai's sister,
Tamari, played with moving vulnerability by Nomsa Mlambo, is left to care for
her younger
brother and
sister. Unable to afford food, deprived
of affection, she is an easy victim for the predatory
shopkeeper, Mdara
Shaghi. The other villagers ostracize her as a prostitute and we can't help
worrying
that her promiscuous
"benefactor" may be exposing her to HIV infection. One night, Shaghi
brutally
forces Tamari to
leave the two younger children alone and accompany him to a club. In her
absence
their house catches
fire and the younger brother, Nhamo, burns to death. Only the charred remnants
of
his toy helicopter
remain, symbolizing the ruined dreams and promise of so many of Africa's young
people.
Nhamo's death
finally convinces Uncle Ozias and the other villagers of their responsibility
to help the
three remaining
children rebuild their lives. Everyone's Child offers its audience no
easy answers: an
official of an NGO
tells the villagers that the problem of orphans is so wide‑spread they
cannot look to
outside agencies or
government for relief but must create their own self‑reliant solutions.
The audience watches
this painful tragedy unfold knowing there is no one but adult society (in other
words themselves)
who can save children like these. As the now familiar African proverb says:
"It
takes a village to
raise a child." If a Zimbabwean film can forthrightly call upon that
country's citizens
to shoulder the
burden of insuring adequate parenting for every child, one is left to wonder
why
American society
with all its wealth regards this goal as hopelessly Utopian.
Everyone's Child
also illustrates a controversy growing among African filmmakers. Some argue
that
films like Everyone's
Child show the power of European funding agencies to impose their own social
agendas on African
directors. This, they believe, has inhibited the development of a commercially
viable and hence
self‑reliant African film industry producing the comedies, romances and
action
adventures Africans
would pay to see. Sub‑Saharan Africa no doubt needs a commercial film
industry
analogous to that in
Egypt, India or Hong Kong. Perhaps, it will come now that a technologically
advanced South
Africa can again address African markets. At the same time, there is no reason
to
believe hard‑pressed
aid organizations would feel justified in subsidizing an African entertainment
industry. Nor should
we expect this industry, once it exists, to produce more socially useful films
than
its commercial counterparts elsewhere.
The fact that films
like Neria and Everyone's Child can be both popular and contain
serious social
messages argues that
there remains the potential for building in Africa a film‑going public
which looks
to cinema for more
than mindless diversion. Is it possible that African filmmakers could take the
lead
in pioneering a film
culture which regards film as a place for collective reflection and community
building?
"A moving tale
of the plight of children whose parents have died of AIDS...The performances
are
surprisingly
subtle."
‑‑Chicago
Tribune
"A remarkable
film...A wonderful counterbalance to the many didactic AIDS prevention films
which
ignore the wider societal context of the
disease."
‑‑Jonathan
M. Mann, Founding Director, Global Program on AIDS, WHO
"Challenges us
to find sensible and sensitive ways to support those who cope with HIV that
reflect
their, and not our realities"
‑‑David
Nabarro, ODA Chief Health and Population Advisor
"It exemplifies
the efforts of women filmmakers and will help place Zimbabwean and Southern
African
film on the map."
‑‑Africa
Film & TV
FINZAN, 1989
107 minutes in
Bambara and French with English subtitles
Director: Cheik
Oumar Sissoko
Distributor: California
Newsreel
Purchase Price:
$295.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Synopsis
In Bambara, finzan
means “rebellion,” a most fitting title for this story of two women steadfastly
resisting tradition. After the death of
her husband, Nanyuma refuses to bow to traditional protocol by marrying her
brother-in-law. The younger Fili tries
to escape the ritual of female circumcision.
Sissoko deftly balances widely divergent points of view: the determined
struggle of some women, the obedient tolerance of others, and the bewilderment
of men lost in these times of transition.
The film subtly illustrates relations and conflicts between men and
women, women amongst themselves, and finally the small community and the
powerful state.
Critique
“Finzan is an impassioned
cry for the emancipation of African women.
It is one of the boldest examples of socially engaged filmmaking to come
out of Africa in recent years. Malian
director Cheick Oumar Sissoko has skillfully designed a film which raises the
most urgent issues of rural life in a style accessible to every villager. Finzan opens with graphic images of
birth and motherhood -- its pain, its tenderness, its strength. Finzan is about birth, African women
giving birth to their own freedom.
Director Cheick Sissoko extends the traditional meaning of finzan,
“a dance for the heroes,” by making a filmic tribute to African women.
“At its most basic
level, Finzan is the story of a woman who says no, no to the men who try
to control her life. Nanyuma, a young
widow, resists when her brother-in-law, Bala, the village buffoon, claims his
traditional right to “inherit” her as his third wife. “Wife inheritance” is a common practice in West Africa, retaining
a widow and her children as the property of the husband’s family. Nanyuma escapes to her parents’ home where
her mother shelters her but her father forces her to leave. She flees to the city and finds it no more
enlightened; she is kidnaped and returned to the village. But a group of the local women support
Nanyuma’s rebellion, threatening the structure of male privilege in the
village.
“A parallel story
focuses on one of the most controversial issues in Africa -- clitoridectomy
also called ‘female circumcision’ or ‘excision.’ While health workers warn of the dangers of fatal infection,
hemorrhaging and infertility, local tradition holds that circumcision
discourages extramarital sex by attenuating women’s sexual drives. Fili is a young city woman sent to Nanyuma’s
village by her conservative father to ‘protect’ her from urban vices. When the villagers discover she is not
circumcised, they insist on performing the ritual, even though Fili’s mother
bled to death in childbirth and her doctor has advised against the operation. Fili’s ‘difference’ threatens the sexual
identities of the villagers, especially the women, who attack her brutally.
“Finzan presents a complex
view of tradition. Sissoko shows that
it can empower the villagers to rebel against the businessmen and corrupt
district commissioner who try to force them to sell their millet at a low
price. In Africa it is common for
speculators to stockpile grain to resell to villagers at exorbitant prices in
time of drought or famine. On the other
hand, defending the tradition of male privilege represents a futile ‘return to
the sources,’ a loyalty that weakens and divides rather than unites
society. The film’s final images show
the village’s fragmentation. Fili is
rushed to the hospital and an unknown fate; Nanyuma and her children flee to a
life of exile.
“In contrast to the
films of some Western ethnographic film makers, Sissoko does not romanticize
the process of change. He shows it as a
violent rupture like birth itself. For
Sissoko the modernization of African cannot be partial, limited to one sex or
one class; it must involve the total emancipation of society.”
(Critique quoted
from Manthia Diawara’s article “Finzan: A Dance for the Heroes.” California Newsreel Library of African Cinema 1995-96 Catalogue, pp. 7-9.)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Gender; Tradition vs. Modernity; Post-colonialism
FLAME, 1996
90 minutes in English
Director: Ingrid Sinclair
Distributor: California Newsreel
Purchase Price: $195.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Synopsis
Flame is perhaps the most controversial film ever made
in Africa ‑‑certainly the only one to be seized by
the police during editing on the grounds it was
subversive and pornographic.
Ingrid Sinclair's moving tribute to women fighters in
the Zimbabwean liberation struggle aroused the ire
of war veterans and the military because it revealed
officers sometimes used female recruits as "comfort
women." Flame's real crime may have been that it
exposed not just past abuses but continuing divisions
within Zimbabwean society. Many of the groups which
fought hardest during the freedom struggle, for
example, women and peasants, have been left behind in
the post‑revolutionary period;
for them the
revolution is still not completed. Flame provides an
important and by no means unambiguous case study
of who will control not only the depiction of the
African past but also the African present.
Critique
Flame is the story of two close friends whose
involvement in the liberation struggle lead to very
different outcomes. Florence, impulsive and brave, and
Nyasha, scholarly and cautious, are scarcely
more than children when they run away from their
village to join the liberation forces in 1975. After a
harrowing trek to the rebel camps in Mozambique, they
adopt their new guerilla identities: Nyasha
becomes Liberty, representing her desire for
independence, while Florence selects Flame, symbolizing
her passion.
The film accurately reconstructs conditions in the
rebel camps: the extreme hardship and constant
danger but also the unprecedented opportunities offered
women for education and leadership. At the
same time, it shows that leaders like the charismatic
young political commissar, Comrade Che, often
assumed that women would be available to them. When
Flame resists his advances, he rapes her leaving
her pregnant. But even Che is not portrayed one‑dimensionally;
he genuinely inspires his troops through
political education and, after he apologizes to Flame,
she (improbably) does not hesitate to become his
lover. She is devastated when he and their infant son
are killed in an aerial bombardment. After that, she
has nothing to live for but combat and becomes a
legendary leader of the Chimurenga.
Peace and victory are bittersweet for Flame. She
returns to her village, marries an old boyfriend,
Comrade Danger, and accepts the unglamourous,
hardscrabble life of the countryside. Danger, however,
adapts badly to civilian life, loses his job, takes to
drink and begins to abuse Flame. Like so many others
from the depressed rural areas, Flame must leave to
find work in the booming city. There she turns for
help to Liberty, who has used the training she
received as an information officer during the war, to
become a comparatively well‑paid administrator.
But their reunion is strained because the sense of
mutual support and shared purpose of the revolutionary
years has dissipated in the individualistic
post‑independence society.
The two friends finally attend a Heroes' Day party
with other members of their old unit but their
participation is limited to watching the ceremonies on
television. Here Sinclair pointedly switches from
fiction to documentary footage of Zimbabwe's present‑day
leadership, all male, resplendent on the
viewing platform like their colonial predecessors. The
old comrades turn away from the television and
salute each other; the two women greet passers‑by
with the Pan African freedom cry: "A luta continua"
‑ the
struggle continues.
"Flame is a bold, powerful, and deeply moving
portrayal of the courage and complexity of Zimbabwean
women freedom fighters. It depicts the real‑life
relationships among those engaged in national
liberation struggles and of the challenge of
sustaining those relationships in times of peace. This is a
very impressive work."
‑‑Angela Davis
"This tremendous film tells a story which is both
unfashionable and politically incorrect in its home
country. .
.The applause for this film was the loudest at Cannes."
‑‑The Guardian (U.K.)
"A unique film that personalizes issues often
overlooked ‑ the differences between rural and urban,
uneducated and educated, which emerge in post‑revolutionary
societies like Zimbabwe's. Anyone
examining the situation of women in post‑colonial
countries will find Flame an accessible and engaging
resource."
‑‑Joel Samoff, Stanford University
(Critique quoted
from California Newsreel’s Online Catalogue.)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics: liberation, justice, gender, colonialism and
post-colonialism
LE FRANC, 1994
45 minutes in French
with English subtitles
Director: Djibril
Diop Mambety
Distributor: California Newsreel
Purchase Price: $195.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Synopsis
Djibril Diop Mambety
has already produced two feature-length masterpieces of African storytelling, Hyenas
and Touki Bouki. Now in Le Franc, he begins a trilogy of
short films, Tales of Little People, whom he describes as,
"the only truly consistent, unaffected people in the world, for whom every
morning brings the same question: how to preserve what is essential to
themselves."
Critique
“Mambety uses the
French government's 50% devaluation of the West African Franc (CFA) in 1994 as
the basis for a whimsical yet trenchant parable of life in today's Africa. For
the millions of people impoverished by this devaluation, the national lotteries
became the only hope for salvation. Mambety symbolizes the global economy as a
game of chance, which the poor are compelled to play, though the odds are
heavily stacked against them. The hero
of this tale (and perhaps Mambety's alter ego) is Marigo, a penniless musician
living in a shanty town, relentlessly harassed by his formidable landlady. He
survives only through dreams of playing his congoma (a kind of guitar) which
has been confiscated in lieu of back rent.
“At the end of his
luck, he buys a lottery ticket from the dwarf Kus, the god of fortune, and
glues it to the back of his door under a poster of his hero, Yaadikoone, a
legendary Senegalese Robin Hood. When he wins, Marigo begins a harrowing
odyssey across a Dakar of trash heaps, dilapidated buildings and chaotic
traffic. Stumbling along under the unwieldy door, he seems to carry the burdens
of an absurd world on his shoulders. Played with slapstick gusto by the gangly,
rubber-legged Dieye Ma Dieye, Marigo is both comic and poignant, a Senegalese Charlie Chaplin. Marigo is told the ticket has to be removed
from the door so he carries it down to the shore so the waves can wash it off.
He is, of course, swamped in the surf and loses the ticket, only to discover it
pasted to his forehead. In the last shot, Marigo is seen exulting on a barren
rock, as the breakers which opened the film continue to crash around him. We,
the viewers, are left to decide if he is a symbol of hope or its ultimate
futility.”
(Critique quoted
from California Newsreel’s Online Catalogue.)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
negative impact of globalization; class relations; post-colonialism.
GENERATIONS OF RESISTANCE, 1980
52 minutes in
English
Director: Peter
Davis
Distributor:
California Newsreel
Purchase Price:
$195.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Synopsis
A presentation of
the history of organized resistance by South African blacks against white
minority
rule.
Critique
This production is
immeasurably aided by some fine documentary and archival footage. Interviews
with
participants in some
of the great resistance campaigns of the last hundred years is another strength
of
the film. Two
problems of this otherwise excellent production are noteworthy. The first is
that, by
focusing mainly on
instances of resistance, a good deal of contextual information, so vital to a
novice
audience, is
lacking. Very little is said which would clearly spell out the total dependence
South
Africa's thriving
economy has on black labor. Without certain aspects of South African history
and
Afrikaner
nationalism in mind, it is difficult to under‑stand the situation which
faces black resistance
movements. Also,
little mention or explanation is made of Soweto and Steve Biko's role in the
black
consciousness
movement. A second minor problem, related to the first, is that there is a lack
of detail of
the various
nationalist groups; therefore, the African National Congress, Pan‑Africanist
Congress, and
others are not
carefully distinguished.
In any case, these
problems do not detract from the film's impact. A much needed detailing of 100
years
of resistance is
accomplished, as well as making it quite clear that the present generation
seems more
determined than ever
to pursue the struggle. A good comparison film would be Peter Davis' South
Africa: The White
Laager (or the shorter version‑Afikaaner Experience). A film to introduce
the racial
politics of South
Africa is Last Grave at Dimbaza, a good prelude to Generations of Resistance.
(Quoted from the
African Media Program Database of African Film, Michigan State University)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
resistance; Apartheid/race;
GUELWAAR, 1993
115 minutes in Wolof
and French with English subtitles
Director: Ousmane Sembene
Distributor: New Yorker Films
Synopsis
Guelwaar is a trenchant comic
portrait of contemporary Africa. The
story revolves around the mysterious death and disappearance after death of
Pierre Henri Thioune-Guelwaar, a political activist, philandering patriarch, and
pillar of the local Christian community.
Critique
To the horror of his
fellow Christians, it is discovered that the body of Pierre Henri Thioune,
called Guelwaar, the Noble One, was misidentified and mistakenly buried in a
Muslin cemetery. This sets off a
tempest of bureaucratic red tape,
family conflicts, and religious factionalism, culminating in a tense standoff
at the disputed grave site. Sembene is
a master storyteller. This film demonstrates
his mastery of free-flowing, digressive, richly variegated structures. It is many films in one: comedy, political
allegory, social satire, family drama, and, at the end, thunderous indictment
of the twin evils of homegrown African corruption and neocolonial Western aid.
(Quoted from the
African Media Program Database of African Film, Michigan State University)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Gender; Development; Post-colonialism; the Griot
GUIMBA THE TYRANT,
1995
93 minutes in
Bambara, Peul, and French with English subtitles
Director: Cheik Oumar
Sissoko
Distributor:
California Newsreel
Purchase Price:
$195.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Synopsis
Guimba tells the timeless
tale of a tyrant’s hubris and his downfall at the hands of his people.
Critique
“Winner of the most
prestigious award in African cinema, the Grand Prize at FESPACO 95,
Guimba has been acclaimed
as one of the most visually ravishing African films ever made. This
epic allegory
contrasts Africa's tremendous wealth and potential with its present poverty and
plunder. Director
Cheick Oumar Sissoko comments, ‘Guimba is a political film, a fable
about
power, its
atrocities and its absurdities. I was personally influenced by what I
experienced not
long ago in Mali,
but the ravages of power are, unfortunately, universal.’
“The story has obvious
parallels with the 1991 overthrow of Malian dictator Moussa Traore in
which Sissoko was
active. Guimba tells the
timeless tale of a tyrant's hubris and his downfall at the
hands of his people,
reminiscent of Macbeth or Richard III. The film's narrative embodies the
process
of revealing the
truth from behind the facade of despotic power. For Guimba, the prince of a
once
prosperous trading
city, the key to power is spectacle: humiliating court rituals, arbitrary
displays of
wrath, occult
powers, even the terrifying mask which always covers his face. Guimba's
authority begins
to crumble when he
demands that a nobleman divorce his wife so that his own son, the physical and
moral dwarf,
Janginé, can marry her. This ludicrous demand reveals him to the townspeople as
a
unrestrained beast
not a prince; they jeer and defy him and abandon the city to join a rebel
force.
Isolated, his magic
powers exhausted, driven‑mad, Guimba is left with no alternative but to
commit
suicide.
“Guimba is
thus a story of the restoration of truth and legitimate authority to Djenné,
the legendary city
where the film was
shot, and, allegorically, of democratic, "transparent" government to
present‑day
Africa. In its opulence and epic scale, Guimba recalls
and calls for the return of the continent's own
former greatness and
prosperity. Even, the film's striking costumes (themselves simultaneously
veilings
and statements)
occasioned the revival of several traditional Malian textile crafts. “Sissoko notes that in
Guimba he adapted to film
two traditional Malian types of discourse used to ‘speak truth to power:’
kotéba, a popular
form of satiric street theater, and baro, a virtuoso kind of public
oratory. Thus
Sissoko creates
through his film not just an allegory of present‑day African
politics but a community of
viewers prepared to
mock illicit power whatever its trappings. “
(Critique quoted
from California Newsreel’s On-line Catalogue)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Gender; Corruption; African Tradition
HARVEST: 3,000 YEARS,
1975
138 minutes Amharic
with English subtitles
Director: Haile
Gerima
Distributor: Mypheduh Films
Purchase Price: $34.99
Synopsis
This film is a
dramatization of a peasant family’s struggle for survival on the farm of a
wealthy landowner in Ethiopia.
Critique
In its depiction of
Ethiopian peasant life and the struggle to survive, Harvest: 3,000 Years is
unique and excellent. The use of a
fictionalized, ethnographic style allows the audience to become involved with
the family portrayed and to understand their needs and aspirations. Though the filmmaker espouses a specific
political viewpoint, this viewpoint does not measurably affect the accuracy of
the lifestyle presented. The
photography combines with a slowly paced editing style to reflect the centuries
of long struggle expressed by the title.
Some background information may be necessary for certain audiences.
(Quoted from the
African Media Program Database of African Film, Michigan State University)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Development (socio-economic); inequality/class relations
HERITAGE AFRICA, 1988
110 minutes in
English
Director: Kwah Ansah
Distributor: Film
African Unlimited
Synopsis
Set in the late
forties in Ghana, Heritage Africa tells the story of Kwesi Atta Bosomefi
who becomes Europeanized as he rises up the colonial hierarchy. After a series of humiliating events and a
frightening, though revealing dream, he starts to rediscover his heritage.
HYENAS, 1992
113 minutes in Wolof
with English subtitles
Director: Djibril
Diop Mambety
Distributor:
California Newsreel
Purchase Price:
$195.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Synopsis:
Twenty years after
his astonishing first film, Touki Bouki, Djibril Diop Mambety brings us a
second feature, Hyenas, as provocative as his first. He adapts a timeless
parable of human greed into a biting satire of today's Africa ‑ betraying
the hopes of independence for the false promises of Western materialism.
Mambety has even been called the avatar of a new mood sweeping the continent ‑
"Afro‑pessimism."
Critique:
“Hyenas had a
long and unexpected gestation. Years ago, when Mambety was living in Dakar's
port district, a beautiful prostitute would descend from high society each Friday
night to treat the poor of the quarter to a lavish meal. They named her
Linguère (Unique Queen in Wolof) Ramatou (the red bird of the dead in Egyptian
mythology.) Suddenly, one Friday she didn't appear and Mambety decided to
invent a history for her. He imagined her to be the sole survivor of an outcast
family slaughtered by a superstitious village which still lived in fear of her
return.
“Mambety only
discovered an ending for his story years later when he saw Ingrid Bergman in a
film version of Frederich Dürrenmatt's celebrated play, The Visit of the Old
Woman. In this reclusive Swiss master's bitter tale of a wealthy, aged
prostitute's vengeance against the man who betrayed her, Mambety recognized the
fate of Linguère Ramatou. In appreciation he dedicated his African adaptation
to "the great Frederich."
“In Mambety's
version, Linguère Ramatou was a beautiful, spirited but poor young woman from
the sleepy village of Colobane who had fallen in love with a young man, Dramaan
Drameh. When she became pregnant with his child, he denied paternity and bribed
two men to say they had slept with her, so he could marry a wealthy wife.
Driven from the village, her ideals shattered, Linguhre was forced into
prostitution and has miraculously become the richest woman in the world, ‘as
rich as the World Bank.’
“Mambety parallels
the fate of Colobane in the intervening years with that of Africa, languishing
in the decaying shell of the colonial past instead of building a vibrant new
society. Dramaan runs a dilapidated bar/general store under the watchful eye of
his avaricious wife where the corrupt and indolent townsfolk drown their ennui
in cheap wine.
“When Linguère
Ramatou finally returns, she offers the impoverished village a trillion dollars
‑ if they will destroy the man who destroyed her. She says: ‘The world
made a whore of me, I want to turn the world into a whorehouse. You can't walk
in the jungle with a ticket for the zoo. If you want to share the lion's feast,
then you must be a lion yourself.’
“Although initially
outraged, the villagers are easily seduced by the air conditioners,
refrigerators and television sets Linguhre showers on them. In a stunning
visual metaphor, Mambety represents ‘consumer society’ as a garish amusement
park where even the stars have been replaced by fireworks. Like today's African
bourgeoisie, Colobane becomes a ‘credit junkie,’ dependent on foreign debt. In
the film's climax, the townspeople literally consume Dramaan, leaving only his
clothes behind like hyenas.
“Linguère's revenge
can be seen as symbolic retribution for centuries of African (not to say
European)
patriarchy. But even
she realizes her victory is hollow. She has claimed that money would allow her
to abolish time, to buy back the youth and love stolen from her. But her
pursuit of power and possessions has left her cold and lifeless, ‘half‑metal,’
as Dramaan rather ungallantly remarks when he sees her gold leg. With his
murder, Linguhre metaphorically descends into her grave. Only Dramaan, when he
finally recognizes the futility of his past desires, is freed from illusion to
confront reality with calm and dignity.
“Towards the end of
both his feature films, Mambety interjects a quintessentially Senegalese image ‑
a bright sea glistening with possibility next to the dusty, windswept
barrenness of the Sahel. But in Hyenas, an altogether grimmer film, the
final shot is of bulldozer tracks relentlessly erasing the past, a lone baobab
tree standing amid the endless texts of post‑modernity. Any Senegalese
would understand the story's conclusion. Colobane (which was Mambety's actual
birthplace) is today a notoriously sleazy market and transit point on the edge
of Dakar.
“While Touki
Bouki reminded many film goers of the Godard of Pierrot le Fou , Hyenas
may suggest the
Pasolini of Medea or
Teorema. Mambety creates a stylized, fabular world structured around an
implacablelogic, the logic of the marketplace, the ‘reign of the hyena.’
Mambety's 1994 short Le Franc confirms his stature as Africa's master of
magic realism. Manthia Diawara of New York University, describes the 1992
premiere of Hyenas as ‘the entry of an altruistic viewpoint into African
cinema. Mambety was to Carthage '92 what John Ford and Orson Welles had been to
Cannes.’
(Critique quoted
from California Newsreel’s Online Catalogue at http://www.newsreel.org)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics: From Literature to Film; Gender;
Community; Corruption
JIT,
92 minutes in English
Produced by Rory
Kilalea
Directed by Michael
Raeburn
Distributor: Home Vision
Purchase: $29
Rent: Blockbuster Video
Synopsis
Jit, inspired by the
Zimbabwean pop music known as Jit‑jive, is a romantic comedy about one
young man's determination to win over the prettiest girl in town. UK (so called
because his friends believe he'll go far) travels from his village to the city
to seek his fortune. Along the way, he becomes entranced with the beautiful
Sofi, whose father demands a high bride‑ price and whose boyfriend is a
gangster.
Not only does the
fun‑loving UK have to overcome these obstacles to win over Sofi, but his
spirit guide Jukawa has better ideas on how UK should be spending his energy in
the city. Jit is a funny and uplifting film that shows the struggle of
one young man to fulfill his dream.
Many of Zimbabwe's
leading musicians contributed to the musical score for Jit which underscores
the irresistible beat and basic rhythm of the movie.
(From DRS
Reviews)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics: popular culture, gender relations,
post colonial society
KEITA: THE HERITAGE OF THE GRIOT, 1995
94 minutes in Jula
and French with English subtitles
Director: Dani
Kouyati
Distributor: California Newsreel
Purchase Price: $195.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Synopsis
Keita creates a
unique world where the West Africa of the 13th Century Sundjata Epic and the
West Africa of today co-exist and interpenetrate.
Critique
“Director Dani
Kouyati frames his dramatization of the epic within a contemporary boy from
Burkina Faso, learning the history of his family. During the film, Mabo and his
distant ancestor, Sundjata, engage in parallel quests to understand their
destinies, to ‘know the meaning of their names.’ In so doing, Keota makes the case for an "Afrocentric"
education, where African tradition, not an imported Western curricula is the
necessary starting point for African development.
“Both ancient and
modern storylines are initiated by the mysterious appearance of a hunter, a
passerby representing destiny who intervenes at strategic moments to propel
Sundjata and Mabo on their journeys. The hunter both foretells the birth of
Sundjata to the Mandi court and, eight centuries later, rouses Djiliba (or
Great Griot) Kouyati to go to the city and initiate young Mabo into the secrets
of his origin. The Kouyatis have always served as the Keotas' griots, bards
(jeli) belonging to a discrete Mandi caste or endogamous occupational group,
who alone perform certain types of poetry and divination.
“The griot's arrival
creates tension in the Keota household especially between Mabo and his mother
and his school-teacher, who stand for a Westernized lifestyle ignorant of
African tradition. Mabo becomes so caught up in the griot's story that he stops
studying for exams, day-dreams in class and eventually skips school to tell the
story to other boys.
“The film pointedly
contrasts the moral depth of the griot's teachings with the sterile, culturally
irrelevant facts which constitute Mabo's ‘Eurocentric’ education. For example,
the griot first comes upon Mabo while he is studying the Western ‘creation
myth,’ Darwin's theory of evolution, of a universe ruled only by chance and the
"survival of the fittest." In contrast, Mandi myth holds that human
history is suffused with purpose and that every person has a particular destiny
within it. By listening to The Sundjata Epic present-day Mandi listeners like
Mabo can perceive the working out of destiny in history and see their own lives
as part of a continuing narrative flow.
“The Sundjata Epic,
which Mabo hears recounts the life of Sundjata Keota (sometimes spelled
Sundiata or Son-Jara Keyta,) the man responsible for turning his nation into
the great Malian trading empire. Set in the early 13th century, the epic
provides the wide-spread Mandi people a legend explaining their common origin
and subsequent division into castes or clan families. An oral recitation of the
complete poem with musical accompaniment can last close to sixty hours. But,
this film, like most performances, recounts only a part of the epic, here the
events surrounding the birth, boyhood and exile of Sundjata. (This corresponds
to lines 356 to 1647 in the standard translation, Johnson, John William. The Epic
of Son-Jara: A West African Tradition, Bloomington: Indiana University Press,
1992.)
“Sundjata's quest,
like Mabo's, requires the successful reconciliation or integration of two types
of power represented by his paternal and maternal lineages. His father, Maghan
Kon Fatta Konati a descendant of the Prophet Mohammed, has brought barika or
law and progress to human society. In contrast, Sundjata's mother, Sogolon, and
his grandmother, the Buffalo Woman of Do, rely on pre-Islamic occult powers or
nyama. Their potentially disruptive effect on human civilization is symbolized
by their habit of turning into ferocious animal ‘doubles.’
“Sundjata himself,
hexed at birth by his mother's co-wife, must crawl across the earth, scorned as
a ‘reptile.’ A Mandi proverb explains: ‘The great tree must first push its
roots deep into the earth.’ When the climactic moment arrives for Sundjata to
walk erect like a man, he tries to lift himself up with a seven-forged iron
rod, symbolizing man-made technology. Even this cracks beneath his strength, so
the hunter reappears and instructs Sogolon to fetch a supple branch of the sun
tree which has the nyama to hold Sundjata's weight. Thus, the hero must harness
natural and supernatural powers to fulfill his heroic destiny.
“In the film's final
scene, the griot disappears and for the first time Mabo directly confronts the
hunter; after hearing the epic, he is finally in touch with his destiny. At
this point, the stories of the two Keotas intersect; history and legend, event
and destiny have been brought into alignment. Indeed, in making this film, Dani
Kouyati (who shares the name of the griot) succeeds in fulfilling the ‘meaning
of his name’ He has used a quintessentially 20th century invention, motion
pictures, to insure that The Sundjata Epic is passed on as an inspiring force
in the lives of young Africans everywhere.”
(Critique quoted
from California Newsreel’s Online Catalogue.)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM Post-colonialism; Tradition V. Modernism; the Griot; Orality;
Education
LA VIE EST BELLE
(Life is Rosy), 1986
85 minutes in French
with English subtitles
Director: Ngangura
Mweze and Benoit Lamy
Distributor:
California Newsreel
Purchase Price:
$59.95
Synopsis
La Ville Est Belle tells the story of
a poor rural musician who realizes that to succeed in today’s commercial music
world he must go to the city and break into radio and television. In Kinshasa he uses his wit and talent to
win a beautiful wife, trick his greedy boss, and succeed in singing his “theme
song” on national television.
Critique
“To many people in
Africa and around the world, Zaire is synonymous with contemporary Africa music
at its best. Musical legends like
Franco, Tabu Ley, Papa Wemba, Tahala Muana and Mbila Bel have successfully
blended traditional forms with Western instruments and technology to create the
most influential music in Africa.
Kinshasha, the sprawling capital of over 4 million people, can claim to
be the capital of African music. La
Vie Est Belle, the first major feature form Zaire, capitalizes on the
vibrant Congolese musical scene and one of its real superstars, Papa Wemba, Le
Roi de la SAPE. (SAPE stands for
Société des Ambianceurs et des Personnes Élégantes, the Society of Good-timers
and Fashionabel Folk). But the
Congo is also known as a country with unparalleled experience of colonial
brutality at the hands of Belgium and of neo-colonial suffering under one of
Africa’s most ruthless autocrats, Mobutu Sese Soko. Richly endowed with mineral, agricultural and other natural
resources, the Congo has potentially one of the strongest economies in
Africa. Yet the majority of Congolese
live in abject poverty.
“This inheritance of
oppression has given birth to a post-colonial urban culture rooted in survival. Individual resourcefulness, wit and daring
provide the only chance for self-advancement in the face of an all-powerful
state and chaotic urban life. Zairians
have appropriated the French slang term. Systeme-D or debrouillez-vous
(“fend/hustle for yourself.”) La Vie Est Belle is a joyous hymn to
debrouillardise Congolese style.
“The film borrows
from traditional Congolese farce the figure of the charming trickster, the
defenseless less ingenue, the neglected wife and the gullible husband to
explore the cruelties and joys of life in Kinshasa. Kuru (Pap Wemba) uses an elaborate series of deceptions to win a
young woman, Kabibi, back from his boss Nvuandu, and to achieve his dream of
‘playing electric’ in his boss’ club.
Kabibi tricks her ‘husband’ Nvuandu into helping her lover Kuru start
his band. Mamu, Nvuandu’s first wife,
helps match up Kuru with her rival Kabibi to win back her husband.
“Diviners play a key
role in the film - though it’s never clear whether through supernatural agency
or human gullibility. With the odds
against them, the Congolese have a passionate faith in the power of the occult
to improve their chances. The diviner’s
remedy for Nvuandu’s impotence (that he must marry a virgin but not have sex
with her for thirty days) is the linchpin for the whole comedy. The diviner symbolizes the successful union
of traditional village values with the new urban setting. At the film’s triumphal climax, Kabibi, the
diviner and the traditional dancers join Kuru and his modern band on stage in front
of live television cameras.
“La Vie Est Belle can be enjoyed as
comedy but must be questioned as social commentary. For example, the film perpetuates harmful stereotypes of African
women. Kabibi exists only as a pretty reproductive
apparatus for Nvuandu and a fantasy object for Kuru. The film ridicules Mamu’s women’s association or sorority, the
Mazic, as a coven of loose liberated women.
Mamu, who seems to have the entrepreneurial skill to be independent,
returns in the end to being Nvandu’s obedient wife.
“We can also ask in
what sense La Vie Est Belle is an African film. At the insistence of the funders, the film
was co-directed by a Belgian, Benoit Lamy.
But it was scripted and co-directed by a Congolese, Ngangura Mweze who
had previously directed a highly acclaimed documentary on Kinshasa, Kin
Kiesse. Does this explain why the
film’s plot seems patterned after a French farce or a 40s ‘screwball comedy’?
“Does the film
reproduce in African dress the same old ‘rags to riches’ myth so long propagated
by Hollywood films? Does it try to
persuade people they can make it through native talent and street smarts rather
than fundamental changes in the social system?
Is this just escapism and wish fulfillment Zairian style? But we can also ask if this makes La Vie
Est Belle any less an African film?
After all, it was immensely popular with African audiences. Perhaps La Vie Est Belle is - for
better and worse - an example of an indigenous African commercial cinema.”
(Critique quoted
from an article by Mbye Cham, Professor of African Literature and Cinema at
Howard University titled “La Vie Est Belle: “Getting Over” Zairian
Style.” California Newsreel’s
Library of African Cinema. 1995-96
Catalog.)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Gender; Post-colonialism, Human Rights
LUMUMBA: LA MORT DU
PROPHETE (Lumumba: Death of a Prophet),
1992
69 minutes in French
with English subtitles
Director: Raoul Peck
Distributor: California Newsreel
Purchase Price: $195.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Synopsis
This film reviews
the life of Patrice Lumumba, first president of Zaire (now Democratic Republic
of The Congo).
Critique
Lumumba: la mort du
Prophte
offers a unique opportunity to reconsider the life and legacy of one of the
legendary figures of modern African history. Like Malcolm X, Patrice Lumumba is
remembered less for his lasting achievements than as an enduring symbol of the
struggle for self-determination. This
deeply personal reflection on the events of Lumumba's brief twelve month
rise and fall is a moving memorial to a man described as a giant, a prophet, a
devil, "a mystic of freedom," and "the Elvis Presley of African
politics." If Lumumba is a film about remembering, it is even more
a film about forgetting. It is not so much a conventional biography as a study
of how Lumumba's legacy has been manipulated by politicians, the media
and time itself. Haitian filmmaker Raoul Peck meditates on his own memories as
the privileged son of an agricultural expert working for the regime which
displaced Lumumba. He examines home movies, photographs, old newsreels
and contemporary interviews with Belgian journalists and Lumumba's own daughter
to try to piece together the tragic events and betrayals of 1960.
A film essay in the
tradition of Night and Fog or The Sorrow and the Pity, Lumumba explores how any
image inevitably represses the multiple stories surrounding it, how the past a
preserved by the media is always in a sense the hostage of history's winners.
Therefore present-day Europe figures as prominently in Lumumba as the
Congo in 1960, because Europe was the unseen hand behind the camera and the
events leading to Lumumba's assassination. Peck presents an unfamiliar Europe
seen through the eyes of a visitor from the Third World - cold, affluent, a
guilty present trying to forget its past. Yet, as this film testifies,
Lumumba's prophecy will not be silenced until Africa achieves its second
independence where the promises of the first can be fulfilled.
(Quoted from the
African Media Program Database of African Film, Michigan State University)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Biography; Liberation, Cold War
MAIDS AND MADAMS,
1985
52 minutes in
English
Director: Mira
Hamermesh
Synopsis
This film is an
expose of relationships between maids and madams in South Africa.
Critique
Maids and Madams, apparently based
on Jackie Cock's book of the same name, explores the relationship between white
employers and black domestic servants in South Africa. The film and the book, however,
fundamentally differ in terms of methodology, sample and explanation. Cock conducted her research in the Eastern
Cape, the most economically depressed area in South Africa. Hamermesh's film is located in the very
wealthy northern suburbs of Johannesburg.
Unlike the book, the film makes no mention of the historical dimensions
of domestic work, nor does it situate domestic work into the wider matrix of
apartheid social relations.
Maids and Madams follows the
orthodox BBC style of structured documentary which plays on the codes of
'objectivity,' 'balance', 'fairness' and so on. This creates the impression of
a God's‑eye‑view of maid/madam relations, and that the interactions
seen have not been mediated by the camera.
The black interviewees speak the 'truth,' but when whites speak, their
'truths' are undermined by photographic style, editing strategies and the use
of sound effects like echo, for example, where the pre‑schoolers relate
the jobs done by their 'nannies.'
The film treats domestic
work as an act of oppression in itself.
On one level, this is true.
However, it obscures the fact that domestic work is both a symptom and
example of the larger oppression of apartheid.
It is easy to see how this confusion can arise ‑‑ domestic work
accounts for the second largest category of employed black women after
agriculture. The film sees this exploitation as a moral one, manifested in poor
conditions of service, and not as an inevitable by‑product of black life
under apartheid. To understand the
oppression of black women in domestic service, it is necessary first to
understand the position of black women under apartheid generally.
Only half way
through the film are gender issues raised.
This occurs in the context of a domineering female black social worker
harassing the chief and elders at Rooigrond, a rural settlement. Instead of eliciting explanations from the
men on why they feel women should know their places, the social worker preaches
back at them. The chief is barely given time to quote a Biblical justification
of men's superiority over women before being cut short. She then speaks 'for' the chief direct to
camera, thereby also silencing him through elimination of both his face and his
voice. Little information is obtained from this one‑sided interaction
about women's position in patriarchal society. The impression given, then, is that contextual issues are
discussed, but that unacceptable patriarchal discussion has been cut from the
film.
A second problem
with this sequence concerns the ethics of 'setting up' an interviewee to
ridicule his (or her) point of view, through the public use of the chief's
humiliation at the hands of the social worker on film. The social worker
concludes: 'I find it extremely
depressing as a black woman that we have to fight on two fronts: the racial front and the sexist front.' No progressive would disagree with this
statement, but as for film maker/theorists, questions about methodology need to
be asked.
A fair amount of footage is devoted to the
South African Domestic Workers Association (SADWA) which is working towards
minimum wages, fair working conditions and informing domestic workers of their
rights. SADWA also intervenes where
domestic workers have been unfairly treated. These are purely descriptive
scenes. 'Maids and Madams' also documents some of the programmes of the Black
Sash and Centres of Concern in their attempts to improve the quality of life of
domestic workers. The film contrasts opulent
white‑owned homes with the remote shacks in the black townships and
homelands where the maids' families live.
The very skewed sample of interviewees, both among employers and
employees, bears no relationship to the broader phenomenon of domestic work and
workers. But the film's codes present
it as the norm. Maids and Madams is a victim of Hamermesh's own ideology
of 'objectivity'. The film takes no
particular stand, though it does permit, perhaps even encourage, white madams
to indict themselves with regard to their patronizing attitudes and practices.
In this way, the causes of the domestic's servitude is often de‑centered
onto a personal relationship between the white women who are the employers, and
the black women who are the employees.
The underlying structures which trap both are over‑looked.
Ultimately, it is
difficult to determine what Hamermesh is trying to say about these
Centers. They are filmed with the same
narrative techniques as are the madams who are interacting with their maids or
work seekers. Does this indicate disapproval? A spurious continuity, for example, is set
up with Joyce when she is interviewed by an unnamed madam. The camera is positioned behind the woman
being interviewed, and its penetrating over‑shoulder gaze at the white
employer is merciless as it strips the madam of any moral ground. Reverse shots
create an impression of unedited snatches of life. In this way the director makes everything seemingly self‑evident:
the madam is condemned by the camera work, the performances of herself
(sitting) and the maid (standing) and through the dialogue. How was this shot set up? Is it a reconstruction? A constructed continuity is then sutured as
we then see Joyce at a Centre requesting courses in math, English and
Afrikaans. The film thus builds a
spurious narrative and flattens the critique of both employers and the
Centers.
The director's
assumptions are never explicitly articulated.
Viewers are unaware of how certain incidents were filmed (reconstructed,
observational, etc.) or informed how the crew persuaded the white 'madams' to
expose their vulnerabilities to the camera.
When ordinary people perform for cameras, they often tend to overplay
their quirks and foibles, being on their 'best' behavior. It is doubtful that
any of the madams portrayed would have agreed to participating if they thought
their behavior would be portrayed as hypocritical or that the very intimate
relationships that develop between maids and madams would be portrayed as
morally wrong. The way the camera and
crew distort everyday relationships and behavior has always been an
epistemological problem for ethnographic film makers. But more than this, ethical questions are of concern, too.
The film ends with
scenes of a massive rally organized by Centers of Concern in the Johannesburg
Cathedral. 'Nkosi Sikelile iAfrika' is
sung at the rally. This is an empowering song, not a song of
disempowerment as it is used throughout the film, up until this final
sequence. The song now suggests that
the Centers of Concern have provided a positive forum for domestic workers to
express their dignity and solidarity.
The film does not resolve the question of whether the Centers ameliorate
the status quo or not.
One reviewer argues
that Maids and Madams gives us 'an intimate view of South African
culture today. This is a picture from
the bedroom and the kitchen' (Fernea 1987).
The film certainly reveals aspects of South African racial culture
mediated by the gaze of Hamermesh's camera, but we should be cautious about how
the film tries to position viewers vis‑a‑vis maid‑madam
relations. And we also need to question the implied reductionism that apartheid
equals black servants for whites, or that the camera's 'intimate view' is
accurate. How intimate can set up shots
be? Apartheid is far more complicated than either this reviewer or the film
would have audiences believe.
The film presents
the master‑servant relationships as a curiosity, rather than as a
fundamental criticism of capitalism in general which permits ‑‑
indeed sanctifies ‑‑ the exploitation of labor on massive scales
worldwide. Domestic workers are located
at the bottom of this exploitative process.
Domestic service is seen as an evil in itself and what is suppressed is
that most women employed in domestic service have no alternative. While the documentary treatments are useful
in making real their experiences, the film does not explain: a) how this came about; b) the lack of
resources available to black women through which to change their conditions of service and remuneration.
In conclusion then,
both white employers and black workers, wanting to change the situation, have
to work through the contradictions to overcome them. In the context of the South African economy, domestic service cannot
be abolished in the foreseeable future, but the whole system needs to be
drastically overhauled. This can't
happen until domestic workers themselves are in a position to organize
collectively and thereby put pressure on the state to regulate service.
Increased public awareness, together with more stringent requirements in terms
of hours, remuneration and accommodation conditions, are a first step towards
this end. Ultimately, however, the
whole structure of the apartheid economy, with its basis in migrant labor,
needs to be restructured before significant changes in domestic labor, among
other areas, will come about.
(Critique by Keyan
Tomaselli, Professor and Director, Centre for Cultural and Media Studies,
University of Natal, Durban)
References:
Cock, J. 'Maids and Madams.' Ravan, Johannesburg.
Fernea, E. 1987:
'Maids and Madams,' SVA Newsletter, Vol 3 Nos 1 & 2, 16.
Tomaselli, K.G. and
Tomaselli, R.E. 1990: 'Maids and Madams
‑ Servants of Apartheid,' SVAReview.
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Gender relations; Class and Status; Apartheid
MANDABI, 1968
90 minutes in Wolof
with English subtitles
Director: Ousman
Sembene
Distributor: New
Yorker Films
Synopsis
An African Cinema
adaptation of Ousmane Sembene's short novel Le Mandat (The Money Order) set in
Senegal.
Critique
This is an excellent
rendition of Sembene's short novel, Le Mandat (The Money Order). Using non‑professional
actors and Dakar as his backdrop, Sembene captures the serio‑comic
aspects of an illiterate man of some dignity winding his way through an
uncaring bureaucracy. Sembene's protagonist is a simple man who finds comfort
in his faith and family but who is, in the end, sobered by the cruel realities
of his nation. The contrast between Ibrahima's neighbors who, while seeking a
share of his wealth, are supportive of his misery and the slick government
officials and businessmen who both despise and cheat him because of his
poverty, is poignantly drawn. Humor is not abandoned in these machinations, but
the laughter only builds the essential humanity of Ibrahima and his family and
increases the sense of outrage at the way they are treated. Only the blatant
polemic of the postman at the film's end weakens the aesthetic, subtle unity of
this production. But certainly the film's strengths, its charm and
frustrations, prove it a valuable educational resource, especially for aspects
of African literature, political science, sociology, and problems of
urbanization. An audience must, however, be able to assimilate Sembene's measured
pacing and editing patterns which seem, compared to Western fast‑paced
narrative film, slow and deliberate.
There is some danger
that Western audiences unknowledgeable about Africa may see this caricature of
the African government and elite classes as a general characteristic of all
African government and elites. Other reviewers have typified this film as 'the
best single film about development available in the 1970s.'
(Quoted from the
African Media Program Database of African Film, Michigan State University)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Post Colonial State and Development; Class Relations
MONDAY’S GIRLS, 1993
49 minutes in
Waikiriki and English with English subtitles
Director: Ngozi
Onwurah
Distributors: California Newsreel; Women Make Movies
Purchase Price: $195.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Synopsis
Monday’s Girls
explores the conflict between modern individualism and traditional communities
in
today’s Africa
through the eyes of two young Waikiriki women from the Niger Delta. Although both come from leading families in
the same town, Florence looks at the iria initiation ceremony as an honor, while Azikiwe, who has lived in
the city for ten years, sees it as an indignity.
Critique
“Monday's Girls
explores the conflict between modern individualism and traditional communities
in today's Africa through the eyes of two young Waikiriki women from the Niger
delta. Although both come from leading families in the same large island town,
Florence looks at the iria women's initiation ceremony as an honor, while
Azikiwe, who has lived in the city for ten years, sees it as an indignity.
Ngozi Onwurah, director of such feminist classics as Coffee Coloured Children
and Body Beautiful, herself an Anglo-Nigerian, turns a wry but sympathetic eye
on the cross-cultural confusions.
The five week long
iria ritual is overseen by post-menopausal women headed by the redoubtable
Monday Moses (hence the title.) The girls are paraded bare-breasted before the
entire community so their nipples can be examined to determine whether they are
still virgins. They are then confined to the "fattening rooms," their
legs immobilized in copper impala rings, where they are pampered and fed.
Finally, the girls, now women, are presented to society, wearing yards of
fabric around their waists indicating each family's wealth - and suggesting
pregnancy.
The film traces the
girls' contrasting responses to each stage of the ritual. Florence, who is
Monday's granddaughter, comments at the end of the ceremony, "I'm not fat,
but I am grown up now," but even she decides to postpone marriage until
she completes her education. Azikiwe refuses to bare her breasts and, as a
result, her father is fined by the outraged villagers and she is sent back to
the city in disgrace. She concludes: "There are some traditions people
should forget." Monday's Girls
calls into question the idea of a single, "ethnographically correct"
representation of tradition. Rituals are revealed as fluid, polysemous texts,
social contracts continuously renegotiated between individuals and communities.
For millions of Africans like Azikiwe, tradition is increasingly seen as a
matter of individual choice not social coercion.”
(Critique quoted
from California Newsreel’s Online Catalogue.)
IN THE CLASSROOM
Handout:
As we have discussed throughout the semester, all
societies socially and culturally construct what it means to be a child, an
adolescent, and an adult, as well as roles specific to gender. Moreover we have argued, and hopefully
demonstrated with our U.S. and African case studies, all societies develop
institutions and practices (formal and informal) of socialization through which
children and adolescents are educated with the traditional "core" values
of, and the expected normative behavior within, the society. However, we have also averred that societies
and cultures are not static, but dynamic.
"Traditional" institutions, practices, values, perceptions are
chronically challenged by new perspectives from outside (such as the case of
colonialism and imperialism in Africa) and from
within the society as individuals and groups
creatively adapt to (or resist)
changing social, economic, political and cultural influences in their
daily lives.
Monday's Girls,
is a video representation of a contemporary ("modern") adaptation of
a "traditional" process of socialization (and accompanying
ceremonies) of young Waikiriki adolescent women, from a small island community
in the Niger River delta in Nigeria, into their roles as adult women‑‑mothers
and wives. Given this subject matter,
an underlying theme of the video is that of gender roles and
relationships. The narrator clearly
states that "traditionally" the Iria ritual's
primary function was to inculcate young women with the
values and skills that they would need to fulfill their culturally normative
roles as wives and mothers. This socialization function, however, seems to have
lost its cogency in the contemporary manifestation of the ritual at least as
represented
in or reenacted for the video.
It is naive to view this video representation (really
a "re‑construction" of a traditional process) as demonstrating
a "clash between modern individualism and tradition," as the U.S.
distributors (California Newsreel) of this video assert in their film
catalogue. Rather, this visual
representation is a video "fabrication" of a traditional ceremony
which has been "distorted" (not
an negative assessment) on multiple levels by the producer and the
director. The intent of the producer
seems
to have been to construct a sense of "conflict
between modernity and tradition" by featuring two contrasting Iriabos
(initiates in the Iria initiation training and ceremonies): Asikiye a young
woman who has lived in Lagos city for 10 years and has
return a reluctant initiate, and Florence, a local young woman who, in the
words of the film maker "looks at the Iria initiation ceremony as an
honor."
Based on your viewing of the video, do you think that
this dualism between modernity and tradition as "framed" by the
narrator in the video works? Are their
ways in which the initiation rituals‑‑the opening ceremony, the
five week period of training/socialization, and the closing ceremony manifest
"modernity" as well as "tradition?" How different are the views and aspirations
articulated by Florence (the adherent of "tradition") than those
articulated by Asikiye (the self‑confessed "modernist")?
As we view this film it is important to remember that
initiation or coming‑of‑age rituals are not uncommon, even within
our own society‑‑for example, the Bar Mitzvah/ Bat Mitzvah and
confirmation/first communion rituals.
General Questions:
1. What was
the role of the Monday Moses and her Iria council? Why is Monday Moses so interested in seeing the Iria ritual
continue?
2. What role
do men play in this the Iria generally, and in story told by this video? What are their interests?
3. What does
the video representation of the Iria rituals and the story surrounding them,
tell us about gender roles and relationships in contemporary Waikiriki
society? What is the significance of
the "ticket taking" ceremony that opens the five week ritual? What evidence does the video give of overt
sex‑role socialization, particularly during the five weeks that the young
women spend in the "fattening rooms?"
4. How does
the video represent family structure and relationships in Waikiriki
culture/society? From the perspective
of the film‑maker/narrator, what role does the Iria play the maintenance
of "traditional" family structure and relationships?
5. What
influence, if any, has the colonial
experience and Christianity had on the Iria and the initiates? (Nearly 95% of the Waikiriki people self‑identify
themselves as Christian.)
6. African
traditional societies, we are told by the film‑maker, are community
orientated, and individualism is frowned upon.
Apart from Asikiye's "story" are there ways in which this
assertion against individualism is belied by the words and actions of the young
women who participate in the Iria and by the "modern" adaptation of
this ritual?
7. What role
does social economic class play in the Iria as it is represented in this video?
8. As
represented in the video and in light of the avouched contrast between
"tradition" and "modernity," what role does music play in
(a) the two ceremonies and (b) the five week training period?
9. As
represented in the film, how is feminine beauty constructed in
"traditional" Waikiriki society/culture? Is constructed in "traditional" Waikiriki society/culture? Is there any indication that this
"normative" representation of beauty is resisted your own
perspective, what do you think of
"coming‑of‑age" rituals? How different is the Waikiriki construction
of feminine beauty from the construction of feminine beauty within U.S.
cultures.
10. At the end
of the video, in positive assessment of the iria rituals, the film‑maker
states that "some traditions have a welcome place in a changing
society." From your perspective do
you think that (a) American youth and (b) U.S. society(ies) would benefit from
more formalized initiation rituals?
What are some of the pros and cons of formalized coming‑of‑age
rituals?
(Teaching material provided by Dr. John Metzler,
Michigan State University)
NERIA, 1992
102 minutes in
English
Director: Godwin
Mawuru
Distributor: DSR
Purchase Price:
$79.95
Synopsis
Neria tells the story of
a “contemporary” urban family in Harare, Zimbabwe, confronted with a clash of
values, traditional/modern, when the husband (Patrick) is killed in an
accident.
Critique:
Patrick and Neria,
through shared hard work and resourcefulness, have built a comfortable home,
good life and family in the city. But when their loving and equal partnership
suddenly ends with the tragic death of Patrick, Neria’s nightmare begins.
Patrick's brother
Phineas helps himself to their car, bank book, furniture and house. He takes
advantage of tradition to suit his own needs, making no effort to take care of
his brother's family. Yet Phineas claims that tradition and law are on his
side.
Neria watches
helplessly at first, believing there is no legal or moral recourse for her. But
when Phineas takes her children, Neria decides she must fight back. In
desperation she seeks justice. Neria learns that law and tradition can both be
on her side if she remains strong and intelligently fights for her rights.
Neria has won 12
international awards: Carthage Film Festival, National Black Programming
Consortium, Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame, 8th Black Int'l Cinema, Indiana
Univ/Berlin, FESPACO‑CCHR, Cinevue, Milan Film Festival ‑ 2 prizes,
MNET ‑ 3 prizes. (Critique from DSR
Website)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
“Modernity,” Tradition; Gender; Family Structure
QUARTIER MOZART,
1992
80 minutes in French
with English subtitles
Director:
Jean-Pierre Bekolo
Distributor:
California Newsreel
Purchase Price: $195.00
Rental price: $95.00
Synopsis
Quartier Mozart is the story of 48
hours in the life of a working class neighborhood in Yaounde. It recounts the
not very sentimental education of a young schoolgirl, Queen of the 'Hood, whom
a local sorceress helps enter a young man's body so she can see for herself the
real "sexual politics" of the quarter.
Critique
“Twenty-six year old
Jean-Pierre Bekolo's startlingly original film, Quartier Mozart, will
remind viewers of other breakthrough "youth" films like Spike Lee's She's
Gotta Have It or Jim Jarmusch's Stranger than Paradise. Trained in
television and music video, Bekolo reveals a sensibility which effortlessly
crosses MTV with African folklore and which has delighted festival audiences
around the world. He has written: ’I've tried to make a popular film where
people can see themselves and be amused. African cinema won't have a future if
it does not reach an African public.’ Quartier
Mozart is the story of 48 hours in the life of a working class neighborhood
in Yaounde. It recounts the not very sentimental education of a young
schoolgirl, Queen of the 'Hood, whom a local sorceress helps enter a young
man's body so she can see for herself the real "sexual politics" of
the quarter. Quartier Mozart is an affectionate celebration of African
youth and the vibrant cultural pastiche it is continually inventing.”
(Quoted from California
Newsreel’s Online Catalogue)
Critique
“Quartier Mozart is written and directed by
Jean‑Pierre Bekolo from Cameroon and made in 1992.
The film narrates the story of a geographical and
cultural space defined by the transmutation of economic poverty into a
political poverty ruled by different shades of male chauvinism. Two women
introduce us into its narrative, as the only means of subjectivity available to
them in the ghetto is to transform themselves and participate in the male
centered social life of the community. Mama Thekla, described as a sorcerer,
transforms a young woman generally known as "Queen of the Hood" into
a stud called ‘My Guy’ and herself into another man called ‘Panka.’ ‘My Guy’ 's
sexual prowess assumes a folkloric dimension as well as Panka's ability to
erase masculinity. The Queen of the Hood's adventures and encounters with the
macho characters in the neighborhood made her conclude that such subcultures
must not only be tamed but transcended for any meaningful progress.
“As a cultural commentary, the film describes the
processes of socialization available to those condemned to poverty and intense
surveillance from domestic neocolonialism and external imperialism. The state
of poverty generates a desiring process marked by fantasies about France and
America and intense violence to each other. Within the framework of the course,
attention should be paid to the critical language of self‑definition
employed by the film. If what is left in the ghettos of Africa are communities
like Quartier Mozart, how can such communities be named in order to transform
them? How are the issues of identity in their local, national and global
contexts articulated? Fundamentally, what determines the processes and
contradictions of being, becoming and belonging to that country and the world
at large? Pay special attention to characterization and the narrative pacing of
the film. Its style defies stylistic bigotry and offers the viewer a
representation of identities consigned to conditions of non‑being or approximations
of otherness to Euro‑American selves and others.
“Made with a scandalous budget of $30,000 in Yaounde,
Quartier Mozart brings a stylistic exuberance never before witnessed in
African cinema. Montages, blank screens, intriguing sound effects, popular
music; the film is a typical "Hip‑Hop" movie created with a
pastiche of imageries and stories strung together for maximum effect for the
urban youths in most African countries who constitute majority of cinema
audiences. If the taste of such audiences is so cosmopolitan to desire cultural
subservience, the film offers a clever indictment of such cultural processes
with humor and critical effrontery. It articulates issues of post-coloniality
and cultural contradictions which disable possibilities of subjectivity by
those doubly marginalized by their local neocolonial governments and global
capitalism ruled by the USA and its cultural imports.
“Jean‑Pierre Bekolo is one of Africa's youngest
filmmakers determined to change how Africans visually represent themselves as
well as how the modes of production are effectively monitored and included in
the cultural politics of decolonization. Currently 26 years old, he lives in
Paris and has developed his own post‑production and distribution outfit.
His latest film Compote d'Aristotle or Aristotle's Plot was
commissioned by the British Film Institute's project of films commemorating 100
years of cinema. It is a visual analysis of film audiences and the contexts of
viewing films as well as the ranges of meaning of foreign films for the urban
working class audiences. Like his first feature, Jean‑Pierre thrives on
producing a vocabulary of visual decolonization that is fluid and subversive to
acceptable cinematic frames and conventions.”
(Quoted from Awam Ampka’s web site at
http://www.mtholyoke.edu/~aamkpa/)
IN THE CLASSROOM
This film might be
used in college level Film studies, Women’s Studies, or African Film courses.
See Dr. Ampka’s
syllabus at the back of the guide.
SAMBIZANGA, 1972
102 minutes in
Portuguese with English subtitles
Director: Sarah
Maldoror
Distributor: New Yorker Films
Rental Price: $175.00
Synopsis
This film is a
dramatization of one family’s role in the Angolan struggle for independence,
Domingos Xavier is
arrested for his involvement in the liberation struggle. The film chronicles the
search undertaken by
Xavier’s wife Maria.
Critique
Sambizanga is a fine film
suitable for general audiences using high quality filmic techniques to
present a simple
story. The early scenes of Xavier and
his family at home, seemingly removed
from the oppression
of the Portuguese and the risks of the liberation struggle, are moving and
provide a striking
contrast to the rest of the film.
However, Sambizanga is also a unique document
of the day- to-day
existence of a family in Angola during this period. Maria’s journey in search of
her husband is also
a journey for the audience. She begins
in total ignorance of her husband’s role
in the liberation
struggle and so do we. Though lacking
in factual material, Sambizanga presents
the network of the
struggle which goes beyond the color line and includes a varied representation
of
the Angolan
population. This film is particularly
useful when used with films produced later in the
struggle to show the
beginnings of the movement which led to armed struggle.
This is one of the
few African films made by an African woman and which includes women’s themes.
(Quoted from the
African Media Program Database of African Film, Michigan State University)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Liberation, Colonialism, Gender
SANKOFA, 1993
125 minutes
Director: Haile Gerima
Distributor: Mypheduh Films
Purchase Price: $39.99
Synopsis
Sankofa is an Akan (Ghana)
word that means, "We must go back and reclaim our past so we can move
forward; so we understand why and how we came to be who we are today."
Written, directed and produced by Ethiopian-born filmmaker Haile Gerima, Sankofa
is a powerful film about Maafa-the African holocaust.
Critique
“Done from an
African/African-American perspective, this story is a vastly different one from
the generally distorted representations of African people that Hollywood gives
us. This revolutionary feature film connects enslaved black people with their
African past and culture. It empowers
Black people on the screen by showing how African peoples desire for freedom
made them resist, fight back, and conspire against their enslavers, overseers
and collective past through the vision on Mona, who visits her ancestral experience
on a new world plantation as Shola. We share the life she endures as a slave
and experiences her growing consciousness and transformation. “
(Critique quoted
from Mypheduh Online Catalogue.)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Slavery; Diaspora, Resistance
THESE HANDS, 1992
45 minutes in
Swahili and Kimakonde with English subtitles
Director: Flora
M’mbugu-Schelling
Distributor:
California Newsreel
Purchase Price:
$195.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Synopsis
In These Hands,
the camera acts as a compassionate witness to a day in the life of Mozambican
women refugees
working in a quarry outside Dar es Salaam - the relentless toil, the tender
care, the nostalgic songs and joyous dancing at day’s end. We slowly come to recognize that these women
are, in fact, parts of a giant machine, not just the quarry but the
international economic system as a whole.
Critique
“Who would have
suspected that a 45 minute documentary about women crushing rocks, without
narration or plot,
would offer one of the most unforgettable and rewarding experiences of recent
African cinema?
Flora M'mbugu-Schelling's quiet tribute to women at the very bottom of the
international
economic order ultimately deepens into a mediation on human labor itself.
These Hands will
stimulate viewers to rethink documentary and to question their own role a
consumers in a global economy.
Director Flora
M'mbugu-Schelling has explained why she refused to interpret or romanticize
these women's story, to reduce them to a simple political pose or
anthropological point. "Certain things you can say with words and certain
things you cannot find words for...The time has passed when we can use the
classic documentary style. I don't want to offend my audience by telling them what
they should see or feel." It is precisely this refusal of premature
closure that makes viewers so much more
aware of their relationship to the film and its protagonists.
In These Hands,
the camera acts as a compassionate witness to a day in the life of Mozambican
women refugees
working in a quarry outside Dar es Salaam - the relentless toil, the tender
childcare, the
nostalgic songs and joyous dancing at day's end. We slowly come to recognize
that
these women are, in
fact, parts of a giant machine, not just the quarry but the international
economic
system as a whole.
The rocks, the women, the scarred landscape, are being constantly ground into
the common currency
of industrial civilization. As the film unspools, we, the viewers, look on
powerless and complicit,
realizing we too are enmeshed in this global mechanism of social,
economic and
ideological reproduction. “
(Critique quoted
from California Newsreel’s on-line catalogue at http://www.newsreel.org.)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Under-Development; Gender; Post-Colonialism; Agency
TOUKI BOUKI (The
Journey of the Hyena), 1973
85 minutes in Wolof
with English subtitles
Director: Djibril
diop Mambety
Distributor:
California Newsreel
Purchase Price: $195.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Critique
“Touki Bouki
opens with a mesmerizing shot of a boy leading a herd of prized white cattle to
market. These
symbols of Africa's promise and traditions are slaughtered in a sordid abattoir
to
feed the insatiable
appetite of Dakar's modern consumer society. As the boy returns to the
country, he passes
Mory, the film's hero (or anti-hero) riding to the city and a similar fate on a
motorcycle with
cattle horns mounted on its handlebars.
Mory and his
girlfriend, Anta, are African cousins of the outlaw couples in Bonnie and Clyde
and Pierrot le Fou. Like these New Wave heroes, they are alienated from their
society but can imagine freedom only in the glittering images of the mass
media. They lead us on an exhilarating,
picaresque adventure
through a cross-section of Dakar society in a desperate search for the money
to escape to Paris.
Just as their ship is about to sail, Mory, realizing perhaps that France is
itself an
illusion, darts from
the ship leaving Anta to her fate. He is left facing a sea glistening with
possibility but no
way to cross it.
‘The theme Touki
Bouki introduced in 1973, the search for authentic values in a "modernizing"
Africa, has
preoccupied many African directors. For example, could the deranged, mystical
motorcyclist in fellow
Senegalese Amadou Seck's film Saaraba, which means Saaraba and Utopia
in Wolof, represent
Mory and Senegal, only twenty years older? Both Saaraba and Touki
Bouki
argue that a better
life for Africans must be built in Africa not France; that the only sea that
needs
to be crossed is
one's own imagination.
(Critique by Manthia
Diawara, New York University and quoted from California Newsreel’s
online
catalogue.)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Modernity/Post-Modernity/Post-Colonialism
WEND KUUNI (God’s
Gift), 1982
70 minutes with
English subtitles
Director: Gaston
Kaboré
Distributor:
California Newsreel
Purchase Price:
$150.00
Renal Price: $95.00
Synopsis
In Wend Kuuni Gaston
Kaboré incorporates oral storytelling qualities as he details the story of a
child who is
traumatized by the death of his mother and adopted by a warm family. The film takes
the audience to the
period before colonialism.
Critique
“The story is set in
pre-colonial times in the Mossi empire of the 15th century. While the story
seems very simple,
it deals with issues that are still important.
The movie begins with a scene
where a woman is
mourning because her husband has disappeared.
She does not know if he is
dead, but he has
been gone for so long that the village community is pressing her to marry
another
man. Viewers don’t know when this scene is
happening, today or hundreds of years ago.
But she
decides to run away
with her son, because she does not want to marry somebody else.
The action then
shifts and we see a traveler finding a child lying in the bush, nearly dead
from
thirst. When the traveler revives the boy, he asks
him where he came from. But the child
cannot
speak, even though
he hears what the traveler is saying and understands him. The man leaves the
child with some
villagers. These people can’t locate
the child’s relations and let a family with just
one child adopt
him. They give the child the name Wend
Kuuni, which means God’s gift. After a
few years a family
quarrel causes such a scandal in the village that the man whose wife does not
want him hangs
himself. Wend finds the body, and he is
shocked into speaking again. Then the
daughter of the
family, Poguere (Rosine Yanago), who is very fond of Wend, asks him to tell her
where he came
from. It is then that viewers see what
happened to the mother shown at the
beginning of the
movie. We see her and her child being
chased from her village for being a
“witch.” After running as far as she can, she
collapses from exhaustion and dies while her child is
sleeping. When he wakes up, he sees that she is
dead. He runs away from his mother’s
body,
collapses, and is
found by the traveler.
A strong message in Wend
Kuuni is that life before colonization was not perfect for everybody.
Many scenes in the
movie make traditional life look democratic, but it also shows that people were
hardly equal at
all. Women have no power and even girls
like Poguere are punished more often
and more severely
than boys. Perhaps Wend Kuuni shows
that people today need to remember
traditions, but that
with democracy news traditions have to be negotiated.”
(Critique by Keyan
Tomaselli, Centre for Media and Cultural Studies, University of Natal, Durban.)
FOR FURTHER READING
Diawara,
Manthia. “Oral Literatures and African
Film: Narratology in Wend Kuuni.” Questions
of Third Cinema. Eds. Jim Pines and
Paul Willeman. London: British Film
Institute, 1989.
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Folklore; Tradition; Gender Relations
WORLD APART, 1985
113 minutes in
English
Director: Chris
Menges
Rental: This film is
available at most video stores.
Synopsis
“South Africa, 1963,
a nation polarized by apartheid and dehumanized by police state terror. When
idealistic
journalist Diana Roth defies the government, she becomes the first white woman
arrested
under the infamous
90‑day Detention Act. Thrown into
solitary confinement, Diana is separated
from her home,
friends, and lonely young daughter who is struggling to grow up in a country
convulsed by hate
and injustice.”
(From Indiana
University African Studies Program information.)
IN THE CLASSROOM
Teaching Handout
A World Apart,
is a film representation of a four month period in the life of one of South
Africa's
most celebrated families: The family of Ruth First and
Joe Slovo and their three daughters, are
represented in the film under the aliases of Gus and
Diana Roth. The story is told from the
perspective of Molly and Diana Roth. The story is told
from the perspective of Molly
Roth (Shawn Slovo who co‑produced the film) who
was a young teenager in 1963.
The story takes place in 1963, the period immediately
following the decision of the African
National Congress (ANC), (the primary anti‑Apartheid
resistance movement in South Africa), in
the aftermath of the arrest and imprisonment of its
top leadership (including Nelson Mandela), to
forsake its 50 year policy of peaceful protest for a
new initiative of direct resistance, including
armed struggle.
Diana Roth (Ruth First), imprisoned in the film, was
imprisoned under the Preventive Detention Act
on several more occasions and was finally forced into
exile in the early 1970s. She lived for
a number of years in England with her daughters where
she continued to be very active in the ANC
and in support of the anti‑apartheid
struggle. In 1977, several years after
the independence of
Mozambique, Ms. First moved to Maputo to take a
position at Eduardo Mondlane University (the
national university of Mozambique). In 1982 Ms. First was killed by a letter
bomb sent by the
South African Security service.
Gus Roth (Joe Slovo) who is absent from all but the
opening scene of the film, was forced into exile
for over 30 years (1963 ‑1994). For most of this period he lived in
Tanzania, Angola, Zambia and
Mozambique where he served as the most senior white
official in the ANC, become the commander
in chief of Umkhonto weSizwe (The Spear of the
Nation), the armed wing of the movement in
1990. In 1994
Slovo was appointed to be the national Minister of Housing in the post‑liberation
government. A
post that he held until his death in 1996.
Slovo is one of only three whites buried in
the Soweto City cemetery the largest cemetery in South
Africa.
(Teaching handout
from Dr. John Metzler, Michigan State University)
WOMEN WITH OPEN EYES
(Femmes Aux Yeux Ouverts), 1994
52 minutes French
with English subtitles
Director: Anne-Laure
Folly
Distributor:
California Newsreel
Purchase Price:
$195.00
Rental Price: $95.00
Synopsis
This film profiles contemporary
African women in four West African countries: Burkina Faso,
Mali, Senegal, and
Benin. We meet a woman active in the
movement against female genital
mutilation, a health
care worker educating women about sexually transmitted diseases, and business
women who describe
how they have set up an association to share expertise and provide mutual
assistance.
Critique
“Femmes Aux Yeux
Ouverts
is visually quite stunning and makes economical use of its 52
minutes to cover
many aspects of the roles of African women.
Although it begins with a poem by a
Burkinaabe women and
in Burkina Faso, by the end of the film the viewer has also seen footage
from Mali, Senegal,
and Benin. It is organized thematically
by titles flashed on the screen. Most
of
the women speak
French, with English subtitles provided.
The subjects covered include female
genital mutilation
(Burkina Faso), forced marriage and lack of property rights (Burkina Faso),
AIDS, the struggle
against poverty (Senegal, Mali, Benin), and political participation for women
(Benin, Burkina
Faso). The narration is multi-vocal,
often from activists involved in amelioration
of various aspects
of women’s situations. Although most of
these activities come from the elite, a
non-condescending
view of the situation of poor women is presented in many contexts; men are
heard from
occasionally; and the point is made firmly by a market woman that by
discriminating
against women ‘man
is destroying himself.’ The tone varies
from anger to dispassionate
observation, depending
on the speaker. Many of the women are
eminently quotable, and there is
significant footage
from the 1991 revolution in Burkina Faso, along with an interview with a
participant whose
daughter was killed in the women’s demonstration that was a key event. Also
included is an
extended interview with Mali’s first female governor (of Bamako), who does some
of
the narration. The film therefore has historical
ramifications in several aspects, but it is an
unintentional
historical document, not a historical documentary.
(Review by Claire
Robertson. American Historical Review 101.4 (Oct 1996): 1142-1143.)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Gender, Agency; Post-Colonialism
XALA, 1974
135 minutes in Wolof
and French with English subtitles
Director: Ousmane
Sembene
Distributor: New
Yorker Films
Purchase Price:
$250.00
Rental Price: $125.00
Synopsis
An African cinematic
adaptation of Ousmane Sembene's novel about a wealthy bourgeois
African businessman
who is stricken with the curse of impotence on the night he marries a
third wife.
Critique
This is a powerfully
build indictment of the corruption and decadence of some wealthy
minorities in
African nations. On one level, the film depicts the story of El Hadji, whose
downfall begins with
the curse of impotence. On another level, the physical impotence of El
Hadji is actually a
reflection of the moral, social, and economic impotence of his entire class.
Despite personal
wealth and power, the members of the film's fictitious 'Chamber of
Commerce' achieve
little of national or human relevance, while in the end, they are all
subservient to the
power of the Europeans they replaced. Throughout, the production is
layered by images of
cultural and spiritual poverty. El Hadji refuses to speak Wolof to his
daughter, drinks
only imported mineral water, plays the role of a good Muslim only when it
suits his purpose,
and completely alienates himself from the people of his rural origins.
It is this latter
transgression which proves to be the source of his curse, and it is before
these
people that he must
beg forgiveness in order to regain his last valued possession, his
manhood. Sembene's
message is clear, if not blatantly obvious, though throughout the film,
there are problems
with specifics. In part, these details are explained in the novel XALA, but
the gaps in the film
are still bothersome. The full reason for the curse is never specified,
except for a
relatively vague reference to El Hadji's diversion of vitally needed rice
shipments
from a drought‑famine
region. The end of the film, though powerful, seems unnecessarily
spectacular,
especially since specific motivation was not clearly established. Audiences not
aware of certain
customs, such as displaying the marital bed sheets to prove the bride's
virginity, will be
puzzled by some images and references. Indeed, the images of corruption
are so strongly
drawn as to appear cartoon‑like in the strength of the caricature.
Weaknesses
aside, the
production is effective in its intended goal, to expose and ridicule the
political and
economic policies of
'independence' which allow a few people to grow wealthy and decadent
while the majority
continues to be materially poor and powerless.
(Quoted from the
African Media Program Database of African Film, Michigan State University)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Class Relations; Gender; Post-Colonialism
YAABA, 1989
90 minutes with
English subtitles
Director: Idrissa
Ouedraogo
Distributor: New Yorker
Films
Synopsis
This feature film is
a haunting tale of a young boy who strikes up a friendship with an old woman
who has been shunned
as a witch by her community. The boy
demonstrates his affection for the old
woman by calling her
“Yaaba,” which means grandmother.
(Quoted from the
African Media Program Database of African Film, Michigan State University)
IN THE LANGUAGE AND
LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Conformity and Difference; Tradition
YEELEN, 1987
105 minutes with
English subtitles
Director: Souleymane
Cissé
Distributors: California Newsreel
Purchase price:
$350.00
Synopsis
Yeelen is an innovative
adaptation of the oral traditions on the Bambara people of Mali. The film
tells the story of
Nianankoro, a young warrior destined to destroy a corrupt older society.
Critique
“Yeelen explores the
primordial conflict between old and new, between father and son, which
cannot help but
remind Western viewers of the Oedipus myth.
In order to maintain the status quo,
Somo Diarra, the
father, must prevent his son, Nianankoro, from learning the secrets of the
feared
Komo cult. The elders of the Bambara villages even now
join this priestly caste which monopolizes
knowledge of
medicine, hunting and the occult.
“Nianankoro must
find the wing of Kore, a long wooden scepter symbolizing knowledge, which
alone can destroy
Komo. His mother gives him a missing
piece of the wing and tells him to flee the
Bambara land and
find his father’s identical twin, the blind prophet, Djigui, (played by the
same
actor) who will give
him the rest of the wing.
“Nianankoro’s mother
offers milk to the goddess of water, the mother of life, to protect him during
his journey. Along the way, Nianankoro kills his other
uncle, Baafing, who tries to stop him.
He
crosses the land of
the Peul or Fulani where the king gives him a wife, Attou, who will bear
Nianankoro a son.
“After traveling 500
miles, Nianankoro finds Djigui in the mountains of the land of the Dogon. His
uncle tells him of a
dream which accuses the Komo of using its knowledge for power rather than to
advance
science. As a result, Djigui predicts
their descendants will become slaves who will regain
their freed freedom
only after many years.
“Meanwhile, in a
forest, Somo Diarra and the rest of the rest of Komo practice their secret
ritual
and decide to
destroy Nianankoro before he finds the key to their destruction. His father
tracks
Nianankoro with the
pestle (or post) of the Komo, traditionally used by the Bambara to find lost
objects, including
thieves. In a final showdown,
Nianankoro and his father, armed with the wing of
Kore and the pestle,
not only destroy each other but scorch the Earth. Attou and Nianankoro’s son
survive to start a
new civilization; destruction gives birth to a cleansed society.
“Like all of Cissé’s
films Yeelen ends as it begins.
The globe of the sun rises on a day and a child
finds his way into
the world. This reflects the Bambara’s
sense of time as circular not linear.
In
the West, clock time
proceeds inexorably forward towards an undefined future. Bambara time
starts and stops,
moves at different speeds for different people, ultimately to reencounter its
own
beginning. In Cissé’s African vision of science fiction
the future lies inevitably in the past.
The flash of light,
of unmediated brightness, which ends the film destroys image, language,
narrative, the
overweening pride of human knowledge.
It brings us face to face with the Big Bang
of our own
creation. Past and future are reunited;
only we in the present must remember and
search.”
(Critique quoted
from Manthia Diawara’s article “Seeing Brightness.” California Newsreel
Catalogue. 1995-96.)
FOR FURTHER READING
Sherzer, Dina,
ed. Cinema, Colonialism,
Postcolonialism. Austin University of Texas Press, 1996.
USES IN THE LANGUAGE
AND LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics:
Folklore; Tradition-Modernity; Time-Space Nexus
ZAN BOKO, 1988
94 minutes in More
with English subtitles
Director: Gaston
Kabore
Distributor:
California Newsreel
Purchase price:
Rental price:
Synopsis
Zan Boko explores
the conflict between tradition and modernity, a central theme in many
contemporary African
films, such as Keïta and Ta Dona. It tells the poignant story of
a village
family swept up in
the current tide of urbanization.
Critique
Zan Boko expertly reveals
the transformation of an agrarian subsistence society into an
Industrialized commodity economy. Zan Boko is also
one of the first African films to
explore the
impact of the mass
media in changing an oral society into one where information is packaged and
sold. The film
provides viewers with a unique
opportunity to see our own televised
civilization
through the eyes of
the traditional societies it is
replacing.
(Quoted from the
African Media Program Database of African Film, Michigan State University)
USES IN THE LANGUAGE
AND LITERATURE CLASSROOM
Discussion Topics: Tradition;
Modernity; Urbanization; Impact of Electronic Media
C. DISTRIBUTOR
INFORMATION
AfroVisions
945 N. Pine
Lansing, MI 48906
Tel: 517-482-6669
California Newsreel
149 Ninth Street/420
San Francisco, CA
94103
Fax: 415/621-6522
E-mail:
newsreel@ix.netcom.com
http://www.lib.berkeley.edu/MRC/Newsreel
lac.html
Cinenova
113 Roman Road
London E2 OHU, UK
Tel: (44 181) 981
6828/Fax: (44 181) 983 4441
Facets Multimedia,
Inc.
1517 West Fullerton
Avenue
Chicago, IL 60614
Film Africa, LTD
PO Box 7151
Accra, Ghana
Telex: 2307 FMAFRI
GH
Macmillan Films
34 MacQuestion
Parkway South
Mount Vernon, NY
10550
Tel.: (914)664-5051
Mypheduh Films
P.O. Box 10035
Washington, D.C. 20018-0035
Tel: 202-289-6677/
Fax: 202-289-4477
1-800-524-3895
(outside Metro D.C. area)
http://shops.net/shops/sankofa/item-1.html
New Yorker Films
16 West 61st Street,
New York, NY 10023
Tel.: (212)-247-6110
Third World Newsreel
Camera News, Inc.
335 West 38th
Street, 5th Floor
New York, NY
10018-2916
Tel: (212)-947-9277
Fax: 212-594-6417
Villon Films
77 W. 28 Avenue
Vancouver, BC Canada
Tel./Fax: (604)879-6042
Women Make Movies
462 Broadway, Suite
500D
New York, NY
10013
Tel.: (212)-925-0606
E-mail:
disdept@wmm.com
D. Appendices
Africa On-Line
Other Lists
Web Sites On Africa and Related Topics
Internet Resources for Africa and African Studies
D. APPENDICES - Africa On-Line
A list of electronic
discussion groups and web sites devoted to the study of African film and
related
areas of interest.
I. Electronic Discussion Groups
a. H-NET LISTS
(1) H-AFRICA
H-AFRICA is an
international electronic discussion group sponsored by H-Net
(Humanities-On-Line) to provide a forum for discussing African history.
Subscribers to
H-AFRICA automatically receive messages in their computer mailboxes. These
messages can be
saved, deleted, copied, printed out, or forwarded to someone else. It is, in
some
ways, like a free,
daily newsletter. H-AFRICA might also be compared to an ongoing, moderated
"roundtable"
discussion with participants who happen to be all over the world.
H-AFRICA emphasizes
both the study and teaching of the African past, including a variety of
disciplines and
approaches to the history of the entire continent. We expect informed
discussions of
teaching and
research at all levels of interest and complexity.
H-AFRICA FEATURES
DIALOGUES ON AFRICAN HISTORY:
Subscribers may
submit questions, comments, reports and replies. H-AFRICA publishes research
reports and
inquiries, syllabi and course materials, bibliographies, listings of new
sources, library and archive information, and non-commercial announcements of
books, software, CD-ROM’s, and other resources in the field. H-AFRICA also
publishes announcements of conferences, fellowships, jobs, and commissioned
reviews of books, films, and software.
Questions sent to
H-AFRICA can range from the nitty-gritty ("I am planning a unit on
19th-century Islamic movements in West Africa; what source materials would be
good for my students to read?") to the general and infinitely ponderable
("What teaching strategies have people found successful in encouraging
students to take African medical practices seriously ?"). However,
inquiries that are too general ("I would like some suggestions for
readings on South Africa") or too specific ("Who was Isa M.
Lawrence?") often do not advance the dialogue. The editors will work with
subscribers to define such issues more clearly so that they will generate more
productive professional and scholarly discussion concerning African history.
H-AFRICA IS A
MODERATED LIST: Like all H-Net lists,
H-AFRICA is moderated by the editors to filter out inappropriate posts. All
submissions must be approved by the editors, who will not send out to the
general membership personal attacks (or "flames"), irrelevant
material (such as subscription requests, which will be handled privately),
commercial announcements, or items that do not further the professional and
scholarly dialogue. H-AFRICA is also completely non-partisan and will not
publish calls for political action.
The editors of H-AFRICA
will not alter the meaning of messages, but will, if necessary, add name
and e-address,
and/or modify the subject line of the post, so as to make evident connections
to
earlier discussions.
The editors will not inhibit the robust exchange of ideas on African history,
but do expect that disagreements will focus clearly on issues raised and not on
persons making the
arguments.
In certain cases,
the editors will be in touch with contributors either to clarify the content of
their
posts or to ask that
they frame them more emphatically within the parameters of H-AFRICA's
focus. The intention of such
communication is not to censor, but rather to define the professional and
scholarly character of H-AFRICA and to ensure that postings evoke the most
comprehensive
responses possible
from subscribers.
Subscriber
complaints regarding the editing of posts to the list will be reviewed by the
editorial board, whose members will advise the editors. The decisions of the
editors will then be final.
SUBSCRIBING TO H-AFRICA
To subscribe to
H-AFRICA, send a message with no subject and only this text to
listserv@h-net.msu.edu :
SUBSCRIBE H-AFRICA
Firstname Lastname Affiliation
You will receive a
confirmation of your request and a questionnaire with further instructions that
you will send back to the listserv. Your subscription should begin shortly
after we receive your
completed
questionnaire.
(2) H-AfrArts
H-AfrArts is an
international electronic discussion group sponsored by H-Net
(Humanities-On-Line)to provide a forum for the discussion and exploration of
African expressive culture.
Subscribers to
H-AfrArts automatically receive messages in their computer mailboxes. These
messages can be
saved, deleted, copied, printed out, or forwarded to someone else. It is, in
some
ways, like a free,
daily newsletter. H- AfrArts might also be compared to an ongoing, moderated
"roundtable"
discussion with participants who happen to be all over the world.
H-AfrArts emphasizes
both the study and teaching of African expressive culture, both past and
present, and invites contributions from individuals engaged in the humanistic
study of the entire continent. We expect informed discussions of teaching and
research at all levels of interest and complexity.
H-AfrArts also has
an editorial board broadly representative of the state of the discipline. For a
listing of current members of the editorial board, send a message to:
LISTSERV@H-NET.MSU.EDU, with no subject and this text: GET H-AfrArts EDBOARD
H-AfrArts FEATURES
DIALOGUES ON AFRICAN EXPRESSIVE CULTURE AND THE ARTS:
Subscribers may
submit questions, comments, reports and replies. H-AfrArts publishes research
reports and
inquiries (including dissertation and thesis abstracts), syllabi and course
materials,
bibliographies,
listings of new sources, library and archive information, and non-commercial
announcements of
books, software, CD-ROM’s, and other resources in the field. H-AfrArts also
publishes announcements of conferences, fellowships, jobs, and commissioned
reviews of books, films, and software.
Questions sent to
H-AfrArts can range from the nitty-gritty ("I am planning a unit on
contemporary
art in Ethiopia;
what source materials would be good for my students to read?") to the
general and
infinitely
ponderable ("What approaches have people found successful in creating a
curriculum for a survey of African art that deals with the entire
continent?"). However, inquiries that are too general ("I would like
some suggestions for readings on the art of West Africa") or too specific
("What is the size of the average Ife terracotta head?") often do not
advance the dialogue. The editors will work with subscribers to define such
issues more clearly so that they will generate more productive professional and
scholarly discussion concerning African history.
H-AFRARTS
Subscription Procedures
The easiest way to
subscribe to the H-AfrArts discussion list is to use our on-line subscription
form. Alternatively, you may subscribe
by sending the following message with no subject and only this text to listserv@h-net.msu.edu: subscribe h-afrarts Firstname Lastname, Your affiliation
You will receive a
confirmation of your request and a questionnaire with further instructions that
you will send back to the listserv. Your subscription should begin shortly
after we receive your
completed
questionnaire.
(3) H-AfrLitCine
H-AfrLitCine is an
international electronic discussion group sponsored by H-Net (Humanities
online), H-AFRICA, and officially sponsored by the African Literature
Association. H-AfrLitCine emphasizes
both the study and teaching of African literature and cinema. African Literature Association. H-AfrLitCine emphasizes both the study and
teaching of African literature and cinema.
Completely non-commercial and non-partisan, H-AfrLitCine encourages a
wide- ranging exchange of ideas and information on African literature and
cinema.
If you wish to join
H-AfrLitCine, please return the following information about yourself to:
Aflitcin@H-net.msu.edu
We will then add you
to the members directory and subscribe you to the list. Please be patient while your subscription is
being processed as it must be done manually.
If you do not hear from
us within one week
of returning this form, please contact us at the same address.
* * * *
* * * * *
* * * * *
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NAME:
POSITION/STATUS/OCCUPATION:
SCHOOL/INSTITUTION:
Graduate students,
please
indicate major
professor:
Undergrads, please
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recommending
H-AfrLitCine
faculty subscriber:
E-MAIL ADDRESS:
PRINCIPAL AFRICAN GEOGRAPHIC FOCUS:
TEACHING INTERESTS:
RESEARCH INTERESTS:
RECENT SCHOLARLY PUBLICATIONS (if any):
(4) H-AfrTeach
H-AfrTeach
encourages a wide consideration of both the possibilities and problems involved
in teaching about Africa in many educational settings. Our services are made
possible by H-Net, Humanities & Social Sciences OnLine, and through the
support of African Studies Centers at Michigan State University, Boston
University, and the University of Pennsylvania.
Our moderated
discussion list provides opportunities for teachers to share ideas and teaching
materials as well as raise questions concerning their teaching about Africa.
From time to time the editors also offer a variety of resources for regular
subscribers. Selected discussion threads from the list are available from this
site, as well as the complete message logs of H-AfrTeach.
H-AfrTeach generates
many resources, such as lesson plans, unit outlines, and course syllabi, plus
resource lists and complete bibliographies on topics (including individual
countries) for teaching. We also feature an ongoing collection of perspectives
on stereotypes often encountered in teaching about Africa. In addition, we have
a wide variety of links to other internet resources which may be helpful to
teachers. Each link is reviewed by the
editors, classified according to its potential usefulness, and accompanied by a
brief review.
With the aid of the
H-Net Review Project, H-AfrTeach regularly commissions reviews by teachers,
educators, and scholars of a wide variety of materials. In addition to texts,
videos, and CD-ROM materials, H-AfrTeach Reviews include general, adolescent
and children's literature. We encourage comments on these reviews from authors
and users of the materials on our discussion list.
H-AfrTeach
Subscription Procedures
Send the following
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subscribe h-afrteach
Firstname Lastname, Your affiliation
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(5) H-SAfrica
H-SAfrica, an
international electronic discussion group dedicated to the promotion of all
aspects of South African history. It is sponsored by the H-Net Humanities
Online, centered at the Michigan State University in America, by the East London
campus of Rhodes University in South Africa, and by the South African
Historical Association.
H-SAfrica can be
compared to a cross between an academic journal and a friendly academic
newspaper which is delivered to your electronic mailbox on an almost daily
basis. You will be provided with all
sorts of useful information, like international job adverts, book reviews,
conference announcements and calls for papers. You will be notified at times of
new computer software, websites, films and videos.
At the same time we
hope that you will join with us in mature discussions of on-going research, of
articles and academic papers, books and journals, methods of teaching and
debates on historiography. At the same time, H-SAfrica invites you to submit
bibliographies and syllabi, guides to term papers and lists of any new sources
or archives that you have come across.
In short, it is
hoped that H-SAfrica will be a useful voice in the cultivation of all aspects
of South
African historical
research.
HOW IT ALL WORKS
H-SAfrica works on
the Listserv program which is generated from the Michigan State University in
America. All messages are transmitted from the editors and are then relayed to
our subscribers all over the world. If
you as a subscriber wish to participate in any of the debates, you may do so
merely by pressing the reply key on your computer, when reading a message from
H-SAfrica. Your contribution will then be dispatched via Listserv to the
editor-on-duty who will forward it to all the other subscribers.
Your contribution
can be the provision of useful knowledge or posting a question which seeks
information. We would, however, encourage you to provide at least some
information before posing your query.
We do not, for instance, encourage such questions as "Can anyone
tell me what books I should read to learn about the Mlanjeni War?" It
would be far better to explain what books you have already read, describe what
your current conclusions are, and then pose your question. In that way the
readers may learn something in addition to helping you with your research.
H-SAfrica Subscription Procedures
Send the following
message with no subject and only this text to listserv@h-net.msu.edu:
subscribe h-safrica
Firstname Lastname, Your affiliation
You will receive a
confirmation of your request and a questionnaire with further instructions that
you will send back to the listserv.
Your subscription should begin shortly after we receive your completed
questionnaire.
b. Other Discussion
Groups
(1) African-Cinema-Conference
This conference is
for the discussion of AFRICAN CINEMA.
It is a moderated conference (so you'll not get unnecessary junk email),
and will have about 100 members to start with.
Using a conference/listserver is more efficient to get the news
out. Items to be sent out to
subscribers will include all sorts of information on African cinema, including
press releases about new books and articles, films and videos and other
resources available, or about news, events, information and opinions relating
to African cinema. The moderator is
Steve Smith (scs@dsr.us.net).
Members are
encouraged to send in bits of information to be posted to all. Members are also encouraged to ask questions
to the group of information they need, and to introduce themselves to the group
with a couple paragraphs about what they are doing that relates to African
cinema.
To send a message to
this conference, write to: african-cinema-conference@XC.Org
NOTE: Messages you send will *not* be sent back to
you. They *will* go to all other
subscribers to this conference. If you
ever want to remove yourself from this conference, you can send mail to
"hub@XC.Org" with the following command in the body of your email
message: unsubscribe
african-cinema-conference
II. Internet
Resources for Africa and African Studies
a. Web Sites On
African Film And Related Topics
(1) PANAFRICAN FILM AND TELEVISION FESTIVAL OF
OUAGADOUGOU (FESPACO) Site includes: Awards Winners; Fespaco'97; Publications; The
African film library; information on
Burkina Faso.
http://www.fespaco.bf/
(2) Extracts and
biographical data on African literature writers
http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/hss/africana/voices.html
(3) Francophone
African poets available in English translation
http://www.uflib.ufl.edu/hss/africana/poets.html
(4) Links to other
sites, such as: H-African Literature & Cinema
http://www.h-net.msu.edu/~aflitweb/
(5) "In the
World of African Literatures”
This site was
developed by the French Dept. at the University of Western Australia in
Perth. It includes a bibliography of
Francophone African women writers (in French), unpublished interviews, an
unpublished novel, and a novel for young readers.
http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/AFLIT/FEMEChomeEN.html#english
or
http://www.arts.uwa.edu.au/AFLIT/FEMEChome.html#french
(6) "A-Z of
African Studies on the Internet".
http://www.library.uwa.edu.au/sublibs/sch/sc_ml_afr.html
(7) Index on
Africa.
The Norwegian
Council for Africa is proud to present the most comprehensive guide to Africa
on the Internet yet. Index on Africa is
a catalogue of Africa resources on the Net. It contains more than 2000 Africa
related links. The links are sorted in categories by theme or country.
http://www.interpost.no/fellesradet/engelsk/engindex.html
(9) California Newsreel.
Major U.S. distributor of African video & film.
http://www.newsreel.org/
b. Africa Links at MSU
(1) African Studies Center.
Includes weekly Tuesday Bulletin
newsletter of African studies resources, African Media Program,
Study Abroad Programs, and African Studies Outreach Resources. Outreach Coordinator, John Metzler, and
Director, David Wiley, phone: 517-353-1700; email: wiley@pilot.msu.edu, metzler@pilot.msu.edu; address: 100 International
Center, MSU, East Lansing, MI 48824-1035.
http://www.isp.msu.edu/AfricanStudies/
(2) National Consortium for Study in Africa.
A list of all Africa study abroad programs in U.S.
http://www.isp.msu.edu/ncsa/ - E‑mail:
ncsa@pilot.msu.edu (or Wiley & Metzler above)
(3) Office for International Students and Scholars
David Horner, Director, phone: 517‑353‑1720,
email: hornerd@pilot.msu.edu; address: 103 International Center, MSU, East
Lansing, MI 48824-1035.
http://www.isp.msu.edu/OISS/
(4) MSU Office of Study Abroad
Cindy Chalou, Assistant Director, phone: 517‑353‑8920,
chalouc@pilot.msu.edu; address: 109 International Center, MSU, East Lansing, MI
48824-1035.
http://study‑abroad.msu.edu/
(5) AFRI database of
Africana materials in 18 major U.S. university libraries
To access, type in
website, then choose: MAGIC via TN3270; tab twice down to “command” line and
type “dial magic”; then choose “4 - indexes to articles”; then choose AFRI.
http://www.lib.msu.edu/magicplus/magic.html
c. Africa-Related
Organizations
(1) African Studies
Association http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Home_Page/ASA_Menu.html
(2) Africa News
On-Line
http://www.africanews.org/
(3) Association of
Concerned Africa Scholars
http://www.prairienet.org/acas/
(4) Africa Policy
Information Center/Washington Office on Africa http://www.igc.apc.org/apic/index.shtml
(5) Council for the
Development of Social Science Research in Africa (CODESRIA) (Dakar)
http://wsi.cso.uiuc.edu/CAS/codesria/codesria.htm
d. H-Net Africa
Discussion List Websites
H-Africa - http://www.h‑net.msu.edu/~africa/
(predominantly history)
H-SAfrica - http://www.h‑net.msu.edu/~safrica/ (predominantly SA history)
H‑AfrArts - http://h‑net2.msu.edu/~artsweb/welcome/index.html (all African arts)
H-AfrLitCine -
http://www.h‑net.msu.edu/~aflitweb/ (all
Africa literature and cinema)
H-AfrTeach - http://www.h‑net.msu.edu/~afrteach/ (college, university, & K-12
education)
e. Websites Indexing
Africa Internet Resources and Weblinks
(1) H-Africa
Internet Sources
http://www.h‑net.msu.edu/~africa/internet/index.html
(2) Africa on the
Internet: Starting Points for Policy Information
http://www.igc.apc.org/apic/bp/inet6.html
(3) American
Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Sub‑Saharan Africa
Program User's Guide to Electronic Networks in Africa http://www.aaas.org/international/africa‑guide/index.html
(4) Africa Weblinks
and Resource List (U. Pennsylvania) http://www.sas.upenn.edu/African_Studies/Home_Page/WWW_Links.html
(5) Africa South of
the Sahara: Selected Internet Resources http://www‑sul.stanford.edu/depts/ssrg/africa/guide.html
(6) Africa News
Resources - http://newo.com:80/news/news_location.htl?lctn_search=10000
f. Study Abroad and
International Student & Scholar Resources
(1) State Department
Travel Warnings & Consular Information Sheets
http://travel.state.gov/travel_warnings.html
(2) Centers for
Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)
Provides travel
health information.
http://www.cdc.gov/
(3) Immigration and
Naturalization Service at the Department of Justice
http://www.ins.usdoj.gov/
(4) NAFSA
An association of
international educators is a leading organization in the field of
international
education.
http://www.nafsa.org/nafsa/
-Council of Advisers to Foreign Students and Scholars
(CAFSS) http://www.nafsa.org/educator/cafss.html
Section on U.S. Students Abroad (SECUSSA) http://www.nafsa.org/educator/secussa.html
(Updated March 6, 1998)