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| Mbissine Thérèse Diop as Diouana in Ousmane Sembene's Black Girl (1966). |
Hey guys, Steph here. It's been a while since I've written anything a bit personal so I'm making a comeback with this piece.
I have recently been watching a lot of African movies, especially from the francophone West African countries i.e. Senegal and Mali and it's like I've discovered a whole new way of storytelling, African storytelling which unlike Nollywood doesn't just regurgitate Hollywood conventions into Nigerian settings but gives more nuance to African characters and places like I've honestly never seen before. I must point out though that some of them do seem to borrow from European cinema conventions especially French cinema but I guarantee that they are not just limp copies. It's important for me to note at this point that I am a film student so this is somewhat important to me, scratch that very important.
I've been looking into African cinema since about last year but in the wake of all the Black Panther frenzy, it has made me wonder about authentic voices from this continent and their place in the wider international world. Granted we've had powerful literary voices but cinema has been lacking, I feel, well at least in my own scope.
Before I highlight the few films I want to talk about, I'd like to point out what especially draws me to these class of films apart from their inherent Africanness. First is their use of language, there is a clear demarcation between the borrowed language i.e. the language of the coloniser and the local language, with a clear back and forth between the two. Which leads to my next point; heightened awareness of their socio-political issues, sometimes colonial, sometimes local but always aware of the structures in place. Being someone who has grown up with Nollywood home videos, which I'm in a love-hate relationship with, I found this take really refreshing and what shocked me, even more, is these works date as far back as the 60's. Anyway let me hop into my favourite films so far, I hope to do more of these, so let's consider this part I.
P.S. spoilers ahead.
Xala (1975). Ousmane Sembene.
Ousmane Sembene is widely regarded as the father of African Cinema and who really wants to contest that? Ranging across genres Sembene's film are social portraits of characters sometimes real sometimes caricature-esque and almost always politically committed. My favourite though so far, I still have a few more of his films left to watch, is Xala. Xala is probably my favourite because it is satirical, which gives it the license to make big comments about the Senegalese bourgeoisie. Xala follows El Hadji who after getting a big check from his food import business decides to take a 3rd wife with a lavish wedding. When the time comes for him to consummate the marriage he is met with an erectile dysfunction, which they identify as the titular curse, Xala. This then starts a string of his problems, he consults various marabouts to help him lift the curse, one of them sternly warns him "what one hand removes, another can put back". He pays the marabouts with checks that bounce and soon his imports stop coming in, he loses his third wife and eventually his second then finally is disbarred from the chamber of commerce to which he belongs.
The best part of the film is possibly its opening, the film starts with the people of Dakar welcoming their first Senegalese chamber of commerce president with wild celebrations, where members of the chamber throw out almost all European artefact and then the Europeans themselves in bold gestures of patriotism, while indoors the same chamber members are presented with hearty sums of money and the president takes a white man as his advisor. This sets in the ironic tone and the back and forth as I mentioned between European sensibilities and traditional values. At one point El Hadji screams at his first daughter, the cynical and west-condemning student, Rama because she responds to him in Wolof when he speaks to her in French. He also boasts to her that he drinks only imported water (Evian) while she does not. The image of his limp manhood, for which he blames either one of his first two wives for but is actually caused by the beggars he maltreats and steals from, is a perfect representation of the uselessness and corruption of the Senegalese government, which as a Nigerian, I relate with.
Bamako (2006). Abderrahmane Sissako.
Bamako is the film that you've been waiting for. It's a film with the confidence to shed almost all filmic conventions and address real social issues head-on with real people. Bamako on one layer tells the story of a failing marriage with Mele, the nightclub singer and Chaka, an unemployed man, leading up to Chaka's suicide. But even that story rests in the background, in the foreground is a heated trial in Mele and Chaka's courtyard where the plaintiff is "African society" and the defendants are The World Bank and IMF, a clearly improbable case but Sissako uses this as a platform to raise most of Africa's issues with debt, immigration and lack of social amenities. Whether this film was only the trial or only Mele and Chaka's story it would be worth watching. Combining the slick storytelling of Mele and Chaka with the documentary style coverage of the trial, Sissako keeps us engaged with these two worlds. Sissako in an interview said he felt obliged to use his cinematic voice to give Africa a voice saying, "Africa is a continent that is spoken of often, but she rarely speaks for herself. I can make films, while so many others cannot". There is something I find so courageous and honest in this film because as an aspiring filmmaker I imagine it isn't easy to abandon conventional fiction tropes like narratives, protagonists and protagonist journeys/quests. He leaves all those behind to give him space to just tell the truth.
While I have mentioned that Mele and Chaka exist in the background of the film, it wouldn't quite be the same without it, what better way to give life to the issues discussed than to illustrate it in a chronically depressed and hopeless man with his failing marriage and ailing daughter. It is in this that I recognise the ingenuity of Sissako's filmmaking.
Hyènes (1992). Djibril Diop Mambéty.
Based on the Swiss-German satirical play, The Visit by Friedrich Dürrenmatt written in 1956, Hyènes (which translates to Hyenas) tells a story of a vengeful lover, Linguere Ramatou as a stupendously rich woman who returns back to her small village, Colobane that is kneedeep in debt. On her arrival, she offers to pay off the village's debt under one condition, that they kill her ex-lover Dramaan Drameh, who after getting her pregnant left her to be exiled from her home.
At first, the townspeople oppose the idea, they are not savage and will not fall into the hands of greed but slowly they begin to spend more with no evident means of paying it back - except for Linguere's offer - they indulge gratuitously in Linguere's gifts; fans, fridges, an ostentatious fair, much to Dramaan's displeasure. In desperation, Dramaan seeks safety in the acting mayor and the soldiers but even they have bought new possessions, swanky new shoes from Dakar and a new typewriter. He sees the pattern spreading and attempts to leave on a train but even then he is ambushed.
Eventually, somehow, the village elders convince themselves that Dramaan has committed a crime and therefore must be punished for it by death. In an act of self-vindication, Dramaan lets them kill him acknowledging the truth of the greed that crawls beneath his people's skin. This story of revenge takes a critical look at consumerism, neocolonialism and also herd mentality as the elders round themselves up against Dramaan like a pack of Hyenas ready to feast on their prey.
So there are a lot more films I want to talk about some new releases and some by women, YES AFRICAN WOMEN IN CINEMA. That statement alone makes me cry but I'll leave that to another post and thank you for reading this one, I hope you check out the films and more.
