cinemas of the south

Panorama of West African Cinema Today
A Perpetual Phase of Renewal
By Clement Tapsoba

To examine the situation of West African cinema today is to examine the situation in the three geopolitical sections that make up the region : Francophone, Anglophone and Lusophone i. e. Portuguese-speaking(1). Les cinémas d'Afrique occidentale se caractérisent par leur richesse et leur diversité.

Touki Bouki (1973)

West African cinema, which is characterised by its richness and diversity, was born in 1955 (Africa on the Seine by Paulin Soumanou Vyera et Mamadou Sarret). It developed from the 1960s in a uneven fashion in the geopolitical ensemble from one country to another.

Since that period, African cinema has become synonomous with Francophone cinema because it is from this zone that emerged such directors as Sembene Ousmane from Sénégal, Oumarou Ganda and Moustapha Alassane from Niger, Cissé Souleymane from Mali, Med Hondo from Mauritania and Désiré Ecré and Tmité Bassori from the Ivory Coast. Their films with mainly political themes, dominated West African cinema until the mid-70s. These films of contestation developed themes such as the rapport between tradition and modernity, the tension between the classes and the denunciation of neo-colonialism and the new African bourgeoisie etc. and were marked by a didactic aesthetic with a duty to educate the population. Touki Bouki (1973), by the sénégalais Djibril Diop Mambety, without truly departing from the didactic aesthetic, was nevertheless a landmark in a new form of writing which approached probelms other than those of the present.

At the start of the 70s the cinema that came out of anglophone West Africa did not have the same pretentions as those from the francophone countries.. This cinema was much more concerned with the individual such as a film by Kwaw Ansah (Love Brewed in The African Pot (L'amour mijote dans la marmite africaine) from Ghana. Ola Balogun from Nigéria was inspired by the yorouba theatre based on the dance, the music and the comedy which successfully exploited popular cinema (Ajani Ogun, 1973; Music Man, 1976, Money power, 1981). Balogun became considered the father of African musical cinema.

There was a real profound change in the aesthetics of the films at the beginning of the 1980s stretching into the mid-90s. In two countries, Burkina Faso and Mali, directors from the second and third generation turned to the myths and tales of Africa in order to give value to African culture. Among these significant films one could mention Wend Kuuni (1982) by Gaston Kaboré; Yaaba (1987) and Tilai by Idrissa Ouédraogo; Finye (1982) and Yeelen (1987, jury prize at Cannes 1987) by Soulemane Cissé; Nyanmanton (1986) by Cheick Omar Sissoko. In the same vein, coming from anglophone West Africa, Ghana to be exact, only the film, Heritage Africa  (1989) by Kwaw Ansah, is worth mentioning.

Concerned to bring African cinema closer to the public, the Ivoirien of Guinéean origin, Henri Duparc, created a popular comic cinema (Bal poussière, 1986; Le sixième doigt, 1990; Rue princesse, 1993). If the themes of the majority of films, above all from Burkina Faso, were set in a village, the new films began tackling urbanisation during the 90s (Laafi, 1991 by Pierre Yaméogo).

Yeelen (1987)

The emergence at the beginning of the 90s of a new generation of directors made no contribution to the renewal of the aesthetic of films. African cinema became a hybrid. By means of fiction or documentary, African directors, products of immigration, looked for a way of going beyond the theme of immigration which had impregnated the films of their elders such as Med Hondo: Les bicots nègres nos voisins, 1974; Sidney Sokhona: Nationalité immigré, 1975; Safrana, ou le droit à la parole, 1978). The new generation explored their identity by visiting the past and the present of their parent's countries (Immatriculation temporaire by Gahité Fofana, 2001; Allah tantou, 1991 by David Achkar; L'Afrance by Alain Gomis.) The Guineean origins of the majority of these young cinéastes was not unusual. The theme of immigration was questioned differently by these directors either by examining the interior with a more nuanced approach (Une Couleur Café, 1997, by Henri Duparc) or by reflecting on the search for oneself, such as the prize-winning Heremakono (2002) by the Mauritanian Abderrahmane Sissako.

The aesthetic renewal is equally a question of gender. Since the ‘90s, women directors have made their entry mainly with documentaries about the condition of African women. In fiction, the pioneer female directors were the Senegalise Safi faye whose Mossane (1996) treated, with great sensitivity, the revolt of a young woman against forced marriage, while the Burkinabè Fanta Régina Nacro tackled, in a comic tone, the relations between men and women (Puuk nini, 1995; Le Truc de konaté, 1998). In her first fiction feature (La nuit de la vérité, 2004) Nacro's shows the conflicts in Africa from the point of view of the female protagonists.

The directors of the first and second generation revealed their willingness not to reinforce the aesthetics of West African cinema. Among the remarkable films worth mentioning are: Le franc (1994), Hyènes (1992), La petite vendeuse de soleil (1999) by Djibril Diop Mambéty; Buud Yaam (1999) by Gaston Kaboré; Guelwara (1993); Faat kiiné (2000) by Ousmane Sembène; Waati (1994) by Souleymane Cissé; Finzan (1989), Guimba (1995), La genèse (1999) by Cheikh Omar Sissoko; Au Nom du Christ (1992) by the Ivoirien Gnoan Roger Mbala, and Sya, le rêve du python (2001) by Dani Kouyaté from Bukina Faso.

The late accession of independence of Guinée Bissau et Cape Verde respectively in 1974 and 1975 did not have much influence in the cinematic production in the two Portuguese-speaking countries. The cinema in this part of West Africa was reduced to a few individuals: Flora Gomès from Guinée Bissau, whose films (Mortu Nega, 1988, The Blue Eyes of Yonta, 1990, Po di Sangui, 1996, Nha Falla, 2002) are constructed essentially around the theme of the war of liberation of her country.

The tendency to upset the forms, to borrow from other genres to tell the story of Africa and to approach taboo subjects (nudity, incest, homosexuality, infanticide) was avoided by the vast majority of African directors of all generations. The first to break these taboos was the Ivoirien Désiré Ecaré (Visage de femmes, 1985) which showed an erotic sequence between an adulterous couple. Jo Gai Ramaka in Carmen Gaï (2000) evoked the theme of homosexuality and Mohamed Camara from Guinée put it at the heart of Dakan (1997). These films did not receive a favourable welcome in Africa.

La Nuit de la vérité (2004)

Since the ‘90s, African cinema has lived through a critical period marked by the difficulty of financing films d'auteur, and the closure of cinemas, because of the proliferation of video players in the urban centres. This situation, brought about a change in the position of directors vis-a-vis the treatment of political and cultural reality and cinema itself. The majority of West African directors have to find a balance between the use of the new digital technology, new narrative forms and the need to satisfy the public for African cinema, who most often ignore films d'auteur.

The Ghanian and Nigerian experience cannot leave us indifferent. Nigeria, which has become a magnet of the production of video films in Africa, is now dubbed Nollywood. Nigeria produces more than 2000 features annually: soap operas, crime dramas, horror movies and musicals, every genre made at the lowest cost with a guaranteed success with the public. In Francophone Burkina Faso, this genre of cinema has definitely caught on since the beginning of 2000. Boubacar Diallo had a relative success with police thrillers (Traque à Ouaga, 2003, Code Phoenix, 2005), a sentimental comedy (Sofia, 2004), and an African-style Western (L'or de younga, 2006). And this example is being emulated by others. The cinema in the region has been renewed thanks to the new genre films, even if the quality of the films does not guarantee that they will be shown at the prestigious international festivals. The cinema of West Africa is in a phase of perpetual renewal in which many questions still need to be answered.

Clement Tapsoba
© FIPRESCI 2006

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