Schirmer Encyclopedia of Film

AFRICA SOUTH OF THE SAHARA
Africa south of the Sahara is one of the most destitute
regions of the world. In 2002 its gross national income
per capita was US$450, one-tenth that of Latin America.
Not surprisingly, the promotion of economic development,
especially through initiatives by groups such as
New Partnership for Africa’s Development (NEPAD),
is the most pressing issue for this area and indeed for
all of Africa, which is the only continent in the world that
has grown poorer in the last twenty-five years.
Film production is tenuous at most, and concentrated
mostly in Nigeria and South Africa. Problems of
financing remain part of a vicious circle that continues to
hinder the full development of African film industries.
One of the key challenges is the struggle to control modes
of production, exhibition, and distribution. The continuing
dominance of foreign interests in these areas has, in
part, spurred an ongoing debate throughout the decades
concerning the appropriate filmic modes of representing
African cultural identity.
BEGINNINGS
Cinema first came to the French-colonized territories of
Africa south of the Sahara in 1900 when a French circus
group projected the Lumière brothers’ L’arroseur arrosé
(Watering the Gardener, 1895) in a Dakar marketplace.
The early European films were admired and even feared
for their potential to capture people in real-life situations.
Distribution and exhibition expanded accordingly in
major cities to meet the demands of this novelty. There
was no question, however, of sub-Saharan Africans producing
or directing films, even though their continent
became a ‘‘fashionable’’ subject for ethnologists, research-
ers, missionaries, and colonial administrators eager to
document Europe’s ‘‘Other.’’
In South Africa, newsreels of the Anglo-Boer War
were filmed between 1898 and 1902. During the 1910s
and 1920s, the Boer and British tensions were overlooked
as whites stood together against indigenous peoples in
films such as Die Voortrekkers (Winning a Continent,
1916) and Symbol of Sacrifice (1918). Die Voortrekkers
provided inspiration for the American-produced The
Covered Wagon (1923).
Most sources claim the 1955 Senegalese production
Afrique-sur-Seine (Africa on the Seine) asthefirstfilm
shot by a black African. This short film by Paulin
Soumanou Vieyra (1925–1987) focuses on the lives
of several African students and artists living in Paris
as they contemplate Africa’s civilization, culture, and
future. However, other early productions include two
Congolese short films, La leçonducinema(The Cinema
Lesson, Albert Mongita, 1951), and Les pneus gonflés
(Inflated Tires, Emmanuel Lubalu, 1953). In 1953
Mamadou Touré of Guinea shot a twenty-three–minute
short called Mouramani in which he glorifies the friendship
between a man and his dog. Ousmane Sembène
(b. 1923) of Senegal produced his famous first short,
Borom Sarret (1963), which deals with a day in the life
of a Dakar cart driver. By 1966, Sembène had produced
Lanoirede...(Black Girl ),thefirstfeatureinAfrica
south of the Sahara. Ghana’s first feature, No Tears
for Ananse (Sam Aryeetey, 1968), was inspired by a
traditional folktale. The first black South African
film was How Long Must We Suffer? (Gibsen Kente,
1976).
SCHIRMER ENCYCLOPEDIA OF FILM 49