Francophone African Cinema

Setting the stage for a critical encounter between Francophone African cinema and Continental European critical theory, this book offers a transnational and interdisciplinary analysis of 16 Francophone African films, including Bassek Ba Kobhio’s The Great White Man of Lambaréné, Cheick Oumar Sissoko’s Guimba the Tyrant, and Amadou Seck’s Saaraba. The author invites readers to study these films in the context of transnational conversations between African filmmakers and the conventional theorists whose works are more readily available in academia. The book examines black French filmmakers’ treatments of a number of cross-cultural themes, including intercontinental encounters and reciprocity, ideology and subjective freedom, governance and moral responsibility, sexuality and social order, and globalization. Throughout the work, the presentation of literary theory is accessible by both beginning and advanced students of film and culture.
Instructors considering this book for use in a course may request an examination copy here.

K. Martial Frindéthié is a professor of Francophone studies at Appalachian State University in Boone, North Carolina. An award winning author, his research interests include literature and film and the intersection of literature and political-ideological imagination.

K. Martial Frindéthié
Format: softcover (6 x 9)
Pages: 271
Bibliographic Info: 36 photos, appendices, notes, bibliography, index
Copyright Date: 2009
pISBN: 978-0-7864-3962-1
eISBN: 978-0-7864-5356-6
Imprint: McFarland

Acknowledgments      v

Preface      1

Introduction: Engaging African Cinema      3

1. “There Is No Conversation Here, My Boy”: Spectral Returns of Fanon and Hegel in Bassek Ba Kobhio’s The Great White Man of Lambaréné      7

2. The Language You Govern In: The Rise and Fall of the African Despot in Balufu Bakupa Kanyinda’s Le damier: Papa National oyé and Cheick Oumar Sissoko’s Guimba the Tyrant      22

3. Nostalgic Memories and Nomadic Spirits: Merzak Allouache’s Bab-El-Oued and Karim Dridi’s Bye-Bye      40

4. Allegorizing the Quest for Autonomy: Cheick Oumar Sissoko’s Finzan and Amadou Seck’s Saaraba      56

5. Writing the Soxual Order: Ousmane Sembène’s Faat Kiné and Ngangura Mweze’s La vie est belle      70

6. Cogito Must Have Gone Crazy: Construction and/as Deconstruction of Masculinity in Nouri Bouzid’s Bent Familia and Mufida Tlatli’s The Silences of the Palace      76

7. Keita: The Heritage of the Griot : Economic, Social, and Cultural Organization of Ancient Africa      88

8. Crisis in French Africa as Hexagonal Possibility: Globalization à la française      114

9. “There Is No Trade Going on There”: Tales from the Killing Fields of the Congo      171

Conclusion      224

Appendix A: King Leopold’s Mandate to His Missionaries      227

Appendix B: Speech of Baudouin I, King of the Belgians      229

Appendix C: Speech of Prime Minister Patrice Emery Lumumba      232

Notes      235

Bibliography      247

Index      253

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