cinema2020

AfricaCINEMATOGRAPHY

Since its inception, African cinema has been inscribed in a paradoxical condition that has accompanied it over time. Born, with rare exceptions, between the end of the fifties and the beginning of the sixties, as one of the effects of the dismantling of European colonial occupations (French, English, Italian, Belgian, Portuguese, Spanish), for social and political reasons has walked into the history of cinema with about fifty years behind most of the rest of the world. In this way, and surprisingly, in their pioneering phase many of the African cinemas were simultaneously close to the experiences of the transition from silent to sound and already impregnated - in the best cases - with new international moods,

This is the distinctive element of a composite and rich production, very different from one region to another, from one country to another on an immense continent populated by a multitude of national stories, from the Maghreb to Egypt, from. western to southern. Cinema has followed the trend of these stories: it has developed better where conditions of political stability allowed it; in some cases he was born, stopped and resumed several times in the same nation; hardly had a regular estate, except in the case of the Egyptian and South African colossus. Egypt was actually the only country to have developed, since the 1930s, a permanent industry (renamed 'Hollywood on the Nile') and a star system capable of reaching all the countries of the Arab world. The Republic of South Africa, although active as Egypt since the early decades of the 20th century, has in fact long been conditioned, also as regards cinema, by the apartheid segregationist policy. In the other cases, instead, we are faced with medium-small films that rarely have maintained a solid continuity, even in the most historically relevant examples (Senegal, Tunisia, Mali, Cameroon - from the fifties or sixties - and Burkina Faso - from the eighties ). It is easier to find authors who have been able to build exemplary personal filmographies over time, from the Senegalese Ousmane Sembène and Djibril Diop-Mambety to the Tunisians Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud and Nouri Bouzid, from the Malian Souleymane Cissé to the Cameroonian Jean-Marie Téno, up to the Burkinabé Idrissa Ouédraogo. Since the early decades of the 20th century, Egypt has in fact long been conditioned, even as regards cinema, by the apartheid segregation policy. In the other cases, instead, we are faced with medium-small films that rarely have maintained a solid continuity, even in the most historically relevant examples (Senegal, Tunisia, Mali, Cameroon - from the fifties or sixties - and Burkina Faso - from the eighties ). It is easier to find authors who have been able to build exemplary personal filmographies over time, from the Senegalese Ousmane Sembène and Djibril Diop-Mambety to the Tunisians Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud and Nouri Bouzid, from the Malian Souleymane Cissé to the Cameroonian Jean-Marie Téno, up to the Burkinabé Idrissa Ouédraogo. Since the early decades of the 20th century, Egypt has in fact long been conditioned, even as regards cinema, by the apartheid segregation policy. In the other cases, instead, we are faced with medium-small films that rarely have maintained a solid continuity, even in the most historically relevant examples (Senegal, Tunisia, Mali, Cameroon - from the fifties or sixties - and Burkina Faso - from the eighties ). It is easier to find authors who have been able to build exemplary personal filmographies over time, from the Senegalese Ousmane Sembène and Djibril Diop-Mambety to the Tunisians Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud and Nouri Bouzid, from the Malian Souleymane Cissé to the Cameroonian Jean-Marie Téno, up to the Burkinabé Idrissa Ouédraogo. by apartheid segregationist politics. In the other cases, instead, we are faced with medium-small films that rarely have maintained a solid continuity, even in the most historically relevant examples (Senegal, Tunisia, Mali, Cameroon - from the fifties or sixties - and Burkina Faso - from the eighties ). It is easier to find authors who have been able to build exemplary personal filmographies over time, from the Senegalese Ousmane Sembène and Djibril Diop-Mambety to the Tunisians Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud and Nouri Bouzid, from the Malian Souleymane Cissé to the Cameroonian Jean-Marie Téno, up to the Burkinabé Idrissa Ouédraogo. by apartheid segregationist politics. In the other cases, instead, we are faced with medium-small films that rarely have maintained a solid continuity, even in the most historically relevant examples (Senegal, Tunisia, Mali, Cameroon - from the fifties or sixties - and Burkina Faso - from the eighties ). It is easier to find authors who have been able to build exemplary personal filmographies over time, from the Senegalese Ousmane Sembène and Djibril Diop-Mambety to the Tunisians Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud and Nouri Bouzid, from the Malian Souleymane Cissé to the Cameroonian Jean-Marie Téno, up to the Burkinabé Idrissa Ouédraogo. Tunisia, Mali, Cameroon - from the 1950s or 1960s - and Burkina Faso - from the 1980s). It is easier to find authors who have been able to build exemplary personal filmographies over time, from the Senegalese Ousmane Sembène and Djibril Diop-Mambety to the Tunisians Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud and Nouri Bouzid, from the Malian Souleymane Cissé to the Cameroonian Jean-Marie Téno, up to the Burkinabé Idrissa Ouédraogo. Tunisia, Mali, Cameroon - from the 1950s or 1960s - and Burkina Faso - from the 1980s). It is easier to find authors who have been able to build exemplary personal filmographies over time, from the Senegalese Ousmane Sembène and Djibril Diop-Mambety to the Tunisians Mahmoud Ben Mahmoud and Nouri Bouzid, from the Malian Souleymane Cissé to the Cameroonian Jean-Marie Téno, up to the Burkinabé Idrissa Ouédraogo.

For political reasons, or for lack of adequate support, some of the reference cinemas of the 1960s and 1970s have almost completely disappeared, such as those of Algeria, Angola, Niger, Nigeria. Furthermore, if in some cases the colonizers (in particular the French and partly the British, e.g. in Ghana) had invested in cinema as a propaganda tool, thus leaving traces and a minimum of structures, elsewhere colonization (such as Italian in Libya and Eritrea) and then internal wars prevented the birth and growth of cinema (the long list includes Botswana, Equatorial Guinea, Liberia, Malawi, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Zambia etc.).

The spread of other forms of audiovisual communication made it possible, in the 1990s, to limit this gap, allowing both filmmakers to continue their work without having to wait for the times of national and international grants (which are often the source of new and worrying cultural colonizations), and to films that until now have been virtually absent from the continental scene, from Eritrea to Namibia, to start producing their own images, to document local history and stories with indigenous glances. Going into the specifics of these 'marginal' cinemas, you will notice that they all come from A. sub-Saharan, or from the heart of the continent, from its poorest areas, devastated first by colonization and then by national regimes, while the idea of ​​an A. free and autonomous,

Northern Africa

For the films of the countries of this area, all of Arabic language and culture, see the individual items: Morocco , Algeria , Tunisia , Libya , Egypt .

West Africa

People's Republic of Benin . - In. western (where the guide films are those of Senegal , Guinea , Mauritania , Mali , Burkina Faso , Ivory Coast , Ghana , Niger , Nigeria) Benin (French colony with the name of Dahomey until 1960) had its pioneers in Pascal Abikanlou and Richard de Medeiros. In 1974 (the year in which the Marxist-Leninist regime was proclaimed which changed the name of the state the following year) Abikanlou, active since 1966 with a series of documentaries, shot Sous le signe du vaudou, first national feature film, clash between the traditions of the villages and the pitfalls of the cities. Three years later, de Medeiros, whose filmography was inaugurated in 1970, debuted in the fiction feature film with Le nouveau venu, in which the clash between a corrupt official and a 'newcomer' of the administration is presented in an original way who wants to change the state of affairs. However, the government did not adequately support cinema, and the designated structure (Office national du cinéma du Dahomey, ONACIDA, which became in 1974 Office béninois du cinéma, OBECI) has failed in its mandate. The eighties saw the appearance of François Sourou Okioh, author of Ironou (1985, known with the title Méditations), on political and ideological repression, while in the following decade Sanvi Panou, with Pressions (1999), staged the bizarre relationship between an elderly white woman and a young black man. If Mora Kpai-Idrissou has made short films between Benin and Germany, the self-taught Jean Odoutan has given new breath to this cinematography with feature films marked by a dense vein of madness: Barbecue-Pejo (1999), Djib (2000), Mama Aloko ( 2001). The eighties saw the appearance of François Sourou Okioh, author of Ironou (1985, known with the title Méditations), on political and ideological repression, while in the following decade Sanvi Panou, with Pressions (1999), staged the bizarre relationship between an elderly white woman and a young black man. If Mora Kpai-Idrissou has made short films between Benin and Germany, the self-taught Jean Odoutan has given new breath to this cinematography with feature films marked by a dense vein of madness: Barbecue-Pejo (1999), Djib (2000), Mama Aloko ( 2001). The eighties saw the appearance of François Sourou Okioh, author of Ironou (1985, known with the title Méditations), on political and ideological repression, while in the following decade Sanvi Panou, with Pressions (1999), staged the bizarre relationship between an elderly white woman and a young black man. If Mora Kpai-Idrissou has made short films between Benin and Germany, the self-taught Jean Odoutan has given new breath to this cinematography with feature films marked by a dense vein of madness: Barbecue-Pejo (1999), Djib (2000), Mama Aloko ( 2001). he staged the bizarre relationship between an elderly white woman and a young black man. If Mora Kpai-Idrissou has made short films between Benin and Germany, the self-taught Jean Odoutan has given new breath to this cinematography with feature films marked by a dense vein of madness: Barbecue-Pejo (1999), Djib (2000), Mama Aloko ( 2001). he staged the bizarre relationship between an elderly white woman and a young black man. If Mora Kpai-Idrissou has made short films between Benin and Germany, the self-taught Jean Odoutan has given new breath to this cinematography with feature films marked by a dense vein of madness: Barbecue-Pejo (1999), Djib (2000), Mama Aloko ( 2001).

Togo. - The cinematography produced in Togo (French colony until 1970) also had an episodic character. Metonou Do'Kokou, known as Jacques Quenum, and Kodjo Gonçalves made their debut in the 1970s. Two fiancés leave the village in the illusion of finding luck in the city in Quenum's short film Kwami (1975), while the documentary filmmaker Gonçalves was appreciated for Au rendez-vous du rêve Abeti (1979). Original, and rare in African cinema, was the path of Clem Clem Lawson, who made the animated film Bienvenue en Métropotamie (1982), a satirical reading of the Paris metro. A young woman is the protagonist of Kilizou Blaise Abalo Kawilasi's feature film (1992);

Guinea-Bissau. - The former Portuguese colony of Guinea-Bissau, independent since 1974 after eleven years of guerrilla warfare, has produced a small but active cinematography, led by Sana Na N'Hada and Flora Gomes. In the late seventies the two filmmakers co-directed the militant short films Regreso de Cabral (1976) and Anos no oça luta (1978). In the same period the Instituto Nacional do Cinema (1977) was born. The debut feature of this film is due to Umban U'Kset: N'Turuddu (1986, The mask) is a fantastic journey, between fiction and documentary, of a boy who wants to reach the capital to take part in the carnival. Gomes landed on the feature film with Mortu Nega (1987, The One Who Didn't Want Death), in which the theme of war is still in the foreground; he then recounted Guinea-Bissau of the years immediately following Yonta's declaration of independence in Udju azul (1992; Yonta's blue eyes). They are the two best films of the director, who later let himself be overwhelmed by the mannerism in Po di sangui (1996, The tree of souls), hermetic sliding on layers of ancient cultures, starting from the tree of souls to which it refers the title. Na N'Hada, on the other hand, only signed her first feature film, Xime, in 1994, set in the village that gives the film its title during the struggle for independence. who later let himself be overwhelmed by mannerism in Po di sangui (1996, The tree of souls), hermetic sliding on stratifications of ancient cultures, starting from the tree of souls to which the title refers. Na N'Hada, on the other hand, only signed her first feature film, Xime, in 1994, set in the village that gives the film its title during the struggle for independence. who later let himself be overwhelmed by mannerism in Po di sangui (1996, The tree of souls), hermetic sliding on stratifications of ancient cultures, starting from the tree of souls to which the title refers. Na N'Hada, on the other hand, only signed her first feature film, Xime, in 1994, set in the village that gives the film its title during the struggle for independence.

Liberia, Sierra Leone and Gambia. - Cinema in Liberia, Sierra Leone and Gambia is almost non-existent. In Liberia (independent since its formation in 1847) the civil war that began in 1989 has destroyed every structure, including that of television: to date there is no national cinematography, even in Sierra Leone (British colony until 1961) , one of the poorest countries on the African continent, torn apart by the civil war since the military coup in 1992, the state of tension and violence prevented even the slightest development of cinema and the audiovisual industry. Only a few documentary films and some fictional attempts have made sporadic attempts to get out of the dark. Gambia (British colony until 1965),

Capo Verde. - Nelle isole del Capo Verde (colonia portoghese fino al 1975), nell'Oceano Atlantico, l'attività cinematografica è scarsa. Nei primi vent'anni post-coloniali un posto di rilievo è stato occupato, da una parte, dalla Televisão Nacional do Cabo Verde (TNCV), che ha fatto realizzare da registi locali film sulla cultura popolare, e, dall'altra, dal Cineclub Popular di Praia, la capitale, nato sulle ceneri dello storico Cineclub (movimento multiculturale di resistenza brutalmente represso nel 1960 dalla polizia politica portoghese), che ha promosso la conoscenza del cinema e ha documentato gli avvenimenti salienti della storia nazionale. La terza istituzione presente nel Paese è l'Instituto do Cinema do Cabo Verde, nato nel 1977 per distribuire film stranieri e incentivare il cinema nazionale. Bisogna però attendere il 1994 per il primo lungometraggio a soggetto, Ilheu de contenda di Leão Lopes, nel quale viene affrontato il tema dell'identità capoverdiana raccontando la storia di una famiglia e del rapporto conflittuale e tormentato con la propria terra.

Central Africa

Gabon . - In the large central A., in addition to the more developed cinemas (such as those of Chad , Cameroon , Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of the Congo, for which v. Congo), particularly worthy of note is that of Gabon (French colony until 1960), whose history began in the seventies. The Center national du cinéma (CENACI) and Radiodiffusion télévision gabonnaise (RTG) are the state bodies that have guaranteed it some stability. Did Simon Auge make the character of Où vas-tu Koumba perform? (1971, co-directed by Alain Ferrari) a journey to discover the country; Philippe Mory in Les tams tams se sont tus (1972), dealt with the theme of the loss of traditions; Pierre-Marie Dong shot Identité (1972), on the crisis of an intellectual, and Demain, un jour nouveau (1979), biography of President O. Bongo, in power since 1967, and together with Charles Mensah he signed Obali (1977) and Ayouma (1978), reflections on the condition of women in traditional society. Finally in Ilombé (1979), filmed by Mensah and the Frenchman Christian Gavary, the story of a young man persecuted by the vision of a mysterious female figure is told. A series of three episodes, medium-length films for television, Orega (1999), based on the musical traditions of Gabon, was the debut work of Marcel Sandja. A new boost to Gabonese cinema was given by Léon Imunga Ivanga with Dôlè (1999), a story of friendship and dream set in the capital Libreville and told with absolute simplicity of gaze.

Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea, São Tomé and Príncipe . - In these countries the history of cinema is currently young, or very young. In the Central African Republic (French colony until 1960), marked by the brutal dictatorial regime of Colonel JB Bokassa (1966-1979), cinematographic activity is largely linked to the works of the documentary maker Joseph Akouissonne, author of Josepha (1974), portrait of one of the most famous African hairdressers in Paris, by Zo kwe zo (1981, known as Un homme est un homme), a journey through the main historical events of the country, and some documentaries on cinema in Africa. Léonie Yangba Zowe is responsible for Lengue (1985), N'Zale (1986) and Yangba-Belo (1987), documentaries on traditional dances.

In Equatorial Guinea (Spanish colony until 1968), continuously subjected to dictatorial regimes, cinema has not yet made its appearance. The brutality of successive governments and a very repressive censorship have also prevented the emergence of an audiovisual production.The two small islands of São Tomé and Príncipe (Portuguese colonies until 1975), located in the Gulf of Guinea, are sparsely populated and in severe economic difficulties, and only a few amateur products have been made.

East Africa

In A. orientale il cinema ha avuto uno sviluppo più limitato rispetto alle zone centro-occidentali. Le cinematografie più ricche sono state quelle di Sudan, Etiopia e Kenya, mentre hanno avuto storie meno corpose Eritrea, Gibuti, Somalia, Tanzania, Uganda, Ruanda e Burundi.

Somalia, Eritrea, Gibuti. - Come per altri Stati dell'A. orientale, spesso travolti da guerre e carestie, in Somalia (sotto amministrazione fiduciaria dell'Italia fino al 1960) il cinema non è cresciuto molto. I cineasti che hanno contribuito a mantenerlo in vita sono stati: Mohamed Hadj Giumale con la storia d'amore Miyi io magalo (1968, Città e villaggio); Idriss Hassan Dirié con Dan iyo xarago (1973, La realtà e il mito), ambientato durante il colpo di Stato del generale Siad Barre dell'ottobre 1969; Abdourahmane Artan con l'umoristico It is not a joke (1985); Abdulkadir Ahmed Said con i racconti fiabeschi Geedka nolosha (1989, L'albero della vita) e Aleel (1992, La conchiglia); Said Salah e Amar Sneh, che in The Somali darwish (1984) hanno narrato l'epopea del guerriero somalo Mohamed Abdullah Hassan e della resistenza alle truppe coloniali italiane. Negli anni Ottanta Mogadiscio è stata sede di un festival biennale di cinema, il Mogadishu Pan-African Film Symposium (MOGPAFIS), la cui prima edizione ha avuto luogo nel 1981: tale manifestazione sarebbe potuta diventare il principale punto di riferimento per i Paesi di area anglofona (così come in Burkina Faso il Festival panafricain du cinéma et de la télévision de Ouagadougou, FESPACO, v., lo è per l'A. occidentale francofona), ma non ha praticamente lasciato tracce.

È ancora agli esordi la cinematografia dell'Eritrea, Stato che ha raggiunto l'indipendenza nel 1993, dopo una lunga guerriglia (1961-1991) contro l'Etiopia. Temesghen Zehaie Abraha ha fondato nel 1993 gli Eritrean Video Services, che hanno prodotto i primi due lungometraggi eritrei, Barut (1997) e Minister (2000); entrambi trattano temi legati alla storia del Paese, dalle colonizzazioni straniere (Italia e Gran Bretagna) alla guerra con l'Etiopia. In particolare Minister è un viaggio epico-avventuroso, un melodramma politico, talvolta eccessivo, talvolta straniante, che fa ben sperare per il futuro del cinema dell'Eritrea.Gibuti (colonia francese fino al 1977) è ancora ai margini del cinema africano; agli anni Ottanta risalgono il mediometraggio documentario sugli eventi politici dal 1973 alla proclamazione dell'indipendenza, Frêle biche (1984, noto con il titolo Belle biche) di Moussa Farah, prodotto dalla Radiodiffusion télévision de Djibouti, e il lungometraggio satirico Moussa le grand (1984), girato in video da Ahmed Dini.

Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi. - Further south, Tanzania, Uganda, Rwanda and Burundi complete the picture of a cinematographically smaller area. Tanzania (born in 1964 from the union of Tanganyika, under British trusteeship until 1961, and Zanzibar, British protectorate until 1963) has a richer history. In this country cinema emerged in the seventies, and particular importance was attached to documentary activity, with Living together (1977) by Cyril Kaunga and other documentaries by Joe Mponguhana. The eighties proved richer: Nangayoma N'Goge and the American Ron Mulvihill created Arusi ya Mariamu (1983, Mariamu's marriage), on the vicissitudes of a sick woman, suspended between hospitals and healers; Hamie Rajab recounted the adventures of a loser in Watoto Wana Haki (1984). Martin R. Mhando was the director who worked more continuously; in particular he directed the feature film Yomba Yomba (1987), which stars a child and is the sequel to Fimbo ya Mnyonge, shot in the seventies by the Danish director Tørk O. Haxthausen; moreover in 1998 he signed with Mulvihill Maangamizi - The ancient one, meditation on the spirituality of man.In Uganda (British colony until 1962), another country destabilized by wars and dictatorships, cinema has not experienced a great development. The first director, Sao Gamba, emigrated to Kenya, where he has always worked. Other filmmakers, on the contrary, have struggled to get Uganda out of anonymity: Faustin J. Misanvu tackled the drama of AIDS with the medium-length film It's not easy (1991), produced by John Riber; Paul Bakibinga and Riber again dealt with the same topic, but with unbearable moralism, in the television educational series Time to care the dilemma (1998); Robby Wodomal denounced the law imposing marriages on girls in Girl child of Bwamba (1994); Finally, Lovinca Kavouma stood out with Kintu (1999), a short film on the procedures for obtaining fabrics from the bark of trees, halfway between documentary and fiction, which marks a possible beginning of Ugandan cinematography. Jacqueline Rose Nabagereka also contributed to the development of cinema in this country with some documentary works, including The revolution of women (2001). Robby Wodomal denounced the law imposing marriages on girls in Girl child of Bwamba (1994); Finally, Lovinca Kavouma stood out with Kintu (1999), a short film on the procedures for obtaining fabrics from the bark of trees, halfway between documentary and fiction, which marks a possible beginning of Ugandan cinematography. Jacqueline Rose Nabagereka also contributed to the development of cinema in this country with some documentary works, including The revolution of women (2001). Robby Wodomal denounced the law imposing marriages on girls in Girl child of Bwamba (1994); Finally, Lovinca Kavouma stood out with Kintu (1999), a short film on the procedures for obtaining fabrics from the bark of trees, halfway between documentary and fiction, which marks a possible beginning of Ugandan cinematography. Jacqueline Rose Nabagereka also contributed to the development of cinema in this country with some documentary works, including The revolution of women (2001).

Burundi and Rwanda (under Belgian trust until 1962) made their film debut in the 1970s, but then the war between the Hutu and Tutsi ethnic groups inexorably undermined the growth of these two young cinemas. In 1979 the Service du cinéma was created in Burundi, an institution whose role was however almost non-existent. In 1980 Jean-Michel Hussi Nyamusimba made Ni-Ni, a fiction short film, which tells the story and the fantasies of an African maid in Paris. Joseph Bitamba and Léonce Ngabo are still the reference filmmakers: Bitamba, president of the Bakame association for the production of animation works, directed Umuganuro in 1986 and in the 1990s various documentaries, including the short film Le métis (1996), where the mestizo of the title is a boy half of Hutu ethnicity and half Tutsi; Ngabo, in addition to shooting some short films for television, has instead signed the feature film Gito, the ingrat (1992), a comedy in which he tells of an African student who returned home from Paris, where he graduated, who he is besieged by both his French and Burundian girlfriends.

In Rwanda, the Rwandan Information Office produced Gaspard Habiyambéré's Amélioration deHAbitat rural au Rwanda (1975): it is one of the few examples of an almost non-existent cinematography (apart from some educational documentaries and newsreels), a consequence the lack of an adequate cultural policy and the tragic internal ethnic war; Habiyambéré also owes Manirafashwa (1986, known with the title L'enfant rwandais), where once again the starting point is given by a rural context.

Southern Africa

In southern A. (under the guidance of the cinemas, first of all in the Republic of South Africa , and then of Zimbabwe , Angola , Mozambique and Madagascar ), small cinemas meet, both continental and island.

Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland. - They are closely linked to the history of South Africa Namibia, Lesotho, Botswana and Swaziland, all countries in which cinema is actually yet to be born. In Namibia (annexed in 1946 to the Republic of South Africa with the name of Southwestern A., and independent since 1990, after almost thirty years of armed resistance), cinematography is mainly represented by Richard Pakleppa, author of historical documentaries (Tears of blood, 1993; I have seen - Nda mona, 1999, on the armed struggle against South Africa) and works of fiction (Sophia's homecoming, 1997, episode of the television series Africa dreaming). Other directors have also been active, such as Moses Mberira, who signed Birth of a nation in 1990; Cecil Moller, creator of numerous videos, including The naming (1997), where the difficult choice of the name to give to the son by a couple of different cultures is told; and finally Bridget Pickering, author of Uno's world (2001), also rich in narrative and visual elements typical of the television serials.

Lesotho (British protectorate with the name of Basutoland until 1966) is being born cinematically thanks to the audiovisual structures managed by the Ministry of Information and Television. The white South African Don Edkins has been committed to making and producing documentaries for years: in Boitjaro (1997) and Land of our ancestors (1998) he described the daily life of mountain communities, while Landscape of memory (1999) is a series in four episodes he produced, which combines archival materials and personal experiences of some veterans of wars and armed struggles, whose common theme is the re-establishment of truth throughout the A. Austral and reconciliation after apartheid.

Botswana (British protectorate with the name of Bechuanaland until 1966) does not have a real cinematography to date. Even Swaziland (British protectorate until 1968) has so far adequately developed the audiovisual sector; among the video productions, we remember David Max Brown's Siswel ′ intsiba (1996), on the attempt to develop an economy based on natural resources.

Zambia and Malawi . - Even in Zambia (British protectorate with the name of Northern Rhodesia until 1966), a single-party state for thirty years and then hit by a complex crisis, political instability and economic impositions dictated by the International Monetary Fund have so far prevented any cinematographic activity. Among the very few works made, the feature film The arrival of comrade Toivo from detention, directed by Swapo Film Crew.

The history of cinema has yet to begin also in Malawi (British protectorate until 1964). In this country the first free elections led in 1994 to the fall of the HK Banda regime, in power since independence. Unlike other states, however, the new political climate could favor the emergence of local audiovisual structures.

The islands: Mauritius, Reunion, Comoros, Seychelles. - After Madagascar, among the different islands of the Indian Ocean, Mauritius (British colony until 1968) has had the richest film history, starting from the seventies, thanks to the activity of Ramesh Tekoit, whose filmography has ranging from the TV series (L'embarras du choix, 1972) to the documentary (Île Maurice, une perle de l'Océan Indien, 1973), to the feature-length feature film (Et le sourire revient, 1980, on the emotional affairs of a boy who returns to home). Also in the seventies the Brijmohun brothers made their debut with the fiction feature film Bikhre sapne (1975, known as Rêve perdu). Other directors who have worked since those years are: Kenneth Noyau (La charrette, 1977; L'argile et la flamme, 1980, co-directed by Harikrishna Anenden), Goo Lam Hossen (Immigrés en France, 1982), Magalingum Valaydon (Objectif énergie, 1983), Radha Rajen Jaganathen (À Lucy, 1993, original and fairytale tale of the adventure of three Masai, who arrived in Paris to retrieve the remains of the first woman on Earth). Khal Torabully (Pic Pic, nomad d'une île, 1995; Les traboules des vagues, 1997) ventured into the video. Selven Naïdu is the author of numerous documentaries for television and the fiction short film Le rêve de Rico (2000) in which, between dream and reality, a child waits to pass school exams. Reunion (still an integral part of the French Republic), other island with a history of slavery and colonization, presents a more recent cinematography. Jim Damour founded the Industry cinématographique réunionnaise with Serge Damour and since 1991 he has worked on history and memory programs:

The cinema of the Comoros archipelago (French protectorate until 1975) is still without history, with some exceptions. The only directors of whom there are traces are Kabiré Fidaali and Ouména Mamadali: with Iel Solma (1986, co-directed by Raymond Tiendrebeogo) Fidaali has explored the world of healers and sages who preserve traditional culture; later, together with Mamadali, he described in Baco (1995) the preparations of an old man who arranges his succession.

The Seychelles archipelago (British colony until 1976) has so far produced a series of documentaries in film and video that explore the islands' natural heritage and were made by Marie-Claire Elisabeth, Ralph Lablache De Charmoy, Jacqueline Mustache-Belle, Roland Ward; Also noteworthy is the film Bolot Feray (1995) by Jean-Claude Matombe, based on a comic theater piece on the habits of traditional society. b

BIBLIOGRAPHY

The cinema of black Africa 1963-1987 , edited by S. Toffetti, Milan 1987.

The birth of cinema in Africa. The cinema of sub-Saharan Africa from its origins to 1975 , edited by A. Speciale, Turin 1998.

The association des trois mondes, FESPACO , Les cinémas d'Afrique - Dictionnaire , Paris 2000.

A. Elena , Cinema of Sub-Saharan Africa , and S. Toffetti , Hic sunt leones. Black African cinema , in History of world cinema , curated by GP Brunetta, 4th vol., Americas, Africa, Asia, Oceania. National cinemas , Turin 2001, pp. 385-414 and 457-88.

G. Gariazzo , Short history of African cinema , Turin 2001.