Josef Gugler,
African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent.
Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2003.
ISBN 0 253 21643 5
216pp
US$24.95(pb)
(Review copy supplied by Indiana University Press)
Josef Gugler has spent many years teaching and researching in various parts of Africa and is currently Professor of Sociology and Director of the Centre for African Studies at the University of Connecticut. His recently published book African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent examines seventeen films produced in sub-Saharan Africa since 1970, covering a wide range of topics,
From new perspectives on Africa prior to the intrusion of the West, to the struggle against colonialism and white minority rule, to post-colonial issues of authoritarian rule, neo-colonialism, corruption, inequality, and the condition of the peasantry. (7)
Gugler’s central concern is to provide an encyclopaedic overview of the diversity of social perspectives and representations projected by recent African films. To this extent, Gugler’s discussion of the various films refrains from positing a consistent thesis as to what qualifies as being “African” cinema. However, counterbalancing his book’s limited theoretical capacity, Gugler develops his chapters as a means to provoke a reorientation of dominant western conceptions of African society and history.
The book commences its detailed discussion with a chapter entitled “Recovering the African Past.” Gugler compares the American production Out of Africa (Pollack, 1985) with Yaaba (Ouedraogo, 1989), from Burkina Faso, and Keita! (Kouyate, 1995), from Mali, for their alternative representations of African indigenous societies. While Out of Africa invites white cinema goers to “the vicarious experience of belonging to a master race” (24) and castigates its native African characters into Runyard Kipling’s mould of natural subordination, Ouedraogo’s and Kouyate’s films invite an exploration of the personal individualities constituting and shaping certain African village societies. In Keita! especially, Gugler isolates the centrality of oral history in the transmitting of African cultural knowledge across generations and this practice’s resulting emphasis on people constantly “retelling” their own history as a form of re-appropriation.
African Film‘s second chapter, entitled “Fighting colonialism”, discusses two films directed by women for their depiction of different militant struggles for independence. Sambizanga (Maldoror, 1972) approaches the Portuguese colonial oppression of Angolan dissidents in the early 1960’s, while Flame (Sinclair, 1996) depicts the Zimbabwean war for independence in the late 1970’s. Both films are highlighted by Gugler for their concentration on women’s role in the fight for African national independence and their unconditional support for the fight against colonialism.
Chapter three concentrates on the specific struggle of black South Africans toward majority rule and the dissolution of apartheid. Four films, three South African productions, The Gods Must Be Crazy (Uys, 1980), Mapantsula (Schmitz, 1988) and Fools (Suleman, 1997), and the CBS/FOX production A Dry White Season (Palcy, 1989) are compared and discussed for their varying projections of black African’s empowerment under apartheid. Gugler scathingly discusses The Gods Must Be Crazy, the most successful African film export in history, as a shameless appendage for the maintenance of at least the superficial aspects of white supremacy in South Africa. Alternatively, A Dry White Season confronts the moral degradation of apartheid policy, yet, Gugler asserts, still projects this problem as a uniquely white dilemma. Mapantsula and Fools, on the other hand, assert a militant black perspective in their depiction of life under a cruel, yet ultimately impotent, regime.
Gugler’s exploration of African film takes an interesting turn in its fourth chapter, entitled “Betrayals of Independence”. Here Kongi’s Harvest (Davis, 1970), Xala (Sembene, 1974), Tableau ferraille (Moussa, 1997) and The Blue Eyes of Yonta (Gomes, 1992) are discussed for their confrontations of the conditions in various African republics after independence. These films confront the denigration of the popular will of independence and the establishment of barbaric and corrupt political and military regimes in sub-Saharan Africa. Each film confronts these problems in different contexts and from different ideological motives. Kongi’s Harvest, for example, attacks the rise of authoritarianism in Ghana and neighbouring countries, while Xala concentrates on the subordination of African self-determination to foreign economic expectations, manifested in its depiction of an impotent and weak new black bourgeoisie. These films are examples of a self-criticism in African cinema whereby the perspectives and agendas of colonial exploitation are dissolved into empowered domestic concerns.
Gugler’s penultimate chapter examines films depicting some of Africa’s neglected peasant societies. Though making a majority of two-thirds of the population of sub-Saharan Africa, peasant communities are often ignored by African filmmakers in favour of urban settings. Finzan (Sissoko, 1990) addresses the effects of traditional customs on Women villagers in Mali and makes a plea to abandon these practices (161). In Kasarmu Ce (Balewa, 1991) peasant Islam is contrasted with the growing corruption in Urban Nigeria. Here, Islamic values are prescribed as an antidote to the dangers of modernisation.
Gugler concludes his book with short discussions of two films that move away from an explicit focus on sociological themes, Kini & Adams (Ouedraogo, 1997) and La vie est belle (Lamy & Ngangura, 1987), to explore more international narrative forms and themes.
Ultimately, African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent invites its reader on an introductory exploration over a selective template of African cinema. It parallels its discussions of films with an historical overview of modern African history, providing a solid grounding for further exploration. Indeed, the book provides detailed references for further reading at the end of each chapter. As stated, Gugler resists a theoretical drive towards any grand thesis on African cinema. Indeed, it seems his book is very much directed toward students over academic contemporaries. To this extent, African Film: Re-Imagining a Continent provides a comprehensive and simple text book for undergraduate courses focussing on African films.
Tom Redwood,
Flinders University, South Australia.
Created on: Tuesday, 7 December 2004 | Last Updated: 30-Nov-04