African Cinema as a Film World in Search of a Constituency and a Community - Essay Example

This is primarily the ground why J. Akomfrah claims that a sense of community and constituency are continuously yearned for by the borderless cinematic endeavor of an African film industry traditionally inclined to bring to exhibition various aspects of living especially the scenes at the wild, life under poverty, or tribal struggles across the vastness of African land.   

            The 1975 Algiers Charter on African Cinema emphasized the need for coronium to communicate the cultural identity of the people of Africa and develop this goal for the viewers to achieve a more sensible understanding of Algerian culture. New African cinematographers have come up with a serious objective of informing and educating the public, knowing how powerful a film is in delivering crucial expressions of the African way of life in a simplified approach that may be comprehended by the majority whether educated or uneducated (The Algiers, 1975).

            In 1973, Djbril Diop Mambety directed “Touki Bouki” which is a movie about the meeting of a cowherd Mory and a university student Anta who seem estranged to their places of origin, Senegal and Africa, that they decided to consider traveling to Paris for a change of fate though this would entail fraudulent job of satisfying a monetary requirement. One may particularly note the significance of adventure for an African life in this film yet the context from which it sheds light toward conflict resolution is different from the perspective of the film “Yeelen” after the direction of Souleymane Cissé in 1987. Yeelen demonstrates a personal conquest of a young warrior who possesses powers of magic and summons his other relative in combat against a sorcerer who happens to be his father. Despite the amply differing themes of these two films, both reflect a necessary quest for settlement in favor of the situations that fit each character.

            On the other hand, Idrissa Ouedraogo's 1989 directorial project “Yaaba” pertains to the role played by the protagonist Fatimata Sanga as a grandmother, being regarded in her village as a witch with tragic consequences though such accusation forms one huge lie for in truth, Yaaba is an old lady filled with peace and wisdom from within. Even if she has managed to draw trust and respect from young cousins Bila and Nopoko who have seen and experienced her kind disposition, the story weaves around the failure to become reconciled with the community that cannot accept Yaaba due to an unresolved prejudice, a barrier that has blinded most people from establishing good relations and agreement with ease which is true among Africans then and now. Guelwaar of 1993, on the contrary, conveys a subject on a religious conflict occurring between Muslim and Christian views of which the burial of a Christian political activist is central to the story’s thematic feature. Consequently, both Guelwaar and Yaaba are two African films that lie at the opposite ends of the spectrum and from which a viewer may imagine how diverse African cinema could get based on the choice of setting and matters that concern the minority and the majority alike. 

Through the satirical humor presented in Guelwaar, a critique may well recognize how the essence of film direction can be disposed to neutralize a supposedly heavy political content with a popular form of entertainment. Moreover, beyond nationalist frameworks, African film bears the potential of a narrative that properly designates postcolonial identities (Postnationalist African Cinemas, pp.1-32). 

By 2007, Franco Sacchi came up with “This is Nollywood” to speak of the state revolution with the Nigerian film industry whereas “A Screaming Man” in 2011 proceeds to tackle the life of a former swimming champion with issues of socio-political injustice which is why rebel forces give in to civil war and turn against the abusive authorities. The term Nollywood applies most accurately only to films from southern Nigeria and Nollywood videos set fresh tasks for the possible innovation of an African cinema (Adamu, pp. 63-73)

Violence, as a theme, is also present in the film “Hotel Rwanda” in which real-life events take place as in the genocide, which did have a factual basis, were real and knowing the political and economic conditions of Rwanda at the time, or Africa in general, it would seem impossible to offer a critique that claims otherwise. How a variety of relations turned out between the needy Rwandans and the Whites or the western people in control also possesses a significant level of accuracy as assessed concerning history which traditionally depicted racial discrimination, whether or not subtle, with an occasional mode of compassion or empathy and recognition for the black people.

            Taking all these elements into account, African cinema may not be confined with tales and folklore or attempt with urban adventures, as it seeks to be one with every life in Africa regardless of time, it becomes a ‘potentially borderless cinema.’