African cinema in the new century is imbued with promise but fraught with crisis. Films produced in Africa in the twentieth century have paved the way for twenty-first century films that speak to modern issues of the African culture, such as the impact of both Hollywood and European cultures on todayÆs Africans and their cinema. In its essence, African cinema is grounded in the African oral traditions and manifested in films that are made by the authors who wrote the stories, aspiring to send a message to the African people.
This paper will answer a number of questions about African cinema, focusing wherever possible on sub-Saharan African cinema:
How Did TodayÆs African Cinema Evolve?
How Do Hollywood and Europe Affect African Cinema?
Why are financing and distribution of African films a problem?
How Can African Cinema Become More Independent?
Why and How Do African Filmmakers Promote Cinema on the Continent?
How Are TodayÆs African Films and Filmmakers Making an Impact?
How Does Ousmane Sembene Epitomize Sub-Saharan African Cinema?
How Did TodayÆs African Cinema Evolve?
African cinema originated later than in other countries, primarily because of the colonization of Africa by the English and the French. These colonies left Africa divided into Anglophone, or English-speaking, and Francophone, or French-speaking regions, which in turn began generating films in English and French, respectively. Following its colonial period, African cinema was able to arise from the shadow of foreign rule in the 1960Æs and begin to come into its own as medium for giving voice to the oral traditions of the African people and a means of addressing the issues that trouble them.
Sub-Saharan African cinema started in the 1950Æs, emerging first in the form of short films, starting with two sub-Saharan Senegalese filmsùPaulin Souman VieyraÆs Afrique sur Seine in 1955, and then Ousmane SembFneÆs Borom Sarret in...