LIT 346.02: African Cinema
American University, Fall 2012
Mondays &Thursdays, 2:35-3:50, Ward 102
Screenings: Mondays, 5:30-8:00, Ward 5
Professor Lindsey Green-Simms
Email: lgs@american.edu
Office Hours: M and Th 12:15-2:15
Office Location: 219 Battelle-Tompkins
Course Website: http://africancinema346.wordpress.com/
Course Description:
This course provides students with an introduction to sub-Saharan African filmmaking practices
and to the political and social issues that have become central to African cinema. Although films were
shot in Africa in the early half of the 20th century, African filmmaking per se refers to the films that
have been made by Africans since the 1960s, when the majority of the countries in Africa gained
independence from colonial powers. This class will focus on both the form and the content of these
films by examining the way that African filmmakers project local, national, and regional issues onto
global screens. We will discuss the different aesthetic forms and genres chosen by the filmmakers (i.e.
social realism, avant-gardism, magical realism, melodrama, etc.) and also look at the types of social
critiques the films engage in as they tackle topics such as gender politics, polygamy, migration,
corruption, occultism, human rights, homosexuality, economic crisis, apartheid, and Westernization.
We will also discuss issues of circulation, distribution, funding, and piracy that affect how African films
get made and who their audiences are. This course therefore requires an interdisciplinary focus that
allows us to view the ways that aesthetics, politics, and economics are all integral to understanding the
complexity of African cinema.
Course objectives:
 To familiarize students with the range and diversity of post-independence filmmaking across
the African continent
 To expose students to the major directors of African cinema
 To make students aware of the distinctions between Francophone celluloid filmmaking,
Anglophone video-film, and the South African filmmaking tradition
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To explore the ways in which African films dramatize the social conditions and political crises
of Africa
To develop students’ critical thinking, writing, and communication skills through presentations,
academic essays, and class discussion
To enable students to practice writing in the internet age through blogs and twitter updates
To cultivate independent thinkers who learn to analyze “foreign” media on their own terms and
will be unafraid to continue doing so after the course ends
Teaching Philosophy:
This is a student-driven class and is deliberately designed so that the questions and ideas students have
are what forms and shapes discussions, papers, and presentations. In order to meet the above
objectives, students are required to take ownership of their engagement with the materials. I tend not to
provide reading questions or discussion questions because I do not want to focus attention on only the
aspects of the reading or films that I find to be most interesting, and I do not want students to feel like
the way to get a good grade is to figure out what the instructor wants them to say. Rather, I want to see
what students find to be note-worthy and then I will lend my guidance and expertise to those questions.
Above all, I want to cultivate independent thinking in the classroom with the hope and expectation that
as independent thinkers, students will be best prepared to engage ideas and cultures beyond the
classroom.
Workload:
You should expect to put in average of 2-3 hours of reading or at-home viewing before each class
section. Blog posts, papers, and presentations will require additional work.
Required Books:
Nwachukwu Frank Ukadike, Black African Cinema
Manthia Diawara, African Film: New Forms of Aesthetics and Politics
Lindiwe Dovey, African Film and Literature: Adapting Violence to the Screen
Ousmane Sembène, Xala
*All readings that are not in these books will be posted to our course website. The password to access
these readings is: AfricanCinema
Note: It might also be useful to have a Netflix account to view assigned films at home. All films will be
available at the AU library and available to watch there. However, it might be challenging for the entire
class to view a single copy of the handful of films that we do not screen in class.
Grading System:
Blogs – 30% (60 points)
Paper 1 – 20% (40 points)
Paper 2 – 25% (50 points)
Participation – 10% (20 points)
Presentations – 10% (20 points)
Twitter messages – 5% (10 points)
Grading standards:
A: Demonstration of superior work (written and oral) in fulfillment of course requirements;
improvement during the semester will be weighed in evaluation.
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B: Excellent work (written and oral) in fulfillment of course requirements; improvement during the
semester will be weighed in evaluation.
C: Satisfactory work (written and oral) in fulfillment of course requirements
D: Assigned work is not satisfactory or not completed and/or student fails to meet
minimum attendance requirements.
F: Failure to meet minimum course goals.
Breakdown of Assignments:
Blogs (9 posts and 2 responses required): Students will be asked to keep a weekly blog (around 300
words, or 1-pg double spaced) in which they will connect the films we watch to the assigned readings
for the week. Blogs will be due at 10 pm on Wednesday nights, and students will be expected to have
read their classmates’ posts before class. There are two types of blogs that students may write. The first
type is analytical. Here, you may brainstorm about important themes, motifs, problems, questions, etc.,
or you may relate the reading/screening to other discussions we’ve had throughout the semester. You
should think of each analytical blog as having a mini-thesis statement, or a hypothesis/argument that
you are trying to make. The majority of your blogs should be of this kind. However, you may also
choose to write a research-oriented post. In this case, you can provide any type of historical, political,
or cultural background that you find might help your classmates to understand the films better, though
you still must be in dialogue with the assigned readings and show that you have read and thought about
them. In all cases though, avoid posts that are centered on your likes or dislikes – this isn’t a book
review – or that center primarily around your own feelings. You need to focus on analysis or research
rather than on what makes you happy, or sad, or angry. Blogs may be informal, but they should be
grammatically correct and articulate. I want to emphasize that blogs are places for you to think through
problems and issues and pose questions or concerns. I am not looking for a developed mini-essay and
I therefore will not provide individual feedback for each post, unless I feel that you haven’t met the
requirements described above. Blogs are meant to provoke discussion and thought and therefore are,
by definition, incomplete and not fully developed. Posing questions that you don’t know the answer to
is entirely legitimate. Each post will be worth 6 points and students will receive all 6 points as long as
they write a satisfactory post. If a student receives less than 6 points for the blog, I will provide them
with a reason and let them know how to improve. Please check the gradebook on Blackboard to see
how you are doing.
We will start blogging the second week of class and skip blogs the week of Thanksgiving. This means
that there are 13 possible weeks to post. However, students are only required to post 9 times!!
Additionally, on two of the weeks that you do not blog, you are required to respond to someone
else’s post, using the comments feature on the blogs. Responses need to be at least 100 words and
should be substantive. These responses will be worth 3 points each. If you’d like to post a quick
comment to someone else (i.e. “I like your point about X” or “That reminds me of Y”), you are
encouraged to do so and your enthusiasm will be calculated into your participation grade. But brief
comments will not count towards your blog grade. The blog grade will therefore be comprised of 60
points total – 6 points for each of your 9 posts and 3 points for each of your 2 responses. (Note, you
may NOT post and respond in the same week and get credit for both.)
I encourage students to include images, links, videos, etc. and to be creative. PLEASE REMEMBER
TO TAG YOUR POSTS WITH AN APPROPRIATE KEYWORD!
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Papers: There will be two papers due throughout the semester (7-10 pages for paper 1; 10-12 pages
for paper 2). Essay topics will be handed out for both papers; however, students are also encouraged
to develop and propose their own topics if they desire. You are strongly advised to start the writing
process as early as possible and to bring drafts to my office hours. I will not, however, comment on
drafts over email.
Group Presentations: At the beginning of the semester, students will be asked to select 1 of 4 film
clusters. On the designated day, your group will be required to present the films in their cluster to the
class in a creative and engaging way. You should design your presentation with the knowledge that not
all of the students will have seen all of the films in the cluster. During your 75 minutes, you will be
expected to show clips, pose questions, and present background information about both the films and
the topic of the cluster itself. Again, creative formats of presentation are highly encouraged. Each
member of your group will also be responsible for finding two articles relevant to the films, the theme
of the cluster, or the issues that the films bring up. Co-ordinate with your group-mates, as I do not
want articles repeated. At least one of your two articles needs to be from a scholarly source (i.e. found
in an academic journal or a book); the second article can be from anywhere other than Wikipedia.
(Wikipedia is actually a great way to begin your research when you want to learn about something new,
but as far as articles go, you want to find something more focused). On the day of your presentation,
you will hand in a brief (200 word) summary of your two articles – note that it will be tremendously
helpful for you to circulate these summaries to your group-mates prior to the presentation so that they
can benefit from them. You will also turn in a peer evaluation where you will assess your group-mates’
effort. Grades will be based on the final presentation, the evaluations, and your article summaries.
Tweets: Each student is required to sign up for a twitter account. If you already have one, you may
use it. But you can also establish an alias (just let us know what it is) if you want to keep life and school
separate. You will be required to post at least one tweet for each film we see together and two tweets
for the films you see at home. You can tweet anything you’d like about the film, but, as with the blog,
avoid tweets centered on likes/dislikes (this includes telling us whether you think something is cool or
not) or on feelings. You can tweet questions, observations about style or plot, comparisons with other
films, or links related to the film that will add to our understanding, though try to mix up the types of
things you tweet. If you choose to tweet a link to a relevant article, just make sure that your tweet tells
us why that article is relevant to the film. Also, if tweeting a link please use a tiny url to give yourself
more space to write. Please tag each tweet with at least two hashtags: 1.) #afcine346 and 2.) the film
you are tweeting about, written as one word (i.e. #quartiermozart). Retweets are welcome, but won’t
be counted as part of your requirement. I’ll give a brief twitter tutorial for those who are unfamiliar,
and those who are new can follow the example of the more experienced. Also, in order for this to
work, we will all need to follow each other. You won’t be graded on individual tweets, but at the end
of the semester, I will give you a grade on your overall level of participation. You should try to post
immediately after seeing the film, but no later than 2 hours before class. If you’d like, your blog post
and your tweet can tie into each other.
Participation: This grade will be determined by the quality (not quantity) of your contributions to the
course in general. The participation grade will be a factor of the following four elements: your level of
engagement during class discussions; your demonstrated effort throughout the semester; your attitude
and openness towards others; and your improvement and progress throughout the semester. For
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students who are less comfortable with speaking in large groups, I encourage you to email me with
questions and comments about the readings and to attend office hours. Students who are particularly
active on our website will also be rewarded for their participation in our virtual classroom space. Also,
please note that part of participating in class means having the assigned reading materials in
front of you and ready to reference. If you do not bring your books/assigned reading (either in
digital or printed form), you will not receive participation credit for the day!
Course Policies:
Attendance is required. Students can miss no more than two classes (screening excluded) before
participation grades are adversely affected. If you miss a screening, you will be required to view the
movies on your own. I do not need notes, emails, or explanations for absences. Students are expected
to use their own discretion. After the second absence, participation grades will be lowered by a full
letter grade per absence. Please remember to get class notes from a peer if you are absent.
Electronic devices are only to be used in class for note-taking, reading, or research directly related to
our course material and discussion. Anyone caught using electronic devices (texting, facebook, IMing,
etc.) for purposes not related to the course will be marked absent for the day. Rather than disrupting
class and calling attention to those in violation of this policy, I will simply make a note in my attendance
record. If electronic devices become a distraction in the classroom, they will not be allowed.
Late Work will be penalized. Papers will be lowered by one full letter grade for each day they are late.
Blogs or responses over 12 hours late will not be given credit.
Email is a welcome way to communicate with the instructor. I will be happy to answer quick questions
about course assignments, readings, or anything that may be unclear to you. If you have a more
involved question or need to discuss your work, you should come to see me during office hours or
schedule an appointment. Furthermore, it is important to note that I may occasionally email the course
through Blackboard, which goes to your AU email account. You are expected to check your email on a
daily basis or to have your AU email forwarded to an account that you check often.
Office Hours are held each week, unless otherwise noted. Students may stop by office hours at any
time for help, or you can schedule an appointment to meet outside office hours.
Success in this course is achieved through hard and consistent work. I do want students to receive
good grades and will do everything possible to make that happen for those willing to put in the time
and effort. However, students who do the minimum to meet the course requirements should not
expect an above average grade. (And, clearly, those who fall short of the course requirements will
receive below average grades.) I am always willing to listen to student feedback and to adjust the course
to meet students’ learning goals. If you have a need or a suggestion on how to enhance your experience
in the course, you should not wait until the end of the semester to voice it.
Academic Integrity is consistent with the standards of academic conduct and set forth in the
University's Academic Integrity Code. By registering, you have acknowledged your awareness of the
Academic Integrity Code, and you are obliged to become familiar with your rights and responsibilities
as defined by the Code. Violations of the Academic Integrity Code will not be treated lightly, and
disciplinary actions will be taken should such violations occur. Please see me if you have any questions
about the academic violations described in the Code in general or as they relate to particular
requirements for this course.
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Reading and Assignment Schedule:
(Please note that blogs are due Wednesdays at 10 pm!)
The Colonial Gaze
Week 1.
Aug 27
Introduction
Evening Screening: King Solomon’s Mines
(UK/South Africa, 1937)
Aug 30
N. Frank Ukadike, Chapter 1 “Africa and The Cinema” in Black African
Cinema
Robert Stam and Ella Shohat, “The Imperial Imaginary,” p 100-124
Kevin Dunn, “Lights...Camera...Africa: Images of Africa and
Africans in Western Popular Films of the 1930s”
Binyavanga Wainaina, “How to Write About Africa”
http://www.granta.com/Archive/92/How-to-Write-aboutAfrica/Page-1
Francophone Films and FEPACI
Week 2
Sep 3
Labor Day, No Class
Week 3
Sep 6
View at home: Ousmane Sembène, La Noire de (aka Black Girl),
Senegal, 1966 (available on Netflix streaming or at AU
library)
Ukadike, Chapter 2 “Francophone Origins” in Black African Cinema
View In Class: Ousmane Sembène, Borrom Sarret
Sept 10
Ousmane Sembène, Xala (the novel)
Frantz Fanon, “Pitfalls of National Consciousness”
Evening Screening: Ousmane Sembène’s Xala
(Senegal, 1975)
Week 4
Sept 13
Ukadike, Chapter 4 “Cultural Context of Black African Cinema” and
Chapter 6 “Wither African Cinema” in Black African Cinema
Laura Mulvey, “The Carapace That Failed: Ousmane Sembène’s
Xala”
(Sign up for group presentations)
Sept 17
View at home: Djibril Diop Mambety’s Hyenas, Senegal 1992
(streams on AU library site)
Lindiwe Dovey, Introduction and Chapter 6 in African Film and
Literature
N. Frank Ukadike’s interview with Mambety (on our course website)
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Evening Screening: Djibril Diop Mambety’s Touki Bouki
(Senegal, 1973)
Sept 20
Manthia Diawara, Chapter 1 “Ouagadougou” in African Film
Gender and Sexuality
Week 5
Sept 24
View at home: One film of choice from Sembène cluster
In class: Sembène group presents
Evening Screening: Ousmane Sembène’s Faat Kiné
(Senegal, 2001)
Week 6
Sept 27
From John Mowitt’s Retakes, 119-131
Jude Akudinobi, “Durable Dreams: Dissent, Critique, and Creativity in
Faat Kiné and Moolaadé”
Oct 1
Achille Mbembe and Janet Roitman, “Figures of the Subject in the
Time of Crisis”
Achille Mbembe, “The Thing and Its Double in Cameroonian
Cartoons”
Evening Screening: Jean-Pierre Bekolo’s Quartier Mozart
(Cameroon, 1992)
Week 7
Oct 4
Jonathan Haynes, “African Filmmaking and the Postcolonial
Predicament: Quartier Mozart and Aristotle's Plot”
Lindsey Green-Simms, “Just to See”: Fanon, National Consciousness,
and the Indiscreet Look”
Ukadike’s Interview with Bekolo (website)
Oct 8
View at home: One film of choice from Queer Cinema cluster
In class: Queer Cinema group presents
Evening Screening: Joseph Gai Ramaka’s Karmen Gei
(Senegal, 2001)
Oct 11
Dovey, Chapter 8 “African Incar(me)nation”
Frieda Ekotto, “The Erotic Tale of Karmen Gei: The Taboo of
Female Homosexuality in Senegal”
PAPER 1 DUE FRIDAY, OCTOBER 12TH BY 4:00 PM
Political Cinema
Week 8
Oct 15
View at home: Abderhamane Sisskako’s Bamako, Mali, 2006 (available
on Netflix streaming or at AU library)
Diawara, Chapter 2, “Berlin” in African Cinema
Evening Screening: Raoul Peck’s Lumumba (Congo, 2000)
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Week 9
Oct 18
View at home: Raoul Peck, Lumumba: Death of a Prophet, Congo, 1992
(streams on AU library site)
Laura U. Marks, “The Memory of the Image” pp 24-55
Oct 22
View at Home: Edward Zwick’s Blood Diamond, US/Sierra Leone,
2006 (at AU library or rent DVD from Netflix)
Laura McHugh, “Hollywood Humanitarianism or Neo-Imperialism?”
http://www.filmandmedia.ucsb.edu/academics/Publications/focus/foc
us-2008.pdf (Article begins on page 84!)
Evening Screening: Newton Aduaka’s Ezra
(Sierra Leone, 2007)
Nollywood
Week 10
Oct 25
Becky Korman, “African Cinema: A Comparative Look at Blood Diamond
and Ezra”
http://www.offscreen.com/index.php/pages/essays/blood_diamond_a
nd_ezra/
Oct 29
View in class: Franco Sacchi’s This is Nollywood , Nigeria 2007
Jonathan Haynes, “Introduction” to Nigerian Video Films
Jonathan Haynes and Onookome Okome, “Evolving Popular Media:
Nigerian Video Films”
Diawara, Chapter 3, “Nollywood” in African Film
Evening Screening: Kenneth Nnebue’s Living in Bondage
(Nigeria, 1992)
Week 11
Nov 1
Onookome Okome, “Introducing the Special Issue on West African
Cinema”
Green-Simms, “The Return of the Mercedes: From Ousmane Sembène
to Kenneth Nnebue”
Nov 5
Brian Larkin, “Majigi, Colonial Film, State Publicity, and the Political
Form of Cinema” and “Degraded Images, Distorted Sounds:
Nigerian Video and Infrastructures of Piracy”
Evening Screening: Tunde Kelani’s Thunderbolt
(Nigeria, 2000)
Week 12
Nov 8
Akin Adesokan, “Tunde Kelani’s Nollywood: Aesthetics of
Exhortation”
Jonathan Haynes, “TK in NYC”
Jonathan Haynes, “Political Critique in Nigerian Video Films”
Nov 12
View at home: One film of choice from Nollywood cluster
In class: Nollywood group presents
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Evening Screening: Andy Amenechi’s The Master
(Nigeria, 2005)
Nov 15
Brian Larkin, “Extravagant Aesthetics: Instability and the Excessive
World of Nigerian Film”
Daniel Jordan Smith, “‘Urgent Business Relationship’: Nigerian E-mail
Scams”
South African Cinema
Week 13
Nov 19
View at home: One film of choice from South Africa cluster
In class: South Africa group presents
Evening Screening: TBA
Week 14
Nov 22
Thanksgiving – No Class (No blogs due)
Nov 26
View in Class: Mickey Madoda Dube’s A Walk in the Night (South
Africa, 1998)
Evening Screening: Gavin Hood’s Tsotsi (South Africa, 2005)
Week 15
Nov 29
Dovey, Chapter 3 “Redeeming Features” and Chapter 4 “From Black
and White to ‘Colored’ in African Film and Literature
Dec 3
In Class Writing Workshop (bring paper drafts)– Attendance Mandatory
Evening Screening: Neill Blomkamp’s District 9 (South Africa,
2009)
Dec 6
District 9 e-symposium: http://www.zeleza.com/category/7/39/41
(Read responses by Quayson, George, Cole, and Belcher)
Final Papers Due Dec 10th!
Film Clusters
Sembène
Guelwar (at AU library)
Moolade (at AU library, or rent from Netflix)
Camp De Thiaroye (at AU library, or rent from Netflix)
Queer Cinema
Dakan (at AU library, streaming?)
Emotional Crack Part 1: http://bunitv.com/viewvideo/1367/drama-pt-1/emotional-crack-part-1
Part 2: http://bunitv.com/viewvideo/1368/drama-pt-2/emotional-crack-part-2
Woubi Cheri (streaming at AU library)
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Nollywood
Reloaded 1&2 - maker sure you watch them in the right order:
http://watchnigerianmoviesonline.com/search_result.php?query=RELOADED(1)&type=videos
Ousufia in London 1&2 (at AU library)
South Africa
Cry The Beloved Country (at AU, streams on Netflix)
Mapantsula (at AU library)
Yesterday (at AU library, or rent from Netflix)
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