Gender Terrains in African Cinema

Dominica Dipio

Description

Gender Terrains in African Cinema reflects on a body of canonical African filmmakers who address a trajectory of pertinent social issues. Dipio analyses gender relations around three categories of female characters – the girl child, the young woman and the elderly woman and their male counterparts. Although gender remains the focal point in this lucid and fascinating text, Dipio engages attention in her discussion of African feminism in relation to Western feminism. With its broad appeal to African humanities, Gender Terrains in African Cinema stands as a unique and radical contribution to the field of (African) film studies, which until now, has suffered from a paucity of scholarship.

Informations

• Publié par: NISC (Pty) Ltd
• Date de parution: 12 avril 2019
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781920033408
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 2 Mo

Extrait

Dedication
To the affectionate memory of my father, Saturnino Bandhasi Okello, and my mother, Amelia Kalisa, who did not discriminate against their children and gave them the environment to dream.
About the Series
The African Humanities Series is a partnership between the African Humanities Program (AHP) of the American Council of Learned Societies and academic publishers NISC (Pty) Ltd * . The Series covers topics in African histories, languages, literatures, philosophies, politics and cultures. Submissions are solicited from Fellows of the AHP, which is administered by the American Council of Learned Societies and financially supported by the Carnegie Corporation of New York.
The purpose of the AHP is to encourage and enable the production of new knowledge by Africans in the five countries designated by the Carnegie Corporation: Ghana, Nigeria, South Africa, Tanzania, and Uganda. AHP fellowships support one year’s work free from teaching and other responsibilities to allow the Fellow to complete the project proposed. Eligibility for the fellowship in the five countries is by domicile, not nationality.
Book proposals are submitted to the AHP editorial board which manages the peer review process and selects manuscripts for publication by NISC. In some cases, the AHP board will commission a manuscript mentor to undertake substantive editing and to work with the author on refining the final manuscript.
The African Humanities Series aims to publish works of the highest quality that will foreground the best research being done by emerging scholars in the five Carnegie designated countries. The rigorous selection process before the fellowship award, as well as AHP editorial vetting of manuscripts, assures attention to quality. Books in the series are intended to speak to scholars in Africa as well as in other areas of the world.
The AHP is also committed to providing a copy of each publication in the series to university libraries in Africa.
* early titles in the series was published by Unisa Press, but the publishing rights to the entire series are now vested in NISC
AHP Editorial Board Members as at January 2019
AHP Series Editors:
Professor Adigun Agbaje * , University of Ibadan, Nigeria
Professor Emeritus Fred Hendricks, Rhodes University, South Africa
Consultant:
Professor Emeritus Sandra Barnes, University of Pennsylvania, USA (Anthropology)
Board Members:
1 Professor Akosua Adomako Ampofo, Institute of African Studies, Ghana (Gender Studies & Advocacy) (Vice President, African Studies Association of Africa)
2 Professor Kofi Anyidoho, University of Ghana, Ghana (African Studies & Literature) (Director, Codesria African Humanities Institute Program)
3 Professor Ibrahim Bello-Kano, Bayero University, Nigeria (Dept of English and French Studies)
4 Professor Sati Fwatshak, University of Jos, Nigeria (Dept of History & International Studies)
5 Professor Patricia Hayes, University of the Western Cape, South Africa (African History, Gender Studies and Visuality) (SARChI Chair in Visual History and Theory)
6 Associate Professor Wilfred Lajul, College of Humanities & Social Sciences, Makerere University, Uganda (Dept of Philosophy)
7 Professor Yusufu Lawi, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of History)
8 Professor Bertram Mapunda, University of Dar es Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Archaeology & Heritage Studies)
9 Professor Innocent Pikirayi, University of Pretoria, South Africa (Chair & Head, Dept of Anthropology & Archaeology)
10 Professor Josephat Rugemalira, University of Dar-es-Salaam, Tanzania (Dept of Foreign Languages & Linguistics)
11 Professor Idayat Bola Udegbe, University of Ibadan, Nigeria (Dept of Psychology)
* replaced Professor Kwesi Yankah, Cental Univerity College, Ghana, co-editor from 2013–2016
Published in this series
Dominica Dipio, Gender terrains in African cinema , 2014
Ayo Adeduntan, What the forest told me: Yoruba hunter, culture and narrative performance, 2014
Sule E. Egya, Nation, power and dissidence in third-generation Nigerian poetry in English , 2014
Irikidzayi Manase, White narratives: The depiction of post-2000 land invasions in Zimbabwe , 2016
Pascah Mungwini, I ndigenous Shona Philosophy: Reconstructive insights , 2017
Sylvia Bruinders, Parading Respectability: The Cultural and Moral Aesthetics of the Christmas Bands Movement in the Western Cape, South Africa , 2017
Michael Andindilile, The Anglophone literary-linguistic continuum: English and indigenous languages in African literary discourse , 2018
Jeremiah Arowosegbe, Claude E Ake: the making of an organic intellectual , 2018
Romanus Aboh, Language and the construction of multiple identities in the Nigerian novel , 2018
Bernard Matolino, Consensus as Democracy in Africa, 2018
Babajide Ololajulo, Unshared Identity : Posthumous paternity in a contemporary Yoruba community, 2018

Originally published in 2014 by Unisa Press, South Africa under ISBN: 978-1-86888-735-4
This edition published in South Africa on behalf of the African Humanities Program by NISC (Pty) Ltd, PO Box 377, Grahamstown, 6140, South Africa www.nisc.co.za
NISC first edition, first impression 2019
Publication © African Humanities Program 2014, 2019
Text © Dominica Dipio 2014, 2019
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic or mechanical, including photocopying, recording, or any information storage or retrieval system, without prior permission in writing from the publisher.

ISBN: 978-1-920033-38-5 (print)
ISBN: 978-1-920033-39-2 (PDF)
ISBN: 978-1-920033-40-8 (ePub)
Project Editor: Tshegofatso Sehlodimela
Book Designer: Luba Qabaka
Editor: Dina-Marie Steyn
Typesetting: Luba Qabaka
Indexer: Hannalie Knoetze
Cover image: used under license from Shutterstock


The author and the publisher have made every effort to obtain permission for and acknowledge the use of copyright material. Should an inadvertent infringement of copyright have occurred, please contact the publisher and we will rectify omissions or errors in any subsequent reprint or edition.
Contents
Filmography
Illustrations
Preface & acknowledgements
1 Theoretical introduction
Introduction
Theoretical frames of African filmmaking
The griot tradition
Individual and popular traditions
Challenges of categorising African cinema
The issue of women
African feminism
Selected films and book structure
2 Imaging the girl child
Introduction
Children in African colonial and traditional settings
Pushing gender borderlines
Mature actions and adult voices in children
The politics of female genital mutilation/cutting (FGM/C)
Children in adult worlds
Portrayal of children in synthesis
3 Negotiating spaces within patriarchy
Introduction
Dismantling patriarchal logic
The logic of bride price
Female control and forms of protest
Male perspectives of marriage within patriarchy
Questioning foundational myths and traditions
Female-virgin sacrifice for community wellbeing
Female excision and the myth of marriage suitability
From individual to community protest
Women in polygamy
Polygamous men’s ‘fatal’ attraction to young, sophisticated women
Women under new economic challenges
Husbands undeserving of good wives
Women in prostitution
The feminine in the public sphere
Male victims under patriarchy
Conclusion
4 Positioning the elderly in gender relations
Introduction
Elderly women as centres of alternative authority
Male-female dynamics
The elderly as harbingers of change
Conclusion
5 Recurrent trends in gender representation in African cinema
Introduction
Trends in the representaion of women
Implications for film theory research
References
Index
Filmography
Alassane, M. Toula ou la Genie des Eaux (Niger 1973, 76 min), IFAN-CNRSH.
Amoussou, S. Africa Paradis (Benin 2006, 86 min), Metis Productions.
Bekolo, J.P. Aristotle’s Plot (Cameroon 1996, 67 min), JBA Production, Framework International.
_________ Les Saignantes (Cameroon 2005, 97 min), Quartier Mozart Films.
Cissé, S. Den Muso (Mali 1975, 88 min), Souleymane Cissé Films.
_________ Baara (Mali 1978, 90 min), Souleymane Cissé Films
_________ Finye (Mali 1982, 106 min), Souleymane Cissé Films.
_________ Yeelen (Mali 1987, 105 min), Centre National de la Cinematographie.
Dangarembga, T. Everyone’s Child (Zimbabwe 1995, 90 min), Media for Development Trust.
_________ Kware Kware Svako: Mother’s Day (Zimbabwe 2004, 30 min), Nyeria Films.
_________ Growing Stronger (Zimbabwe 2005, 30 min), Nyeria Films.
Dikongué-Pipa, J.P. Muna Moto (Cameroon 1976, 89 min), Cameroon Spectacle.
_________ Le prix de la Liberte (Cameroon 1978, 90 min), Cameroon Spectacle.
Gamboa, Z. The Hero (Angola/France/Portugal 2004, 97 min), David & Golias, Les Films de l’Apres-Midi, Gamboa & Gamboa Productions.
Gerima, H. Harvest 3000 Years (Ethiopia 1976, 137 min), Haile Gerima Productions.
_________ Bush Mama (USA/Ethiopia 1979, 97 min), Haile Gerima Productions.
_________ Ashes and Embers (USA/Ethiopia 1983), Haile Gerima Productions.
_________ Sankofa (Burkina Faso/Germany/Ghana/USA/UK 1993, 124 min).
Hondo, M. Sarraounia (Maurita