As Africa’s Artifacts Start to be Returned, What About its Films?

IN A HAUNTINGLY MEMORABLE closing scene for the fi lm La noire de…, by the “father of African cinema” Ousmane Sembene, a young Senegalese boy hides behind a ceremonial mask as he follows a white man through the streets of Dakar in a newly-independent Senegal. The white man hastens his pace, eventually running, but the young boy, unperturbed, keeps pace with him, always there, always watching.

This image is strangely emblematic of the position that Europe fi nds itself in right now as calls for the return of Africa’s looted assets escalate. Up to 90% of southern Africa’s material cultural legacy is outside of the continent, according to the French government-commissioned 2018 report by Senegalese economist Felwine Sarr, and French historian Bénédicte Savoy.

No matter which way the former colonial powers turn, they cannot escape the calls for restitution. This year, amid fresh scrutiny, several European countries started returning certain art and artifacts taken from Africa during the colonial period. At the end of October, France handed back 26 works of art to Benin. A Cambridge college and Scottish university quickly followed suit. These moves were hailed by activists and offi cials as turning points in the long battle by African countries to recover their stolen artwork.

As Africa’s Artifacts Start to be Returned, What About its Films? By Priya Sippy Funding is the main explanation for why African classics are owned by the west

African fi lm has recently joined the restitution debate

While the focus of the recent debate on African cultural restitution has been on artifacts, some activists are now turning their attention to other works from Africa that remain in the hands of Western institutions: fi lms.

While African artifacts have been housed in European museums, classic African fi lms have been held in the hands of Western companies through their distribution rights, which has created several barriers for screening these fi lms across the continent. As a result, many of them remain unknown to African audiences. “I think about art as children. If you are going to return something, it should feel safe. It shouldn’t feel as if it’s going to be suff ocated or abandoned. I don’t like seeing art in cemeteries–be it libraries that are inaccessible or about to be run down, but I also don’t want to see art suff ocated in placelessness. People that don’t fully understand it–the language, the context. Many of these fi lms are decontextualized when they are not available to those whose culture they come from.” This is according to Sheila Chukwulozie, a Nigerian creative producer and artist, who also recently starred in an award-winning short fi lm, Egúngún (Masquerade), which will be showing at Sundance 2022.

Ousmane Sembene

Much of the reason why these fi lms are sometimes virtually unknown to Africans and mostly available in the west has to do with funding. Many postindependence African fi lms were funded, if not partially, then fully, by European governments and

production companies, giving them the rights for screening and distribution. However, experts from the fi lm industry in Africa are now calling for these fi lms to be made accessible to the continent as African audiences are missing out on historical fi lms of cultural importance.

“African cinema proliferated between the 1960s and 1980s and it is crucial for these fi lms to be screened,” says Amil Shivji, a Tanzanian fi lm maker. “We can’t understand where we are and where we are going without understanding where we have come from.”

African directors would agree. Ousmane Sembene famously said “Europe is not my center.” His most renowned fi lm, Mandabi, which was shot entirely in Wolof, was restored this year by

StudioCanal and released on home entertainment across its territories, including France, UK, Germany, Australia, and New Zealand. Criterion Collection, meanwhile, released Blu-ray/DVD editions of the fi lm in the US.

“African fi lms have been owned, distributed, and copyrighted in the West without looking to the territory of the continent,” continued Shivji. “When the rights get bought, they get bought for territories in the West and Africa is not part of the conversation.”

Across Europe and America, companies have extensive catalogs of classic African fi lms. Hyenas,

a fi lm by Senegalese great, Djibril Drop Mambety, which was restored in 2018, is owned by American company Metrograph Pictures. Mambety’s fi rst fi lm, Touki Bouki, recently

brought back to the global consciousness by Beyoncé and Jay-Z’s On the run II world tour

poster, is owned by Criterion. Cameroonian fi lmmaker Jean Pierre Dikangoue Pipa’s exhibition rights are controlled by Trigon Films, a Swiss company, while Niger fi lmmaker Oumarou Ganda’s classic Cabascabo exists in the catalogue of Cite Films of Paris. “Very few people, especially African audiences, know about the continent’s cinematographic heritage,” explains

Unesco’s recent report on African

fi lm (pdf). “The best surviving elements for historic African fi lms are found in the national fi lm archives of France, the UK, and other European countries, and at various Western universities and African yoncé and Jay-Z pay homage to the Senegalese film 'Touki fi lm departments.” uki' to promote their 2018 On the Run II tour Screening these fi lms in Africa is not only diffi cult, but expensive–with a oneoff screening priced anywhere between 2001,000 euros ($225-$1,130). In rural areas, where audiences often watch fi lms in small, informal cinemas, these screening costs make the fi lm virtually inaccessible. In Tanzania, informal cinema spaces, known as vibanda umiza, charge $0.10 for entry. Larger cinemas and festivals on the continent have also found it challenging. “Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF) has found many diffi culties in screening African fi lms,” said Martin Mhando, Chair of ZIFF. “Access to many African fi lms is hard because our distributors see page 108

Africa's Film from page 107

are still transfi xed towards Europe for markets.”

High screening prices are in part to do with the technological work that has gone into digitizing the fi lm or restoration. Film preservation and restoration is expensive, and it is typically only done by a few companies and agencies based in Europe and the US.

“Restoring fi lms can cost around 1,000 euros a minute, so it is diffi cult to give screening rights for free,” said Ellen Schafer, Head of Libraries and Technical Delivery at Argos Films, a French production company. “It is also about technology – if the material is restored and is available on digital it is much easier to share. If not, upgrading it can also have a high cost, and if the demand

isn’t there, most companies won’t bother.”

Hyenas

The future of Africa’s oldest fi lms

Practitioners argue that a diff erent business model is needed.

“We just need to come up with a suitable income generating model, as our fi lm industry is still maturing,” said Nyambura M. Waruingi, a cultural activist and producer based in Kenya. “At the very least, there should be aff ordable educational rights for African learning institutions and these fi lms should be made available online.”

One African fi lm collective is actively experimenting with new models. Ajabu Ajabu, operating out of Tanzania, has recently re-released a classic Swahili fi lm, Maangamizi, screening it across the local, informal cinema spaces where the large majority of the population accesses fi lm. Co-founder Jesse Gerard said they have been able to do this as the distribution rights of the fi lm have remained with Tanzanian director and chair of ZIFF, Martin Mhando. After the fi lm was digitized to mark its 20th anniversary, Ajabu Ajabu distributed it via fl ash drives across the country. “When you talk about history and memory it can’t be a fi nancial argument, it is a moral and emotional argument,” said Gerard. “Western companies have ownership of these fi lms because of a power imbalance and perpetuating that through restriction of access is problematic. These are African stories, voices, and perspectives, which need to be seen.” https://qz.com/africa/2103081/africas-restitutiondebate-should-include-fi lms Image credit: www.ebay.com, top10fi lms.co.uk, www.amazon.com/movies/tv, pinterest.com, cinemasansfrontieres.fr