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Table of Contents :
Editorial
Françoise UGOCHUKWU 7
African filmmakers, through their cinematic works, highlight the contributions of thinkers such as Frantz Fanon, Cheikh Anta Diop and Jean-Marc Ela to the history, knowledge and promotion of the languages of Africa. Through the creation of feature film aesthetics represented for example by Buud Yam, Sia or the dream of the python and Kemtiyu SEEX ANTA, produced respectively by the Burkinabè Idrissa Ouédraogo, Gaston Kaboré and Dani Kouyaté, and by the Senegalese Ousmane William Mbaye, the national languages Moore, Jula, and Wolof, and the African know-how are valued and magnified in several ways. Through their works, these directors bring magic into focus, and aesthetic perception in line with the ideas of illustrious African intellectuals - the first and the second generation of African intelligentsia who worked not only to undermine the values of the colonial society to create an authentic African society, but also helped to control the African culture in time and space, and to promote African languages. Gaston Kaboré, who originally studied history up to Master’s level (DEA), now indulges in film studies instead. Thus, like his peers, he conveys the ideas and thoughts of men representing strong symbols of what Africa has produced in terms of great eminences in his works Raabi, Zan Boko, Wend Kuuni and Buud Yam, all in Moore language only. This is especially evident in his film 2000 generation d’Afrique, which illustrates the immensity and spiritual greatness of the works of the erudite Cheikh Anta Diop, Frantz Fanon, and Jean Marc Ela in the knowledge of the true universal history. The consecration of Buud Yam of Gaston Kaboré as best film at the 1997 FESPACO film festival is a very instructive example of this.
Ever since 1968 when for the first time, celebrated Senegalese filmmaker and one of the pioneers of African cinema, Ousmane Sembene, decided to use Wolof as the main language of expression in Manda bi, he consistently continued using national African languages in his films the remainder of his career. Although the decision to make Manda bi in Wolof was quite revolutionary at the time and came with many challenges, including him being literally forced to do another shoot of Manda bi using French language, to satisfy the demands of the French authorities who funded the film, he never wavered thereafter. After the experience of Le Mandat (French version of Manda bi), making films in the language of his choosing became a non-negotiable condition with sponsors, and the use of French in his films henceforward was rather tangential and mostly politically motivated. Even though it is critical to acknowledge and problematize that his first three films were voiced-over in French (not in Wolof), my goal in this paper is to focus on the films produced between 1968 and 2005. This study examines language choice and its impact on the films’ audiences, to see how Sembene’s cinema serves as a platform showcasing African languages and cultures while providing a window into an otherwise misrepresented and still ill-known world.
My purpose in this contribution is to examine the use of languages in general and African languages in particular, as means of linguistic politics and/or linguistic militancy in Ousmane Sembène´s films. The Senegalese producer made various films in which he uses a diversity of languages such as French (as European language), but also and especially African languages like Wolof, Dioula, Bambara and Pulaar. One of my analysis steps consists in examining the connection between the use of languages by the different film actors and their ethnic identity. This relationship points out the realism that characterizes Sembène´s films at the linguistic level. Furthermore, the analysis of actors’ point of view about the use of African languages enables us to better understand Sembène’s linguistic consciousness and especially his militancy for African languages as languages of communication and means of artistic creation. Last but not least, the choice of African languages, mostly linked to the location of the film and to the target audience, contributes in many regards to a wider reception of Sembène’ films.
Yorùbá language, with its strong linguistic and cultural impacts in Africa and the Americas, faces imminent extinction, especially in Nigeria, where it counts the biggest number of speakers. It is no gainsaying then that Nollywood’s production of historical classics in undiluted Nigerian Yorùbá language is playing the nationalist roles of rescuing and preserving the rich but threatened Yorùbá language and its culture. One of the ways Nollywood does that is through the use of witticism, especially, proverbs. The present paper analyzes some Yorùbá Nollywood canonic films and illustrates how their directors make use of strictly scripted films in Yorùbá language to preserve the authenticity of the language and bring to the fore many centuries of the ancient civilization of the Yorubas. Through a paremiological analysis of the richly coded Yorùbá language in the films, our arguments lay bare the meanings, the functions and the importance of proverbs in the oratory skills of the Yorubas. The analysis allows for a deep understanding of the ethnographical study of the values of the Yorubas in their various aspects of life.
The narrativity of the Benin language video-film as a bustling aspect of Nollywood (Nigerian film industry and tradition) carries with it certain folkloric tropes that the Benin people attach importance to as part of their cultural heritage. Regardless of the genre, some Benin video-films employ anthropomorphism to communicate vital socio-cultural messages that reaffirm the cultural ethos and values of the Benin people. This element, among other theatrical/filmic resources is used by popular culture producers in the Benin video culture to provide audience-friendly templates for edutainment, socialization, therapeutic interventions and spiritual rejuvenation in Benin society. It is within this dynamic compass of supernatural or mythical tropes that this article adopts the content analysis method to examine the anthropomorphic potentials in Benin video-films. In doing this, the discussion focuses on Okpaniya (dir. Ezekiel, 2003) as a means of exteriorizing certain layers of intentionalities as read from the actions and inactions of characters and how these textual referents speak to the making of entertainment and cultural products by some Nigerian (African) filmmakers, including Benin film producers. Consequently, Benin film content creators should increasingly integrate Benin values, norms and identity as exhibited in Okpaniya in their creative works to consolidate the Benin video film’s presence in a glocalising Nollywood and propagate Benin language, history and culture on a wider but discursive space.
Before we can go on to evaluate the reception of films in Nigerian languages in France, we need to consider what type of quantitative and qualitative evidence might help us to assess whether the penetration of Nigerian films called Nollywood is a significant phenomenon in France. It can be argued that this cultural penetration started with free movies on the Internet, followed by individual initiatives and business ventures which facilitated the reception of Nigerian films by the Diaspora in currently estimated at 5 million. Despite the big market the diaspora and fans represent, it will be pertinent to ask why they watch films in Nigerian languages.
The evidence for the reception of films in Nigerian languages in France will be measured with the data gathered from Cable television, Nollywood Week festivals in Paris, free movies on the Internet, the major languages used by filmmakers, exclusive interviews given to the author by Nigerian filmmakers and by audiences and fans of Nigerian films. All these factors are possible indicators that should help us to judge whether the reception of films in Nigerian languages in France is real, and, if so, how is it perceived among viewers and fans of Nollywood.
In support of this view, two Nigerian movies screened during the Nollywood Week, among other special occasions, will highlight the linguistic penetration of Nollywood in France: Taxi driver Oko Ashawo by Daniel Oriaha and Phone Swap by Kunle Afolayan. The similarities between the two films are the languages used - Nigerian English, Pidgin and Yoruba for Taxi Driver and Igbo, Yoruba, Pidgin and English for Phone Swap, and the French subtitles, which helped the audience to cross the cultural and language barrier.
This chapter, based on four sets of questionnaires and interviews dated 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2017, seeks to evaluate the impact of the language of Nigerian films on their reception among diasporic communities in the UK in the context of recently expressed fears concerning the future of Nigerian languages abroad. It investigates the degree of influence of language on viewers’ motivations and practices, the role played by the cultural message of the language in identity-reinforcement within the Nigerian community in diaspora, and the potential impact of these films on the revival of language and cultural practices among resettled communities.
Language choices in the subtitles (French and English) or in the Dioula soundtrack would seem indifferent to the message against female excision and the exposure of the social structures supporting it. Yet, upon closer examination, speech and social hierarchies, gender divisions and access to media, especially radio and television, and the control of information are intimately tied to the governing structure of the village depicted in Moolaadé. Gender “cuts” access to the deliberations pertaining to governance concerning all. It is bridged and reversed when women are able to identify how the village is subjected to violent divisions, how they are the primary victims of their severance from language and self-expression through the traumatic experience of excision, and how to communicate a movement of empathy for their plight which eventually brings the women together and even adds a few key men to their side.
As part of Lesotho’s national response to the HIV/AIDS pandemic, an educational film in two parts, namely, “Kau la Poho I” and “Kau la Poho II” (A Male Duck) was launched in 2008 and 2011 respectively through the sponsorship of the Government of Lesotho and the World Health Organisation. Adapted from Leseli Mokhele’s Sesotho radio play, the cinematographic rendition was directed by Silas Monyatsi as additional efforts were made to curb the increase of the pandemic. Similarly to other educational media, the film’s objective was to disseminate facts about HIV/AIDS, influence social and behavioural changes as well as promote community-based solutions to health issues. The present paper examines Monyatsi’s representation of the Basotho communities facing the challenges of the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Core to the unfolding life stories of his characters is his portrayal of the interplay between language and gender relations. Through interpretive textual analysis, the paper aims to study the language and gender practices of the wealthy urban and rural Basotho men in their respective roles as husbands, lovers and caretakers. Specific attention will be given to the relationship between the manner in which these characters designate themselves and the female “other” and the social events and practices in which their discourse is embedded. It will be argued that while the film successfully underscores the nature of the patriarchal unequal gender relations in the communities represented by presenting Basotho men’s aggressive language towards and about women as well as their unrestrained sexual activities, the absence of a critique of such inequalities offers an incoherent paradigm for a didactic mission whose objective is to review attitudinal and behavioural trends.
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