Thiaroye or Yeelen ? The Two Ways of African Cinemas

Thiaroye or Yeelen?The Two Ways of African Cinemas Férid Boughedir (bio) Click for larger view View full resolution Figure H. Sarah Maldoror and Férid Boughedir, 1993. Courtesy of FESPACO. [End Page 255] At the end of the eighties, two different ways for the future of African cinema, including its mode of production, were open the same year by two films directed by its two most famous filmmakers: on one hand, Camp de Thiaroye (1988, Senegal), by Ousmane Sembène, a virulent politically committed film, and a South-South coproduction with no financial or technical help from Europe; on the other hand, Yeelen (1987, Mali) by Souleymane Cissé, an intemporal "cultural roots" aesthetical film, mainly produced by French governmental grants. In the early nineties, the new generation of African filmmakers confirmed the reality of these two opposite tendencies, whose challenge could imply the end of the South-South self-production dream and the return to the French & European sponsoring for "Art Films" production in Africa. During their first 90s sessions, the two most important Pan-African film Festivals—FESPACO (Burkina Faso) and the JCC (Journées Cinématographiques de Carthage - Tunisia) gave proof that a new generation of African filmmakers had arrived on the scene. In March 1991 at FESPACO alone more than half the thirty full-length films in competition were first works; four of them Laafi (1991, Burkina Faso) by Pierre Yameogo, Ta Dona / Fire! (1991, Mali) by Adama Drabo, Laada (1990, Burkina Faso) by Idrissa Touré, and Sango Malo / The Village Teacher (1990, Cameroon) by Bassek Ba Kobhio were to be found two months later on the selection list of the Festival of Cannes which had never before welcomed such a profusion of films from Black Africa. The previous sessions of FESPACO and the JCC were dominated by a friendly confrontation between two great names of South Saharan cinema representing its two most important trends. The pioneer and doyen, the Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembène, presented his Camps de Thiaroye, an uncompromising testimony of the bloody repression exercised by the French colonial army against a rebel batallion of Senegalese infantry. As an established challenger, the Malian filmmaker Souleymane Cissé, showed his celebrated Yeelen—a brilliant illustration of the mythical and magical dimensions of African culture. [End Page 256] Although both these films have received awards from the highest international authorities (Yeelen, the Jury's Prize at the 1987 Festival of Cannes and Camps de Thiaroye, the Special Jury Prize at the 1988 Festival of Venice), these two films were nevertheless complete opposites. Camps de Thiaroye was the outcome of a certain vein of African cinema which sprang up at the end of the 1960s, being heavily committed socially and politically and militating in favour of true independence for the continent. Yeelen was the first outstanding work of a new universalist current devoted to celebrating the African Cultural Identity. The contrast between these two films was not only in the theme: economically, Camps de Thiaroye represented a rare example of a South-South coproduction, which had not called on European support. Coproduced by three African countries—Senegal, Algeria, and Tunisia—technical and sound finish were carried out in the highly reputable laboratories of SATPEC in Tunisia where several international films had been dealt with. This film perfectly illustrated Ousmane Sembène's theories about the need to produce African cinema (even though deprived of a true home distribution market as is the case at the moment), with only the African means available. On the other hand, Yeelen had been conceived mainly thanks to direct aid from the French Ministry of Culture and completed with support from European television channels; it was shot by a mainly French technical crew and all its laboratory and finishing operations were carried out in France. On examining the works of the new generation of African filmmakers, it seems that although the current is with Yeelen for the moment and is from now on opening up a whole predominant movement in African cinema, the political, ideological, and nationalist trend seems to be marking time for the moment, to the advantage of the cultural trend with an international vocation. Just like Yeelen, the

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