The division of African cinema between North African and Egyptian (in other words, the Arab League nations) and non-Arab League African states is unfortunate and serves to create a division within the continent. In this section we look at Sub-Saharan African Cinema, including West African cinema as well as a number of coutnries with signifcant Arabic influenced cultures.
Modern African Cinema is credited with the rise of national independence from the early 1960s. One of the first films produced by an African film director in a freely independent African country is the short 18 minute film documentaire Borom Soret by the famous novelist and film producer Ousmane Sembène. Using non-professional actors, Sembène's short film chronicles the hard life and daily routines of a horse cart driver who lives and works in the poor districts outside of modern Dakar, the new capital of Senegal. Although this clip has no subtitles, viewers can easily follow the plot of the main story of the poor whose lives are tenuous. The end of the film shows the cart driver giving a ride to a middle-class suited man who requests a ride into the modern part of the city where horse-drawn carts are forbidden. Watch the conclusion and the encounter with the policeman who confiscates his cart and fines him for violating the law.
If one views this film in context with the crisis of the policewoman's confiscation of the Tunisian fruit seller Mohamed Bouazzi's cart in Tunisia in December of 2011 that precipated the Arab Spring, or the mistaken and deadly encounter in 2014 between a Michael Brown, an African-American teenager and the police in Ferguson, Missouri in we may recognize the continuing and disturbing relevance of this film.
Borom Soret also reveals the tentative nature of early African cinema. It was filmed entirely in French, although some Arabic and Muslim greetings and prayers are heard, the presence of African languages is subdued and limited to the title itself. In his later films Sembène corrects this and begins to include more African languages that merge with French, as he also begins to explore and lengthen his films into complete stories and narratives.
If one views this film in context with the crisis of the policewoman's confiscation of the Tunisian fruit seller Mohamed Bouazzi's cart in Tunisia in December of 2011 that precipated the Arab Spring, or the mistaken and deadly encounter in 2014 between a Michael Brown, an African-American teenager and the police in Ferguson, Missouri in we may recognize the continuing and disturbing relevance of this film.
Borom Soret also reveals the tentative nature of early African cinema. It was filmed entirely in French, although some Arabic and Muslim greetings and prayers are heard, the presence of African languages is subdued and limited to the title itself. In his later films Sembène corrects this and begins to include more African languages that merge with French, as he also begins to explore and lengthen his films into complete stories and narratives.
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