During the 1960s, black African cinema consisted of only a pittance of filmmakers, each from a French-speaking country such as Niger, Senegal, Chad and Guinea - whose films were made solely in the French language. Only Ousmane Sembene (1923-2007) achieved international acknowledgement, with 1968's Mandabi (The Money Order) which was based on his own eponymous novel was his third film, but the first in which he used his own native tongue, Wolof.
The use of an indigenous African language in a major film would represent a radical shift from conventional practice, it resulted in a way of conveying that the film was made by an African and for Africans. A forceful African cinema would emerge in the 1970's given impetus by the international respect accorded. Sembene's 1972 masterpiece Emitai and Ceddo (Outsiders,1977). Notable among the newer directors were the Senegalese Mahama Johnson Traore whose films include Diegue-bi (The Woman,1970) and 1975's N'Diangane. and the documentary and P.O.V. directors, Safi Faye and Moussa Yoro Bathily.
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| The answer my friend is bowing in The Wind (1982) A masterpiece a la Mali |
In the early Eighties several important features were produced, among them was Cry Freedom (1981) made by Nigerian director Ola Balogun, Djelli, conte d'aujord'hui (1981) by Ivory Coast's Fadika Kramo-Lancine, La Chapelle (1981) from the Congo's Jan-Michel Tchissoukou, Finye (The Wind, 1982) by Mali's own Souleymane Cisse, and the Burkinabe time-travelling drama Wend Kuuni (G-d's Gift,1983) by the Upper Volta's Gaston Kabore.
