Abstract

Female subjectivity in Africa, as elsewhere, has often been defined by men rather than by women. Black women have fallen victim to a tendency to de-womanize black womanhood - to paraphrase Nigerian playwright 'Zulu Sofola.1 Consequently, films made by African women and men are attempting to rehumanize portrayals of women and to reassert their identities. Furthermore, African women filmmakers are facing the challenge of regaining for women the power of selfdefinition and self-representation. Toward the accomplishment of such goals, new social and political currents in Africa and the black diaspora involve new levels of critical awareness and new challenges to Western intellectual hierarchies. The hegemony of colonialist ideologies and Hollywood domination cannot be excluded from a historical investigation that seeks to provide a nuanced portrait of complex ethnic and cultural questions. For a long time questions of cultural difference have been neglected by the dominant cinema and by dominant media practices, thus discouraging the articulation of an accurate and wholesome black identity. Given the heritage of distorted images, some critics understandably regard the docile ancillary African woman seen in much international cinema today as a media creation.2 Partly for this reason, the calling into question of the native informant, in Gayatri Spivak's term, is the sine qua non of the black woman's film project. As Maureen Blackwood and Martina Attille have noted, black women must be the ones who define the areas of importance in [their] lives: work toward the breakdown of 'mainstream' conventions and popular assumptions perpetuated by existing forms of cinema and television.3 Because of the ways black subjectivity has been constantly abused in films, a new sensitivity

Talk to us

Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have

Schedule a call

Disclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.