List of images Acknowledgements Introduction: African cinema, nationalism and its discontents i African cinema and national(ist) constructions ii Wealth and poverty of nationalist scholarship iii Postnational(ist) imaginary and new paradigms 1. Comedy and film i Comedic archetypes ii Verbal and visual comedy 2. Choreographing subjects i Dance on stage ii Dance, syntax, and discourse 3. Crimes, society and the i Africa and theories of (impossible) crime fiction ii Absent investigation and the triumph of the commandement iii Flawed investigations and the decline of the commandement 4. Myth, tragedy, and cinema i On African cultural specificity and tragic forms ii Oedipal conflicts, enemy brothers, and families in crisis iii Absolutism, oracles and the tragic 5. Epic constructions i Narrative performance ii Epic magnification 6. (Un)masked sexuality i African sexuality as category of analysis ii Sex in the nation and the trouble with representation iii Framing bodies and the temptation of pornography 7. Witchcraft and the postcolonial i From sorcery imaginary to the imaginary sorcerer ii Occult side of power, power of the occult Conclusion: What is African cinema (today)? Bibliography Filmography