Women of the screen from the African diaspora of Belgium

Women of the screen from

the African diaspora of Belgium

 

Notes ongoing...by Beti Ellerson

 

Monique Mbeka Phoba of Congolese-Kinshasa origins is a trailblazing filmmaker, cultural producer and activist, who has been mentor and inspiration to many. In addition, she is involved in co-productions and African cinema organizational functions. Similarly, journalist Djia Mambu, as film activist, journalist and critic, is very involved in the promotion of African cinema throughout the globe, and advocates for positive and realistic representations of people of African origin. Sisters Pauline Mulombe, filmmaker and Cecile Mulombe Mbombe, cinematographer are active in Belgium screen culture, especially in the promotion of African diasporans based in the country. They teamed together to make the short drama, Tout le monde a des raisons d'en vouloir à sa mère (Everyone has Reasons to be Angry with their Mother) the film reveals the myriad realities of three young Afro-Belgian sisters living in Brussels. In the span of two days the film portrays their diverse experiences as they are forced to face their many hang-ups and their darkest secrets. Their African mother, confronted with the opposing forces of Western culture, must deal with her daughters’ realities.  

The number of Belgium-based women in cinema has expanded as opportunities to live and work become increasingly attractive. Wendy Bashi, filmmaker and journalist, is host of the program Reflets Sud on TV5 Monde. She was a freelance journalist for the program Afrik'Hebdo broadcast on RTBF International (Belgian Francophone radio and television) and is also editor for Glo.be, the Magazine of the Belgian development cooperation. Marthe Djilo Kamga is founder and current coordinator of the Massimadi festival in Brussels, and her professional and person paths have revolved around her interest in questions of vulnerability, identity, and equal opportunity. Her interest in art and cultural production (film, performance, photography, etc.) empowers her to reappropriate images and public spaces for people in positions of invisibility. Reoccurring themes in her work are the coexistence of multiple identities and diverse modes of artistic and cultural expression. Kis Keya is the creator of Extranostro, the first Afro-Queer Francophone Web Series. Delphine Wil, born in Germany of a Belgian father and a Belgian-Congolese mother, is a filmmaker whose cultural diversity has shaped her path. She started her professional career as a radio journalist at the Radio Télévision Belge Francophone (RTBF) before moving to the audio-visual sector, in addition, she works in the information field in Francophone Africa.

Senegalese journalist and filmmaker Katy Lena Ndiaye, who lives and works in Brussels, produced the program Reflets du sud on French channel TV5 Monde and the Belgian public television RTBF. In Traces, Footprints of Women, her first documentary, Katy Lena Ndiaye gives voice to women in a village in Burkina Faso, near the border with Ghana. Her second documentary, Awaiting for men, was presented out of competition at the 22nd edition of the International Francophone Film Festival of Namur in 2008.  Cameroonian Rosine Mbakam, who came to Belgium to continue her studies, has focused her work on the experiences of women who immigrate to the country. Her debut film, Tu seras mon allié (2012), follows Domé’s interminable anguishing passage after being intercepted at the airport in Brussels. Chez Jolie Coiffure (2019) traces the migratory journey of Sabine who works in Matongé one of the most important commercial African neighborhoods in Brussels, where she manages Jolie Coiffure Salon. The film provides the spectator a glimpse of this vibrant Belgian multicultural neighborhood. Similarly, Delphine’s Prayers (2021) follows the trajectory of Delphine, a young Cameroonian woman in search of a better life in Europe for herself and her daughter—she ends up marrying a Belgian man three times her age, but only finds a spiraling descent into the perpetual violence of a postcolonial world. In 2016, she focused the camera on herself, during a return to the source. In the film the The Two Faces of a Bamiléké Woman, back in Cameroon after  she and her mother come together to share their different and intersecting lives. Rosine teaches cinema at the KASK & Conservatorium / School of Arts in Gent. In March 2023 she initiated a Focus program entitled: Thérèse Sita Bella, Safi Faye et l'évolution de la pratique cinématographique des femmes africaines | the evolution of African women’s cinematic practice. Her film Mambar Pierrette, also set in Cameroon about the experiences of the neighborhood dressmaker, was selected in the category Quinzaine des cineastes at Cannes 2023.

Following is a selection of articles focusing on African women of the Belgium Diaspora published on the African Women in Cinema Blog:

Babetida Sadjo: Hematome
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2022/06/babetida-sadjo-hematome.html

Rosine Mbakam
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/10/rosine-mbakam-les-prieres-de-delphine.html
Kis Keya: Creator of Extranostro
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2020/07/kis-keya-creator-of-extranostro-first.html
Djia Mambu: Journalist and Film Critic
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/05/djia-mambu-journalist-and-film-critic.html
Marthe Djilo Kamga
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/03/words-of-marthe-djilo-kamga-director-of.html
Wendy Bashi
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/07/wendy-bash-chronique-congolaise.html
Rosine Mbakam - Tu seras mon allié (You will be my ally, 2012)
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/07/cinef-4-2018-cinema-au-feminin-kinshasa_27.html

Delphine Wil
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/07/interview-with-delphine-wil-director-of.html
Monique Mbeka Phoba
http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2014/05/monique-mbeka-phoba-sister-oyo.html
Cecile Mulombe Mbombe, Pauline Mulombe
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2010/07/sisters-act-of-cecile-and-pauline.html