African women and the camera as weapon: “this is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity.”

 African women and the camera as weapon:

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work.

There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity.”

 

These solemn words by Toni Morrison written shortly after the presidential election of 2004 which secured George W. Bush a second term, began re-circulating immediately after the brutal 2024 presidential campaign resulting in a victory for Donald Trump, returning to power after his defeat four years before. With no guardrails to restrain the fascist traits that people who worked for him recognize, there is global angst about what the future holds.



 

In 2004 Toni Morrison remembers the day after Christmas; a friend calling to give holiday wishes asked her how she was doing. Rather than the expected, “I’m doing fine and you,” she indicated her true feelings: “Not well. Not only am I depressed, I can’t seem to work, to write; it’s as though I am paralyzed, unable to write anything more in the novel I’ve begun. I’ve never felt this way before, but the election…”

 



He interrupts her before she is able to complete her thoughts: “No, no, no, no! This is precisely the time when artists go to work, not when everything is fine, but in times of dread. That’s our job!”

 



She recalls feeling rather foolish as she thought about all “the artists who had done their work in gulags, prison cells, hospital beds; who did their work while hounded, exiled, reviled, pilloried. And those who were executed.”

 



Her remaining thoughts put in context the subtitle of this piece. She continues,
 

“This is precisely the time when artists go to work. There is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. That is how civilizations heal.



 

I know the world is bruised and bleeding, and though it is important not to ignore its pain, it is also critical to refuse to succumb to its malevolence. Like failure, chaos contains information that can lead to knowledge — even wisdom. Like art.”

These urgent words of Toni Morrison have shaken me out of the stupor that has overcome me since the U.S. presidential election results of November 6. And likewise, as I survey the long list of African women who take up their artist’s tool as a weapon for change, under threat, in perilous conditions. I am encourage to not flounder in self-pity and despair. They speak, they film, they do cinema, to heal and to make a better world.

This project has as objective to bring together voices from diverse experiences of these women who use the camera as their weapon, who make films that reveal the myriad challenges on the path to peace, justice, democracy, freedom and positive change.

 

 

THIS LIST OF VOICES IS ONGOING

 

Annouchka de Andrade talking about her mother Sarah Maldoror:  [My sister and I] know the cost of integrity and the danger of power. So many friends of our parents were assassinated. Sarah never understood the word “compromise”. Her life, her behavior was “never complain and keep forward” no matter the price.

 

Sarah Maldoror to Anne-Laure Folly: The first point that I want to make to Anne-Laure Folly is that your film is outstanding, it is fantastic. Because you are a woman, you have the respect for life, because you have courage. You could have been blown up a hundred times in those mines, but you were not, thank God. I think that you had courage to do this film. And it is very well done, and it gives one something to think about. And that these women who fight and suffer, who are hungry, could actually do a theatrical play, I find extraordinary.

 

Anne-Laure Folly: [Les oubliées]  is not only about women, it is a plea for peace, and I treated war not through the ordinary perspective that we have about the facts and events, the battles and territorial gains, but rather from a perspective that is specific. Women have a different perspective about this history, especially of a war that has lasted more than thirty years. They experienced the war based on personal suffering, having lost people they know, and sensing the impossibility of being able to provide a future. They live this history from another point of reference and I found this interesting. I decided to not approach this plea for peace from an intellectual level, because we are all for peace. I wanted to hear it from people who spoke from the guts about their fears. We respond more radically for peace, but within the reflection, "really this violence has to stop." The film comes more so from the guts, reason should not be the basis for bringing up the problems of the world, because reason is not sufficient to change things.

 

Horria Saïhi is perhaps best known for her indefatigable work as journalist, reporter, and filmmaker against government censorship and religious fundamentalism. A 1995 laureate of the "Courage Award" presented by the International Women's Media Foundation, she currently lives in exile in France. I recall a very touching moment as she reflected on this celebratory occasion during our conversation at the 15th edition of FESPACO in 1997:

In 1995 I was invited to the United States and never imagined that on the other side of the ocean there existed, Americans—whites as well as blacks, who had their eyes on Algeria. They were listening and watching; I was very touched. I was invited to receive the "Courage Award" by the International Women’s Media Foundation. It was heartwarming to find myself in the middle of New York, it was a dream. I had tears in my eyes, it was very powerful. I received the prize in the name of the Algerian people; I dedicated it to the women of Algeria. The award was represented as an eagle with widespread wings, which represented force but also fragility, because it was made of crystal…

In France, Horria continues her struggle against political violence against women and religious extremism. More than a decade after the release of Algérie en Femmes in 1996, her film continues to be relevant as evident in the venues to which she is invited to screen and discuss the film. Notably, at the 2008 meeting of the French-based Union des Familles Laïques (Mouvement laïque d’education populaire) of which she holds the post of president of the UFAL-Saint-Denis.

Horria also presented Algérie en Femmes at the Maison René-Ginouvès, Archéologie et Ethnologie in November 2009, and in 2007 the film was featured at two events: as part of International Women’s Day she participated in the colloquium, Rencontre féministe sur les Femmes et l'Algérie organized by the Marche Mondiale des Femmes contre les Violences et la Pauvreté, and at the Festival Cineffable at which the film won the ProChoix Award—all venues are based in France.

Also during our conversation Horria had this to say regarding Algérie en femmes:

Algérie en femmes resembles the title of a film that was made by René Vautier, which is called Algérie en flamme, it was about the war of liberation. In Algérie en femmes, I speak of the struggle of women. It is an intersecting perspective of a woman filmmaker and a woman photographer. The latter makes an imprint of the moment, the former speaks about her profession. There is also another realm of women: an artist-painter who continues to paint although it is prohibited; a peasant woman who takes up arms; and the wife of a director of fine arts—her husband assassinated at the same time as their son. I speak both of life and death simultaneously. It is this combat of which we are in the midst at the moment."

Nadia el Fani: For me, everything is urgent; everything goes forward at the same time. Everything is connected.

 

A Petition: In Support of Nadia El Fani and the Protection of Freedom of Conscience (Soutien à Nadia El Fani et défense de la liberté de conscience) 03 May 2011

Following her public statements on Hannibal television, filmmaker Nadia El Fani has been the object of an extensive campaign of verbal and physical threats on certain Facebook pages. We, Tunisian citizens committed to the freedom of conscience, belief and worship, declare by this, our full support of Nadia El Fani. We are stating that by her right to express her non-belief in God, she rejects any attempt to impose obstacles to her freedom of conscience by those who claim to adhere to a political Islam. We, Tunisian citizens hereby express our absolute indignation at the threats of physical violence and the verbal rampage against Nadia El Fani.

We believe that the current political rise of Islamists, the repeated assaults against women whose dress does not conform to a so-called "Islamic morality", the political manipulation by the mosques, and the calls to murder for "blasphemy", necessitate the demand for greater vigilance. In this current climate there is especially the need for solidarity with all those who have the courage to not yield to the law of terror and the submission to silence.

We believe that a society is either tolerant or it is not. Freedom of conscience is not divisible. In the same way that wearing the veil and a beard should be allowed and respected, an individual has the right to declare that he/she "does not believe in God." If today we give in to the threats of violence against those who declare their atheism, tomorrow the threats will be against those among us who are non-practicing Muslims, and the next day those among us who are practicing Muslims but who do so in a manner not acceptable to the extremists!

Rumbi Katedza:  I was approached by producer David Jammy to direct a film about how a community that has experienced conflict and violence is dealing with the repercussions, and how or if they are able to move on. The producers and I decided to work with a group that was already working on a community-healing project, and through my research, I learned a lot about the terrible things that had happened to every day people during the 2008 Zimbabwean harmonized elections. It was an eye-opener, a kind of education in fear, and how fear can paralyze people and make it impossible to live their lives to their full potential.