International Migrants Day, 18 December - African Women in Cinema addressing the cultural, social, political and economic manifestations of migrancy

International Migrants Day, 18 December

African Women in Cinema

addressing the cultural, social, political

and economic manifestations of migrancy

Initially a tribute to migrants lost at sea, this revised post highlights migrant stories by African women of the moving image.

African women of the moving image have a particular concern for the plight of the migrant, heightened by the dramatic impact of migrancy and its consequences and effects in many African countries. They have used diverse manners of storytelling to highlight the cultural, social and political manifestations of migrancy, especially as a phenomenon that has myriad intersecting implications for the homeland and the receiving countries. And increasingly a focus on identity processes and the formation of migrant diasporic communities. Some focus on the perilous passage in the desert and at sea, others on those who await their return: wives--since the majority of those who leave are men, whole families, neighborhoods,villages. Still others direct their cameras at the migrant experiences at the site of their destinations-- waiting grounds in many instances, or, semi-permanent spaces where hope, despair and possibility intermingle.

A selection of reflections on migrant stories by African women.

Alice Diop: La permanence | On call
"This is a film about the pain of exile, but it is told through the contemplation of the faces of these men. What grabbed me when I started working on this subject were the images of these undifferentiated and anonymous masses who flock to our doors. While initially, this image was not negative in its intent, it produced something that can be experienced as threatening. For me it was important to put faces, to put names and specific stories on what is often treated as an all-encompassing problem."

Mame Woury Thioubou: 5 Étoiles
The film highlights the lives of African migrants in Lille, France in order to bring these "undocumented migrants" to the realisation that after braving the desert and the sea to arrive in France, Europe is only the beginning of their ordeal…."The film does not tell young Africans not to leave, but what I want them to know" is that Europe "is not going to be the end of the ordeal, that it is the beginning of a new struggle"…

Rahel Zegeye, a migrant worker in Lebanon and filmmaker, has this to say about why she made her film Beirut:
"My main aim with the film was to show a different perspective on the lives of Ethiopian workers in Lebanon. We often hear stories of abuse and bad treatment of Lebanese employers towards their foreign domestic workers (maids). Most media and organizations working to help migrant domestic workers (MDWs) in Lebanon portray the worker as a helpless victim, her fate ruled by evil agencies and bad madams. Although this often does happen and is definitely an issue that needs attention, reality is much more complicated. I want to shed light on the inner lives and thoughts of a domestic worker, an aspect which is usually hidden from the Lebanese and foreign public."

Mati Diop : Atlantique
"I especially wanted to pay homage to this youth vanished at sea. This is my primary intention because it was very important for me to dedicate a film to this lost generation, ghost, while giving it life through the living. It is also a way of making sense out of their actions. They have not reached Spain (destination targeted by young Senegalese who go to sea), their dream... But maybe they are for many of those in the riots of 2012 (Note by Africine: especially driven by young Senegalese who opposed a new term of the incumbent President Abdoulaye Wade). Having disappeared at sea, these young people may have allowed the rebirth of a new youth."

Mary-Noël Niba : To Leave?
In this documentary, Mary-Noël Niba is interested in the stories of migrants and their personal trajectories. Far from the images we all know, she gathers rare voices and offers a unique perspective on illegal economic immigration.

Jacqueline Nsiah’s digital storytelling from the diaspora
"I termed my research, which is part of an academic thesis “Returning from exile” because the motivation for most of the Ghanaian diaspora is to return on behalf of their parents and build this great nation, something that most of our parents were not able to do for various reasons…Also, one mustn't ignore the many Ghanaians who are still trying to leave Ghana almost daily for economical reasons. A lot of them are working class or lower who struggle to find work or make a decent living in Ghana. They spend thousands of dollars or euros, all their savings and risk their lives in hope for a better life abroad."

Following are articles from the African Women in Cinema Blog regarding migrant stories by African women of the moving image

Rosine Mbakam : Chez jolie coiffure
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2020/02/festival-films-femmes-afrique-2020_24.html

Mame Woury Thioubou : 5 étoiles
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/11/mame-woury-thioubou-5-etoiles-un-recit.html

Mati Diop - Interview by Falila Gbadamassi
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/05/mati-diop-it-was-very-important-for-me.html
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2019/05/mati-diops-atlantique-in-foam-of.html

Mary-Noël Niba : To Leave?
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2018/11/mary-noel-niba-kisskissbankbank.html

Ghanaian-German Jacqueline Nsiah’s digital Sankofa storytelling experience and other diasporic journeys
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.fr/2015/10/ghanaian-german-jacqueline-nsiahs.html

Leila Djansi : America, by any means necessary
https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2015/03/leila-djansi-america-by-any-means.html

Éléonore Yameogo talks about her film Paris mon paradis
http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2011/08/eleonore-yameogo-talks-about-her-film.html

Rahel Zegeye: The Experiences of an Ethiopian Migrant Worker and Filmmaker in Lebanon
http://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2011/09/rahel-zegeye-experiences-of-ethiopian.html

Maïram Guissé, journaliste et réalisatrice parle de son livre « Sous nos peaux » - journalist and filmmaker speaks about her book (tr. Under Our Skins)

Maïram Guissé, journaliste et réalisatrice parle de son livre « Sous nos peaux »

Maïram Guissé, journalist and filmmaker speaks about her book Sous nos peaux (tr. Under Our Skins)

The never ending question: "Where are you from? "Maïram Guissé responds: "from Normandy". A hesitation. A barely disguised surprise: one expects her to evoke her Senegalese origins, to justify the color of her skin and her presence in France. Hence, to her daughter, here Maïram Guissé wants to tell her who she is. As a child and teenager, she searched on television, at the cinema, in books, for those who looked like her. Where are the black characters, and more specifically, the black or mixed-race girls and women? Those girls and women who she meets and connects with on a daily basis, in Canteleu, Lille, or in the Paris region, where are they represented, who talks about them? What are their stories? In Sous nos peaux, Maïram Guissé goes to connect with those black women around her. She portrays them in their ordinary lives and the private spaces that they inhabit. She is a partner in crime, sharing in their secrets and in her own memories. A dog trained to "catch the negroes", a group of girls dancing through the night at Coconuts, her arrival, the only black journalist, in a well-known daily... She traces itineraries full of hope, sometimes chaotic, in a school that excludes, at work or on a beach in Deauville, when racism is not censored. Here, Maïram Guissé engages in a subjective inquiry. From the shared experience of black bodies and skins, with finesse and discretion, she explores female friendship. (Description of book (Grasset) translated from French)

 

La question lui revient sans cesse : « Tu viens d’où ? » Maïram Guissé a pris l’habitude de répondre « de Normandie ». Un flottement. Surprise à peine déguisée : on attend qu’elle évoque ses origines sénégalaises, qu’elle justifie la couleur de sa peau et sa présence en France. Alors, à sa fille, Maïram Guissé veut dire ici qui elle est. Enfant et adolescente, elle cherche celles qui lui ressemblent à la télévision, au cinéma, dans les livres. Où sont les personnages noirs, et plus précisément, les filles et femmes noires ou métisses ? Où parle-t-on de celles qu’elle croise et côtoie au quotidien, à Canteleu, à Lille, ou en région parisienne ? Quelles sont leurs histoires ? Dans Sous nos peaux, Maïram Guissé part à la rencontre de femmes noires de son entourage. Elle les dépeint dans leur ordinaire et leur intimité. Accueille en complice leurs confidences et partage ses propres souvenirs. Un chien dressé pour « choper les négros », des filles en bande qui dansent la nuit au Coconuts, son arrivée, seule journaliste noire, dans un grand quotidien… Elle retrace des itinéraires empreints d’espoir, parfois chaotiques, dans une école qui exclut, au travail ou sur une plage de Deauville, quand le racisme ne se censure pas. Maïram Guissé se livre ici à une enquête subjective. À partir de l’expérience partagée des corps et des peaux noires, elle explore avec délicatesse l’amitié féminine. (Éditions Grasset : Description du livre)

 

3 December, International Day of Persons with Disabilities: A tribute to Zambian filmmaker Musola Cathrine Kaseketi

3 December, International Day of Persons with Disabilities: A tribute to Zambian filmmaker Musola Cathrine Kaseketi

Musola Cathrine Kaseketi declares: “You can make a difference”, and she certainly has, by showing that women with disabilities are not different than anyone else; given the chance to learn, excel and succeed. Musola Cathrine Kaseketi founded Shungu Namutitima International Film Festival of Zambia (SHUNAFFoZ) with this objective in mind: to showcase through cinema, the capabilities of people and women in particular, with disabilities.

She had this to say in an interview on the African Women in Cinema Blog

I grew up as a healthy and happy child. I was left with a permanent disability at the age of five from an injection in the nerve of my left leg; nonetheless, my family treated me as a normal child.

I also lived with my stepmother who taught me to be independent and a fighter. Because of the caring way that people in my surroundings responded to me, I had no idea that there was discrimination towards persons with disabilities.

It was in high school that I started to realised that I was not always accepted in society and therefore, not able to do certain things. Often my feelings were hurt after the many instances when the school authorities isolated students with disabilities from the enabled so that they could not get to know each other. My disability became a motivation to work harder and use art as a tool to communicate. 

I met a man without hands who led a normal life and could even eat using a fork and knife. This encounter motivated me very much and inspired me to write a story about self-determination in 1989. It was very successful and was a catalyst for the change in attitudes towards disabilities in Zambia. 

I continued to use dramatic poetry, writing and stage acting as a tool to foster the spirit of self-confidence and self-help, and to impart self-acceptance, self-determination and independent living.

In 2018, Musola Cathrine Kaseketi received the Her Abilities Award, the first global award honoring the achievements of women with disabilities: “Look at your obstacles as your motivations to achieve your goals. Ignore all the negative intimidating voices. Embrace the positive, empowering words because you are just like any other woman.”

Photo: Musola Cathrine Kaseketi receiving an award.

The African Women in Cinema Blog commemorates United Nations World AIDS Day

As highlighted in past commemoration posts, African women in cinema often use the visual media as a tool for awareness building as it relates to matters that touch their societies and burning issues that effect Africa.

In this regard the initiative Scenarios from Africa had as objective to give young people a unique occasion to learn more about HIV/AIDS. The 2011 edition demonstrated the extent that African girls and young adults seized this opportunity to tell these stories. Among the 25 frontrunners 17 were girls/young women--the youngest 12 years old. Furthermore, among the awardees of the three grand prizes two were young women.

Burkinabé Fanta Nacro has played an important role in the above initiative, as prominent African cineastes adapted films using these scenarios: A Call to Action, A Love Story, A Ring on Her Finger, The Champion, Iron Will, Peace of Mind, Never Alone, The Reasons for a Smile, Tiger Tigress. Also from the Series, Cameroonian Kidi Bebey’s Looking for a Brave Man explored relationships in the age of AIDS. A young woman seeking a serious relationship demands that her partner act responsibly which entails taking the AIDS test.

Fanta Nacro’s filmography also includes the 1998 short film, Le Truc de Konate (Konate's Thing). The comedy employed as a means of consciousness-raising proved very popular with the Burkinabé public, intermingling an established distrust of new concepts and old-fashioned masculine virility and honour with female consciousness.

With a more solemn tone, Tsitsi Dangarembga of Zimbabwe relays the tragic costs of AIDS in Everyone's Child, directed in 1995. The film focuses on the devastating consequences for the children who are left to fend for themselves after the AIDS-related death of parents. On a joyful note, in Zambian Musola Kaseketi's film Suwi, the young Bupe finds a happy home, while Tanzanian Beatrix Mugishagwe’s Tumaini tells a story of hope.

Kenyan Wajuhi Kamau, of the Film Production Department of the Educational Media Service of the Minister of Education, emphasises the effectiveness of video as a means of educating people about a range of issues, from AIDS to family planning. Using both the documentary and drama presentations, the objective of the agency is to allow people to see themselves reflected in the images. "When you see yourself, you see your situation, then it is easy to remember and change attitudes and behaviour." Zimbabwean Prudence Uriri has also focused on issues related to AIDS and health in general. The Unesco-commissioned Madizela and Samora (2003), and Life (2002) produced by Rooftop Promotions, are two AIDS-focused films directed by Uriri. She sees her role as a filmmaker to open a dialogue regarding the problems that people face, and in so doing they may be better informed.