AFRICAN WOMEN IN CINEMA BLOG: Aissatou Adamou

The purpose of the African Women in Cinema Blog is to provide a space to discuss diverse topics relating to African women in cinema--filmmakers, actors, producers, and all film professionals. The blog is a public forum of the Centre for the Study and Research of African Women in Cinema.

Le Blog sur les femmes africaines dans le cinéma est un espace pour l'échange d'informations concernant les réalisatrices, comédiennes, productrices, critiques et toutes professionnelles dans ce domaine. Ceci sert de forum public du Centre pour l'étude et la recherche des femmes africaines dans le cinémas.

Showing posts with label Aissatou Adamou. Show all posts

26 October 2020

Women of Niger in Cinema, Visual Media and Screen Culture

Women of Niger

in Cinema, Visual Media

and Screen Culture

Niger counts as one of the early centers of cinema production on the continent, with pioneer Moustapha Alassane directing some of the first films.

Ethnologist and filmmaker Mariama Hima who was the first woman to direct a film in her country in the early 1980s, later held positions as museum director, politician and diplomat. She set the stage, especially as documentarian, for the women who followed and continue to produce films from the 1980s to the present.1

In the documentary Al’leessi…an African actress (2004), Rahmatou Keïta rekindles the flame of a once fledgling film industry. The vibrant works of the prolific filmmakers of Niger beginning in the mid-1960s are a mere footnote in African cinema history. Weaving the story of pioneer actress Zalika Souley, Keïta relates a parallel story, the history of the early cinema of Niger. Her purpose for making the film was to celebrate the elders of Niger cinema and elevate them to their rightful place as cinematic pioneers.

Zalika Souley, the “bad girl” of early cinema of Niger starred in numerous films. A significant highlight which is not a focus on her cinematic timeline, is her role on the founding committee of FEPACI in 1969. In 1989, she was elected as the president of the newly created L’Association des Actrices Africaines/The Association of African Actresses, in recognition of the role she played in asserting the value of women in the world of African cinema. Thirty years later, in 2019, at the Festival International du Film des Lacs et Lagune (Festilag) a tribute was made in her honor, at the first general assembly of African Actresses held at the festival.

Rakia Mango Idi who worked at the Office de la Radiodiffusion Télévision du Niger (ORTN) in the 1990s, directed three films: Femmes et exude, Le Langui, and Les Chasses touristes. Similarly, Zoulaha Abdou, who was also director at the ORTN, made the films, Le bilan des foyers améliorés, La mendicité and Journées portes ouvertes dans les établissements scolaires.2

Aïssatou Adamou had this to say about her evolution into visual media:
The National Television of Niger was established in 1978, as an educational television. At the time, only experimental programs were shown. I was the first woman to work as television announcer. I had many problems at the beginning, because a woman presented on television speaking to the public was not highly regarded. Initially, the public was critical of my public image on television. However, this did not discourage me, because I had the encouragement of my parents and friends to persevere. Gradually, people realized that women could work in the television industry just as well as men. They realized that there is no difference. Because of this gradual change in attitude, as the years passed, more women became interested in television.3

Twenty years later, the evolution of attitudes is especially evident. Aïcha Macky notes that mentalities are changing: My film talks about fertility, a taboo subject, like Amina Weira's film, which is about the consequences of uranium mining. These are situations that people experience. The State has understood the importance of the arts in changing mentalities. The Ministry of Culture has become a "cultural renaissance". She had this to say about her evolution into cinema and the state of cultural production in Niger: I come from a sociology background and so I fell into cinema somewhat like a fly in ointment. As a woman, I was perhaps lucky because I grew up in a mainly male environment: my games were those of boys, and I was never responsive to dolls, for example. I was also from an early age involved in cultural clubs where women knew how to assert their position. In Niger, the gender parity law of 2000 applies equally to appointed and elective positions. This, however, reinforces prejudices about the merits of women for promotions and I prefer to do cinema just as men do. The main difficulty is the lack of self-confidence. The Tuareg society is patriarchal and women can only be homemakers and care for the children, but things are changing. Most of the films [in Niger] are made by women. Zalika Souley was called every name in the book during her time: we are now evolving into a more open period. Cinema was viewed as a diversion made by immoral people, and yet the films presented in the local languages speak of social problems. The population quickly identified with them, to the point that there was an evolution in attitudes. Women in particular, make films about subjects that men have difficulty dealing with properly.4

In Anger in the Wind, Amina Weira travels to her hometown of Arlit in northern Niger, where she interviews the town’s residents about the negative environmental and health consequences of plutonium mining. French mining companies have mined uranium there since 1976. Today the region is contaminated, and large numbers of people have died young and suffer from chronic illnesses. Amina Wiera’s father, a retired uranium mineworker, is at the heart of this film. He shares his memories of 35 years spent in the mines.

Nana Hadiza Akawala obtained her Master 2 in documentary filmmaking at Gaston Berger University (UGB) in Saint Louis, Senegal. She also holds a Master 2 in Marketing and International Business Management. She was Director of Television Bonferey and Secretary General of the National Centre of Cinematography of Niger (CNCN). She is currently working at the Ministry of Cultural Renaissance of the Arts and Social Modernisation. In her film Bibata est partie, Nana Hadiza Akawala journeys to find the woman who worked for her family when she was an adolescent and whose departure, left a void in her life.

The TV series Une saison au Niger, released in 2019, is the first production under the designation "Nigerwood". Director Samira Seyni Djingo describes her work as "the cry of a people concerned about safeguarding their values"

Articles featuring Women of Niger in cinema, visual media and screen culture on the African Women in Cinema Blog

New York African Film Festival 2021 Conversation with Amina Weira

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/02/nyaff-2021-amina-weira.html

New York African Film Festival 2021 Conversation with Amina Abdoulaye Mamani

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/03/nyaff-amina-abdoulaye-mamani.html

Aicha Macky: Zinder

https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2021/04/aicha-macky-zinder.html

Aïcha Macky: using the power of the camera to give voice to her community and her country, Niger | se servir du pouvoir de la caméra pour faire entendre des voix de sa communauté et de son pays https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2023/12/aicha-macky-using-power-of-camera-to.html

The making of: Aïcha Macky, empowering girls through participatory video training | l’autonomisation des filles à travers la formation en vidéo participative https://africanwomenincinema.blogspot.com/2023/12/the-making-of-aicha-macky-empowering.html

1. African Women of the Screen as Cultural Producers: An Overview by Country. Black Camera, An International Film Journal.
2. Najwa Tlili, Femmes d'Images de l'Afrique Francophone, (Vues d'Afrique, 1994).
3.Sisters of the Screen: Women of Africa on Film, Video and Television, Africa World Press, 2000.
4. Les femmes font bouger les lignes - table-ronde, Festival des films d'Afrique en pays d'Apt 2016.

09 August 2010

Profile: Aïssatou Adamou (Niger)

Profile: Aïssatou Adamou (Niger)

Excerpts from the interview held during the Vues d'Afrique Festival in April 1997, Montreal, Quebec by Beti Ellerson. Translated from French. Published in Sisters of the Screen: Women of African in Film, Video and Television, 2000. Sisters of the Screen: African Women in Cinema, film released in 2002.

About Aïssatou Adamou

The National Television of Niger was established in 1978, as an educational television. At the time, only experimental programs were shown. I was the first woman to work as television announcer. I had many problems at the beginning, because a woman presented on television speaking to the public was not highly regarded. Initially, the public was critical of my public image on television. However, this did not discourage me, because I had the encouragement of my parents and friends to persevere. Gradually, people realized that women could work in the television industry just as well as men. They realized that there is no difference. Because of this gradual change in attitude, as the years passed, more women became interested in television. More schools are directing their students, both women and men, to the Institut de formation au technique de l'information et la communication, the professional school here in Niger. Today there are women directors and journalists—not one, not two, nor three, but we are, in fact, quite numerous.

I address diverse themes. I deal with ethnographic themes with a cultural context, such as the film Gossi that was screened here in Montreal. I also address social themes such as pre- and post-natal health issues regarding women and children. Women in the process of national development is a general theme on which there is a great deal of focus. This includes women from both rural and urban sectors. I also touch on issues concerning children, because it is necessary to focus on children. An example would be the education of the young girl, which is a prevailing theme today.

The role she wants to play as a woman in the media

I am a woman, I am a mother, I am a wife, and I work in the media. So one of the roles that I have to take on is to transmit my knowledge to my sisters who perhaps have not had the chance to go to school. The fact that I work in television is in no way an impediment, in terms of the role that I have to play in my household. I have my work to do on the public level and I have a role to fulfill regarding my husband and my children. I am able to combine them without a problem. I am most happy to say that I have children who are very understanding, and I also have a husband who encourages me. If I am here today in Montreal, it is because of my husband. He encouraged me to come; he insisted that I must come.

As a woman do you bring something particular to your work in film and television?

Yes, absolutely. I think women are in a better position than men to speak about the problems of women. Women are in a better position than men to speak about how to care for a sick child. As mother and communicator, I think that I have the better advantage to go in the direction of my sisters, without any difficulty. Reciprocally, my sisters also encourage me. They encourage us during the production of each program, often by letter, often by telephone calls, and just as often at work or at home. They come to tell me that the treatment of a certain subject was well presented. They encourage us to continue the good work. I think that women are the only ones who can truly touch their sisters; because there are certain things that a woman cannot talk about to a man, such as the problems around polygamy. A man may perceive it in a certain way, while a woman, as woman, perceives it in her way. We as women can present themes without the problem of vexing either men or women.

What is the position of women in other sectors of society in Niger?

My country is a democratic country. In terms of raising the consciousness of women and sensitizing the population about the conditions of women, we have institutions that have done their best to change old attitudes regarding women. We have women's organizations, we have legal organizations whose goal is to sensitize women about the role that they must play. On the administrative level, we have many women who occupy positions of high-level responsibility.

On the governmental level, we have women officials, though they are not very numerous. Women constitute fifty-two percent of the population; however, we have a disproportional small number of women in the government. We have three or four women officials; but, in relationship to their actual number in the population, we think that the government can do more. In the parliament, we have women, women who are fighters. I would say that gradually the attitudes are beginning to evolve. People now have a much better understanding of the role of women. They realize that there can be no development without the participation of women. Nigeriens have understood this and I think things are advancing. Any project without the participation of women is doomed to fail.

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26 October 2020

Women of Niger in Cinema, Visual Media and Screen Culture

09 August 2010

Profile: Aïssatou Adamou (Niger)

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