The 2006 African Film Summit in South Africa showed a different face from the experiences Anne Mungai describes at the 1989 meeting. Women were present everywhere. Their voices were heard, their faces highly visible among the 250 invited delegates. A woman's caucus was held prior to the vote for the new Secretary General in order to choose with a unified voice, a woman for nomination. Seipati Bulane-Hopa was elected with thunderous applause. While she is satisfied with the contributions that she has made, in an interview with filmmaker Monique Mbeka Phoba* [see below], she laments that the problems that have crippled FEPACI before she took office continued to exist during her tenure. In this case one notes, that gender aside, leading an organization of the scope, size and needs such as FEPACI, is a formidable undertaking. She ended her mandate as Secretary General in 2013 passing the torch to Cheick Oumar Sissoko of Mali.
Translation from French by Beti Ellerson
New paths for Fepaci
Interview with Seipati Bulane-Hopa by Monique Mbeka Phoba
Current Secretary General of Fepaci
Published on July 7, 2009
After the Tshwane Congress [of 2006], do you have
any thoughts about your two years as general secretary?
Yes, in fact I have drawn a number of lessons
from this. I have the impression that, in making the choice of the people to be
appointed, we had not established a type of statement of requirements, as is
done everywhere when we want to fill a position, namely to describe the profile
needed for a: President or / and Secretary General, Regional Secretary and
Advisor at the level of the General Secretariat.
It was decided haphazardly by the good fortune
of the people who were there and who had to be persuaded to volunteer. I myself
was not a candidate, neither was Charles Mensah. We were both persuaded to present
ourselves. I myself refused three times before finally accepting. We who form
the current team, we do our job in good faith, with the competence that we
bring, but this does not prevent a call for candidates, prior to the elections,
which gives people time to prepare and declare their candidacies, and then, to
analyze their skills and their motivations. A call for candidates, allows them
an overview of what they can really bring to Fepaci in terms of financial
means, available materials, strategic projects. A call for candidates allows
them time to consult their government or their professional environment about
their possible candidacy, which quite simply allows them to campaign--as with
any election--before the election. For me it would have been a better
procedure, preventing some of the inconveniences that we had to face. Our goal
is to ensure that this list of criteria is established for the next Fepaci
elections in 2011.
What
were the difficulties that you and your entire team faced at the start of your
tenure?
I can summarize them in three main categories:
1) Time lost in settling in: When the
secretariat was assigned to South Africa, due to my election as secretary
general, there was no kind of planning for this migration from the Burkina
secretariat to South Africa. Our government was committed to organizing and
funding the African Film Summit and supporting its recommendations. But, it was
not prepared to welcome the general secretariat. At the Ministry of Culture,
there was no budget for a Fepaci secretariat. However, all expenses are planned
there. It took a long time to negotiate with the Ministry of Culture to have an
operating budget. And the first year, we were quite simply totally in lack of
means. Hence, the difficulty in starting our activities.
2) Psychological setbacks: On the side of
Burkina Faso, which hosted the general secretariat, even when the general
secretary was from Benin, as with the case of Jacques Behanzin, there was also confusion
regarding the change of location. It was something that, psychologically,
should have been better prepared. And the new administration has paid the price
for this state of unpreparedness and these psychological impediments. I will
not hide it from you. I have often said it to my entourage.
3) The problem of the location of the general
secretariat: Moreover, I think that relocating the secretariat is not a problem
of minor. A nomadic secretariat can break the Fepaci. If we move it every 4
years, at each election we will have a major problem with government support.
Governments will ask themselves why invest in an institution that will move
again tomorrow. This is a question I ask. Not that I am invested in the
secretariat staying in South Africa, but for the sake of institutional logic.
Burkina Faso can legitimately feel a certain amount of bitterness, after all
the support it has given to the Fepaci secretariat, to see it now elsewhere. Furthermore,
one of the consequences, psychologically, is that it has hindered a greater
coordination between Fepaci and Fespaco, which I deeply regret. And this acrimony,
other countries may experience under the same circumstances and, in
anticipation, will temper their support. Yet, this support is essential. The
secretariat must be able to obtain from the host country the HQ, an operating
budget and the salaries for its team. These needs are fundamental and essential.
Therefore, I repeat the importance of seriously considering this question of the
location of the general secretariat.
In terms of the organization of the general
secretariat itself, do you have any suggestions for a new way of operating?
You
know, it seems to me that in terms of the resource persons at the secretariat
level, there are professional profiles that are absolutely necessary to move
forward and which we are lacking for the moment:
-
A fund-raiser, someone whose sole function would be to search for funding, who
has a perfect mastery of the financial resources available for a cultural
organization such as Fepaci. Fund-raising has become a profession in its own
right, very technical, and it is clear that fundraising has nothing to do with
the way it was envisioned at the creation of Fepaci;
-
A specialist in new audiovisual technologies: this is one of the most important
parameters of audiovisual development in Africa. We are no longer just talking
about production, but about distribution. We have gone from analog to digital,
we need to have a clear picture across Africa of this new frontier. And, to
understand the stakes involved of this economy of new technologies and new
media, it seems to me that Fepaci cannot do without an expert on these issues.
- A specialist in marketing and advertising: it
is a fact that Fepaci has an image to be made or (re-)made. I know that many
filmmakers reject these aspects, but they are necessary to give more impact to
the search for funding;
- A broadcasting specialist: how to broadcast
by satellite, by Internet, by GSM. Developments in this area are extremely
rapid. You have to be very specialized on this issue.
- A copyright specialist: even if this area is
a no man's land in many African countries, the more we move towards the
professionalization of the audiovisual market, the more urgent it is to resolve
the issues around copyright. These specialists should be found not only at the
executive secretariat level, but also at the level of each regional
secretariat. We would then have an extraordinary force.
These are the kinds of developments that I hold
dear and that seem to open up new avenues for Fepaci. And then, I also dream of
a Fepaci TV, which serves to promote the works of African filmmakers, which
allows us to react to highly topical issues, such as, for example, the death of
the great Sembène Ousmane. Even if only on the Internet, I believe it would be
an essential tool for Fepaci! I will not hide the fact that this whole program
is still difficult to implement. I often hear: "But, we have not done it
before." And then I answer: “All the more reason! ". Because why would
I be here, if I have nothing to offer!
What is
your assessment of these first two years of operation?
Regarding the outcomes of these first two years
of operation, here is how I could present it:
In 2006-2007: 1) Following South African legal
procedures, we progressed with the registration of Fepaci. It was essential to
be able to be supported by the ministry. We have the statutes of a non-profit organization.
We would have liked to be registered as a pan-African association, but, even if
it were possible, it would have taken us too long. Eventually, this could be
considered.
2) At Sithengi 2006, we organized the first
regional meeting, during a colloquium to discuss Fepaci's strategy and a
business plan.
3) We also held a symposium on intellectual
property, where we brought in people working in this field.
4) In 2006, we also set up the Fepaci website.
5) We were able to create an email address, linked
to the website, for all the regional secretariats: they are not actually used
yet, but it is important for the visibility, the identification of the
organization.
6) We visited the African Union in Addis Ababa,
to meet the Commissioner in charge of Cultural Affairs, Madame Gawana, but
during this visit a very painful event occurred for her, the death of her
father, and we were not able to achieve all the objectives of this visit. 7)
However, we were able to establish a kind of Memorandum of Understanding, which
is a protocol that establishes the details of the relations between Fepaci and
the African Union. One of the first steps to take, as recommended by the Fepaci
Congress in Tshwane, is to conduct a study on cinema and audiovisual across the
African continent.
In 2008:
1) We organized a symposium on audiovisual
training in Namibia with the sub-regional secretariat for Southern Africa. It
was a pilot symposium, to be replicated for every region of Africa.
2) We have started our monthly newsletters. The
issue no. 6 will be released soon.
This
article is part of a “Zoom” interview carried out during the Fespaco in
February 2009 in Ouagadougou /// Article N °: 8743
