Shaka, Femi Okiremuete (1994) Colonial and post-colonial African cinema : (a theoretical and critical analysis of discursive practices). PhD thesis, University of Warwick.

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Abstract

This study attempts to provide a theoretical framework for the criticism of colonial and
post-colonial African cinema. Emphasis is placed on the extent to which the nature of
colonial cinematic policies and practices have influenced post-colonial African cinema,
especially with regards to forms of subjectivities constructed through cinematic
representation.
The study begins by examining some of the methodological problems in the
criticism of African cinema. It relates the concept of African cinema to debates dealing
with Third Cinema theories, cine-structuralism and psychoanalytic critical theories, and
argues that any of these theories can be applied to the criticism of African cinema so
long as it is moderated to suit the specific nature of the African condition. It also
defines the nature of African cinema by relating it to the notions of national cinema, the
question of African personality and identity, emergent genres and film styles, and
proposes a general cinematic reading hypothesis, anchored on the concept of
subjectivity, for the criticism of African cinema.
With respect to the colonial period, the main argument which I pursue is that
two divergent cinematic practices existed side by side in Africa. First, there was a
governmental and non-governmental agencies sponsored, non-commercial cinema,
which treats the medium as a vehicle for popular instruction. Throughout this study, I
refer to this cinematic practice as colonial African instructional cinema, and argue that
it represents Africans as knowing and knowledgeable people, able and willing to
acquire modem methods of social planning and development for the benefit of their
communities. Second, there was the commercial cinematic practice which chose, and
still chooses, to recycle popular images of people of African descent in the European
imagination, as projected through literature, history, anthropological and scientific
discourses, etc., in the representation of Africans. I refer to this cinematic practice
throughout this study as colonialist African cinema. The main argument which I
pursue with respect to this practice is that the images of Africans projected in it have a
genealogical history stretching as far back in time as the classical era.
In the modem period, the contact between Europe and Africa, and the
subsequent slave trade, colonialism and their popular literatures, and the nineteenth
century racial theories, are some of the factors which have reinforced the canonical
authority of these images. I argue that this cinematic practice represents Africans by
employing various metaphors which draw associations between Africans and animals,
to suggest African savagery and barbarity, and that by drawing on such associations,
they devalue African humanity, legitimise the colonial enterprise and all its attendant
cruelties, and absolve Europeans of any moral responsiblities over actions supposedly
carried out in the name of spreading civilisation. Though post-colonial African
historical texts located in the colonial period respond to the whole colonial enterprise,
my argument is that they are inspired, first and foremost, by the desire to refute the
images of Africans identifiable with the discursive tradition of colonialist African
CInema.

Item Type:	Thesis (PhD)
Subjects:	D History General and Old World > DT Africa P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN0080 Criticism P Language and Literature > PN Literature (General) > PN1993 Motion Pictures
Library of Congress Subject Headings (LCSH):	Motion pictures -- Africa, Motion pictures -- Africa -- History and criticism, Motion pictures, African , Motion pictures, African -- History and criticism, Africa -- Civilization -- Western influences, Africa -- Civilization -- 20th century, African -- Colonization, Culture -- Study and teaching -- Africa
Official Date:	June 1994
Dates:	Date Event June 1994 Submitted
Institution:	University of Warwick
Theses Department:	Department of Film and Television Studies
Thesis Type:	PhD
Publication Status:	Unpublished
Supervisor(s)/Advisor:	Dyer, Richard, 1945-
Sponsors:	Commonwealth Scholarship Commission in the United Kingdom (CSCUK)
Extent:	v, 389 leaves
Language:	eng

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