Popular Culture and Oral Traditions in African Film

Author(s): Manthia Diawara

Source: Film Quarterly , Spring, 1988, Vol. 41, No. 3 (Spring, 1988), pp. 6-14
Published by: University of California Press

Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/1212516

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 MANTHIA DIAWARA

Popular Culture and Oral

Traditions in African Film
In spite of the increasing number of African
repressed by the West, and anti-neocolonialist
discourses. European critics sent to view these
films released in the course of the last 20 years
(from Borom Sarret in 1963 to Nyamanton films, in another form of the reactions like those
of Amadou Hampate Ba's village chief, bring
[The Garbage Boys] in 1986), there has not been
an African film criticism as enlightening back
and inevitably indulgent and nonanalytical
provocative as the criticism generated by comments
the on African cinema.
To analyze African cinema, one must first
Brazilian Cinema Novo, the theories of Imper-
fect Cinema, and the recent debates around understand that 25 years of film production have
Third Cinema. This gap must be filled to over- necessarily created an aesthetic tradition which
come the repetitious nature of criticism which African film-makers use as a point of reference
has addressed itself to African film in the last which they either follow or contest. An African
25 years and to make possible the definition ofaesthetic does not come merely from European
a dynamic aesthetic proper to Africa. The lack cinema. To avoid making African cinema into
of African critics who know African traditions an imperfect appendix to European cinema, one
is at fault, as well as the critical practice of the must question Africa itself, and African tradi-
West, where the ethnocentrism of European tions, to discover the originality of its films. In
and American film critics has limited them to his article, "Sur les formes traditionnelles du
evaluating African cinema through the prism ofroman africain," Mahamadou Kane wrote that
Western film language. Thus, they refuse to"the originality of the African novel must be
look at African cinema "straight in the eyes."
found more precisely in its relation with the
They think that that cinema is in the process offorms of oral literature from 'Black Africa'."
finding its individuality, that the film-makersIn the same article, Kane compared the oral
have not mastered yet the film medium, that the story-teller to the novelist, exploring the
camera style is still primitive in African films.themes, the narrative devices, and other fea-
European critics are afraid to look at Africantures of the novel which also form the basis of
cinema in the same manner that Africans used the oral tale. He also showed that the novelist,
to be afraid to watch the first movies from
as well as the story-teller, uses realism as a
Europe. According to Amadou Hampate Ba,means of expression, resorting to a linear story
the wise man of Bandiangara, when film was
with one action which enfolds around three
introduced in his village in 1935, the Imam and units of time (departure, arrival, and return).
Like the traditional story-teller, the novelist
the head of the village accused it of being loaded
opts for a didactic enunciation and, conse-
with lies, tricks and anti-Islamic goals. In order
to protect the village against this diabolical in-
quently, reproduces in the text the apprentice-
vention imposed upon them by the colonial
ship of life as well as moral and social codes.
administrator, the Imam commanded womenIn this article, I will try to bring out the rela-
and children to stay at home. Only men came tions
to between the oral tradition and African
the projection and they closed their eyes for the
cinema in the same manner that Kane does for
entire length of the film. At the end, the men the novel. I will compare the griot (the bard) to
told the administrator that women and children the film-maker, looking particularly at their
could not come because they were afraid of the
images in motion on the screen.2
Versions of this paper were presented to the colloquium on Film and
Today, African cinema must combat thisOral Literature in Ouagadougou at the 10th Pan-African Film Fes-
resistance to foreign images. Europeans close
tival, and to the Center for Black Studies at the University of
California, Santa Barbara. I would like to thank the University of
their eyes in order not to see the questioning of
California at Santa Barbara for research and travel support in
Western values, the reaffirmation of cultures
writing the paper.

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Ousmane Sembene's XALA (New Yorker Films)

reproduction of traditional modes of being, so ways to oral story-telling forms. As Kane not-
as to show the similarities and the differences ed in regard to the novelist, the film-maker too
between their works. is influenced, consciously or unconsciously, by
First of all, it seems logical to underline thethe story-teller's techniques of narrating. "At
fundamental difference between oral literature
night, he/she used to be fed with oral tales,
and cinema. The means put into play in thehistorical or cosmogonical legends . . very
construction of a film-the camera movement,often, he/she grew up in a milieu which had a
close-ups, and shot/reverse-shots-are not the specific mentality as regards the forms of dis-
same as those used by the story-teller. Indeed,course, a sensibility which expressed itself in
the latter enunciates by incarnating charactersparticular ways. "6
one by one, dominating the narrative by his or First it is important to look at the manner in
her presence. The griot depends on spoken lan- which popular cultures are filmed in African
cinema, because such popular practices as song
guage as well as on music to actualize the story.
The film-maker, on the contrary, uses the meansand dance, the performance of the griot, and
of mechanical reproduction to give shape to thethe representation of African social systems
story. Whereas oral literature speaks of life, such as polygamy are often used to create the
cinema reproduces an impression of life.4 effect of the real in the films. In Xala (Ousmane
Sembene's 1974 film about independence and
Putting this difference aside, can one say that
the impotence of the new leaders), for example,
the originality of African cinema must be found
in the oral tradition? Can one also overlook the after the Africans have taken control of the
notion that African cinema had had nothing to Chamber of Commerce, song and dance are rep-
resented to accentuate the transition of power in
inherit when it started its development?5 Accord-
ing to this postulate, there would exist only the story as a return to authenticity. The dance
one film language, the one to which the West occurring at the beginning of the film, instead of
has given birth and which it has perfected. The having a fixed exotic meaning as in anthropolog-
black film-maker would then only have to place ical films about Africa, is a spectacle open to
the content of his/her work in a framework that several interpretations. First one can see in it the
takes its condition of possibility from the rules desire of the new public employees to be consid-
and precepts already elaborated by Western ered traditional, and therefore authentic. But
masters. one soon realizes that the dance and music out-
However, when African films are examined,
side are used as masks to hide the incompetence
one sees that all the directors resort in different of the new leaders inside, who accept bribes

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 from the very Frenchmen they had kicked out. Visages de Femmes the political commitment of
Finally, the dance connotes in an ironic manner African directors.
the representation of half-naked Africans who This brief analysis of the representation of
are always dancing in European and American song and dance in Xala and Visages de Femmes
films. At the level of the signified, song and reveals that the appropriation of popular cul-
dance in Xala position the spectators to criticize ture by the fiction film in Africa creates a move-
the superficial use of tradition by politicians. ment away from Western film language,
The opening scene helps the audience build a toward a predominance of traditional narrative
revolutionary attitude relative to the regressive codes. Sembene leads this movement by first
behavior of the characters in the film. negating European stereotypes of song and
In Visages de Femmes (Faces of Women, a dance in Africa, and by putting into question
1985 film by Desire Ecar6, which tells two differ- the African elite's attempt to exploit these
ent stories about two women in Ivory Coast), popular forms for its own gains. Ecar6's desire
song and dance are narrative processes which to let African dance and song speak in a cine-
move the story forward. In this film song and matic language coincides with a phallocentric
dance, at the beginning and end of the river love construction of the characters which turns them
scene, constitute a mini-narrative with a begin- into objects of desire for the spectator. Visages
ning, middle, and end. Through their perfor- de Femmes teaches us, thus, the necessity for
mance, the women tell the story of how a boy the film-maker to interrogate popular culture
and a girl deceived everybody and met in the in order to divest it of its manifest and/or re-
river to make love. In Xala Sembene negates the pressed phallocentrism.
Hollywood stereotypes of exotic Africans and
gives a contextual interpretation to song and As regards social practices such as polygamy
dance, but in Visages de Femmes Ecare empha- in African film, two examples suffice to illus-
sizes the manner in which song and dance in trate its cinematic representation. In Sey Seyeti
Africa are used to inform people of what is tak- (One Man, Several Women, 1980), Ben Dio-
ing place behind their backs. This balletic cin- gaye Beye puts polygamy and modernity into
ema, or a cinema that dances in order to tell its play in order to bring to light the contradictions
story, has its parallel in at least one West Afri- in a contemporary African society. Beye con-
can popular theater, the Koteba, which also can structs polygamy as the common denominator
imitate all forms of representation through of the problems of several men in the film, and
dance.
ends by focusing on the freedom of a young
As the dancers of Visages de Femmes, in their woman who is forced to marry an older man.
colorful attire, move to the beat of the music in There is no central story in Sey Seyeti, which
harmony with the rhythm of the editing and thetells one anecdote after another, using poly-
camera movements, one cannot help but think gamy as the over-determining factor. This com-
that Ecare has invented a new language for Afri-plex film, which runs the risk of confusing the
can cinema. But how is this aesthetization of an spectator in the West about the relationships
African popular culture, which pushes the spec-among many characters, or of being dismissed
tator to identify with the dancing women, differ- as an example of African avant-garde, shocked
ent from the old tradition of constructing the the inhabitants of Senegal. When it was re-
body of women as the site of desire in Westernleased, the film provoked an unprecedented
cinema? Furthermore it seems that the dancereaction in the press from sociologists, ethnol-
scene, through the use of medium close-ups of ogists, and politicians. Beye was accused by
women's feet, arms, and heads, is addressed to some for looking at polygamy, an African cus-
the desire of the male spectator, and thus con- tom, with European eyes, and praised by others
tradicts the love-making in the river which seemsfor boldly exposing a regressive practice which
to proclaim the sexual freedom of African wo- no longer finds its justification in modern Sene-
men. In other words, as Ecar6 places song andgal. The fact that Sey Seyeti shocked African
dance in African cinema, away from anthropo- audiences, while its message remains opaque or
logical and Hollywood films, he surrenders toconfusing to the spectator in the West, indicates
the sexist codes of African popular culture whichthat Beye simultaneously fashioned an African
undermine his very attempt to keep alive in film language while attempting to shed light on
8

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In Finye (The Wind, by Souleymane Ciss6,

1983), polygamy is a principal theme. One of
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youngest of the governor's wives takes the ini-

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tiative in the quest for a lover by expressing her

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desire for a young man of her age. The man this

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young woman chases also happens to be the

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lover of the governor's daughter. Symbolically,

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therefore, both women have become the gover-

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nor's daughters and/or wives because they have Cart driver and griot: BOROM

the same object of desire. What becomes an

issue in this scene is polygamy's inability to [story-teller]."'7 In he
answer to the emerging needs of sexual freedom Sembene Ousmane (1984)
in Africa. But the tradition of polygamy is more pares Sembene's cinema
seriously questioned in the film by the belittling griot's narrative techn
of its social and economic meaning. Women the representation of th
play the role of respectful spouses, who submit Niaye, Borom Sarret,
to their husbands in order to cheat on them limit myself to the figu
even better and to get from them what scene
theyof Borom Sarret: fat, well-dressed, and
even with a gold tooth. By contrast the "Borom
want. For example, in another scene the oldest
and the youngest wives stage a mock fight to (cart driver) is skinny, poorly dressed,
Sarret"
distract the husband from his commitment toand tired from his work. The opposition be-
punish a disloyal daughter. As for the gover-
tween these two characters is so striking that it
nor/husband marrying three wives, which reminds
in one of an earlier scene where Sembene
the past would have served to emphasize hisuses high- and low-angle shots to contrast the
prestige, this now appears as a movement to-
cart driver with a crippled beggar who crawls on
ward the weakening of moral and social values.all fours.
The youngest wife squanders his money, drinks As money is transferred from the cart driver
whiskey, and smokes in front of him. These to the griot, one sees tradition as tainted with ob-
signs of depravity in a traditional Islamic so- vious corruption. The griot turns tradition into
ciety are ascribed to modernity and the persis-a tool of exploitation when he evokes the cart
tence of polygamy. An understanding of local driver's past nobility in order to take away all
culture (anthropological signs) is necessary to the money he has earned for the morning labor.
appreciate the play of the actors as authoritative
The griot's narrative about the cart driver, which
and phallocentric husband, or oldest and young- would have been authoritative in oral tradition,
est wives. One has to go beyond the simplistic is debunked here as exploitative and not inclu-
sive of the contemporary realities that oppress
conception of art as functional in Africa and see,
for example, the aesthetics over-determined by the cart driver. Sembene transcends the griot,
polygamy in the comic scene of the mock fight therefore, and surrounds him and his old narra-
between the wives. tive with a new vision which traces the mechan-
The figure of the griot, symbol of the oral tra- ism by which people such as the cart driver are
dition, has also been often represented in Afri- exploited. It is important to notice that in the
can films. Historians of African cinema have same scene, as the griot goes on taking the cart
already studied the griot's presence in Sembene'sdriver's money, one young boy shines the shoes
films. In a pioneering article on the subject,
of another who is stronger and who leaves
Mbye Cham argues that Sembene sees himself as
without paying. Here again Sembene uses high-
"the mouth and ears of his people," and in his
and low-angle shots, as he does throughout the
role as a film-maker, he "prefers to amalga-length of the film to maintain this hierarchy of
power not only between people, but also be-
mate, adapt, develop, and enhance certain fea-
tures of the gewel [griot] and the Lekbat tween the two sides of the city.

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 The richness of this scene is such that it shows the spectator to get rid of hierarchical notions,
the spectator that a return to tradition, to au- to enjoy the art of the griot, and to see a coin-
thenticity, does not always bring about solutions cidence between the rehabilitation of griots and
to the problems of Africans such as the cart progress in Africa.
driver. While criticizing the inhuman westerni- Finally, in Jom (1981), Ababakar Samb
zation of the inhabitants of the Europeanized paints a romantic figure of griots. According to
side of the city, the "Plateau," Borom Sarret Samb, they are the historians, the educators,
questions the unconditional return to tradition. and the guardians of people's conscience. In
Sembene creates a distance between spectators Jom the griot is the main character, the omnis-
and the characters in the film which enables the cient narrator of the different sketches that
spectators to criticize themselves in their tradi- form the film, and the immortal persona who
tion. This cinematic language takes its form and travels through time and space. He remains un-
content from the figure of the griot, symbol of changed by age and by the weapons used by the
the oral tradition which Sembene uses as his enemies of tradition. Neither money nor fear
point of departure. The difference between this can corrupt him. He is the griot of the poor as
first film by Africa's leading director and well as of the rich. Samb's griot, like Sembene's
Western films resides in Sembene's ability to narrator in Borom Sarret, is a committed ac-
transform Western cinema's exotic characters tivist who fights for the right of the oppressed.
like the griot and the cart driver into thematic He provides leadership and moral support to
as well as structural elements for the content the factory workers who are on strike, ridicules
and the form of his film language. the eccentricities of the nouveaux riches in
In Djeli (The Griot, 1981), on the contrary, Africa, and praises the courage and dignity of
Lancine Fadika-Kramo resists this transcen- the migrant workers who had to leave their vil-
dence of the griot's art form. He posits the griotlages because of the drought.
as the point of departure and the master of nar- Samb's construction of the griot and his
rative. Djeli starts with a flashback retracing the narrative as master and model respectively for
griot's mythic origin in order to put into ques- African cinema has for a consequence the sub-
tion the hierarchies of the caste system. Accord- ordination of the film-maker's narrative to that
ing to this rhetoric, the griot was originally a of the griot and the creation of a nostalgic mood
hunter who changed trades to become a singer, to serve as a refuge for the spectator. The figure
story-teller and musician. Interestingly enough,of the griot is used to reinvent a beautiful image
another West African myth of origins, "Gas-of the past. Unlike Sembene, who puts the
sire's Lute," states that the griot was a bravegriot's narrative within a larger narrative, Samb
warrior who, tired of killing, turned into a mu- surrenders to the narrative authority of the
sician to follow and entertain the warriors.8 griot. This romanticization of the griot defines
Djeli blames the caste system for the contem-Samb's film language which valorizes tradition
porary negative image of griots as inferior toas characterized in the film by authenticity,
other social groups. To show that this definition dignity, and truth, and negates modernism as
of griots is opposed to any revolution of ideas, characterized by alienation, colonialism, and
to love and life, Fadika creates a love story be- exploitation. Jom positions the spectator to
tween a man from the griot caste and a woman identify with tradition without any attempt at
from another social group so as to reveal theself-criticism: everything positive is pushed on
regressiveness of caste systems which suppress the side of tradition and everything negative on
such a possibility. The aesthetic in Djeli defines the side of modernism.
itself as a movement out of the stagnation of Up to now, I have shown the manner in
caste hierarchies, towards a transformation of which elements of popular culture have been in-
tradition into an equalitarian system. It is in thiscorporated into cinema. I will show now how
sense that the film valorizes "Djeli-ya"-the the structure of oral literature has helped to
state of being a griot-through beautiful images shape the originality of African cinema. At the
of the griottes (female artists), slow-motion beginning of this article, I pointed out that film-
shots of griottes singing and dancing, and the makers, like novelists, are infuenced, cons-
flashback which shows that griots were origin- ciously or not, by the narrative forms of the
ally equal to other groups. The film positions oral story-teller. They have been initiated into
10

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oral tradition before going to Western schools. speaker, are all represented in Ceddo. In the
The way the story-tellers narrate becomes their king's court, the discursive space defines itself
point of reference when they take their first by including some as members of the discourse
steps at a film school. During the rest of their in a hierarchical order and by excluding others.
careers, they are bound to be dealing with oral The griot, to use the words of Camara Laye, is
tradition, to move it sometimes, contrasting it master of discourse. He controls its distribution
with the modern forms of the novel and of cine- and its impact. He is the one through whom the
ma, or even to repress it. One can see the in- speaking members communicate.
fluence of oral tradition in all African films Let's examine the manner in which the sub-
including Xala, The Money Order, Finye andject of orality determines the form of narration
Baara (The Porter), even where the narrative
in the film. In order to represent the discursive
forms of the classic novel and cinema space, the director creates a mise-en-scene in
dominate. which the griot occupies the center of the circle
Elsewhere, I showed how Gaston Kabore's formed by the king's court, the Imam, the mis-
Wend Kuuni (The Gift of God, 1983) makes sionary and the Ceddoes. The fast editing style
orality its subject and questions the hermeticof European films is replaced by long takes in
and conservative structure of tradition in oral
deep-focus shots. It is as if the camera has taken
literature.9 One can also mention Sembene's griot's position so as to reveal the directions
the
Ceddo as another film which takes the oral tra- of speech. There are very few camera move-
ments and close-ups. Shot/reverse-shots are
dition for a principal subject and transforms its
structure into a revolutionary statement. Sem-avoided so as not to give the impression that
bene's The Money Order is a historical land-one is dealing with a dialogue scene similar to
the ones in Western films.
mark because, for the first time in a film by an
African director, the actors speak an African However, Sembene, like the griot, also
language. But it is in Ceddo that Sembene makes his presence felt at several points in the
posits an archeology of discourse in Africa. The diegesis. He is physically present as a Ceddo,
richness of the language in proverbs and say-carrying firewood on his head, discussing the is-
ings, the power of the spoken word and of the sue of exile with other Ceddoes, and during the

?,

Sembene 's
CEDDO
(New
Yorker "
Films) i-i-i:

~BIB~

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i
i

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"

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m~

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11

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 Imam's baptizing of Ceddoes. The use of close- tice present in their society and to question its
ups of human faces and of objects, in this film permanence.
where long shots dominate the narration, re- Nyamanton, too, like Ceddo, goes beyond
veals a didactic intervention on the part of the the mere imitation of orality to question the
director. Thus Sembene, like the oral story- griot who is the master of discourse. In one
teller, determines the reading of the signs for scene Kalifa says to his friend, Aliou, that his
the viewer. father is the greatest liar after Jali Baba, Mali's
The travel of initiation or the educational famous griot. Aliou answers that griots do not
quest, which constitutes the structural cell of
lie, that what they say is the true story and that
oral literature, is also an important motif inKalifa ignores their value. Aliou then starts im-
African cinema (cf. Borom Sarret, La Noire de itating Jali Baba and sings his friend's praises.
. , L 'Exile, Lettre Paysanne, Wend Kuuni,One sees in this scene the definition of the griot
Njangane, Touki Bouki, etc.). The quest de- as a historian on the one hand and, on the other
fines itself as a movement from the village to hand, as an artist whose play with words ranks
the city and ends with the return to the village. him with liars. But more important than this
One can also interpret it as an alienation and areference to the figure of the griot and his nar-
return to authenticity, as is shown at the end ofrative is the fact that the director's world view
Touki Bouki, for example. takes the place of that of the griot as the most
Ceddo also moves its characters so as to authoritative in the thematization of the kids'
bring them to an awakening of consciousness. relation to everyday life in Africa. In oral tra-
The princess, first kidnapped by the Ceddoes, dition, it is through the griot's point of view
realizes the exploitation of her people by thethat one sees and realizes the universe around
Imam and joins the Ceddoes in their resistanceone. In film, the camera replaces the griot as the
against the tyranny of the Imam. What above director's eyes and constructs the new images of
all differentiates Ceddo from the oral narration
Africa for the spectator. It is in this sense that
in its closure. In the oral tradition, the physical
one says that the African film-maker has re-
return symbolizes the return to the status quo. placed the griot in the rewriting of history.
The griot is conservative and his story helps to Nyamanton is constructed mostly with long
reinforce traditional values. In oral traditions,shots. These shots show clearly the space occu-
the story is always closed so as not to leave anypied by the women at the house door and Kal-
ambiguity about interpretations. In Ceddo, onifa's father under the tree. The father has to yell
the contrary, the return denotes the union ofwhen he communicates with women because of
the princess and the Ceddoes. Thus the end the
of distance separating them. In order to re-
the film, a freeze frame, announces the new day
main within the limits of realism as regards the
pregnant with several possibilities. representation of such spaces, the camera occu-
Finally, I will end this study by showing the
pies the center between the women and the
manner in which one of the best films of the
father, as was the case with the griot in Ceddo.
Pan-African Film Festival (FESPACO 1987), Here, too close-ups and shot/reverse-shots are
Cheick Oumar Sissoko's Nyamanton [see FQ, avoided as much as possible.
Winter 1987-88], continues the African film At first sight, this narrative expedient may be
language I have sought to define above. dismissed as simply a primitive use of the cam-
Nyamanton constitutes an educational quest, orera in an attempt to economize on editing. Thus
an initiation trip for the two main characters,a hasty comparison with Western cinema might
Kalifa and Fanta, who travel daily from their bring one to the conclusion that African films
home to the neighborhood where they work. lack action. But an analysis based on the forms
The home symbolizes the interior space where of oral tradition will highlight the originality of
tradition is a refuge, safeguarding parentalAfrican film language in Nyamanton. First, one
relations. The children play with their grand-
can see through an ethnographic insight that the
parents and the resulting laughs help the family long shots serve better to create the effect of
go through their daily dificulties. The city repre-
verisimilitude in the narrative. The external
sents the outside, the change of setting and space in Africa is less characterized by the dis-
imminent danger. The trips between home and play of emotion and closeness between man and
the city enable the children to witness the injus-
woman, and more by a designation of man's
12

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space and woman's space in society. The narra-

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shots and by describing the emotion of the char-
.. ....:-- ... iii ii ii ii iiii:iii:iii:iii'iiiiiiii
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acters instead of showing it. The griot's influ-

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iii

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ence on the film-maker brings about the fact i:i-

that subjective shots do not always have the

same significance in African cinema as in West- iii iii

~iiiiiiiiiiii

ern cinema. Close-ups of a child's face or of a

~i:i:?i:i:i:::-:::- ::::-:::::_:::( -::: ......

.. .

pack of cigarettes in Nyamanton, for example, -i:i:ii`iiZii8i:~i~iii:Lii"ii':iiiii:ii iiiiiiiiii :._.:.. iiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiELi~lB~B~ifL~iiP~ ii`ii

are not objects seen by a character but their

description by the director/narrator for the
spectator. Even the flashforward in the film is ii
ii

a description of the mother coming to an under- NYAMANTON

standing of the situation in which she finds

herself. Instead of effacing himself and realiz- the retribution of "Nyama." Sunjata, too, had
ing the story through different characters' nar- a difficult childhood, and those who were re-
rations, the director in Nyamanton always sponsible were punished. On the other hand the
carries the camera on his shoulder, and like the likening of the children to Sunjata leads the
griot, dominates the narrative with his presence. spectator to identify them with the collective
While Western directors often achieve recogni- future of Africa. As in Ceddo, orality is here
tion by letting the story tell itself, African direc- again made the subject of the film in order to
tors, like the griots, master their craft by arraign the repressive forces of tradition and
impressing the spectator with their narrative modernism.
performance. This may be because, with the Finally, the oral tradition also influenced the
griots, one achieves fame not by being the au- French title of the film, La le!Von des ordures
thor of new texts but by being able to reproduce (The Lesson of Garbage). Sissoko wanted to
the best versions of old texts. Nyamanton is a oppose to "The Lesson of Things" which stu-
new version of such African films in which tra- dents in Francophone Africa learn every morn-
dition clashes with modernity, and the popular- ing from French textbooks the lessons learnt
ity of its director lies in the manner in which he about Malian society by Kalifa and Aliou
describes the most memorable episodes of the through their work as garbage boys. As "leCon
clash. des choses" becomes interchangeable with "le-
The choice of Nyamanton for the title of theCon des ordures," and both are little more than
"Nyaman," the film creates the necessity to
film is also interesting in the context of oral tra-
dition. Etymologically, "Nyamanton" comesquestion the lessons inherited from the former
from the prefix "Nyama" which in Bambaracolonial powers. There is no doubt that the
and Mandinka may be translated as "potentiallyform of African cinema is influenced by its
dangerous forces released through the perfor- traditional content. Understanding the role
mance or violation of ritual."' "Nyaman"
played by the oral tradition in African film en-
with an "n" at the end means trash. Thus a ables the critic to see how the film-maker has
popular song in West Africa likens Sunjata,
transformed this tradition into a new ideology.
King of Mali in the thirteenth century, to
Buta it is also possible to study the way in which
dump-site which hides everything underneath
the African content has changed the cinematic
itself, but which cannot be covered by other
language of the West. This is what transpires
things. Literally the song refers to Sunjata's
when one examines the strategies by which film
vital force which protects his people and which
has incorporated African traditions. The Afri-
can director makes conscious and unconscious
harms his enemies like the plague released from
a "Nyama" or from the violation of ritual." references to the griot's narrative techniques.
When the title of the film is interpreted in the
context of "Nyama" as a West African trope, NOTES

one sees how Sissoko positions the spectator to

1. Robert Stam and Randal Johnson, Brazilian Cinema (East
take a personal responsibility in reducingBrunswick:
the Associated University Press, 1982). Teshome Gabriel,
children's future to trash collection, and to fear
Third Cinema in the Third World: The Aesthetics of Liberation

13

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 (Ann Arbor: UMI Research Press, 1982). Julianne Burton, Cinema
and Social Change in Latin America: Conversations with Film-
makers (Austin: University of Texas Press, 1986). For the recent
debates on Third Cinema see Julianne Burton, "Marginal Cinemas
and Mainstream Critical Theory." Screen vol. 26, no. 3/4 (1985).
Teshome Gabriel, "Colonialism and 'Law and Order' Criticism."
Screen, vol. 27, no. 3/4 (1986). For an overall review, see Roy
Armes, Third World Filmmaking and the West (Berkeley: Univer-
sity of California Press, 1987).
2. "Le dit du cinema africain" in Films dthnographiques sur l'Afri-
que Noire, by Jean Rouch. Paris: UNESCO (1967), pp. 1-9. Published continually since 1967,
3. In Revue de Litterature Comparee, vol. 3 no. 4 (1974), p. 537. Cineaste is today internationally rec-
4. For a recent discussion of codes tha are specific to film language
ognized as America's leading maga-
see Jacques Aumont et al., Esthetique dufilm. Paris: Editions Fer-
nand Nathan (1983), pp. 138-143. zine on the art and politics of the
5. Jacques Binet, for example, argues that "The African traditions cinema. "A trenchant, eternally
were not prone to an art of images: no fresco, no painting and no
drawing." See "Les cultures africaines et les images" in CindmAc-
zestful magazine," says the Interna-
tional Film Guide, "in the forefront
tion no. 26 (1982), (special issue: Cinemas noirs d'Afrique), p. 19.
6. Revue de Litterature Comparde, p. 549. of American film periodicals.
7. Mbye Cham, "Ousmane Sembene and the Aesthetics of African
Oral Traditions," in Africana Journal(1982), p. 26. Cineaste always has something
8. In Technicians of the Sacred, ed. by Jerome Rothenberg. New worth reading, and it permits its
York: Anchor Books (1969), pp. 184-191.
writers more space to develop ideas
9. "Oral Literature and African Film: Narratology in Wend
Kuuni." Presence Africaine no. 142 (1987), pp. 36-49.
than most magazines."
10. Christopher L. Miller, "Orality through Literacy: Mande Published quarterly, Cineaste
Verbal Art after the Letter." The Southern Review, vol. 23, no. 1 covers the entire world of cinema-
(1987), p. 88.
11. Massa Makan Diabate, Le Lion i l'Arc. Paris: Hatier (1986), including Hollywood, the indepen-
p. 77.
dents, Europe, and the Third World
- with exclusive interviews, lively
articles, and in-depth reviews. Sub-
ERRATA scribe now, or send $2 for a sample
copy, and see what you've been
The following notes were inadvertently omitted from
missing!
Tracy Biga's review of Blue Velvet in our Fall 1987
issue (page 44). Our apologies to Ms. Biga and our $13 ($19 foreign) for 4 issues
readers.
ClaeSte
1. E. Ann Kaplan. "Is the Gaze Male?" Women in Film, (New
P.O. Box 2242
York: Methuen, 1983), p. 24. New York, NY 10009
2. Judith Mayne. "The Woman at the Keyhole: Woman's Cinema
and Feminist Criticism," Re-Vision (Los Angeles: University Pub-
WELL teaches at Ohio State and is the author of Persona:
lications of America, 1984), p. 51. The Transcendent Image. DARIUS COOPER is from Bom-
3. Laura Mulvey. "Film and Visual Pleasure," Film Theory andbay and is working on a study of Satyajit Ray at USC.
Criticism (New York: Oxford University Press, 1985). MANTHIA DIAWARA teaches at the University of
4. David Lynch. Taped interview at USC Cinema-Television course California, Santa Barbara; his book Presence Africaine is
466. forthcoming. EDWARD DIMENDBERG is writing a dis-
5. Thomas Ogden. "The Mother, the Infant and the Matrix:sertation on theories of urban perception at UC Santa Cruz.
SETH FELDMAN is author of The Evolution of Style in
Interpretations of Aspects of the Work of Donald Winnicott," Con-
temporary Psychoanalysis, 1985 (Jul) vol. 21, p. 352. Early Work of Dziga Vertov. JOHN FELL is a member of
6. Tania Modleski. Loving with a Vengeance (New York: Methuen,
our editorial board, and frequent contributor. MARSHA
1982), p. 34. KINDER's article on Almod6var appeared in our last issue;
7. Modleski, p. 59. she is also on our editorial board. KATHERINE S.
8. Mayne, p. 54. KOVACS was recently in Spain for research on contem-
9. Christian Metz. The Imaginary Signifier (Bloomington: Indianaporary film-making there. LOUIS MENASHE frequently
University Press, 1977), p. 9. writes on Russian culture; he teaches at Brooklyn Polytech-
nic. BILL NICHOLS is head of the film department at San
10. Malkah Notman, et al. "Understanding of Women: Some
reconsiderations of autonomy and affiliation," Journal of theFrancisco State University. RUTH PERLMUTTER teaches
American Academy of Psychoanalysis, 1985 April, vol. 14, p. 242.at Philadelphia College of Art & Design. RAY SAWHILL
11. Notman et al., p. 245. lives in New York City and is writing a collection of essays
about directors and movies. ROBERT STAM teaches at
NYU; he wrote Reflexivity in Film and Literature. PAUL
THOMAS teaches political science at Berkeley. BILL VAN
CONTRIBUTORS
DAALEN is a film editor who lives in Los Angeles. ALAN
WILLIAMS teaches at Rutgers University. ISMAIL
DUDLEY ANDREW wrote Film in the Aura of Art and XAVIER teaches at the University of Sdo Paolo and wrote
Concepts in Film Theory. MARILYN JOHNS BLACK-a number of cinema books in Portuguese.

14

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