Decolonising African Cinema in the Time of Netflix

While the news has been full of stories about former colonial powers repatriating African artworks, much of Africa’s film history continues to reside in their hands. Although told from the outsider’s perspective, colonial-era films provide glimpses of people and times, and they constitute a critical record, which Africans should control. “Audiovisual restitution is also the fight for memory. The colonisers were fully aware of the power of memory, and they dominated peoples who were not collectively aware of the importance of memory, which was above all oral,” argues the Moroccan director, Ali Essafi. 

AFRICAN ARGUMENTS