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Updated 28 November 2006
English 212, Section 3: World Cinema
Week 14: 27 November 2006
Professor: Don Larsson
6:00-6:45 Backgrounds of African film
6:45-8:20 View Guimba, The Tyrant
8:20-8:40 Break
8:40-9:30 Discuss Guimba
Sub-Saharan Africa Culture and History: An Overview
1890s-1960s: Almost all of Africa colonized by Europe (the “Scramble for Africa”)
§ Germany loses territories to France and Britain after World War I
§ Belgium, Britain and France begin granting independence to colonies in 1960s
§ Angola and Mozambique last major nations to win independence (from Portugal), but still plagued by civil war until recently
1960s-1990s, Post-Colonial Problems:
§ Lack of economic, social or political infrastructure from departing colonial powers
§ Continuing racist attitudes from white societies
§ “National” identities often obscured by geographical, linguistic and ethnic differences
§ Civil wars and insurgencies, often abetted by U.S. and Soviet Union as Cold War proxies, including stuggle against apartheid in South Africa
§ Political instability marked by dictatorial rulers in many countries and/or bureaucratic corruption
§ Continuing health issues including spread of AIDS, malaria
§ Mounting international debt for foreign aid
§ Environmental issues, including effects of global climate change
1990s-Present:
Most problems continue to some extent, but
§ Greater movement toward stability and democratic processes, especially end of apartheid in South Africa
§ Greater economic and military cooperation among a number of states
§ Growing international attention to severity of problems
Sub-Saharan African Culture
§ “Sub-Sarahan”: Africa below the Sahara Desert (“Black Africa”)
§ Wide variety of peoples, languages and beliefs but with many similarities
§ Religion divided among Christian, Muslim and indigenous beliefs (but often mixing elements of traditional religion and belief with Christianity and/or Islam), and smaller pockets of Hindus, Jews, others
Oral Culture
§ Preliterate ways of preserving and passing on cultural values through word of mouth, including
o Proverbs
o Folk tales and legends
o Stories and songs
§ Oral patterns and traditions continue or are adapted by many writers and other artists in increasingly literate era as way of marking and continuing (and criticizing) cultural traditions
The Role of the Griot (or Djeli)
§ Most associated with West Africa, although some similar counterparts can be found elsewhere in the continent
§ Often hereditary role, linked to a particular royal lineage
§ Specific functions of griots can vary
o Heredity spokesperson and messenger for king, keeper of royal lineage and events, “living history”
o Advisor, truth-teller to king/ruler
o Spokesperson, “living history” of local community
o “Praise-singer” (especially contemporary versions, who may even work as entertainers)
o Outsider, critic
§ Many contemporary African and African-descended artists take the role of the griot as a model
Sub-Saharan African Filmmaking
§ Did not begin to develop until 1960s because of political, educational, technological and environmental factors
§ Most fictional feature-length filmmaking by native Africans has taken place in former French colonies, due to French government support (mostly in the Sahel, the area bordering the south of the Sahara Desert)
§ African movie market is still dominated by American, European and Indian films, commercial African market is much smaller, despite a few successes
§ International festival circuit is especially important
§ Continuing struggle to make movies within Africa without relying on European or other infrastructure
§ Burkina Faso has only full filmmaking facility, home of FESPACO, biennial African film festival
§ Recent moves toward digital filmmaking may overcome some previous and continuing obstacles
First major African director: Ousmane Sembene (Senegal)
§ Trained at film school in Moscow
§ Films are deliberately made for Africans with political and social intents; criticizes colonial legacy, postcolonial corruption
o La Noire de . . ./Black Girl and Borom Sarete/Donkey Cart (1963)
o Mandabi/The Money Order (1968)
o Emitai/God of War (1971)
o Xala/The Curse (1974)
o Ceddo/Outsiders (1977)
o Camp at Thiaroye (1988)
o Guelwaar (1992)
o Faat Kine (2000)
o Moolaade (2004)
Other important directors
§ Djibril Diop Mambety (died 1998) :One of most experimental directors, using African motifs and forms along with French New Wave stylistics, and sometimes Western story sources (Hyenas)
§ Safi Faye: first African woman director
§ Souleymane Cisse (Mali)—films draw on African storytelling and Western modernism (Yeelen/Brightness)
§ Adama Drago (Mali): Fire! deals with environment—increasing desertification of Sahel
§ Gaston Kabore (Burkina Faso): Wend Kuuni and Zan Boko, deal with negative side of communal life and tensions between tradition and modernization
§ Idrissa Ouedraogo (Burkina Faso): Yaaba, Tilai, Samba Traore, reflect Renoir-like humanism that celebrates and questions “traditional” values; also produced Guimba
Chieck Oumar Sissoko and Guimba
Born in Mali, 1945
Studied history and filmmaking in Paris
Directed documentaries
1990: Finzan: Dance for the Heroes is one of first African films to deal with female genital mutilation (so-called “circumcision”)
1999: Genesis sets the story of Abraham and his family in Africa
2002: Battu is contemporary urban political satire
Guimba the Tyrant (Mali, 1995)
Director: Cheik Oumar Sissoko; Script: Sissoko; Cinematography: Lionel Cousin; Editing: Kahena Attia and Joelle Dufour; Music: Michel Risse and Pierre Sauvageot
Cast: Fabola Issa Traore (Guimba); Lamine Diallo (Janguine, Guimba’s son); Mouneissa Maiga (Kani, promised to Janguine at her birth); Maimouna Helene Diarra (Meya, Kani’s mother); Balla Moussa Keita (Mambi, Kani’s father); Cheick Oumar Maiga (Siriman, the hunter); Fatoumata Coulibaly (Sadio, Guimba’s slave girl)
Film Synopsis:
Guimba is set in the ancient pre-colonial (and maybe even pre-Islamic) past of Mali, which had been the center of several major empires before Western colonization. Guimba, who rules his city-state with a combination of force and magic, has become increasingly tyrannical over the years and has killed his own wife and his daughter. His son, Janguine, is a dwarf who uses his father’s power to force himself sexually on the women of the city. Kani, a young woman, was promised as Janguine’s bride at her birth but Mambi, her father, now renounces that contract. In the meantime, though, Janguine has decided that he does not want to marry Kani; he wants her mother, Meya, instead. Guimba takes this as his opportunity to wed Kani himself, and he chases off or kills other suitors who come to the city for her hand in marriage. Eventually, though, the excesses of Guimba and his son turn the community against them, and they are overthrown through the combined efforts of Siriman, a hunter with magical powers of his own, and Sadio, Guimba’s former slave girl.
Questions for Discussion
1. How does the film use humor and satire to deal with political and social power?
2. How are women’s roles portrayed?
3. What roles are played by the griot(s) in this film?
4. How does the opening and closing of the film frame the story? What does it suggest about cultural continuity?
5. What political lesson or moral might be taken from this film?
Discussion Summary:
As a film, Guimba combines familiar features of legends and fairy tales with specific elements of Malian culture. The evil ruler who breaks the “social contract” with his own people is a common theme in tales from many cultures, and Guimba himself is a figure in sharp opposition to the best-known character of ancient Malian history and legend: Sundiata, the “lion-king” who founded an empire in Mali and became the subject of a well-known oral epic, passed down by generations of griots. (For a summary, see http://lilt.ilstu.edu/drjclassics/syllabi/IH/sundiata.shtm. Also see the film Keita: Heritage of the Griot, which is available on DVD in the library). Sundiata was a historical figure who became a legendary hero through that oral epic, in which he uses his strength, skill and magical powers to defeat an evil sorcerer-king. In contrast, Guimba uses his powers only to benefit himself and his son, and he has become increasingly greedy and tyrannical over the years.
The corruption of Guimba’s rule is also seen through the different manifestations of the griot that we see in the film. Guimba’s personal griot serves in a traditional role as the “living history” of the city and its rulers, but he is also Guimba’s messenger and, in the griot’s role as advisor to the ruler, serves only as a “yes-man” who carries out and justifies the tyrant’s actions. Traditionally, the griot is greatly respected in the community, but Guimba’s man is regarded with contempt and derision by most of the people he encounters, and he is also portrayed as a comic buffoon. The modern manifestation of the griot in Mali and other parts of Africa is as an entertainer, particularly as a “praise-singer,” usually a woman, who will sing about the greatness of anyone willing to pay for the privilege. We see an allusion to the modern corruption of a once nearly-sacred position early in the film when a woman stands by and sings Guimba’s praises as he mounts his horse.
But it is the griot who opens and closes the film who suggests the valid role that can still be played. We see him walking by the banks of a river (probably the Niger, the major river of Mali), inviting people to listen to his story. At the end, he wraps up the narration and thanks us for listening. What happens in between is a story that such oral traditions are meant to preserve, a tale or legend that will convey natural truths and social values from one generation to the next.
It can be a bit difficult to follow some of the specific events in the film without some knowledge of Malian (or African) culture, and some other difficulties are created by the use cuts without transitional scenes or even editing devices like fades or dissolves to indicate changes in time or space. For instance, in one scene a character will be shown indoors, and in the very next shot he is suddenly outdoors and mounted on horseback. Nonetheless, the general structure of the narrative has similarities to fairy tales and folk tales in many cultures.
One of those similarities can be seen in the role of Kani. As in stories like Sleeping Beauty, she is someone who is prized and sought after as a wife. The first obstacle is her betrothal to Janguine (whose small stature is another sign of Guimba’s decadence and corruption). When he rejects her, Kani is suddenly sought after by suitors from all over the region. Like the knights who try to rescue Sleeping Beauty from her tower, some are killed and some are defeated and give up. The difference in the film, though, is that none of Kani’s suitors becomes the hero who both rescues and marries her. Mambi, Kani’s father, offers his daughter as a bride to the hunter Siriman if he succeeds in defeating Guimba, but Siriman rejects the offer because he sees it as his duty to bring Guimba down, not something to be done for his own personal reward.
Kani and other women in the film play much more positive and active roles than are usually seen in the traditional male-dominated culture. Both Kani and her mother, Meya, are afraid of Guimba’s power, but they both reject unsuitable would-be husbands and mock men for cowardice, hypocrisy and other vices. They stand in contrast to the Peul woman who come to the city to learn what “secrety” Meya has used to “seduce” Guimba. Meya herself just breaks out laughing when she hears that Guimba wants her, but she does listen with some sympathy to the orphan Peul woman who sees marriage to a powerful man like Guimba as her only hope.
The most surprising heroine in the film is Sadio, Guimba’s slave girl. From the beginning she is portrayed as an intelligent woman who is sympathetic to Kani, and she is the one who tells Kani and Meya that Janguine does not want to marry her (even though she did not hear Janguine say that he wanted Meya instead or Guimba announce his intention to take Kani for himself). Even though it is Siriman who, with his own magic, helps to weaken Guimba’s power, it is Sadio who brings him down. Entering the city in disguise, she lures Guimba outside the city walls and feeds him the dish that Guimba had intended to use to strip Siriman of his powers. Now powerless, Sadio stands by with everyone else laughing at the now-weak and powerless tyrant, and she is the one who winds up marrying and traveling off with Siriman, not Kani.
Guimba’s own end also offers a different take on the familiar elements of this tale. Once defeated, Guimba’s life is spared through the arguments offered by Siriman. For one thing, Siriman says, he and Guimba are “kindred.” It’s unclear if they actually have a blood relationship, but they are both magicians with great powers. If Guimba should be killed because Siriman’s magic helped to defeat him, it would lessen Simiman’s virtue. The magic used for good would now be used for evil. However, Siriman does fashion and leave a noose for Guimba to hang himself with. Without his power, Guimba is nothing and the only route left for him is suicide, which is especially taboo in African society, so strong that in some societies no one is even allowed to touch the body of someone who has hanged himself. To die in such a way is the worst disgrace imaginable for this once-powerful tyrant, but it does not stain the victors’ hand with blood. (This film has sometimes been compared to Shakespeare’s Macbeth, but in contrast Macbeth himself was killed by the victors. For different takes on that, see Roman Polanski’s film version of the play or Kurosawa’s Throne of Blood.)
That ending suggests the political dimensions of the film, which was begun while Mali was still ruled by Moussa Traore, who held power from 1968-1991. Like another well-known film from Mali, Cisse’s Brightness/Yeelen, Guimba suggests that power must be used wisely and for the good of all, not for personal gain. In this way, it can be seen as a criticism and satire of dictatorial rule and government corruption. Like many films made under conditions of government censorship, it hides its message by setting it in a distant pass and telling its story as a fable or adventure.
But the ending strongly suggests new directions in which Mali, and Africa, should turn. At the end, Mambi is elected as the new mayor of the city. Instead of the power going to Siriman or someone else directly involved in Guimba’s overthow, it goes to a respected member of the community. Siriman himself goes off with Sadio to resume his life as a hunter (in contrast to military leaders who have overthrown dictators and gone on to become dictators themselves). Finally, leaving Guimba in disgrace with suicide as his only option breaks the cycle of violence. There will be no revenge sought for Guimba’s death. He will not become a martyr or symbol to others. Mercy and rule of law win out in the end. When the griot thanks us for listening to his story, it implies a message of hope for real and lasting change and peace.
Finally, Guimba the Tyrant reveals the possibilities for filmmaking in the extreme difficulties that technology, economics, politics, and even climate pose for African filmmakers. Simple “special effects” like the matted visions that allow Guimba to spy on the activities of other or the storm, wind and darkness that he creates may not look like much compared to high-tech digital studio effects, but they still serve their purpose in an effective way. The film is set in the city of Djenni, whose own legacy stretches back to the time of Sundiata himself. The city is also home of the great adobe mosque that has been declared a world architectural treasure. In this way, Sissoko uses the techiques of Italian Neorealism not to give a documentary impression of the present but to create a vision of the past that suggests directions for the future.
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