The cinema of Burkina Faso is one of the more significant in Africa, with a history that spans several decades and includes the production of many award-winning films.
Cinema of Africa covers both the history and present of the making or screening of films on the African continent, and also refers to the persons involved in this form of audiovisual culture. It dates back to the early 20th century, when film reels were the primary cinematic technology in use. During the colonial era, African life was shown only by the work of white, colonial, Western filmmakers, who depicted Africans in a negative fashion, as exotic "others". As there are more than 50 countries with audiovisual traditions, there is no one single 'African cinema'. Both historically and culturally, there are major regional differences between North African and sub-Saharan cinemas, and between the cinemas of different countries.
Mbalax is the national popular dance music of Senegal and the Gambia. In the 1970s, mbalax emerged as the distinctive sound of postcolonial Senegal. Derived from a fusion of indigenous Wolof sabar drumming with popular music principally from the African diaspora and African popular music, and to a lesser extent Western pop and afropop. Although the fusion of indigenous music with urban dance music from the diaspora and west is not new, the pan-ethnic quality of urban Wolofness provided a space for the inclusion and representation of a plethora of ethnic sounds of the Pulaar/Tukulor, Sereer, Soce, Mande and other groups from the Greater Senegambia Region. The name mbalax derives from the accompanying rhythms of the Wolof sabar and was coined by Youssou N'Dour even though, as he has stated, there were many other groups in urban Senegal fusing these traditional sounds with modern music.
The Serer people are a West African ethnoreligious group. They are the third-largest ethnic group in Senegal, making up 15% of the Senegalese population. They are also found in northern Gambia and southern Mauritania.
Annette Mbaye d’Erneville is a Senegalese writer. She is the mother of filmmaker Ousmane William Mbaye, and was the subject of his 2008 documentary film, Mère-Bi.
Safi Faye was a Senegalese film director and ethnologist. She was the first Sub-Saharan African woman to direct a commercially distributed feature film, Kaddu Beykat, which was released in 1975. She has directed several documentary and fiction films focusing on rural life in Senegal.
The cinema of Senegal is a relatively small film industry which experienced its prime from the 1960s through to the early 1980s, but has since declined to less than five feature films produced in the last ten years. Senegal is the capital of African cinema and the most important place of African film production after its independence from France in 1960.
Mossane is a 1996 Senegalese drama film directed by Safi Faye. It was screened in the Un Certain Regard section at the 1996 Cannes Film Festival. Unlike some of Faye's earlier films which use a documentary style, Mossane is purely fictional.
Sarraounia is a 1986 historical drama film written and directed by Med Hondo. It is based on a novel of the same name by Nigerien author Abdoulaye Mamani, who co-wrote the screenplay. The novel and film concern the real-life Battle of Lougou between Azna queen Sarraounia and the advancing French Colonial Forces of the Voulet-Chanoine Mission in 1899. Sarraounia was one of the few African tribal leaders that resisted the advances of French expansionists Paul Voulet and Julien Chanoine. The film won the first prize at the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) and was critically well received.
Mahama Johnson Traoré (1942–2010) was a Senegalese film director, writer, and co-founder of the Ouagadougou-based Pan-African Cinema Festival (FESPACO).
Women in Senegal have a traditional social status as shaped by local custom and religion. According to 2005 survey, the female genital mutilation prevalence rate stands at 28% of all women in Senegal aged between 15 and 49.
Yandé Codou Sène was a Senegalese singer from the Serer ethnic group. She was born in 1932 at Somb in the Sine-Saloum delta and died on July 15, 2010, at Gandiaye in Sénégal. She was the official griot of president Léopold Sédar Senghor. Most of her music is in the Serer language.
Joof or Diouf is a surname that is typically Serer. This surname is also spelt Juuf or Juf.
Lingeer was the title given to the mother or sister of a king in the Serer kingdoms of Sine, Saloum, and previously the Kingdom of Baol; and the Wolof kingdoms of Cayor, Jolof, Baol and Waalo in pre-colonial Senegal. The word "Lingeer" means "queen" or "princess" in Serer and Wolof language. The Lingeer was considered the “great princess of royal courts.” These kingdoms utilized a bilineal system, as a candidate for kingship could not succeed to the throne if he was not a member of the reigning materlineage, and thus, the Lingeer's maternal lineage was highly significant. In similarity, a candidate could not succeed to the throne as king if he was not a member of the noble reigning patriclans. That was particular so among the Serer who retained much of their old culture, customs and traditional religion where women played a significant role compared to the Wolof who adopted Islam. Various Lingeers have been noted for their resistance efforts to colonial conquest.
Femmes aux yeux ouverts is a Togolese documentary film directed by Anne-Laure Folly. It covers the lives of contemporary African women in Burkina Faso, Mali, Senegal and Benin.
Anne-Laure Folly is a documentary film maker from Togo.
Ndèye Coumba Mbengue Diakhaté was a Senegalese educator and poet who was active in promoting the education of mothers and their children. Her poetry is published in Filles du soleil.
Women are involved in the African film industry in a variety of roles, though they have been underrepresented in creative positions.
Selbe: One Among Many (originally as Selbé et tant d'autres, is a 1983 Senegalese documentary short directed by Safi Faye and produced by Pierre Hoffmann for Faye Films.
The École normale de Rufisque was a teacher-training institute for women from French West Africa in Rufisque, Senegal. It existed from 1938 to 1958.
