African Women in Films about African Colonial and Postcolonial Conflicts

Jun 11, 2020 | The Graduate Institute Geneva
Online
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Cinematic representations of African women in situations of political conflict, including fictional, biographical and documentary, have become an important source of information from which many people acquire their understanding of some of these women’s experiences. However, filmmakers do not just show, even in documentaries; they construct meaning through images and sounds depicted on the screen. As a means of communication, films therefore contribute to the creation of perceptions about the identities and experiences of the individuals and communities they represent. This form of communication, as Graeme Turner (2009) notes, happens within specific cultural contexts.

The link between culture and representations complicates the position of African women participating in, and/or affected by political conflicts because, due to limited resources, including financial and technical, they are rarely in a position to ‘present’ themselves using the various forms of media, especially film. They have to rely on others to represent them and give meaning to their experiences. How their experiences are constructed on film, to an extent, depends on how others understand those experiences. That is, their representations often depend on meaning-making processes external to their own. In the presentation Norita Mdege will use semiotic and discursive approaches, within the framework of intersectionality, to explore the values and ideas put forward in fictional and biographical cinematic representations of African women who participate in, and/or are affected by African political conflicts.

Who: The Graduate Institute Geneva 

Where: Online

When:  11 June 2020 Time: 6:30 AM - 8:00 AM