Emblematic Elusions: Eros in African Cinema #1

Emblematic Elusions portrays how African filmmakers redefine the Black form in the visual field from the wounded signifier to an embodied vessel for liberation. Using an erotic lens, each edition presents a film essay analyzing a significant Black African movie

Edition I lays the foundation with Black African Cinema’s first feature, La Noire de…/Black Girl (Ousmane Sembène, 1966). The chapbook delves into the enduring erotic dynamics between Africa and Europe, tracing these themes from the history of early African cinema, which relied heavily on colonial support, to the sensual perceptions of Europe within the African psyche, as embodied by the protagonist Diouana. Black African cinema's first kiss scene is analyzed as a cry against the persistence of the neo-colonial power dynamic and the philosophical interplay between eros and death is highlighted as a vehicle of diasporic movement.