7. Titles: M-N
M
The Maasai and agents of change. A film by Kakuta Ole Maimai Hamisi. 2001, 32 min. A rare opportunity to see life among the Maasai as filmed by one of their own warriors.
Kenya
Masai (African people) - Social life and customs - 20th century - Social conditions - Economic conditions - Herders - Social change - Social structure - Masai Mara National Reserve (Kenya) - Documentary films
English and Masai with English subtitles
Masai and agents of change
Madagascar: a world apart. A co-production of ABC/Kane Productions and the BBC in association with Trebitsch Produktion International GmbH and PBS. 1998, ca. 60 min. Presents an extraordinary cast of characters, including chameleons of every color and size, a panther-like carnivore called a fossa, and the charismatic lemurs for which the island is famous.
Series: The living Edens
Madagascar
Documentary television programs
Magogo ka Dinuzulu. Three songs accompanied by musical bow, recited by the Princess Magogo ka Dinuzulu. Institut für den wissenschaftlichen Film, 1976.
Natal (South Africa)
Zulu (African people) – Women singers Music – Songs – Zulu musicians
Song texts in Zulu with English translations and commentary; accompanying bibliography in German
Mahaleo. Marie-Clemence Paes, Cesar Paes, Raymond Rajaonarivel, producers; Cesar Paes, Raymond Rajaonarivelo, directors. 2004, 102 min. This videodisc celebrates the intimate relationships of the Malagasy septet Mahaleo as the group prepares for its 30th anniversary concert in 2002.
Madagascar
Popular music - Songs - History - Documentary films
French and Malagasy with English subtitles ; closed captioned in English
Maids and Madams. Produced by Christian Wrangler, Directed and Written by Mira Hamermesh. 1986, 52 min. Describes how harshly apartheid affects the daily life of women in South Africa and focuses on the relationship between black women household workers and white employers.
Eastern Cape (South Africa)
Apartheid – Black women Domestics – Employment – Race relations – South African Domestic Workers’ Association (SADWA)
Main Reef Road. Directed and photographed by Nicholaas Hofmeyr; written by Nicholaas Hofmeyr with Brenda Goldblatt. 2001, 88 min. A cross-section of contemporary South African life as documented by Nic Hofmeyr.
South Africa
Race relations - Documentary films - Social conditions, 1994-
Les Maitres Fous. Originally produced as a documentary film in 1954, 29 min. Directed by Jean Rouch, Produced by Pierre Braunberger. This film documents the Haouka, a religious movement which was widespread in Ghana from the1920’s to the 1950’s. Shows devotees living and working in Accra and participating in a ceremony.
Accra (Ghana)
Cults – Haouka (Cult) – Spirit possession Religious life and customs – Religion
Narrated in English; credits and introductory text in French
Mad masters
Le malentendu colonial. Un film de Jean-Marie Teno. 2004, 73 min. The history of German missionaries in Namibia in the 19th and 20th centuries is discussed by African and German historians and theologians, revealing how colonialism destroyed African beliefs and social systems and replaced them with European ones.
Namibia - Germany
Rheinische Missionsgesellschaft - Missions - History - Colonization - Colonies
French, German, and English, with English subtitles
Colonial misunderstanding
Mali & Senegal: the power of Islam. Directed by Hiroyuki Shima. 2002, 49 min. Islam has influenced West Africa since the 11th century, but only in the last 100 years has the religion grown so rapidly in Senegal and Mali.
Series: Africa in the 21st century; 2
Africa, West - Mali - Senegal
Islam - Murīdīyah - Economic aspects - Influence - History - Religious life and customs - Documentary films
Africa in the 21st century
Mali: The Music of Life. 1997, 60 min. Features the music
of Mali, where every musician is a poet who uses a fusion of traditional
Mandika style and modern rhythm and blues to tell a story.
Series: Under African skies; [v.1]
Mali
Popular music
Under African skies
Malooned. Directed-story by Bob Nyanja; producer, Tony Rimwah. Nairobi: Cinematic Solutions. 2007, 105 min. Di, 28, beautiful, intelligent, confident and just a bit spoilt gets trapped in a ladies toilet of the 15th floor of a Nairobi skyscraper with Luther on an Easter weekend of which the Monday would have been her wedding day.
Nairobi (Kenya)
Drama
Mama Awethu! By Bethany Yarrow. 1993, 53 min. Follows the day to day lives of five Black South African women around Cape Town, revealing the inhuman legacy of the apartheid system.
South Africa
Race relations – Human rights – Apartheid - Black women – Social conditions
Mama Benz, An African Market Woman. By Katia Forbert. Petersen. 1993, 48 min. Colorful markets of Africa are often dominated by strong older women, who control prices and determine who can buy their goods. This film focuses on one woman who presides over the cloth market in Lome, Togo.
Lomé (Togo)
Women – Economic conditons – Social conditions - Businesswomen – Retail trade – Women merchants
Dialogue in French with English subtitles
God gave her a Mercedes Benz
Mama Benz & the taste of money. Written and directed by Karin Junger; produced by Carmen Cobos; a Ryninks Films production in co-production with IKON and RNTV. 2002, 52 min. A documentary on the marketing in West Africa (specifically, in Togo and Burkina Faso) of textiles produced by Vlisco, a Dutch company.
Togo - Burkina Faso
Women - Economic conditions - Social conditions - Businesswomen - Textile fabrics - Marketing
Dialogue in French with English subtitles; limited narration in English.
Mama Wahunzi: women blacksmiths. Lawan Jirasuradej, producer, director, editor. 2002, 57 min. A documentary on women and others with disabilities and the wheelchair industry which endeavors to provide them with the ability to achieve mobility and to lead fuller lives.
Uganda - Kenya
Women with disabilities - Wheelchair industry
Man, God and Africa. Directed by Don Boyd. 1992, 51 min. Some nine-million South African blacks live with a strong commitment to their religion, Pentecostal Christianity. Their faith, a blend of deep-rooted African traditions and the imported values of Christianity, has enabled them to survive appalling hardship and deprivation.
South Africa
Blacks - South Africans - Religion - Documentary films
Man, God & Africa
The man who stole my mother's face. Written and directed by Cathy Henkel; producers, Jeff Canin and Cathy Henkel; produced in association with the Australian Broadcasting Corporation. 2003, 58 min. Two days before Christmas in 1988, Cathy Henkel’s 59-year-old mother Laura was sexually and brutally attacked in her home in Johannesburg, by a local white teenager. In an attempt to help her mother heal, Cathy Henkel returned to Johannesburg and confronted her mother’s attacker.
South Africa
Henkel, Laura - Henkel, Cathy - Rape victims - Rape - Older women, Violence against - Documentary films
Mandabi. By Ousmane Sembene. 1968, 90 min. This classic film which is an adaptation of Sembene’s short novel Le Mandat, is the story of a man attempting to cash a money order in Senegal and encountering all of the excesses of an African bureaucracy.
Senegal
Drama – Civilization
Wolof with English subtitles
The Money Order
Mandela at Harvard: The Historic Convocation, September 18, 1998. Published by the Harvard University Events & Information Center. 1998,
98 min.
Harvard University (USA)
Mandela, Nelson - Degrees
Harvard honors Nelson Mandela – Special convocation in honor
of Nelson Mandela, September 18, 1998 – Harvard University special
convocation in honor of His Excellency Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela, President
of the Republic of South Africa, September 18, 1998
Mandela: son of Africa, father of a nation. Directors, Jo Menell, Angus Gibson; producers, Jonathan Demme, Edward Saxon, Jo Menell. 2001, 118 min. This candid and provocative portrait of Nelson Mandela takes you to the very heart of the struggle for majority rule in South Africa.
South Africa
Presidents - Biography - Political prisoners - Apartheid - Race relations - Mandela, Nelson, 1918-
Mandiani Drum & Dance from Senegal. White Cliffs Media, 1995. Djimbe (drum) and dance music, with other percussion instruments, of the Malinké (Mandingo) and Bambara people of Senegal, Mali, and Guinea, in West Africa.
Senegal - Mali - Guinea
Malinke (African people) – Bamabara (African people) – Percussion instruments – Percussion music – Dance music
Mandiani Drum and Dance from Senegal
Mapantsula. By Thomas Mogotlane and Oliver Schmitz. 1988, 105
min. The first Black South African anti-Apartheid feature film, depicting
the life of a street-wise hoodlum who is forced to take a stand.
See also: Mapantsula: the book ; Myth, race, and power ; Visions of Africa
South Africa
Drama – Anti-apartheid movements
English, Zulu, Sotho and Afrikaans with English subtitles
Hustler
Mar'ot. Sirtah shel Orli Malesah. 2006, 37 min.
See also: Child brides ; Tsemako women's roles and status in agro-pastoral production ; Culture, society, and women in Ethiopia ; Hamar trilogy
Ethiopia - Israel
Short films - Ethiopians - Marriage - Social life and customs
Hebrew and Amharic with English subtitles
Mirrots
Marriage of Marimu and Sharing is unity. Produced by the Tanzania Film Co. and Ron Mulvihill. 1985, 58 min. First work is a dramatization reflecting traditional African cultural patterns, focusing on healing with herbal remedies. The second work is a documentary which emphasizes the sense of community that still remains in contemporary African village life.
Africa, East - Tanzania - Kenya
Traditional medicine - Villages - Teso (African people) - Social life and customs
Swahili with English subtitles (1st work); English narration (2nd work)
Arusi ya Mariamu - Ushirika ni umoja
The martyrs of Uganda: fires of hope. Director of drama, Charles Mulekwa; director of video, Phil Mullaly Nairobi, Kenya: distributed by Paulines Publications Africa. 1996, 45 min. This is the story of Alex, a young man with AIDS. Life for him begins to change when on 3rd June, the Feast of the Martyrs of Uganda, catechist Mr. Wamala, reaches out to him.
Uganda
AIDS (Disease) - HIV (Disease) - Patients - Psychological aspects - Christian martyrs
Fires of hope
Masai Manhood. Research and anthropologist, Melissa Llewelyn-Davies. 1991, 53 min. An ethnographic view of Masai culture and society, focusing on the preparation of young Masai boys for manhood and leadership in their society.
East Africa
Masai (African people) – Education
Masai: les guerriers de la pluie. Un film de Pascal Plisson; produit par Richard Grandpierre et Stéphane Parthenay. 2007, 94 min. Faced with a dangerous drought, Masai elders are convinced that they have been cursed by the Red God - the God of Vengeance.
Kenya - Tanzania
Maasai (African people) - Droughts - Feature films - Youth
Maa with English subtitles
The rain warriors
Masks of the Bwa people of Burkina Faso. Laughing Dove Films; edited, narrated and produced by Christopher D. Roy. 2006, 43 min. This video shows the preparation of the wooden masks, including dyeing the costumes and painting the masks.
Burkina Faso
Bwa (African people) - Masks - Rites and ceremonies - Festivals - Social life and customs - Documentary
Narration in English; dialogue in French with some English subtitles
Masks of leaves and wood: the Bwa people of Boni
Master Harold and the Boys. 1986, 90 min. Playwright Athol Fugard deals with the big picture of South African apartheid by keeping the focus on the small picture of several characters within that racially divided society. This 1984 filming of the South African play stars the adolescent Matthew Broderick and features a heartbreaking performance by the great South African actor Zakes Mokae, who played Sam in the first production (at Yale in 1982).
South Africa
Drama – Racism Social life and customs
Masters of the balafon: funeral festivities. Sélénium Films present a film by Hugo Zemp. 2001, 80 min. Shows balafon orchestras playing in five villages during the two principal days of funeral festivities.
Côte d’Ivoire
Senufo (African people) - Balo music - Funeral customs and rites
English subtitles
Traditional music - Funeral festivities
Matamata and Pilipili. By Tristan Bourlard. 1996, 55 min. Examines the 20 comic films made in the 1950’s by a Belgian missionary and their role in Congolese popular culture.
Congo (Democratic Republic)
Comedy films – History and criticism
Mauritania, the vanishing oasis. Directed by Jean-Calude Marion; script, Louise Racicot, Jean-Claude Marion; co-produced by Canadian International Development Agency. 1993, 57 min. This film introduces us to a couple, Baba and his wife Fatou, and their two children who live in a tiny oasis at the outskirts of Chinguetti, a town in the desert country of Mauritania.
Mauritania
Oases - Subsistence economy - Description and travel - Social conditions, 1960- - Economic conditions - Documentary films
Mbeni: dance of the Akamba. Director-producer, Charles Muthini; script-sound, Danson Siminyu. Nairobi: Permanent Presidential Music Commission. 2007, 23 min. Mbeni dance, performed by the Akamba community of Kenya is renowned for its fast paced and precise movements that are prompted by heavy drumming and terse instructions by the dance leader, referred to as ngumii.
Kenya
Traditional dance - Akamba (African people) - Documentary films
Narration by Frank Muiruri.
Mbira Dza Vadzimu: Dambatsoko, An Old Cult Centre. By Gei Zantzinger; with Muchatera Mujuru and Ephat Mujuru. 51 min. Deals with various aspects of Zimbabwean cultural anthropology.
Zimbabwe
Rites and ceremonies – Spiritualism Music – Mbira music – Religion
English narration, subtitles and voiceover
Dambatsoko, an Old Cult Center
Mbira Dza Vadzimu: Religion at the Family Level. Produced by Gei Zantzinger, directed by Andrew Tracey. 1978, 66 min. Deals with various aspects of South African cultural anthropology.
South Africa
Religion – Mbira music – Social life and customs
Religion at the Family Level
Mbira Dza Vadzimu: Urban and Rural Ceremonies. Produced by Gei Zantzinger, directed by Andrew Tracey. 1978, 45min. Presents Hakurotwi Mude, singer, medium, and leader of a professional group of mbira players, as he performs at an informal urban mbira, at a country sacrifice, and at a funeral, in and around Harere, Zimbabwe.
Zimbabwe
Zezuru (African people) – Music
Shona and English with English subtitles
Urban and Rural Ceremonies
Mbira Matepe Dza Mhondoro: A Healing Party. Produced by Gei Zantzinger, directed by Andrew Tracey. Pennsylvania State Univ. Film opens with short solo performance of matepe (a mbira of the Shona people of Zimbabwe) and vocal music by Thomas Dzamwarira, and continues with footage of a ritual in the village of matepe player Saini Murira.
Zimbabwe
Rites and ceremonies Music – Matepe music – Mbira music – Dance
English narration and translation
Matepe Dza Mhondoro – Healing Party
Mbira Music: Spirit of the People. Directed by Simon Bright. Films for the Humanities and Sciences, African Studies Series. 1992, 52 min. Traditional music of Zimbabwe and the sounds of the mbira in this liberated country’s rhythms and melodies.
Zimbabwe
Mbira music – Musicians – Traditional Music – Music
Spirit of the People
Mbira Njari: Karanga Songs in Christian Ceremonies. Produced by Gei Zantzinger, directed by Andrew Tracey. Pennsylvania State Univ. Film takes place in 1975 and deals with the various aspects of southern African cultural anthropology.
Zimbabwe
Karanga (African people) – Music – Mbira music – Rites and ceremonies
Shona
Njari – Karanga Songs in Christian Ceremonies
Mbira: The Technique of the Mbira Dza Vadzimu. Produced by Gei Zantzinger. Pennsylvania State Univ. 1981, 19 min. An introduction to the musical technique and sound of the mbira dza vadzimu (“mbira of the ancestor spirits”).
Zimbabwe
Mashona (African people) – Mbira – Instruction and study – Music – Mbira music
Technique of the Mbira Dza Vadzimu
The meaning of the buffalo. A film by Karin Slater; director, Karin Slater; producers, Denise Slabbert, Eddie Koch and Karin Slater. 2004, 61 min. Rene, a young woman of the Balete people whose totem is the buffalo, and whose heritage was shattered under apartheid, now wants to become the first black woman game ranger on their ancestral land.
South Africa
Ethnicity - Indigenous peoples - Social life and customs - Game wardens - Post-Apartheid South Africa
English and Setswana with English subtitles
Medicine made by God: the spiritual and herbal healing ministry of Brother Anatoli Wasswa. Director-producer, Dick Quinn, Martin Kivuva. Ukweli Video Productions. 1996, 41 min. Brother Anatoli, one of the leading authorities on herbal medicine on the African continent, devoted himself to the study, research, and practice of using traditional medicine to cure all kinds of illnesses and problems facing his people.
Uganda
Diocese of Masaka - Traditional medicine - Witchcraft - Spiritual healing - Herbal healing
Ganda (Luganda)
Meha-tokol le-karavan: aliyat ha-Palshmurah. Amos Karmeli. 1998, 60 min.
See also: A song of longing ; Marot ; Ahim shehorim ; The Falashas ; Les enfants de la reine de Saba ; Treacherous journey: my escape from Ethiopia ; The lost Jews: last of the Ethiopian Falashas ; Hidah: masa'le-erets ha-Falashim
Ethiopia - Israel
Jews, Ethiopian - Ethnic relations
La memoire dure. By Rossella Ragazzi. 2005, 2001, 80 min. Five children from countries such as Mali, Liberia, and Algeria are filmed "showing how they were received in France and the relationship between teachers and pupils.
France
Multicultural education - Minorities - Education - Teacher-student relationships - Documentary films
Memory resists
Les mémoires de Binduté Da. Produced by Michèle Fiéloux, Jacques Lombard. Bondy: ORSTOM. 1989, 53 min. Shows the funeral rites of Binduté Da, a chief of his canton in Burkina Faso for 40 years.
Burkina Faso
Lobi (African people) - Da, Bindouté - Da, Binduté - Biography - Funeral customs and rites - Kings and rulers - Documentary
Metamo. Original script, Oliver Minishi; screenplay, Ingolo Wa Keya, Albert Wandago; producer/director Albert Wandago. 1997, 90 min. Story of Metamo, a woman who initially has almost everything working against her but fights all odds to be appointed as Judge of the High Court of Kenya.
Kenya
Women judges - Drama - Women
Mi-Port Sudan li-Yerushalayim. Amos Karmeli. 1998, 60 min.
See also: A song of longing ; Marot ; Ahim shehorim ; The Falashas ; Les enfants de la reine de Saba ; Treacherous journey: my escape from Ethiopia ; The lost Jews: last of the Ethiopian Falashas ; Hidah: masa'le-erets ha-Falashim
Ethiopia - Israel
Jews, Ethiopian - Operation Moses, 1984-1985 - Ethnic relations
Miziké Mama. By Violaine de Villers & Denise Vindevogel. 1994, 51 min. Presents Zap Mama, an a cappella quintet from Belgium that combines African rhythms and vocal tones with European polyphony.
Congo (Democratic Republic)
Zap Mama (Musical group) – Daulne, Marie - Biography – Popular music – Women singers – Music – History and criticism
French with English subtitles – Zairean languages
Zap Mama on film
Mobutu, King of Zaire: An African Tragedy. 1999, 3 cassettes, 52 min. each. The definitive visual record of the rise and fall of Joseph Désiré Mobutu, ruler of Zaire (the Congo) for over 30 years.
Congo (Democratic Republic)
Kings and rulers – Mobutu Sese Seko – Biography History, 1960-1997
Dialogue in French with English subtitles; some English voice commentary
African Tragedy – King of Zaire- Quest for Power – Upper Hand – End of a Reign
Moko Jumbie: Dancing Spirit. 1991, 15 min. Documentary on African-American stilt dancing, described by dancers in the U.S., who are seen performing in the streets of New York. A discussion of the African orgins of stilt dancing, with its connections to ritual, mask dances, and secret societies, is illustrated with footage of dancers in Nigeria.
New York (State) – Nigeria – Virgin Islands
Documentary – Stilts – Dance Rites and ceremonies – Carnival
Moko Jumbie, Traditional Stilt Walkers – Traditional Stilt Walkers – Dancing Spirit
Mon coeur est témoin. Un film de Louise Carré. 1996, 56 min. Dramatization of correspondence and interviews with women from Africa and the Middle East about the condition of women in their countries.
Africa - Middle East
Women - Developing countries - Attitudes - Muslim women - Social conditions
French with English subtitles
My heart is my witness
Monday’s Girls. By Ngozi Onwurah. 1993, 50 min. An exploration of the conflict between modern individualism and traditional communities in today’s Africa through the eyes of two young Waikiriki women from the Niger delta.
Ogoloma (Nigeria)
Documentary – Igbo (African people) – Rites and ceremonies – Initiation rites – Puberty rites Women – Social life and customs – Marriage customs and rites
English and Waikiriki with English subtitles
Under the Sun (Television program)
The moon in my pocket. Directed by Kgomotso Matsunyane; produced by Harriet Gavshon & David Jammy. 2000, 25 min. Wilton Mkwayi, a senior ANC guerrilla commander, was convicted of treason during the Rivonia Trial in 1966; and despite repeated appeal for 20 years, was not allowed to marry his sweetheart, Irene Khumalo.
See also: Reflections in prison: voices from the South African liberation struggle ; In the shadow of the Island ; Voices from Robben Island:(BBC TV); Voices from Robben Island (Schadeberg) ; Robben Island and prisoner resistance to apartheid ; Island in chains
South Africa
Mkwayi, Wilton - Khumalo, Irene - African National Congress - Biography - Documentary films - Political prisoners - Robben Island
More Time. Script, John Riber, Lazarus Fungurani & Andrew Whaley. 1993, 90 min. A young girl coming of age in contemporary Africa must come face-to-face with the responsibility of becoming sexually active in a time of AIDS.
Zimbabwe
Drama – Teenagers – Sexual behavior – AIDS (Disease) in Adolescence – Sexual ethics
Mortu Nega. By Flora Gomes. 1988, 82 min. Chronicles the liberation struggle in Guinea Bissau after January 1973, just a month before Amilcar Lopes Cabral’s assassination; life behind the front-lines; and the aftermath and politics of independent Guinea Bissau.
Guinea-Bissau
History – Revolution, 1963-1974
Portuguese with English subtitles
Those whom death refused
Mozambique - The Struggle for Survival. 1988, 57 min. Takes a look at Mozambique, Africa’s poorest nation, where there is a threat of full-scale famine and which is under seige from RENAMO, a terrorist group supported by South Africa.
Mozambique
RENAMO (Organization) – Food supply – Famine – History, 1975- – Politics and government
Music of the Mande. By Roderic Knight, 1992, 2 videos: 62 min, 32 min. Music for the warriors, hunters, and ordinary people. Filmed in Gambia. Originally made on film in 1970 and 1982.
Gambia
Mandingo (African people) Music – Kora music – Kora musical instrument
Sung in Mandinka
Mwe Bana Bandi. Directed by Kristiina Tuura & Päivi Takala. 1991, 30 min. Musical documentary about the songs and dances of children in a Zambian village.
Zambia
Social life and customs – Music – Dance for children – Children’s songs
Bemba with English subtitles
My heart is my witness. See Mon coeur est témoin.
My Mother Built This House. Originally broadcast on BBC Worldwide. Written and directed by Toni Strasburg. 2001, 30 min. Looks at the difference the South African Homeless People’s Federation is making.
South Africa
South African Homeless People’s Federation – Urbanization – Squatter settlements – Globalization – City and town life – Housing – Social aspects – Economic aspects – Social conditions – Homeless persons
City life
My Vote Makes the Difference. By Isaiya Kabira. 1995, 22 min. Institute for Education in Democracy in Nairobi. Includes a trainer’s guide.
Kenya
Documentary – Voting
Mysteries of Mankind. Barbara Jampel, John Dabney, National Geographic Society Special. 1988, 57 min. Traces anthropological research in human evolution, beginning with discoveries in Africa of australopithecine bones, the Leakeys’ discoveries in the African Rift Valley and Olduvai Gorge, Johanson’s work in Hadar, Ethiopia.
Africa, General
Human evolution – Human beings – Origin – Documentary – Physical anthropology – Science
National Geographic Society special
N
N!ai: The Story of a !Kung Woman. Produced by John Marshall
and Sue Marshall-Cabezas. 2004, 60 min. A compilation of footage of the
!Kung people of Namibia from 1951 through 1978.
See also: A Kalahari family ;A joking relationship ; Nisa, the life and words of a !Kung woman ; Kung bushman childhood
Southern Africa
!Kung (African people) – Ethnology – Kung (African people) – N!ai, 1942 – Biography – Social life and customs
English and San with English subtitles
Nai, the Story of a Kung Woman
Nabantwa Bam'. Written and directed by Victor Khulile Nxumalo. 2004, 41 min. This film is a fascinating case study of the emergence of social classes even within the same South African family.
Series: Real stories from a free South Africa; v. 5
South Africa
Men - Social classes - Social conditions - Documentary films
English and Zulu with English subtitles
With my children: a family portrait
Nadine Gordimer: A Portrait. 50 min. Personal and political profile of South Africa’s Nobel Prize-winning writer.
South Africa
Gordiner, Nadine – Biography 20th century – Novelists
Nagstappie. By Mickey Madoda Dube. 1998, 78 min. One of the first films from a new generation of talented young black South African filmmakers who have become active since the overthrow of apartheid. Dube’s debut feature adapts Alex La Guma’s celebrated 1962 novella of the same name into a fast-paced crime thriller set in present day Johannesburg.
South Africa
La Guma, Alex – Video and film adaptations – Drama Social conditions – Race relations
English and Afrikaans with English subtitles
A Walk in the Night
Naked Spaces: Living is Round. Produced by Jean-Paul Bourdier, directed and written by Trinh T. Minh-Ha. 1985, 137 min. Explores the rhythm and ritual life in the rural environment of six West African countries: Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, and Senegal.
West Africa – Mauritania – Mali – Burkina Faso – Togo – Benin – Senegal
Ethnology
Living is Round – Living Space is Round – Naked Space: Living Space is Round
Naliaka is going. Written by Brutus Sirucha; directed by Albert Wandago; a production of Alwan Communication Ltd. 2003, 85 min. Based on an authentic story about a 14 year old girl (Naliaka) who drops out of school to work as domestic help to sustain her family.
Kenya
Social conditions - Social life and customs - Feature films
Namibia - No Easy Road to Freedom. By Kevin Harris. 1988, 59 min. This documentary explores the struggles of the Namibian people to win their independence from South Africa.
Namibia – South Africa
Politics and government 1946-1990 – Human rights – Foreign relations – SWAPO
National parks: do they have a place in conservation strategies for the 21st century? By Richard E. Leakey. Lecture, sponsored by Harvard Museum of Natural History, 21 April 2002, Sanders Theater, Harvard University, following presentation of Roger Tory Peterson Medal to Leakey. 83 min.
Kenya
National parks and reserves - Conservation of natural resources
Roger Tory Peterson lecture
Nawi. 1970, 23 min. Depicts a segment of the life of the Jie, a semi nomadic people from northeastern Uganda. Follows their move to northwestern Kenya during the dry seasons from their homestead to a temporary camp (nawi) where grass is plentiful for their cattle.
Uganda – Kenya – East Africa
Jie (African people) – Ethnology Herders – Social life and customs
No narration; conversations and songs in Nilo-Hamitic with English subtitles
Ndeysaan: Le Prix du Pardon. By Mansour Sora Wade. 90 min. This haunting African feature film chronicles the murder of a man by his best friend. It traces the villain’s attempts at redemption only finally won in death.
Senegal
Lebou (African people) – Feature film – Drama
Lébou with English subtitles
The Price of Forgiveness
Neria. By Godwin Mawuru. 1992, 103 min. A drama by Tsitsi Dangarembga on the legal rights of African widows. Told through the story of Neria and what happens to her and her family when her husband’s brother asserts his “traditional” rights when her husband dies.
Zimbabwe
Drama – Women’s rights – Dangarembga, Tsitsi
Never the Same Again: Zimbabwe’s Growth Towards Democracy. By Edwina Spicer. 2000, 60 min.
Zimbabwe
Democracy – Civil society – Politics and government, 198-
Never the Same Again – Zimbabwe’s Growth Towards Democracy 1980-2000
The 1973 Mgodo wa Mbanguzi. Produced and directed by Gei Zantzinger, Andrew Tracey. 1974, 48 min. Documents a performance of the music and dance known as mgodo, composed for a Chopi village in southern Mozambique.
See also: The Chopi timbila dance ; Banguza Timbila
Mozambique
Chopi (African people) - Music - Dance music, Chopi - Xylophone music
Sung in Chopi; subtitled in Chopi and English
Nineteen seventy-three mgodo wa mbanguzi - Mgodo wa mbanguzi
The 1973 Mgodo wa Mkandeni. By A. Gei Zantzinger. 1974, 48 min. Presents a traditional music and dance performance known as mgodo, composed by members of a Chopi village in southern Mozambique during the winter of 1973.
See also: The Chopi timbila dance ; Banguza Timbila
Mozambique
Music, Chopi
Nirgendwo in Afrika. Ein Film von Carolin Link; producer, Peter Herrmann; director, Caroline Link. 2003, 2 videodiscs: ca. 142 min. Critically acclaimed, this is the award winning true tale of a Jewish family who flee the Nazi regime in 1938 and learns to cope with their new life, and each other, on a remote farm in Kenya.
Kenya
Jews, German - Drama - Drama - History, 1895-1963
Nowhere in Africa
La noire de-. Ecrit et réalisé par Sembene Ousmane. 2005, 60 min. A young Senegalese girl leaves Africa to work as a domestic servant for a European family in Antibes. Plus Borom Sarret. 1966, 20 min. Shows daiy routine and challenges of a horse-cart driver.
Senegal - France
Drama - Women alien labor - Women domestics - Suicide victims - Feature films - Colonies - Race relations - Public transportation - Economic conditions - Social conditions
French with optional English subtitles
Black girl
Noirs et blancs en couleur. See Black and white in color
Nuba Conversations. By Arthur Howes. 2001, 55 min. Ten years after shooting Kafi’s Story, British filmmaker Arthur Howes re-entered the Sudan clandestinely to find out what had happened to the Nuba of Torogi.
Sudan
Nuba (African people) – Social conditions – Jihad – Ethnic identity – Cultural assimilation – Civil rights – Ethnic relations – History – Civil War, 1983-
Nuba, Arabic and English with English subtitles
The Nuer. Robert Gardner, Hilary Harris Harvard University,
Film Study Center, Peabody Museum. 1970, 74 min. Presents the most important
relationships and events in the lives of the Nuer, a Nilotic people in Sudan
and on the Ethiopian border.
Sudan
Nuer (African people) – Ethnology – Nilotic people – Social life and customs – Religious aspects – Cattle
La nuit de la verité. Produit par Claire-Agnes Lajoumard et Fanta Régina Nacro. 2004, 100 min. In an unspecified country in Africa, after ten years of bloody war, the Nayaks, the President’s ethnic group, and the Bonandes, rebels supporting Colonel Theo, come together to celebrate the peace agreement. But the reconciliation festivities are overshadowed by the terrible barbarities that have been committed on both sides.
Africa
Reconciliation - Drama - Conflict management
French, Dioula and Mooré languages with English subtitles.
The night of truth
Nyamakuta: the one who receives. Produced by Chris Sheppard. 1989, 32 min. Mai Mafuta is a traditional midwife in Zimbabwe. In an attempt to prevent the numerous deaths caused by inadequate medical skills, over eighty countries have begun training their traditional midwives in modern medical methods. Mai Mafuta narrates her own story, giving the audience an intimate view of the lives of Third World women.
Zimbabwe
Midwives - Labor (Obstetrics) - Traditional medicine - Midwifery - Personal Narratives - Medicine, African Traditional