Towards a theory of orality in African cinema

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Periodical article

Title:	Towards a theory of orality in African cinema
Authors:	Tomaselli, Keyan G. Shepperson, Arnold Eke, Maureen
Year:	1995
Periodical:	Research in African Literatures
Volume:	26
Issue:	3
Pages:	18-35
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Africa
Subjects:	oral traditions cinema
External link:	https://www.jstor.org/stable/3820133
Abstract:	Oral cultures have a different ontology than written cultures. Ontologies shaped by orality assume that the world consists of interacting forces of cosmological scale and significance rather than of discrete secularized concrete objects. The relationship of Africans as quintessentially the 'other' to the historical 'same' of Europe emerged from the respective experiences of colonialism and neocolonialism. It is against this background of indeterminacy that the authors discuss the failure of Western film theory to understand the various comprehensions of existence that inscribe the narratives and forms of much cinema in Africa. This is done in the following sections: ontology, psychoanalysis and knowledge of Africa, indigenizing theory, Third Cinema, new visual grammars, and dreams as part of life. Bibliogr., filmogr., notes, ref.