Dictionary of African Filmmakers Raises More Questions Than Answers

Though cinema was introduced to Africa—as early as 1896 in Algeria and South Africa, 1897 in Morocco and Tunisia, and 1903 in Nigeria—almost at the same time that the Lumiere Brothers are said to have pioneered it in France and the first feature film was made in South Africa in 1910, no entity known as ‘African cinema’ exists on the mother continent, so begins the 420-page Dictionary of African Filmmakers written by Roy Armes. Published by Indiana University Press in 2008, this reference book covers African feature film-making, listing more than 5400 films by more than 1250 filmmakers in 37 countries. OGOVA ONDEGO reviews the tome.

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