Gender Roles In African Cinema

African cinema has evolved in its representation of the contemporary African woman. Earlier portrayals of women in African cinema conveyed stereotypical notions of the ‘Ideal African woman’ which reflected gender relations concurrent in early and modern day Africa to an extent. Hitherto, conventionalized depictions of women in Africa have diminished their roles in African cinema as simplistic docile maternal figures, male sexual commodities and casualties of a domineering patriarchal society. However, modern characterizations of women in African cinema have partially metamorphosed in accordance with the progression of gender equality. Modern African filmmakers are using their artistic abilities to advocate a more egalitarian society

Set in post-colonial Senegal, Sembene ascribes great significance to African femininity by naming his film after a female character and heroine of the film, Faat Kine. Although Kine is initially depicted as a victim of male supremacy, she is eventually represented as an archetypal figure of resilience and independence. Impregnated by her instructor as a teenager, Faat suffered severe social degradation and condemnation even from her father. Despite the significant part played by the man in Kine’s ordeal, he is neither chastised nor stigmatised by the outcome of their perpetration, but rather his life proceeds in some semblance of order. In addition, Kine is betrayed by her criminal husband who absconds with her life savings leaving her penniless with two children. Nonetheless, she single-handedly raises two children without any masculine presence. Kine’s pillars of emotional and spiritual strength are her family (mother and children) as well as her friends, which is divergent from the African customary convictions of the man as sole supporter of woman. Evidently, the men in Kine’s life are highly instrumental to her anguish and yet irrelevant to her survival. Sembene uses Kine’s ordeals to display the plight and cultural marginalization of the African woman.

Set in modern day Senegal, Mambety uses the film Hyenas to address the concurrent gender relations in Africa. Ramatou is initially portrayed as a victim of patriarchal dominance betrayed and abandoned by her lover Drameh, who falsifies facts to discredit her in the court of law and renounces the paternity of their unborn child with impunity. Ramatou suffers the inevitable social abasement and is consequently ostracized from the community. Like in Faat Kine, gender prejudice is evident as Drameh proceeds to marry a wealthy woman while his reputation is left unscathed whereas Ramatou is shunned from society for years. Undoubtedly, Ramatou’s unpleasant experience illustrates how Senegalese women are subject to the corrupt influence of the prevailing patriarchal