Paper long abstract:

Going to the movies as a new urban leisure has been a great success from the start. But studies clearly show a different chronology (periodisation) and a different policy between Southern Africa (basically South Africa and Rhodesia) and other parts of Africa. This paper seeks to stress and explain this situation by focussing on the relationship between the expectations of the various audiences and the response of the colonial (and eventually post-colonial) authorities.

Did the rigid censorship, applied to foreign movies distributed in some British colonies and in the Belgian Congo, and the strict criteria imposed on the production of movies intended for an African audience, exist elsewhere ? How did the spectators react to the limited range of movies available ? What was the reception of Western as well as, some years later, Asian or Arab movies ?

As is often the case, a unique model is not appropriate for the whole continent. Rather, there was a whole range of reactions and negociations between the spectators, the movie theater managers and the authorities, be they administrative or moral.

This contribution draws on a wide range of sources, including colonial and post-colonial archives, interviews with movie-goers from various backgrounds, the press; and the existing literature.