Paper short abstract:

Opposing representations of chieftaincy and modernity in women's postcolonial African film: Yaba Badoe's 'The Witches of Gambaga' vs Rungano Nyoni's 'I am not a witch'

Paper long abstract:

Since the past decade an increasing number of successful African born women filmmakers have conquered the hearts of global audiences. The author will focus on two of these socio-politically engaged filmmakers who recently produced films on spirits and witchcraft in modern Africa. She will concentrate on the interaction between traditional African and modern authorities in Northern Ghana and their representation in these films. In Yaba Badoe's (Ghana/UK, 1954) documentary 'The Witches of Gambaga' (2010) the chief of a witchcraft camp in Northern Ghana (Gambaga) is represented as a progressive force; a traditional leader who collaborates with modern Presbyterian Church members, governmental representatives, academics and activists to enable the camp women to return to their home villages. In Rungano Nyoni's (Zambia/UK, 1982) poetic film 'I am not a witch' (2017) the witch camp chief is instead portrayed as an evil force. Both Badoe's and Nyoni's films are based on the filmmakers' fieldwork on the women accused of witchcraft and their confessions in real witch camps in Northern Ghana, which are quasi-governmental settlements. The author, who conducted extensive fieldwork on witchcraft and chieftaincy in Ghana, will share her research findings on the plausible cause of the distinction in the representation of the camp chief. With her research on the interaction of the real-life chiefs with urban societal forces and the rural camp women, the author aims to increase insight in power relations in society and the understanding of what and who these filmmakers act against in their postcolonial anti-witchcraft film.