While audio-visual archives from the 1960s are rare on the African continent, in Senegal, for several months, four films dating back to 1966 have once again become available to the Senegalese public. After restoration work that lasted more than two years, these four films were shown in a cinema in Dakar.
From our correspondent in Dakar.
On the screen are new buildings, a newly restored cathedral, a port, a few passersby and a beautiful, modern city shown in black and white. It is Dakar in 1966, the capital then has a population of only 100,000, and is about to host the first international festival of Negro arts, organized by Léopold Sédar Senghor. For Mustafa Samb, COO of Pathé, it’s a return to childhood: “ As a Senegalese citizen, I was very proud to see Dakar again, to feel all the creative energy of that time. For me, this is the beginning, and as they say in Wolof, to move forward, you have to know where you come from. »
Because the pictures that are shown that day are Senegalese news pictures. Small films, 8 to 20 minutes long, were broadcast in the 1960s in cinemas in Dakar, before the film was shown. A kind of national and international news tour, at a time when television was almost non-existent. Directed by young African filmmakers such as Ababakar Sambe, Momar Thiam, Pauline Somano Vieira and others. For Marco Lena, historian and co-initiator of this restoration project, these images have heritage value: “ Because in reality, we realize that it represents the images in Africa, that Africans take of Africans, there is always an outside point of view. These images represent the audiovisual archeology of independent Africa. »
Thousands of working hours
Archeology, because these images had to be brought back to life. These films were discovered in 2019, abandoned in a room at the Ministry of Culture in Dakar, and Cecilia Cencerelli, from Cinematheque Bologna, spent several months restoring these films. ” This represents thousands of hours of work. If we do it manually, you have to imagine that for each image you can stay for a day. So, imagine in the movie. »
The result is amazing, except for some white spots, it’s all there and just asking to be seen by as many people as possible. To Mustafa Samb, head of the Mamiwata Cultural Association: “ For these young people today, we see that the digital audio-visual version is thriving, but I think these young people need to see what has been done before to move forward. »
The four films of 1966:- Senegal and the International Festival of Negro Arts, Third Arts Festival, Senegal sixteenth year And FPresident Senghor’s trip to the West Indies – They need to be programmed at various festivals and cinemas in Senegal, before more of these films dating back to 1980 are restored.
Listen tooSenegal: The audiovisual archive has been abandoned for many years and is undergoing renovation
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