The African Gaze: Photography, Cinema and Power

Thankfully more books like this are being published, which redress the dearth of accessible reference material documenting African visual culture as far back as colonial rule. This collection of striking images and comprehensive text is the result of strong interest in the course (of the same name as the book) that Amy Sall started teaching at The New School in New York in 2016. The photographers included are both the prolific – among these James Barnor (Ghana), Ernest Cole (South Africa), and Seydou Keïta and Malick Sidibé (both Mali) – and the lesser-known, such as Felicia Abban, one of the few women named and known in the realm. In addition, 25 filmmakers are reviewed, including Senegalese Ousmane Sembène, regarded as “the father of African cinema”. Sall is passionate about promoting culture while protecting it, and also founded SUNU Journal, a Pan-African platform for cultivating and archiving ideas concerning global blackness. A beautiful, moving, and important investment for anyone interested in Africa’s creative economy.