Thursday, 04 November 2021

Oumarou Ganda

Oumarou Ganda (1935 – 1 January 1981) was a Nigerien director and actor who brought African cinema to international attention in the 1960s and 1970s.

Life

Ganda was born in Niamey, the capital of Niger, in 1935 and was of Djerma ethnicity. He completed his primary studies in Niamey and at the age of 16 joined the French Far East Expeditionary Corps as a soldier from 1951 to 1955. After spending two years in Asia during the First Indochina War he returned to Niger, where he was unable to find work. He emigrated to Côte d'Ivoire and became a longshoreman in the port of Abidjan. There he met French anthropologist and filmmaker Jean Rouch. Rouch was interested in the Nigerien community in Côte d'Ivoire and hired Ganda as a statistician for his research on immigration.

It was Rouch who introduced Ganda to the cinema. Ganda had a small role in Rouch's 1957 film Zazouman de Treichville, and the lead role in Moi, un Noir (I, a Negro) in 1958. A few years later he returned to Niamey, where he became involved in the Franco-Nigerien Cultural Center. In the Center's Culture and Cinema club he met technicians who offered training in directing, camera, and sound, and he became an assistant technician. The club produced several films, and in 1968 organized a screenplay contest, for which Ganda wrote the script of his first film, Cabascabo, based on his experiences in Indochina. He continued making films throughout the 1970s, many of which received international acclaim and were vehicles of social commentary in what was then a single party state. His most famous, Le Wazzou Polygame (1970) won the first FESPACO Film Festival Best Film Award. In addition to his dramatic films, Ganda completed several documentaries and was working on one at the time of his death of a heart attack on January 1, 1981.

This page contains text from Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia - https://wn.com/Oumarou_Ganda

Latest News for: oumarou ganda

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Zalika Souley, doyenne of African cinema, dies at 74

Urdu Point 29 Jul 2021

For much of her career she collaborated with Niger's pioneering director Oumarou Ganda, taking a lead role in 1969's "Cabascabo", in which she played the lover of a veteran from the French Colonial army returning from Vietnam ... A year later she starred in Ganda's "The Polygamous ...

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In troubled Sahel, memories of a cinematic golden age

The New Arab 28 Mar 2021

French director Jean Rouch shot around 140 films, including many in the Sahel state of Niger, which started a golden Nigerian cinema age now fading ... The Frenchman gave many of Niger's prominent cultural figures their start such as director Oumarou Ganda who in 1969 became the first African to present a film at the Cannes festival ... Chicken' ... ....

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Troubled Sahel region reminisces cinematic golden ageMemories of Jean Rouch's work are fading, while the ...

Deccan Herald 28 Mar 2021

The wall of a house in Torokorobougou, a district in the Malian capital Bamako, suddenly lights up as a black-and-white film starts to roll ... Read ... The Frenchman gave many of Niger's prominent cultural figures their start such as director Oumarou Ganda who in 1969 became the first African to present a film at the Cannes festival ... Also Read ... Mali ... ....