ABSTRACT
Matamata and Pilipili is a documentary that provides great insight into history of cinema in Africa and on-screen depiction of indigenous people under colonial rule. According to the documentary, Van Haelst made 150 films from the 1940s to 1960 at independence of then Zaire, 20 of which are Matamata Pilipili comic series. This chapter aims to ground the study of African film history within the context of cultural expressions that rose in response to the dominant discourse to help Africans forge their own identity and represent their imaginaire collectif. From the late 19th century to the 1960s, the production and distribution of motion pictures were tightly controlled by the colonial apparatus through a number of institutional and legal mechanisms throughout sub-Saharan Africa. The conception and use of the filmic medium as a propagandist tool led to the development of educational and ethnographic films from the mid-1930s to the early 1960s by the colonial powers of France, the UK, and Belgium.
