ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the representations of the roles and experiences of African women in peace-building processes in La Nuit de la Vérité/The Night of Truth (Nacro 2004). The Night of Truth focuses on a fictional African country’s efforts to build peace after ten years of a brutal war. This chapter demonstrates that the film’s Burkina Faso/France co-production context results in a film influenced by a complex interaction between international discussions related to the participation of women in peace-building and African filmmakers’ continuing preoccupation with the politics of representation. Although the film challenges stereotypical representations of African women as ideal victims by emphasising their agency and creative ways of engaging in peace processes, it also reflects some influences of the ‘First Lady phenomenon’. The ‘First Lady phenomenon’ characterised women’s political participation in many African countries in the 1980s and 1990s. In those years, women’s involvement in politics was limited mainly to a few elite women, such as the first ladies, who were linked to powerful men. This chapter, therefore, also demonstrates that although The Night of Truth highlights women’s agency and realities, it falls short of being transformative because women are pushed into the background in peacetime while men take on political leadership positions.
