ABSTRACT
Using Sarraounia (Hondo 1986) as a case study, this chapter explores how various contemporary political interests may shape cinematic representations of women in historical conflicts. Sarraounia focuses on a historical figure, Sarraounia (Queen) Mangou. The film is based on Abdoulaye Mamani’s (1980) novel, Sarraounia: le drame de la reine magicienne (Sarraounia: The drama of the magic queen), which dramatises the events that took place in Niger and the surrounding areas between 1898 and 1899. These events culminated in the Battle of Lougou, in which the Azna, a subgroup of the Hausa people led by Sarraounia Mangou, defended themselves from the French Colonial Forces of the Voulet-Chanoine Mission. The film’s director, Med Hondo, was a postcolonial activist filmmaker known for fiercely defending his independence as a filmmaker. Burkina Faso funded the film through the intervention of the country’s president, the Pan-Africanist Thomas Sankara, known for his interest in decolonial feminist ideas in his pursuit of a just postcolonial African state. This chapter demonstrates how a team of Pan-Africanists incorporated feminist ideas to create a film that challenges the patriarchal construction of African histories and imagines a more equal and inclusive postcolonial Africa.
