"Manthia Diawara is quite simply the best critic (in any language) currently writing on African cinema." ―Robert Stam
"Diawara has produced a useful history, a cogent analysis, and, in his arguments on how African cinema should develop, an undoubtedly controversial book." ―Studies in Popular Culture
"This is a good, solid and reliable history of filmmaking on the African continent, beginning with colonial production and moving on to independent filmmaking... an important and welcome reference source." ―Classic Images
"Diawara's work is comprehensive, based on rigorous research and sound analyses... it aptly illustrates the intricate correlations between politics, economics and culture." ―Black Film Review
"In a relatively new field of historical ‘film theory’, African Cinema: Politics and Culture will become indispensable." ―The Year’s Work in Critical and Cultural Theory, Vol. 1-3, 1996
Drawing on political science, economics, history, and cultural studies, Diawara provides an insider’s account of the development and current status of African cinema. He discusses such issues as film production and distribution, and film aesthetics from the colonial period to the present.

African Cinema: Politics and Culture (Blacks in the Diaspora)

Humor & Entertainment

Diawara, Manthia

Movies

Indiana University Press

"I read this [book] with great pleasure ...it constitutes an extremely important contribution to the field...Manthia Diawara is quite simply the best critic (in any language) currently writing on African cinema"- N Robert Stam. Manthia Diawara provides an insider's account of the history and current status of African cinema. Drawing on history, political science, economics, and cultural studies, he discusses such issues as film production and distribution, and film aesthetics from the colonial period to the present. The book traces the growth of African cinema to the efforts of pioneer filmmakers such as Paulin Soumanou Vieyra, Oumarou Ganda, Jean-Ren D brix, Jean Rouch and Ousmane Semb ne, the Pan-African Filmmakers' Organization (FEPACI), and the Ouagadougou Pan-African Film Festival (FESPACO). "African Cinema: Politics and Culture" is a major addition to the proliferating discussions of Eurocentrism, the canon, and multiculturalism.

African Cinema: Politics and Culture (Blacks in the Diaspo)

Explores political, financial, social, and educational issues in relation to African Americans while providing answers to commonly asked questions by various noted speakers from the African-American community, such as Melvin van Peebles and Spike Lee.

Black Genius: African American Solutions to African American Problems

Biographies & Memoirs

BELL HOOKS

Spike Lee

Melvin Van Peebles

George Curry

Angela Davis

Jocelyn Elders

Taylor, Clyde

Austin, Regina

Community & Culture

W.W. Norton & Co., Inc.

In this deeply personal and unflinchingly honest exploration of what it means to be African, Manthia Diawara recounts the bittersweet experience of an expatriate who no longer lives life as an "African" yet is the object of others' fantasies and fears about people of the dark continent. Comparing his fortunes in America with those of his cousins in Paris, Diawara assesses the way tradition and community give meaning to their lives, despite the ugliness of modern French attitudes toward Africans. At the same time, he confronts the trauma experienced by Africans in America such as Amadou Diallo. Diawara's experience of life as an African and an African American yields fresh and stunning insights about race, ethnic identity, immigration, and assimilation in the modern globalized world.This important and original book will shatter many cherished notions about what it means to experience race as an African in the world today. Beautifully written and shrewdly argued, its unsentimental view of African culture and traditions, as well as its debunking of the idealized promise of an unracialized life abroad, is certain to ignite debate.

We Won't Budge: An African Exile In The World

Civitas Books

Thirty years after leaving his native Mali, Manthia Diawara has a home in New York City, and more than a few acclaimed publications to his name. Still, he cannot shake the memories of his birth country-or of his first place of self-imposed exile: the heady streets of 1960s Paris. In this bittersweet memoir, Diawara recounts a year spent looking at how the assimilation process shapes the lives and dreams of immigrants everywhere. From the nightclubs of Bamako, to the cafes of Boulevard Montparnasse, to the black neighborhoods of 1970s Washington, D.C., this important and original book shatters many cherished notions about experiencing race in the world today. At turns humorous and harrowing, beautifully written and shrewdly argued, it offers an unsentimental view of African traditions at the same time that it confronts America's most deeply ingrained prejudices.

We Won't Budge: An African Exile in the World

In Search of Africa

"There I was, standing alone, unable to cry as I said goodbye to Sidimé Laye, my best friend, and to the revolution that had opened the door of modernity for me--the revolution that had invented me." This book gives us the story of a quest for a childhood friend, for the past and present, and above all for an Africa that is struggling to find its future.
In 1996 Manthia Diawara, a distinguished professor of film and literature in New York City, returns to Guinea, thirty-two years after he and his family were expelled from the newly liberated country. He is beginning work on a documentary about Sékou Touré, the dictator who was Guinea's first post-independence leader. Despite the years that have gone by, Diawara expects to be welcomed as an insider, and is shocked to discover that he is not.
The Africa that Diawara finds is not the one on the verge of barbarism, as described in the Western press. Yet neither is it the Africa of his childhood, when the excitement of independence made everything seem possible for young Africans. His search for Sidimé Laye leads Diawara to profound meditations on Africa's culture. He suggests solutions that might overcome the stultifying legacy of colonialism and age-old social practices, yet that will mobilize indigenous strengths and energies.
In the face of Africa's dilemmas, Diawara accords an important role to the culture of the diaspora as well as to traditional music and literature--to James Brown, Miles Davis, and Salif Kéita, to Richard Wright, Spike Lee, and the ancient epics of the griots. And Diawara's journey enlightens us in the most disarming way with humor, conversations, and well-told tales.

Harvard University Press

"There I was, standing alone, unable to cry as I said goodbye to Sidimé Laye, my best friend, and to the revolution that had opened the door of modernity for me--the revolution that had invented me." This book gives us the story of a quest for a childhood friend, for the past and present, and above all for an Africa that is struggling to find its future. 
 In 1996 Manthia Diawara, a distinguished professor of film and literature in New York City, returns to Guinea, thirty-two years after he and his family were expelled from the newly liberated country. He is beginning work on a documentary about Sékou Touré, the dictator who was Guinea's first post-independence leader. Despite the years that have gone by, Diawara expects to be welcomed as an insider, and is shocked to discover that he is not. 
 The Africa that Diawara finds is not the one on the verge of barbarism, as described in the Western press. Yet neither is it the Africa of his childhood, when the excitement of independence made everything seem possible for young Africans. His search for Sidimé Laye leads Diawara to profound meditations on Africa's culture. He suggests solutions that might overcome the stultifying legacy of colonialism and age-old social practices, yet that will mobilize indigenous strengths and energies. 
 In the face of Africa's dilemmas, Diawara accords an important role to the culture of the diaspora as well as to traditional music and literature--to James Brown, Miles Davis, and Salif Kéita, to Richard Wright, Spike Lee, and the ancient epics of the griots. And Diawara's journey enlightens us in the most disarming way with humor, conversations, and well-told tales.

Of all of David Levinthal's series of photographs, none is more challenging and provocative than his "Blackface" series, created over the previous three years. In his blow-up images of miniature toys he has recreated scenes of racism, genocide, and sexual fantasies. This series explores the Blackface myth embodied in "black memorabilia," household objects infused with African-American stereotypes. These images make the Blackface myth speak to us directly, without an intermediary, and demand a response from us regardless of our race, age, or gender. Levinthal's "Blackface" images present a paradox, one that pits the beauty of photographic representation against the racism underscored by these ignoble objects. Magnified with a 20 x 24 inch Polaroid camera, the "Blackface" pictures explore viewer subjectivity and question the manufacture and popularity of "black memorabilia," particularly the recent resurgence of their collectibility among African Americans. The photographs are accompanied by an in-depth essay by noted writer, critic, and filmmaker Manthia Diawara, an expert on the representation of African Americans in film, photography and popular media. This book promises to make a significant contribution to contemporary African-American studies.

Blackface

Arts & Photography

Levinthal, David

Individual Artists

Arena Editions

Contemporary African filmmaking is the subject of this insightful and exciting look at every aspect of the art form on the African continent. Focusing on new trends in African cinema from the 1990s to today, this book explores new cinematic languages and modes of production, films departure from nationalism and social realism, and the Nollywood film industry, among other topics. In this book Manthia Diawara, a renowned scholar on Black cinema, literature, and art brings readers up to date on the exciting changes taking place behind and in front of African cameras. Contributions by filmmakers, scholars, and producers as well as profiles of thirty important African directors and their films, provide valuable insight into recent developments. The volume comes with a DVD containing several interviews with filmmakers conducted by the author. Scholars, students, and anyone interested in cinematic and African cultural studies will find much to discover and celebrate in this authoritative, fascinating look at new trends in African filmmaking.

African Film: New Forms of Aesthetics and Politics

Prestel

Malick Sidibé documented an important period of West African history with great commitment, enthusiasm and insight, focusing on Malian youth in the 1950s and 60s. His portraits and documentary photography captured the unique atmosphere and vitality of an African capital in a period of great euphoria. From the earliest days of the postcolonial period, Sidibé was a privileged witness to a period of tremendous, euphoric cultural change. As a young but well thought-of photographer, he captured a time of paradigm shift and youthful insouciance with a healthy curiosity about the rest of the world, and a valiant sense of pride and confidence in the future. Sidibé learned the basic skills of studio photography as an apprentice before he began making reportage photographs. Since then, he has been devoted to photography. His portraits and documentary photographs, from the late 1950s to the mid-1970s, now bear witness to the cultural and social development of post-colonial Mali. We see joy, hope, beauty and power in these psychologically captivating images. Sidibé's work, originally intended for an African audience, is a unique memoir and testimony for a world audience.

Malick Sidibé: Photographs

Knape, Gunilla

Steidl/Hasselblad Center

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Diawara, Manthia. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Diawara, Manthia

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Diawara, Manthia. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

African Cinema: Politics and Culture (Blacks in the Diaspora)

African Cinema: Politics and Culture (Blacks in the Diaspo)

Black Genius: African American Solutions to African American Problems

We Won't Budge: An African Exile In The World

We Won't Budge: An African Exile in the World

In Search of Africa

In Search of Africa

Blackface

African Film: New Forms of Aesthetics and Politics

Malick Sidibé: Photographs