Author Description

About the Author Maureen N. Eke is an assistant professor of English at Central Michigan University, Mt. Pleasant. Kenneth W. Harrow is a professor of English of Michigan State Univesity. He has published 'Thresholds of Change in African Literature,' and has edited 'Faces of Islam in African Literature; The Marabout and the Muse; African Cinema: Postcolonial and Feminist Readings,' (AWP 1999) and; 'Women with Open Eyes', a speical issue of 'Matatu' on women and African cinema. Emmanuel Yewah teaches French and comparative literature at Albion College (Michigan). From the Back Cover The twenty-third annual conference of the African Literature Association was a celebration of African cinema, in recognition of which it received the title, somewhat tongue-in-cheek, FESPACO Nights in Michigan. Among those filmmakers who attended the conference were Salem Mekuria, Ngozi Onwrah, Tsitsi Dangarembga, Bassek ba Kobhio, Jean-Pierre Bekolo, Francois Woukoache, Djibril Diop Mambety, Assia Djebar, Gaston kabore, Ola Balogun, John Akomgrah. The selected papers from that conference that appear in this volume constitute a tribute to the creative filmmaking that has distinguished African cinema since independence. Some of the subjects treated include the work of North African filmmakers Assia Djebar and Nouri Onwurah, and Jean-Pierre Bekolo. Assia Djebar's gracious and moving acceptance speech for the Folon-Nichols award is also included. The extension of cinematic influences to literature is the subject of essays on sylvain Bemba and Kamau Brathwaite. And finally, two literary studies -- one on West African tale-motif of the Beautiful Daughter/Handsome Gentleman, and the figure of the black slave in North African tales-- complete the volume.