Jean-Pierre Bekolo's African Cyborgian Thought

This article elucidates how Jean-Pierre Bekolo's 2006 film Les saignantes rearticulates cyborgian thought in an effort to remap dominant modes of social consciousness among African youth. Bekolo uproots hegemonic tropes of African pathology; recasts narratives of African tradition in a way that forecloses singular, fixed interpretations; and depicts two young women who illustrate the potential for body and machine to merge in opposition to masculinist state power. Bekolo combines the oppositional postmodern thought of the cyborg with critical issues of gender, corruption, and tradition pertinent to the current African moment. He breaks down dualisms such as "traditional/ modern" and "developed/underdeveloped" and calls into question the grand narratives and myths that purportedly structure African societies as well as the continent's global image.