On the Matter of Fiction: An Approach to the Marginalization of African Film Studies in the Global Academy

This article adopts a polemical tone to argue that factual rather than fictional media modes are gradually being privileged globally to the extent that we find ourselves—as academics, but also as citizens—in the grips of a dangerous “regime of truth” (Foucault) that is sequestering the power of the imagination, and specifically the power of fiction. The article focuses on this problematic in the hope that an analysis of some of its dimensions might offer clues as to why African film studies is marginalized today within the global academy, but also within the broader field of African (screen) media studies itself, and what we might try to do about that marginalization. It also argues that it is relevant to consider not only the ways in which we, as African film and media studies scholars, have been marginalized within the broader discipline of film and media studies, but also how we might be contributing to our own marginalization. Engaging fully with contemporary film theory and criticism, not treating Africa as an exceptional space to the rest of the globe, participating in the current move towards exploring the complex, trans-national currents and relationships through which films are made, bringing African examples to people’s attention within broader studies of narrative, genre, and media institutions—these are all moves that the article argues we need to take more decisively.