Welcome to Bongowood
To cope with the lack of funding and difficult access to films, Tanzanian film production, following in the footsteps of Nigeria and its Nollywood, has been structured since the early 2000s as Swahiliwood, or Bongowood. The principle is to produce a lot with very little: a counter-industry, the opposite of Western standards, but nonetheless focused on entertainment. Some of them have become real stars in Tanzania as elsewhere on the continent. One example is the prolific actor-director Steven Kanumba: in the five years preceding his death in 2012, he took part in no fewer than 44 films! Nevertheless, the man known as the "godfather of Bongowood" remains George Tyson(Dilemma, 2003;Sabrina 2004). Irene Uwoya is a famous Bongo film actress, with her role in Oprah, 2008.
A history written by women
Women play a central role in the development of Tanzanian cinema. The country's first independent production company, Abantu Visions, was founded by Beatrix Mugishagwe. After training in West Germany, she returned to her native country in 1994 to set up her own company. She produced documentary series on the environment and the status of women, before embarking on her first feature film, Tumaini, in 2005.
Tanzanian director Flora M'mbugu-Schelling is committed to the cause of women. In 1987, she made her first documentary, Kumekucha, a tale ofempowerment in which she follows the journey of women who, through education, are trying to work towards a fairer society. In 1992, with the film These Hands, she recounts the struggle of a female quarry worker.
A committed cinema
Jordan Riber, a Tanzanian born in Zimbabwe, is one of the most active figures on the local production scene. A director and producer, he puts his double hat to good use at Media for International Development, for which he works. The company produces socially-aware, educational content on local issues such as AIDS prevention, and universal themes such as gender equality and social justice. Its productions (TV series, films, TV movies) are broadcast in southeast Africa. Three films in 2016 and 2017 were screened at the Zanzibar International Film Festival. Among them, Tunu (2016) tells the story of a man who survives a small job in a big city and must return to his village when his mother dies. Fatuma (2017) tells the story of a woman living in the Tanzanian countryside in harsh conditions, but when her husband spends the harvest from the fields and decides to marry off their daughter in compensation, she embarks on the fight of her life.
Tanzania seen from elsewhere
Hatari, directed in 1962 by Howard Hawks(Rio Bravo), was shot on the slopes of Mount Meru in Arusha National Park. In it, John Wayne leads a group of adventurers who capture wild animals for Western zoos - a purely colonialist product. For Western audiences, the film that best represents the Tanzanian savannah is Sidney Pollack's Out of Africa (1986), starring Robert Redford and Meryl Streep.
Tanzanian-born filmmaker Anup Singh, exiled in India and now a Swiss citizen, has made numerous Bollywood films. One of his latest, Qissa (2017), was acclaimed by Indian critics.
