African Women Photographers & Filmmakers in History: Reversing the Erasure (Part 2)
By Ethel Tawe for Feminist
The earliest photographic record in Africa began around 1863, yet women image-makers have largely been left out of the canon. When access to the camera expanded, postcolonial pioneers like Malick Sidibe, Seydou Keita, and Ousmane Sembene, became highly regarded within the ‘golden age’ of African photography and film. However, who were their female contemporaries? And who came before them?
Following an introducTORY STORY ON the landscape into which this question delves, here are 5+ African women imagemakers in history, fROM FELICIA ABBAN IN GHANA TO DIASPORA SIBLINGS SUCH AS sarah maldoror WHO ACTIVELY WORKED ON THE CONTINENT.
Studio Portrait by Felicia Abban ©
Felicia Abban (Ghana) (born 1935)
Felicia Ewurasi Abban was Ghana's first professional woman photographer. She followed in the footsteps of her father J.E. Ansah, and became his photography apprentice at the age of 14. In 1953, Abban opened ‘Mrs. Felicia Abban’s Day and Night Quality Art Studio’ in Jamestown, Accra. Nearby studios included James Barnor’s “Ever Young Studio” and J.K. Bruce Vanderpuije’s “Deo Gratias”. She’s known to have worked as a photographer for Ghana's first president, Kwame Nkrumah, for many years during the 1960s. Abban also worked for the Guinea Press Limited, now known as The Ghana Times, which was the publishing house of Nkrumah’s Conventions People’s Party. Her career spanned 60 years until she eventually stopped working in 2013 due to arthritis. Abban is known for her studio portraits, trendy styling, and editorial-like snapshots. She was the go-to artist for post-production services for her detailed precision when adding color and accents. Although her work was presented on the world stage at the Ghana Pavilion of 2019 Venice Biennale, her contributions are yet to be well-documented in scholarship.
Photo by Felicia Abban ©
Photo by Felicia Abban ©
Thérèse Sita-Bella (Cameroon) (1933 - 2006)
Thérèse Bella Mbida, known as Sita-Bella, was a Cameroonian film director and is among the earliest recorded women filmmakers in Africa. Her most popular work was a 30-minute short documentary titled ‘Tam-tam à Paris’ (1963), capturing the National Dance Company of Cameroon during its tour in Paris. The film was featured at the first FESPACO in 1969, alongside many well-known male contemporaries like Ousman Sembene. Sita-Bella became active in radio and print journalism on the eve of Cameroon’s independence. She was also a writer, guitarist, model, and Cameroon’s first female pilot. In the 1960s, Sita-Bella worked in France at the French newspaper ‘La Vie Africane’, which she co-created. She also worked with UNESCO, participated in the creation of BBC Africa radio service, and was a correspondent for Voice of America. After returning to Cameroon in 1967, she joined the Ministry of Information and became the Deputy Chief of Information. Sita-Bella was considered a trailblazer in an industry dominated by men. She died in almost total anonymity at the age of 73, with most Cameroonians never hearing of her until after her death. Reflecting on the film industry, Sita-Bella is quoted stating: “Camera-women in the 1970s? At that time we were very few. There were few West Indians, a woman from Senegal called Safi Faye and I. But you know cinema is not a woman's business."
Safi Faye (senegal) (1943 - Present)
Safi Faye, a Senegalese film director and ethnologist of Serer heritage, was the first Sub-Saharan African woman to direct a commercially distributed feature film ‘Kaddu Beykat’ (1975). She is credited as being the first to gain international recognition, after Kaddu Beykat won several awards including the FIPRESCI Prize and the OCIC Award in 1976. It was initially banned in Senegal because of its criticism of national agricultural policies that were colonial remnants. Faye’s interest in film was sparked in 1966, when visiting the Dakar Festival of Negro Arts where she met the French filmmaker Jean Rouch who encouraged her to use film as an ethnographic tool. After acting a small role in one of Rouch’s films, Faye went on to study ethnology. Faye disliked Rouch's film but stated that working with him enabled her to learn about filmmaking and cinéma-vérité. Safi Faye has directed several documentary and fiction films focusing on everyday experiences and rural life in Senegal. Describing her process, she states: “Even though I may write a script for my films, I basically leave people free to express themselves in front of a camera and I listen. My films are collective works in which everybody takes an active part.”
Safi Faye, Kaddu Beykat, 1975. Film still.
Carrie Lumpkin (Nigeria)
Carrie Lumpkin, the daughter of elite physician Dr. Charles J. Lumpkin, was from a community of Saros, formerly enslaved persons who repatriated from Brazil to Nigeria during the 19th/20th century. In 1908, she opened a photographic studio on Broad Street in Lagos, a favored location for photographers. Its grand opening was advertised in The Lagos Weekly Record. It is somewhat unclear whether Carrie Lumpkin commanded the camera or if the studio was part of her many entrepreneurial pursuits. Her commercial activities as a photographer may have been seen as problematic in the male-dominated profession, where gendered relations and marriage defined elite African women in Lagos. Lumpkin did not join the popular Royal Photographic Society of the time, suggesting that she was embedded in other transatlantic photo associations in order to acquire her skills. Another African female contemporary of Lumpkin’s was Miss Tejumade Sapara-Johnson, who had joined the Society in 1899. However, there is no evidence to indicate she was a professional photographer, which suggests that she may have been an amateur practitioner within elite Lagosian society.
Ruth Motau (South Africa) (1968 - Present)
Ruth Seopedi Motau was the first black female photographer to be employed by a newspaper at the dawn of post-Apartheid South Africa (circa 1994). Her photography focuses on social documentary influenced by photojournalism and the marginalisation of black communities. Motau was born in Soweto and discovered her passion for photography in 1990 while studying at the Market Photo Workshop in Johannesburg. After completing the three year course, Motau worked as an intern at the Mail & Guardian newspaper, and then as a photographer and photo editor. She also worked as a photo editor for newspapers including The Sowetan and City Press. Some of her documentary photo essays include Shebeens, Sonnyboy's Story, and Women and Municipal Service Delivery.Motau’s award-winning work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, recognizing its impact and legacy on documentary photography from South Africa.
Photo by Ruth Motau ©
Photo Courtesy of Ruth Motau ©
Chantal Lawson / Agbokou / N’kegbe / Jacqueline Mathey (Togo)
While little to no photo records are accessible, mention of Togolese women image-makers appear as early as the 1960s. Chantal Lawson was one of the earliest Togolese women photographers, shown in her studio in 1968, in a rare image captured by Evelyn Bernheim. Mme Agbokou, a freelance journalist, and Mlle N’kegbe, who worked for Togolese Information Service, both featured work in a 1974 issue of Amina Magazine. N’kegbe started her career as a professional photographer in 1964 after completing an apprenticeship in Lagos before returning to Togo. Mlle Jacqueline Mathey was another Togolese woman who worked for the Togolese State Television Service.
Awa Tounkara (Senegal)
One account records Awa Tounkara (born 1949) as the first female Senegalese photojournalist, who started working with ‘Le Soleil’ in 1972 and was also a studio apprentice. She won best female photographer at a competition during World Press Freedom Day.
Chantal Lawson photographed by Evelyne Bernheim © 1968
Still from The Night of Truth (2004) Directed by Fanta Regina Nacro
Fanta Regina Nacro (Burkina Faso)
Fanta Regina Nacro (born 1962) is well known as the first woman from Burkina Faso to direct a feature film, and is a founding member of The African Guild of Directors and Producers.
Sarah Maldoror (French West Indies) / Marilyn Houlberg (USA) / Mmekutmfon ‘Mfon’ Essien (Nigeria/USA)
These obscure records of African women are evidence of their under-documented early engagement in the world of photography and film in postcolonial Africa. Other non-continental women of African descent who did significant work on the continent include Sarah Maldoror (1929−2020), a filmmaker of French West Indies descent. She is best known for her feature film Sambizanga (1972) on the war in Angola. Chicago native Marilyn Houlberg (1939-2012), an African-American photographer and curator who lived and worked on the continent in the late 1960s, also did field research in Nigeria during the Biafra civil war. At the National Museum of Lagos in the 1960s, she helped photograph, catalog and secure the museum’s holdings of traditional art. Nigerian-born American photographer Mmekutmfon ‘Mfon’ Essien (1967-2001) is honored in the book ‘MFON: Women Photographers of the African Diaspora’ (2017), edited by Layla Amatullah Barrayn and Adama Delphine Fawundu. The book focuses on addressing the glaring under representation of African women’s work in the publishing and public eye. It inquires into what it means for the camera to be in the hands of contemporary African/Black women descendants.
Sarah Maldoror ©
Sarah Maldoror’s ‘Sambizanga’ (1972) on the 1961–1974 war in Angola.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
Ethel-Ruth Tawe (she/her) is a Cameroonian multidisciplinary artist, editor, and creative consultant, exploring African identity and diaspora cultures through visual storytelling. Her practice examines Africa’s ancient futures from a magical realist lens. Image-making, storytelling, and time-travelling compose the framework of her inquiry. Ethel holds an MSc in Development Studies from SOAS University of London and a BA (Hons) in International Human Rights with a minor in Art History & Criticism.
Read more by Ethel Tawe and Follow @artofetheltawe
