African 202 (001): Gangster Movies

Violent actions, looks, and lifestyle characterize what we may call the African gangster film genre. They are action films that present a reimagination of life with much of the boring parts cut out. As part of the course, we will watch African gangster films weekly, exploring the context and implications of gang presence and action on African screen media.

African gangster movies proliferated in the early 2000s with the success of Isakaba (2001). There has been a resurgence and boom of this genre within the last decade. Attending to the historic and more contemporary movies in this genre, this course asks questions about how gangsterism is constructed and what its reception has been from scholars and the public. In this course, we will pay attention to the complexities of violence and conflict on the African screen by considering the relationship between gangster culture on one hand, and city life, politics, and the construction of history on the other hand. We will also consider the gendered orientation of violence in African movies as well as the rise of female gangster characters. Lastly, and on an intertextual premise, we will examine how continental African Gangster movies compare to Gangster movies in the African Diaspora.