Monangambee

For Black Camera’s close up on Sarah Maldoror’s Sambizanga, we offer a few reflections on CARCERAL FRAMES, FUGITIVE DREAMS, a screening program we organized in 2021 at @hfactor.co to commemorate/mourn the one year anniversary of the #endSARS protests against police brutality in Nigeria and the brutal state-sanctioned massacre that ensued at Lekki tollgate. The program included the works of three militant filmmakers — Sarah Maldoror, Ousmane Sembene, Gadalla Gubara — to reflect on the ongoing carcerality of Black African life in colonial and “postcolonial” times, as well as histories of rebellion and protest. Program: MONANGAMBEE, Sarah Maldoror, Angola, 1968 SAMBIZANGA, Sarah Maldoror, Angola, 1972 TAUW, Ousmane Sembene, Senegal, 1970 LES MISERABLES, Gadalla Gubara, Sudan, 2007 It was only the second screening on the continent of the recently restored version of anticolonial landmark, Sambizanga, by Sarah Maldoror, after FESPACO, which speaks to the vexed circulations of many such works to the audiences they were meant for. Find on this post our favorite moments/quotes from that discussion. Link in bio to read our full conversation!

NEW DATES ——— Online screening, August 18-24, 2025. AfterImages interrogates the coloniality of archival moving images. Drawing upon the histories of specifically Cameroonian and more broadly Global South cinemas, these works show how archival and experimental filmic registers complicate our understanding of the residual and the spectral in the midst and aftermath of colonial violence. The cinematic afterimage becomes both method and metaphor: a trace that refuses disappearance, a remnant that unsettles the authority of linear time and official (colonial) memory. To this effect, AfterImages foregrounds an ethics of attention: to what lingers in the archive, what recurs, and what has been made difficult to see. Program: An homage to Thérèse Sita Bella (1933-2006), often credited as the first Black African woman filmmaker. • Sita-Bella, The First, 2025, Eugenie Metala & Jean-Marie Teno (@eugeniekede @jmteno ) 7 shorts by the Cameroonian video-artist, Goddy Leye (1965-2011). @goddy_leye_legacy • The Beautiful Beast, 2009 • Misery, 2002 • We are the world, 2006 • The Bone Collector, 2001 • The Story, 2001 • The Luggage, 2001 • Royal Flush, 2001 1 short by Mathieu Abonnenc after Guns For Banta (1979), a long lost film by Sarah Maldoror (1929-2020), considered the first Black woman to make a film on the African continent. • Foreword to Guns for Banta, 2011 Coming August 18-24 at (link in bio)! Clip: Goddy Leye, The Bone Collector, 2001.

From June 19–21, 2025, G.A.S. Lagos hosted AfterImages, an exhibition of moving image installations and screenings exploring the coloniality of archival film. Curated by Monangambee (@monangambee ), it marked the culmination of Art Exchange: Moving Image (@artexchangemovingimage ), a curatorial programme by LUX (@luxmovingimage ), Y.S.F. (@yinkashonibarefoundation ), and G.A.S., supported by the British Council (@ngbritisharts ).⁠ ⁠ Focusing on Cameroonian cinema and broader film traditions from the Global South, the featured works used experimental and archival techniques to reflect on what remains after colonialism and how memory, history, and absence are expressed through film.⁠ ⁠ Over the first two days, installations transformed the space with projections on walls, floors, and monitors, encouraging slow, embodied viewing. A table display of materials from the G.A.S. Library and Picton Archive, including issues of Third Text, provided critical context.⁠ ⁠ On the final day, a public screening was followed by a conversation between Monangambee curator Dara Omotosho and current resident Dr. Tinashe Mushakavanhu (@tinsmush ), reflecting on archival cinema as both political and aesthetic tool. The programme closed with a screening of Muna Moto (1975) by Jean-Pierre Dikongué-Pipa, marking its 50th anniversary.⁠ ⁠ ___⁠ 📸 Read the full recap via the link in bio.⁠ ⁠ #gasfoundation #guestartistspace #monangambeee #daraomotoso #tinashemushakavanhu #artistinresidency #colonialism #movingimage #afterimages

LQFF 2025 Festival Award Winners 🏆 We are proud to announce the winners of this year’s awards: ✨ Audience Choice Award: “Girl-Boy” by Ajay Abalaka @ajayabalaka “Everything Lasts and Nothing Ends” by Rete Poki and Nosazemen Agbontaen @nosamachi @retepoki ✨ Curators’ Choice Award: “Come Dance With Me” by Nwaọ @nwao.wav “Omooge Kampus” by Kayode Timileyin Olaide @oktimileyin A huge congratulations to all the winners, and thank you to every filmmaker, partner, supporter and the community who made this year’s festival unforgettable. See you next year! #lagosqueerfilmfestival2025

LQFF continues! A subset of the films from the festival will be available to watch online for a week, from June 30 to July 6, on our website (link in bio).

AfterImages interrogates the coloniality of archival moving images. Drawing upon the histories of specifically Cameroonian and more broadly Global South cinemas, these works show how archival and experimental filmic registers complicate our understanding of the residual and the spectral in the midst and aftermath of colonial violence. The cinematic afterimage becomes both method and metaphor: a trace that refuses disappearance, a remnant that unsettles the authority of linear time and official (colonial) memory. To this effect, AfterImages foregrounds an ethics of attention: to what lingers in the archive, what recurs, and what has been made difficult to see. The installation will be on view from June 19-20 2025 between 1 and 5 pm each day at @gasfoundation (9 Hakeem Dickson Dr, Maroko, Lagos). Featuring works by Erika Tan, Rosalind Nashashibi, Goddy Leye, Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, Eugenie Metala & Jean-Marie Teno, Jean-Pierre Dikongue-Pipa. Curated by Monangambee as part of the @artexchangemovingimage program.

“Heroes do not interest me, what interests me is daily life, the people’s implication in the war. (...) They didn’t have babies on their backs, they had bombs. And that idea, Guns for Banta, only occured to me after seeing the women transporting these bombs.” Sarah Maldoror in Foreword to Guns for Banta (Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, 2011).

“... and we will not look for any images to substitute for this moment. Nothing could stand in for those missing images, in that place. The creation of the martyr and its usefulness for the revolution. Sarah Maldoror in Foreword to Guns for Banta (Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc, 2011).

Still from Limbé, 2021, Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc.

AfterImages, a series of film installations and screenings, is a critical extension of the larger project, ‘Art for the People: African National Cinemas,’ which examines the frame of the ‘nation’ as an ideological and material context in which African films were made, promoted, and circulated in the post-independence era. The program interrogates the coloniality of archival moving images. Drawing upon the histories of specifically Cameroonian and more broadly Global South cinemas, these works show how archival and experimental filmic registers can complicate our understanding of the residual and the spectral in the midst and aftermath of colonial violence. The cinematic afterimage becomes both method and metaphor: a trace that refuses disappearance, a remnant that unsettles the authority of linear time and official (colonial) memory. To this effect, AfterImages foregrounds an ethics of attention: to what lingers in the archive, what recurs, and what has been made difficult to see. There will be an installation from June 19 - 20, and the physical projection will be held June 21, 2025 5PM, at @gasfoundation (9 Hakeem Dickson Dr, Maroko, Lagos) 7 SHORTS ON GHOST CINEMAS • Sita-Bella, The First, 2025, Eugenie Metala & Jean-Marie Teno • Foreword to Guns for Banta, 2011, Mathieu Kleyebe Abonnenc • The Beautiful Beast, 2009, Goddy Leye • Misery, 2002, Goddy Leye • We are the world, 2006, Goddy Leye • The Bone Collector, 2001, Goddy Leye • The Story, 2001, Goddy Leye CONVERSATION DARA OMOTOSO + TINASHE MUSHAKAVANHU (@tinsmush ) RESIDUAL IMAGES • Muna Moto, 1975, Jean-Pierre Dikongue-Pipa Program curated by Monangambee as part of the @artexchangemovingimage program

Still from The Beautiful Beast, 2009, Goddy Leye.

Still from The Bone Collector, 2001, Goddy Leye