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ABSTRACT
This essay examines how Chadian filmmakers Mahamat-Saleh Haroun and Moubarack Idriss Nour revisit and, at times, re-enact history to provide voice and perspective to key moments in Chadian history. Moubarack Idriss Nour's feature documentary, Le Tchad entre histoire et espoir (2014) and Mahamat-Saleh Haroun's Hissein Habré: Une tragédie tchadienne (2016) are both set against the backdrop of Chad's tumultuous history and its legacies for future generations. Nour provides a historical framework and uses colonial footage and archives, anthropological and historical sources, television interviews, and newscasts to celebrate the achievements of Chadian's current President Idriss Déby Itno. Haroun, on the other hand, revisits critically the cult figure of yesteryear, Hissène Habré, and the legacies of his regime: human rights abuses, including sexual slavery, torture, and mass political killings. Both documentary films include archival research, testimonial accounts of repression, torture, arbitrary arrests, and incarceration. However, the ways in which they conceive and structure their narratives and represent Chadian history, its political leaders, and its spokespersons differ diametrically in their respective documentaries. This essay will compare and contrast the ways in which both filmmakers use the documentary genre and its potential, either to create national heroes and/or critique the culture of violence that has permeated the social fabric of the country. As they represent Chad on screen, Haroun and Nour both focus on the country's violent past but differ in their representation of their homeland, its leaders and their respective visions, and the exploration of the “affective forces” of violence (Abel, 2008) as a necessary step in their cinematic expression to achieve their vision of rebuilding the country and ensuring its sustainable future.
References
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Notes
1 According to Haroun, “it's at the French cultural centre so it's not really a Chadian cinema, it's in a territory that belongs to France—like in Rome you have the Vatican City, a Catholic area” (Young, 2004).
2 The original version of Haroun's film is in French: Hissène Habré, une tragédie tchadienne.” All references to the former exiled president in the article will use his official name: Hissène Habré.
3 Former Ambassador to France Mahamat Saleh Haroun's recent appointment as Chad's Minister of Culture, Art, and Tourism (February 5, 2017) has already shown his commitment at preserving the country's cave paintings at the UNESCO World Heritage site located at Archei in the Ennedi Mountains. See http://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-39332438; https://archaeologynewsnetwork.blogspot.ca/2017/03/tourists-damaging-chad-cave-paintings.html#uFh4oBPMx6dD4bBi.97.
4 A strong advocate for cultural development in Chad, Haroun commented on the significance of his success at Cannes: “The award at Cannes has had an incredible effect in the sense that it has practically catapulted the role of cinema and the importance of cinema, even to a political level in Chad,” he said. “From the moment the school opens we will have technicians, actors, an entire industry that will completely change our offering. It will create a whole new economy around cinema in Chad, that's what I'm working towards” (Topping, 2013).
5 Nour's film has not yet been translated in English, and we retain the French title, which could be translated as Chad Between History and Hope.
6 Translations are mine.
7 Reference to the Chadian-Libyan territorial conflict, otherwise known as the Toyota War. See Clayton's analysis of the Chadian army's strategic use of pickup trucks for mobility and attacks (1998, p. 161).
8 The score for the documentary is taken primarily from the Blood Diamond soundtrack “Solomon Vandy” by composer James Newton Howard. MPS Kitnaa is mentioned for her rallying message to the troops, whereas Alhadj Ahmat Pecos, best known for his “Enfant du Tchad,” is a much revered artist who sang patriotic love songs.
9 It is significant that the portrait of Katouma Daba dominates advertisements, movie posters, websites, trailers, and press releases.
10 Nominated by Senegal's justice minister and appointed by the African Union, Gberdao Kam from Burkina Faso became president of the special tribunal. On June 30, 2013, Habré was charged with crimes against humanity, war crimes, and acts of torture; on May 30, 2016, he was convicted and sentenced to life imprisonment (Laing, Citation2016; Rondouba, Citation2016).
11 During Habré's trial, African activists outside the Dakar courthouse pleaded for an African criminal court. This tribunal became all the more important because African leaders have long criticized the International Criminal Court.
12 For Clément Abaifouta, the trial and conviction of Habré goes even further and claims that it fosters possibilities for a better tomorrow: “I am dreaming of now building a new society without the violence, a new society with democracy and with respect for human beings” (Petesch, 2017).
13 In his interview with Neil Young, Haroun revealed his sources of inspiration: “I'm now more influenced by the prolific Iranian film director Abbas Kiarostami, another guy from Taiwan called Hou-Hsiao Hsien and Takeshi Kitano from Japan” (Young, 2004).
14 One wonders if Haroun's Bye Bye Africa and indictment of Hissein Habré's regime have paved the way for Nour's implicit “bye, bye France.”
15 French translation: “La politique est une guerre sans effusion de sang et la guerre est une politique sanglante.” English translation: “Politics is war without bloodshed, while war is politics with bloodshed.” Vol. II, Section 64, p. 153 “On Protracted War,” Selected Works of Mao Tse-Tung (Peking: Foreign Language Press, 1938), Section 64:153. https://www.marxists.org/reference/archive/mao/selected-works/volume-2/mswv2_09.htm.
16 The partnership with China is seen as Chad's future. Given its policy on noninterference and a win-win approach, China's investment has indirectly strengthened Chad's military and allowed Déby to survive politically. See Besliu (2013) and Dittgen & Large (2012).
17 “Instead of giving us lessons, of trying to impose its values as universal, of exporting the culture of individualism and scandalous mores, the West would do better to listen to our opinions. A little sense of solidarity and sharing in Africa would do much good to Europe” (translation is mine) (Soudan, Citation2017).
18 According to the National Commission of Enquiry in Chad, 40,000 people were killed at the hands of Habré's security forces, most of them civilians, and 54,000 were imprisoned during his 8-year rule (1982–1990).
19 Whereas Haroun's film pays homage to community organizations in solidarity with Chadians, Nour's film invites Chadians to remember that it was President Déby who ousted Hissène Habré and, by virtue of this deed and many others, can be considered a trusted leader.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Suzanne Crosta
Suzanne Crosta ([email protected]) is professor of Francophone literatures and cinemas at McMaster University. She has written extensively on issues of representation, mobility, identity, narration, and nation in African and Caribbean diasporic literatures and screen media. Author of several monographs, she has contributed chapters to more than 20 collections of essays and books and the same number of peer-reviewed articles in her these fields. Her current research focuses on African documentaries, Sino-African documentaries and films, as well as rhetorical strategies for analyzing aesthetic cultural practices in word literatures written in French.