Film as Evidence, Film as History and Film in History: Some African Perspectives

Abstract

During my undergraduate years, a long time ago now, I cannot remember a single instance when any form of film was used for any purpose whatsoever in a history course at Cambridge University. Yet clearly film has become more acceptable to the historical academy as a whole in recent years. My own experience of engaging with film has been in three ways: with film as a form of historical evidence; through exploring the role film has played ‘in’ history, possibly by influencing opinions and policies; and, most controversially for historians at large, with analysing film as attempted history, as a form of history itself.