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TopFlash
Bassek Ba Kobhio“ The situation in Africa is such that Filmakers have a duty to take a stand.”
Flashmag! Edition 173 Juin 2026
Bassek Ba Kobhio
Bassek Ba Kobhio was born on January 1, 1957, in Ninjé, a village in the Ndom district of the Sanaga Maritime department in Cameroon. From childhood, he had an insatiable curiosity about words and ideas. He studied sociology and philosophy, disciplines that enabled him to conduct a thorough analysis of the ills plaguing society.
This intellectual training was no detour: it would form the backbone of his entire body of work. The camera came after the books—* Les Eaux qui débordent * in 1984, then * Cameroun, la fin du maquis?* in 1986, politically engaged works that already said everything about the man he was. Even before he had shot a single frame, at age 18 he won a national prize for a short story— the first sign of a destiny devoted to storytelling.
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