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The Work: Filming the Contradictions of Postcolonial Africa Sango Malo( 1991): The Rebel Schoolteacher as a Self-Portrait
The film * Sango Malo *( 1991) immediately established itself as a major work by winning the Audience Award at the 2nd Milan African Film Festival in 1992. The film is an adaptation of his own novel: it tells the story of an idealistic schoolteacher assigned to a remote village. In his efforts to transform traditional educational methods and raise awareness, he quickly clashes with local authorities and faces social resistance. The film tells the story of a rural schoolteacher who resists the established order— it is hard not to see a self-portrait in it. Studied at several universities and regularly screened at festivals and film archives, his work has left a lasting impression on generations of film lovers through its social depth and critical perspective.
* The Great White of Lambaréné *( 1995): Debunking the Myth of Colonial Benevolence
With his second feature film, Bassek Ba Kobhio has created a radically subversive work. The Great White Man of Lambaréné is a 1995 biographical film about Albert Schweitzer directed by the Cameroonian filmmaker. The film, shot on the very site of Schweitzer’ s hospital in Lambaréné on the Ogooué River in Gabon, was hailed as a postcolonial reexamination of the Schweitzer myth. Far from a conventional tribute, the director offers a critical and nuanced African perspective on the legacy of the famous Western humanitarian, examining the ambiguities of the relationship between Africa and the West. The two films also share a deep thematic unity: according to critic Roy Armes, both works“ offer vivid portraits of flawed idealists who wish to do good, but who are authoritarian, puritanical, at odds with those around them, and neglectful of the women in their lives.”.
Flashmag! Edition 173 Juin 2026
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