17 films in 17 sentences -- Preface -- Basic indicators for African countries -- Political map of Africa -- Introduction : Africans re-image Africa -- Historical map of Africa -- Recovering the African past -- Out of Africa (1985) : settler romance in nature paradise -- Yaaba (1989) : friendship in the village that time forgot -- Keïta! (1995) : transmitting the Sundjata to the next generation -- Fighting colonialism -- Sambizanga (1972) : the martyr, his family, and the movement -- Flame (1996) : a twofold struggle -- The struggle for majority rule in South Africa -- The gods must be crazy (1980) : the world according to apartheid -- The dry white season (1989) : a white awakening -- Mapantsula (1988) : Black resistance to white oppression -- Fools (1997) : ordinary people under apartheid -- Betrayals of independence -- Kongi's harvest (1970) : traditional splendor and modern oppression -- Xala (1974) : impotence sexual, cultural, economic, and political -- Tableau Ferraille (1997) : the rise and abrupt fall of an honest politician -- The blue eyes of Yonta (1992) : was the struggle in vain? -- The exploited & neglected peasantry -- Finzan (1990) : gender conflict and village solidarity -- Kasarmu ce (1991) : peasant Islam and urban corruption -- Between the African mass market & international recognition -- Kini and Adams (1997) : the vagaries of adult friendship -- La vie est belle (1987) : it's a wonderful life -- Epilogue : re-imagining ourselves.