Ouagadougou — A stunning performance by the Senegalese musical superstar, Youssou N'Dour, stole the show at the opening of the 17th edition of the Pan African Festival of Film and Television of Ouagadougou on Saturday night.
The notable absentee of the evening was the President of Burkina Faso, Blaise Compaore, who normally opens the festival. He was represented by his prime minister. President Compaore may still be smarting from the last edition of FESPACO in 1999, when the Burkinabe leader was booed at the launch by the crowd, protesting the gruesome killing of the outspoken Burkinabe journalist and activist, Norbert Zongo, in controversial and unexplained circumstances a few months earlier.
Zongo's body, along with another colleague's, were found burnt in a car by the roadside, a crime which members of the opposition claim leaves a trail directly to the authorities, and possibly to the president's own brother.
N'Dour, supported by his band, Super Etoiles de Dakar, and two pairs of twirling male and female dancers, would have raised the roof if there had been one at the main stadium in the Burkinabe capital, the thirty-thousand seater Stade du 4 aout, which was packed to capacity.
Tens of thousands of fans and spectators rose to their feet, waving improvised torches, made of cardboard, and lit from row to row. They danced and howled their pleasure and appreciation as they sang along with the Senegalese star's international hits, golden oldies and songs from his latest album.
N'Dour, who is a goodwill ambassador for UNICEF, the United Nation's Children's Emergency Fund, as well as several other international organizations, came on stage after an elaborate dance, sound and light and firework extravaganza by local Burkinabe artists, portraying the theme of this year's pan-African film festival, Cinema and New Technologies.
A troupe of dancing mobile phones and a hi-tech digital computer, as well as a low-tech film distribution cart, pulled by a moped - the ubiquitous motorized bicycles that are a main form of transport in Ouagadougbou - were in keeping with the theme of technology.
Speeches were short and kept to a minimum. The Mayor of Ouagadougou, Simon Compaore, welcomed visitors to his city and wished them all an excellent festival. A senior member of the festival organizing committee spoke about the aims and themes of FESPACO, and a representative of the United Nations' secretary-general, Kofi Annan, read a message of support.
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Apart from a number of senior government officials from Burkina Faso, a few other African countries sent their ministers of culture or representatives for the first continental film festival of the millennium in Ouagadougou. (The affair is held every other year.)
There was an added element of entertainment and surprise, when the audience was frequently reminded of the prized trophy of the film competition, the Stallion of Yennenga. Horsemen cantered into the stadium, massing in front of the stage.
They danced with their mounts to the strains of Youssou N'Dour, in a dazzlingly intricate display of equine footwork, before rearing in a pose reminiscent of the Yennenga Stallion award, which is cast in heavy local bronze and presented to the best feature film in competition at FESPACO.
The inaugural film of FESPACO 2001 was "Les Couilles de l'Elephant" (The Elephant's Balls) by the Gabonese director, Henri Joseph Koumba Bididi. Koumba describes his movie as a thriller-cum-love story, set against a backdrop of political intrigue in modern-day Gabon.
There was mixed reaction to the film, with some disappointed viewers calling it mediocre, meandering and plotless. Others found it a bold attempt to combine modern, urban and traditional Africa in a fast-moving, technically competent, but overlong chronicle.
