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During the British colonial rule over Africa in the late 19th and early 20th century, the British aspired to find various methods of educating the natives and enlightening them about their civilized way of life. Therefore, the British Colonial Office decided to sponsor and to establish the “Bantu Educational Cinema Unit” in 1935. In the first decades of the twentieth century, Western filmmakers made films that depicted black Africans as "exoticized", "submissive workers" or as "savage or cannibalistic". Colonial era films portrayed Africa as exotic, without history or culture. In 1948, the British Colonial Office finally decided to establish a “Gold Coast Film Unit”, and ultimately initiated the beginning of the Gold Coast’s film industry which is presently the Ghana film industry.
Cinema in Ghana started during the colonial period when European merchants were trading on the then Gold Coast somewhere in the late 19th century to early 20th century when they came with Christian missionaries who preached the Gospel by using bibles and slide projectors before later using film projectors. They managed to draw and convert larger and more crowds as a result of their modus oprandi.
The first African film to win international recognition was "Sembène Ousmane's La Noire de" also known as "Black Girl". It showed the despair of an African woman who has to work as a maid in France. It won the "Prix Jean Vigo" in 1966. Initially a writer, Sembène had turned to cinema to reach a wider audience. He is still considered the "father of African cinema".Sembène's native Senegal continued to be the most important place of African film production for more than a decade.
With the creation of the African film festival FESPACO in Burkina Faso in 1969, African film created its own forum. FESPACO now takes place every 2 years in alternation with the Carthago film festival in Tunisia.
The Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes, or FEPACI) was formed in 1969 to promote African film industries in terms of production, distribution and exhibition. From its inception, FEPACI was seen as a critical partner organization to the Organisation of African Unity (OAU), now the African Union. FEPACI looks at the role of film in the politico-economic and cultural development of African states and the continent as a whole.
A first African Film Summit took place in South Africa in 2006. It was followed by FEPACI 9th Congress.
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