Telling it the African Way (A Film Grammar)

Telling It the African Way presents an original theory of storytelling grounded in African knowledge systems rather than Western narrative traditions. Drawing on divination, oral literature, ritual, philosophy, and filmmaking, acclaimed Cameroonian director Jean-Pierre Bekolo introduces seven African narrative grammars— Fa, Abbia, Mvett, Mevungu, Maâ t, Mambety, and Rhythm— as powerful alternatives to Aristotelian storytelling. Combining cultural history with practical creative exercises, symbolic inventories, and film analysis, Bekolo offers artists, writers, filmmakers, and scholars a new framework for creating stories that reveal, heal, and transform reality. The book culminates in the concept of the Reatual, redefining cinema as an active social and therapeutic practice.