Six films by Rouveroy van Nieuwaal available via Wikimedia Commons

In June 2023, Emile and Maarten (father and son) Rouveroy van Nieuwaal - in consultation with the ASCL Library - agreed to choose Wikimedia Commons as a platform to make several of their Africa films available to a larger audience. Wikimedia Commons, sometimes called the ‘image database of Wikipedia’, hosts 97 million files. Africa is under-represented, and so these films, uploaded by the ASCL Library, can help to improve visibility of African life and culture.

At Leiden University, audiovisual ethnography has a long history, as described in the book Audiovisual and Digital Ethnography (2021). Notably Metje Postma, retired in February 2023, put Visual Anthropology on the map. 

Emile Rouveroy van Nieuwaal (*1939), former professor of Legal Anthropology at Leiden University, was also a documentary filmmaker. He made several films in Africa. In 1973, Rouveroy produced Mbambim, a lineage-head, a short film. Relatively old-fashioned in set-up, the film portrays Mbambim and his family relations and life in Northern Togo. Six years later, the film A Toad in the Courtyard was produced. The film, spoken in local language with English commentary and subtitles, portrays Na Tyaba Tyekura, former prince of the Anufôm in the city of N'zara in Togo. He tells of his career as a monarch and as a judge, and gives an interesting view on his life.

In 1980 Rouveroy produced the film À la recherche de la justice, also located in Togo. He succeeds in sketching the legal system as a work in progress, and how three systems enforced each other: local rights, native law and the official law system.

The film Democratic adventure in Togo was published in 1992. The film is about ‘traditional leaders trapped between state and people’. Bonnet rouge (2000) was made by Emile together with his son Maarten van Rouveroy. This film reveals the socio-political role of the traditional leaders of the Mossi in Burkina Faso. The film illustrates how they deal with state officials and how they develop new strategies to adapt to political, administrative and legal changes. J'y crois. La route de la décentralisation au Mali  (2002), also made by father and son Rouveroy, is a technically accomplished film, about the role of citizens in Mali. The decentralisation process of the 1990s and its practical consequences are shown in a very natural way.

All in all, these six films give a very interesting view of changing societies in Africa between 1970 and 2000. Most films are English and French spoken, some also Dutch. Uploading the films to Wikimedia Commons was done by Hans Muller, Wikipedian in Residence at ASCL Library.

Have a look at the films on Wikimedia Commons. 

Jos Damen

Photos:
Screenshot from 'Bonnet Rouge, où vas-tu?', a film by Emile & Maarten Rouveroy van Nieuwaal, now free online.
Photo Emile Rouveroy van Nieuwaal: credit Leiden University.