Bassek Ba Kobhio
Bassek Ba Kobhio (1 January 1957 – 12 May 2026) was a Cameroonian filmmaker and writer who was the founder of the Écrans Noirs film festival in Yaounde, Cameroon. He was also the Director of the Higher Institute of Cinema and Audiovisual Professionals of Central Africa (ISCAC) in Yaounde, the first-ever tertiary training institution for cinematography in the Central Africa sub-region.
Bassek Ba Kobhio
FranckYN · CC BY-SA 4.0
- Name
- Bassek Ba Kobhio
- Born
- 1 January 1957
- Birthplace
- Nindjé, French Cameroon
- Died
- 12 May 2026
- Place of death
- Yaoundé, Cameroon
- Occupation
- Film director, producer, writer, diplomat
- Nationality
- Cameroon
- Languages
- French
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Authority files
gnd · 124072410 · wikidata · Q2887372 · wikipedia · Bassek Ba Kobhio
In this article
Key facts
Key facts
• Name — Bassek Ba Kobhio • Born — 1 January 1957 • Birthplace — Nindjé, French Cameroon • Died — 12 May 2026 • Place of death — Yaoundé, Cameroon • Years Active — 1980s–2026 • Citizenship — Cameroonian • Occupation — Film director, producer, writer, diplomat • Notable Works — Le grand blanc de Lambaréné
Background
Background
Bassek Ba Kobhio was born in Nindjé in 1957. He started as a writer, winning a short story award while still in high school in 1976. Kobhio's first feature film, Sango Malo (1991) was an auto-adaptation of his earlier novel. The film portrayed a new village school teacher whose indifference to traditional customs causes conflict with the school's headmaster and disrupts village life. His second film, Le grand blanc de Lambaréné (1995), brought out the complexities of character of Albert Schweitzer. Despite clear differences of setting and subject matter, both films "offer vivid portraits of flawed idealists who wish to do good, but are authoritarian, puritanical, at odds with their surroundings and neglectful towards their womenfolk". In 2003 he collaborated with Didier Ouénangaré on The Silence of the Forest, an adaptation of a novel by Étienne Goyémidé. Kobhio died in Yaoundé on 12 May 2026, at the age of 69.
Life and career
Dated record
Life and career
The full dated record · 2 entries
1957
Bassek Ba Kobhio born at Nindjé.
2026
Bassek Ba Kobhio died at Yaoundé.
Places
Named by the record
Places
Only places the record itself states, plotted where the house gazetteer settles their coordinates. Nothing is inferred from a name or a nationality.
Nindjé.
Birth place
Yaoundé.
Death place
Books
• Sango Malo: le maître du canton [Sango Malo: the village teacher], Paris: L'Harmattan, 1981 • Les eaux qui débordent: nouvelles, Paris: L'Harmattan, 1984
Écrans Noirs Film Festival
Écrans Noirs Film Festival
In 1997, he founded the Écrans Noirs Film Festival in Yaoundé, which became a major platform for African cinema.
Films
Films
• Sango Malo / The Village Teacher, 1990 • Le grand blanc de Lambaréné / The Great White Man of Lambaréné, 1995 • Musique s'en va-t-en guerre [Music goes to war], 1997. Documentary. • (with Didier Ouénangaré) Le silence de la forêt / The Forest, 2003
Legacy
Bassek Ba Kobhio is considered one of the most influential figures in African cinema. His contributions span filmmaking, cultural institution-building, and the international promotion of African audiovisual industries. His founding of the Écrans Noirs Festival and his cinematic works helped shape the development of the film sector in Central Africa.
Promoteur du festival Ecrans noirs au Cameroun
FranckYN
Primary material
Documents and archives
reference work
- Wikidata, structured authority record Q2887372: Bassek Ba Kobhio
Reputable secondary · Wikidata
- “Bassek Ba Kobhio”, English Wikipedia, consulted as further reading
Reputable secondary · Wikipedia
scholarly publication
authority file
- Gemeinsame Normdatei 124072410, Bassek Ba Kobhio.
General reference · Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Text attribution
Licensing
Text attribution
Part of the biographical narrative on this page reuses licensed material. Its origin, revision and licence are recorded here.
The biographical narrative on this page is based on the Wikipedia article Bassek Ba Kobhio, revision 1366591775 (EN edition), by its contributors. VALÉORINE has edited that text and built its own documentary record around it. The reused material is available under CC BY-SA 4.0, and this page's reuse of it is offered under the same licence. Everything else on this page — the chronology, the holdings, the evidence, the plates and the connections — is VALÉORINE's own record. Sources and licences.
Notes from the source article
Cited by Wikipedia
Notes from the source article
These works are cited by the source article, in its own numbering. They are recorded as its citations, not as sources VALÉORINE has verified.
- 1.Armes, Roy. Dictionary of African Filmmakers. Indiana University, Press. 2008. 978-0-253-35116-6.
- 2.Bassek Ba Kobhio, l'homme qui met le cinéma au cœur de l'Afrique. TV5MONDE. 17 July 2017.
- 3.New cinematography institution to boost film industry. University World News.
- 4.Roy Armes. Dictionary of African Filmmakers. Indiana University Press. 148. 2008. 978-0-253-35116-6.
- 5.Roy Armes. African Filmmaking: North and South of the Sahara. Indiana University Press. 100. 2006. 0-253-21898-5.
- 6.Stefanson. Directory of World Cinema Africa. Intellect Books. 39. 224. 2014. 978-1-78320-391-8.
- 7.Ndom, Alain-Claude. Mort de Bassek Ba Kobhio, père des Écrans Noirs et géant du cinéma africain. 237online.com. 12 May 2026.
- 8.Cameroon CEO. Bassek Ba Kobhio, fondateur du festival Écrans noirs. 18 June 2017.
References
Citations
References
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scholarly publication
Institutional witnessauthority file
Gemeinsame Normdatei 124072410, Bassek Ba Kobhio.Deutsche Nationalbibliothek
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witnessreference work
Secondary witness
People, houses and institutions
Knowledge graph
People, houses and institutions
Teachers, collaborators, publishers and institutions recorded against this person, each on a stated basis.
Citizenship
1- CameroonPlace
Established from a fact already recorded on a verified source.
The Encyclopedia exists whether or not anything is for sale. Corrections are recorded rather than overwritten, and every version of this record is kept. Published 14 August 2026.
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