Notes for Contributors

Research articles

Research articles will be evaluated by double-blind peer review.

Research articles should:

• Contain original research or scholarship
• Not be under consideration by any other publication
• Not normally exceed 8000 words
• Conform to the instructions outlined below

JAC would like to remind potential authors to familiarise themselves with the submission criteria before sending their papers. Indeed the double blind scrutiny is applied rigorously by the editors and while not discouraging potential writers we hasten to add that JAC publishes only the highest calibre of research papers and may return papers unread if deemed of a low publication value

Format of submitted articles

• Submissions to the Journal of African Cinemas should be made online via the JAC Pubkit page.
• Electronic copies should be submitted by Word format. 
• Please submit 2 versions of your submission. One should be fully anonymised, one should include the name of author, author institutional affiliation, author biography, street and email addresses and acknowledgements.
• Please note that articles accepted for publication cannot be sent to the publishers until they contain the above information:
  • Correct Harvard-style references (see below for details)
  • Title
  • Name of author, author institutional affiliation, author biography, street and email addresses and acknowledgements [de-anonymised version only]
  • Abstract (max. 150 words)
  • Keywords (6–8), in lower case
  • A list of ‘References’ containing only works cited in the article
  • 1.5 spacing

 General Requirements

• Article titles and sub-headings within articles should be in bold and capitalized according to grammar
• Use British English, with –ize endings
• Give full names/titles for first mention of people/organizations in the text, then surnames/acronyms afterwards

• Quotations should be used sparingly and be identified by “double” quotation marks if they are embedded in the text. Longer quotations (i.e. longer than 45 words) should be indented on both sides, without quotes and the reference should follow the punctuation. Both should be referenced using the Harvard system. The page number(s) must be included.
• Non-English words and phrases inserted in the text should be in italics.
• Images need to be submitted separately from the article, i.e. not embedded in the paper. The images must be production-ready high-resolution images in JPEG, TIFF or PDF. The minimum resolution is 300 dots per inch (dpi). Captions are advisable with all images. In addition, please number all images, so as to include the sequential number and title.
• Photocopies are not advisable, only for rare documents.
• Diagrams and sketches can be supplied in one of the following formats: JPEG, TIFF or PDF. The minimum resolution is 300 dpi.
• Art reproductions should include title, medium, size, year and copyright details.
• The responsibility of obtaining copyright regarding reproduction of images lies with the contributor.
• A list needs to accompany the images stating the order in order they should appear.
• It is best to supply tables in both Word and PDF documents. The table can be included in the text or supplied separately.

Notes

• ‘Explanatory notes’ should be kept to a minimum.
• The notes will appear at the side of appropriate pages, but the numerical sequence runs throughout the article.
• Please use the Word (or equivalent) ‘Footnote’ facility and ensure that they are submitted as endnotes, not footnotes.
• Place endnote marks outside the punctuation (after the comma or full stop). The note mark must be in superscripted Arabic (1, 2, 3), not Roman (i, ii, iii).
• The endnotes should be placed after the references.

Cited films

• References embedded in the text, on the first occurrence, give the Title (Surname of director, year of the film’s release). For a foreign film, Original Title/English Translation appears in italics, if a distributor is known. Alternatively, a literal English translation is given in brackets, in Roman script.
• A list of Cited films precedes the Reference list. Enter Surname, first name, (year of release), Title (min.), Name(s) of Producer(s), (Country/Countries of production), dist. (Name) if distributor is known. For a foreign film, enter Original title(s)/Translation, otherwise give the English translation in brackets. Examples:

Roodt, Darrell James (1992), Sarafina (117 min.), Buena Vista/BBC/MPAA, South Africa/UK/USA.

Sissako, Abderrahmane (2002), Heremakono/En attendant le bonheur/Waiting for Happiness (95 min.), Duo Films/Arte, France, dist. New Yorker Films. 

Idrissa Ouedraogo (1994), Le cri du cœur (Cry of the Heart) (85 min.), Les Films de la plaine/Les films de l’avenir/Le Centre Européen Cinématographique Rhône/Alpes, Burkina Faso/France, dist. Médiathèque des Trois Mondes.

Film/Book reviews

Reviews should be no longer than 2000 words.

Please ensure that the title of the book and other media reviews are stated in the following order:

 Title of film, Fist name and last name of director, (date of release), length, distributed by.

 Title of publication, First name and last name of author, (Date of publication), Edition number

Place of publication, name of publisher, number of pages (nnn pp.), First ISBN, Hardback/Paperback, price, Second ISBN, Hardback/Paperback, price.

Interviews

Interviews should be no longer than 2000 words. 

Interviews should not simply be a straightforward transcript of questions and answers, or superficial puff pieces. Rather the interviewer must interrogate the philosophical, theoretical, or practical problems or conceptual concerns in the study of African cinemas in relation to the discussion with the interviewee/the film under study, or the broader canon of the practitioner. Such an interaction will be intensive, involving a number of drafts between the interviewer and interviewee, with the final submitted version being approved by the interviewee. Our rationale is that interviewers, industry creatives, actually perform theory in practice, but that they are not involved in academic writing. It is the interviewer therefore who bridges between theory and practice, and makes professional experience theoretically relevant. 

References

• Harvard references embedded in the main text should use the following format (Armes 2006: 110). This format also applies to an author published in an edited book; do not give the editor’s name in the embedded reference, for example, (Gabriel 1989: 60). Likewise, quotations from websites should be identified with the author’s name and date of the website if available and/or mention of the year accessed (Mhando 2002: accessed 2008). (If no author is available, quote (Anon.) followed by the first words of the title: accessed year)
• Publications not mentioned in the text should not be included in this list, although they may be included under a separate ‘Further reading’ list.

Reference list:

A single list of references should be included at the end of the article. Websites addresses are listed in the same way as any other publications and not in the endnotes. State the author’s first name if available. For multi-authored books, initials might be preferred.

• Use ‘Anon.’ for items for which you do not have an author.
• (ed.) and (eds) must be used.
• Commas, not full stops, must be used between parts of item.
• Place the name of the translator of a book within brackets after the title: (trans. Frances Bennett).
• Do not add in ‘no.’ for the journal number.
• Insert a colon between the journal volume and number.
• Use p. or pp. before page extents.
• Insert page references for the whole article or chapter.
• Place a full stop at the end of all references in the list.
• Always indicate whether emphasis within a quotation is original or added.

Books

(Capitals are expected in English but not in French titles except for proper nouns.)

 Givanni, June (2000), Symbolic Narratives/African Cinema: Audiences, Theory and the Moving Image, London: BFI.

Niang, Sada (ed.) (1996), Littérature et cinéma en Afrique francophone : Ousmane Sembène et Assia Djebar, Paris : L’Harmattan.

Chapter or article in an edited book

Gabriel, Teshome H. (1989), ‘Third Cinema as Guardian of Popular Memory: Towards a Third Aesthetics’, in Jim Pines and Paul Willemen (eds), Questions of Third Cinema, pp. 53─64.

Tomaselli, Keyan G., Shepperson, Arnold and Eke, Maureen (1999), ‘Towards a Theory of Orality in African Cinema’, in Kenneth W. Harrow (ed.), African Cinema: Postcolonial and Feminist Readings, Trenton, NJ/ Asmara, Eritrea: Africa World Press, pp. 45─71.

Journal articles

Beittel, Mark (1990), ‘Mapantsula: Cinema, Crime and Politics on the Witwatersrand’, Journal of Southern African Studies, 16: 4, pp. 751─760.

Internet sources

Please state when the site was accessed.

Mhando, Martin (2002), ‘Approaches to African cinema study’, http://www.sensesofcinema.com/contents/00/8/african.html. Accessed 7 January 2008.

Newspaper articles

Richie, Peter (2007), ‘Bunnychow a Taste of South Africa’, Sunday Times, 28 September, p. 15.

Thesis

Oosthuysen, Chantel (1997), Intertextuality in the Soap Opera Egoli: Culture and Consumption, Masters thesis: University of KwaZulu-Natal at Durban.

Interviews

When the informant says something directly to the author, state in brackets (personal communication).

A more formal interview would be cited, in the text, as (Robinson 21 December 2007 interview).

In the References: Robinson, G. (2007). Interview with author, 21 December: Durban.

General Call for Papers 

All articles submitted should be original work and must not be under consideration by other publications.

Journal of African Cinemas

Established in 2009, the journal publishes three times annually. We invite theoretical essays, reviews, and case studies and comparative analyses of cinemas in Africa through their historical and contemporary legacies. The growing African cinematic society is our canvas, as it interrogates filmmakers’ conceptualizations of space, time, being and identity. What is/are Africa/s and what is/are African cinema/s, offer pertinent starting points. Critical reflections on African cinema and emergent interdisciplinary knowledges are also welcome.

We recognize the shifting paradigms that have defined and continue to define African cinemas and production practices. The Journal further explores the interactions and inflections of visual and verbal narrativisation.

Previous issues have published articles and special issues on North, West, Southern and East African and Maghreb films. The language regions have included Francophone, Lusophone, Arabophone and Anglophone productions. Marketing and product placement, translation and dubbing, political economy and economics, and production practices, all fall in our ambit. Reception and audience analysis, film criticism and exhibition and distribution, are of interest. 

The aim is to create a forum for debate that will promote interdisciplinarity between cinema and other visual and rhetorical forms of representation and production. Interviews with directors that draw out theories from practice are also invited.

A self-reflexive analysis of the first ten years of the journal that aims to enable Africa-resident scholars, in the context of the global discipline, is free to access:  ‘Africa, film theory and globalization: Reflections on the first ten years of the Journal of African Cinema’: https://intellectdiscover.com/content/journals/10.1386/jac_00041_1

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Articles of up to 8000 words are invited.

Book and film reviews, interviews, festival reviews, commentaries and obituaries of between 500 and 1500 words can also be considered.

Notes on authors, back copies and purchase information are available here:  https://www.intellectbooks.com/journal-of-african-cinemas

Co-editors are Keyan G Tomaselli – University of Johannesburg and Martin Mhando – Zanzibar International Film Festival.

Book and film review editor:  Addamms Mututa – University of Johannesburg.

The journal is indexed on Scopus, the Web of Science Emerging Journal list and IBSS ProQuest.

Intellect publishes over 100 journals in film, performance, broadcasting, production and media cultures.  It is based at The Mill, Parnall Road, Fishponds, Bristol, BS16 3JG, UK.

We are committed to widening access through Research4Life. Research4Life provides institutions in low-and middle-income countries with online access to academic and professional peer-reviewed content. Intellect is proud to offer free online access to our Full Journals Collection to all institutions in eligible nations. Authors from these nations are also eligible for discounted Open Access Article Processing Charges, or for funding by the Intellect Author Fund. Visit their website here for information on eligibility and registration: https://www.research4life.org/.

www.intellectbooks.com

Special Issue Call for Papers

The Journal of African Cinemas is currently inviting abstracts for a themed issue on ‘African Language Films’. The Journal of African Cinemas is a double-blind, peer-reviewed journal that explores the interactions of visual and verbal narratives in African film. It recognizes the shifting paradigms that have defined and continue to define African cinemas. Identity and perception are interrogated in relation to their positions within diverse African film languages. This title is indexed with Scopus and the Web of Science’s Emerging Sources Citation Index (ESCI). 

Overview: 

African films play a significant role in exporting African culture to the world. Films such as Gibson Kente’s How Long Must We Suffer (1976) and Ousmane Sembène’s films Xala (1975) and Mandabi (1968) are some of the most memorable African films that brought international attention to the way of life in Africa, including the social and political situations. Sembène, in particular, made a deliberate decision to make films in an indigenous African language when he made Mandabi in his native Wolof language instead of French, which he initially used in some of his international films. This was an important decision because indigenous languages serve as essential elements of cultural identities in Africa and are instrumental in communicating African culture and way of life in a more nuanced way than African films made in foreign languages. In this way, media using African languages play a pivotal role in promoting the positive values, beliefs and traditions that redefine Africans' cultural identities.

Scholars maintain that the indigenous language media in Africa has the capacity to promote the cultural heritage of the African continent. In particular, the medium of film serves as one of the major components of indigenous language media in Africa, which can serve as cultural commodities of African identities. Recently, several films have been produced in indigenous languages in different parts of the African continent.

To this end, the Journal of African Cinemas invites papers that engage with the theme: African Language Films. Interested authors are invited to submit abstracts of between 250 and 300 words on any of the following sub-themes and other relevant ones not mentioned here: 

• African film industries and indigenous languages; 
• History and development of African language films; 
• Theorisation around indigenous language films; 
• African language films and the promotion of culture; 
• Adaptation, dubbing and subtitles;
• Policies and challenges of indigenous languages in film productions in Africa;
• Research-driven designs for film and indigenous language media in Africa;
• Storytelling and indigenous language films in Africa;
• Indigenous language film training and studio practices;
• African language films and development/social change agenda; 
• Economics and management of African language films; 
• Technology and production of African language films. 

Submission Procedure:

Researchers and practitioners are invited to submit abstracts of about 250 to 300 words on or by 15 November 2023. 

The abstracts will be reviewed, and authors will be notified of the outcome by December 15 2023. Authors of accepted abstracts will be sent article guidelines and invited to submit full articles by 30 April 2024. 

Authors must email abstracts to Mr Lanre Ogundeyi at larry17april@gmail.com 

Important dates:

Deadline for submission of abstracts: 15 November 2023 

Feedback: 15 December 2023 

Submission of full papers: 30 April 2024  

Guest editors:

Prof. Abiodun Salawu (North-West University, South Africa)

Prof. Gilbert Motsaathebe (North-West University, South Africa)