When was the last time you enjoyed a breath-taking movie with your family at the movie theatre? How much fun did you have? If you are currently outside Africa, you probably had a nice time. Unfortunately, when you visit home soon, you will be unlikely to find a movie cinema in your country – yes, the whole country, not your city.
Cinemas across the African continent are pulling down screens and converting them into convenience stores, night clubs or warehouses.
The average rate of foreclosure is estimated at one a month – an endemic trend blamed on ticket prices too high for the average African as well as on the proliferation of cheap pirated DVDs at any street corner.
About 50 cinemas remain in business – most in South Africa and Kenya with a few in Nigeria – thanks to mushrooming city shopping malls.
In Ivory Coast, West Africa's cultural crossroads, "cinema is dying, if it is not dead already", said award-winning producer Roger Gnoan M'Bala.
In Senegal, home to some of the continent's most renowned early filmmakers such as the late Ousmane Sembene, cinemas have all but shut down. "Senegal is one big black screen," said local weekly La Gazette.
Haven been “Westernized” due to travels, I wonder how boring a tiring evening will be without Movie theatres when I visit Africa. In your opinion, what is the remedy for Africa’s cinemas foreclosure?
(The independent, UK)
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