Tresor Simon Pierre Yoassi
University of Wisconsin, French
Home country: Cameroon

Tresor will conduct research in Burkina Faso and Senegal. His subject is African responsibility for African problem solving, and how this concept of self-reliance is discussed and presented to citizens in stories, novels, and especially in films produced in Africa. Film is an especially important vehicle for transmission of new and controversial ideas in Africa because literacy and reading rates are relatively low, and cinema is popular. Film treatments of the theme of self-reliance (as opposed to blaming and looking to outsiders for help) may say much about how African youth are being socialized to think about African problems and problem solving in new ways. Mr. Yoassi's research with film-makers and writers will be an important contribution to our understanding of the evolution of African thinking about responsibility for Africa's problems and its future.