Bassek Ba Kobhio, one of Cameroon's most prominent filmmakers and a tireless champion of African cinema, died in the early hours of Tuesday 12 May in Yaoundé, the country's capital, following an illness. He was 69 years old. Tributes have poured in from across Cameroon and the wider continent, with many describing his death as an immense loss for African cultural life.

Ba Kobhio first made his mark as a writer, publishing politically engaged books in the mid-1980s before turning to film. His debut feature, Sango Malo — known in English as Le Maitre du Canton — was released in 1991 and tells the story of a rural schoolteacher who resists the established order. It was an immediate success, winning the Audience Award at the African Film Festival in Milan, Italy, and remains the most celebrated work of his filmography. He went on to direct several other films, including Le Grand Blanc de Lambaréné and Le Silence de la Forêt.

Beyond his own work as a director, Ba Kobhio devoted much of his energy to building the infrastructure of African cinema. In 1997 he founded the Écrans Noirs film festival in Yaoundé, which over nearly three decades grew into one of the most respected platforms for African film on the continent. He also established film education classes, run in partnership with UNESCO, that trained a new generation of Cameroonian directors, actors, and screenwriters — some of whom are now active filmmakers. Friends and colleagues note that at the time of his death he was enthusiastically preparing the festival's 30th anniversary edition.

Narcisse Wandji, the festival's artistic director and one of Ba Kobhio's closest collaborators, said the priority now must be ensuring that Écrans Noirs endures.