This editorial explores the usage of African languages in African cinemas using insights from scholars such as Ngugi wa Thiong’o. Such an exploration is significant given this themed edition’s main argument that African films play a vital role in exporting African culture to the world. These films also function as a tool for self-representation in the context where African stories have largely been misrepresented, neglected or distorted in mainstream discourses and platforms. It is therefore necessary to analyse recent developments in African films produced in African languages since a language is an embodiment of culture, including cultural knowledge, identity and history. Thus, by examining language as a powerful resource within the context of African cinema, this editorial contributes to debates on African culture, indigeneity, the discourse of the African Renaissance and decolonization.