Ousmane Sembène
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Ousmane Sembène (b. January 1, 1923; often cited as "Sembène Ousmane" in many articles and reference works, in the French style, as Senegal is a former French colony) is a Senegalese film director, producer and writer. He is considered one of the greatest authors of sub-Saharan Africa and has often been called the "Father of African film."
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[edit] Early life
The son of a fisherman, Ousmane Sembène was born in Ziguinchor, a town in the Casamance region. He went to an Islamic school (common for many boys in Senegal) and to the French school, learning French and basic Arabic in addition to his mother tongue, Wolof. He had to leave his French school in 1936 when he clashed with the principal. After an unsuccessful stint working with his father (Sembène was prone to sea-sickness), he left for Dakar in 1938, where he would work a variety of manual labour jobs.
In 1944, Sembène was drafted into the French Army in World War II and later fought for the Free French forces. After the war he returned to his home country and in 1947 participated in a long railroad strike on which he later based his seminal novel God's Bits of Wood.
Late in 1947, he stowed away to France, where he worked at a Citroën factory in Paris and then on the docks at Marseille, becoming active in the French trade union movement. He joined the communist union CGT and the Communist party, helping lead a strike to hinder the shipment of weapons for the French colonial war in Vietnam.
[edit] Early literary career
Sembène drew on many of these experiences for his French-language first novel, Le Docker Noir (The Black Docker, 1956), the story of Diaw, an African stevedore who faces racism and mistreatment on the docks at Marseille. Diaw writes a novel, which is later stolen by a white woman and published under her name; he confronts her, accidentally kills her, and is tried and executed in scenes highly reminiscent of Albert Camus's The Stranger. Though the book focuses particularly on the mistreatment of African immigrants, Sembène also details the oppression of Arab and Spanish workers, making it clear that the issues are as much economic as they are racial. Like most of his fiction, it is written in a social realist mode. Many critics today consider the book somewhat flawed; however, it began Sembène's literary reputation and provided him with the financial support to continue writing.
Sembène's second novel, O Pays, mon beau peuple! (Oh country, my beautiful people!, 1957), tells the story of Oumar, an ambitious black farmer returning to his native Casamance with a new white wife and ideas for modernizing the area's agricultural practices. However, Oumar comes into conflict with both the white colonial government and the people of his home village, and is eventually murdered. O Pays, mon beau peuple! was an international success, giving Sembène invitations from around the world, particularly from Communist countries such as China, Cuba, and the Soviet Union. While in Moscow, Sembène had the opportunity to study filmmaking for a year at Gorki Studios.
Sembène's third and most famous novel is Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu (God's Bits of Wood, 1960); most critics consider it his masterpiece, rivaled only by Xala. The novel fictionalizes the real-life story of a railroad strike on the Dakar-Niger line and lasted from 1947 to 1948. Though the charismatic and brilliant union spokesman, Ibrahima Bakayoko, is the most central figure, the novel has no true hero except the community itself, which bands together in the face of hardship and oppression to assert their rights. Accordingly, the novel features nearly fifty characters in both Senegal and neighboring Mali, showing the strike from all possible angles; in this, the novel is often compared to Émile Zola's Germinal.
Sembène followed Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu with the (1962) short fiction collection Voltaïque (Tribal Scars). The collection contains short stories, tales, and fables, including "La Noire de..." which he would later adapt into his first film. In 1964, he released l'Harmattan (The Harmattan), an epic novel about a referendum for independence in an African capital.
[edit] Later literary career
With the 1965 publication of Le mandat, précédé de Vehi-Ciosane (The Money Order and White Genesis), Sembène's emphasis began to shift. Just as he had once vociferously attacked the racial and economic oppression of the colonial government, with this pair of novellas, he turned his sights on the corrupt African elites that followed.
Sembène continued this theme with the 1973 novel Xala, the story of a El Hadji Abdou Kader Beye, a rich businessman struck by what he believes to be a curse of impotence ("xala" in Wolof) on the night of his wedding to his beautiful, young third wife. El Hadji grows obsessed with removing the curse through visits to marabouts, but only after losing most of his money and reputation does he discover the source to be the beggar who lives outside his offices and who he wronged in acquiring his fortune.
Le Dernier de l’empire (The Last of the Empire, 1981), Sembène's most recent novel, depicts corruption and an eventual military coup in a newly independent African nation. His paired 1987 novellas Niiwam et Taaw (Niiwam and Taaw) continue to explore social and moral collapse in urban Senegal.
On the strength of Les Bouts de Bois de Dieu and Xala, Sembène is considered one of the leading figures in African postcolonial literature. However, a lack of English translation of many of his novels has hindered Sembène from achieving the same international popularity enjoyed by Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka.
[edit] Film
As an author so concerned with social change, one of Sembène's goals has always been to touch the widest possible audience. After his 1960 return to Senegal, however, he realized that his written works would only be read by a small cultural elite in his native land. He therefore decided at age 40 to become a film maker, in order to reach wider African audiences.
In 1966, Sembène produced his first feature, La Noire de..., based on one of his own short stories; it was the first feature film ever released by a sub-Saharan African director. (This is disputable by this time a number of films had been made by Afrikaner's in South Africa.) Though only 60 minutes long, the French-language film won the Jean Vigo Prize, bringing immediate international attention to both African film generally and Sembène specifically. Sembène followed this success with the 1968 Mandabi, achieving his dream of producing a film in his native Wolof. Later Wolof-language films include Xala (1975, based on his own novel), Ceddo (1977), Camp de Thiaroye (1987), and Guelwaar (1992). The Senegalese release of Ceddo was heavily censored, ostensibly for a problem with Sembène's paperwork, but more probably for its anti-Muslim themes. However, Sembène distributed flyers at theaters describing the censored scenes and released it uncut for the international market. In 1971, Sembène also made a film in Diola and French entitled Emitai.
Recurrent themes of Sembène's films are the history of colonialism, the failings of religion, the critique of the new African bourgeoisie, and the strength of African women.
His most recent film, the 2004 feature Moolaadé, won awards at the Cannes Film Festival and the FESPACO Film Festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The film, set in a small African village in Burkina Faso, explored the controversial subject of female genital mutilation.
[edit] Works
[edit] Books
- Le docker noir (Paris: Debresse 1956), novel, new edition: Présence Africaine, Paris, 2002, engl. The Black Docker (London: Heinemann, 1987).
- O pays, mon beau peuple! (1957)
- Les bouts de bois de Dieu, 1962, engl. God's Bits of Wood, London : Heinemann, 1995
- Voltaïque, Paris: Présence Africaine, 1962, short stories
- L’Harmattan (Paris: Présence Africaine, 1964), novel.
- Le mandat, précédé de Vehi-Ciosane (Paris: Presence Africaine, 1966), The money-order : with, White genesis, London : Heinemann, 1987
- Xala, Paris : Présence africaine, 1973
- Le dernier de l'Empire, L'Harmattan 1981, - "a key to Senegalese politics" (Werner Glinga), engl. The last of the Empire: A Senegalese Novel (London: Heinemann, 1983).
- Niiwam (Paris: Presence Africaine, 1987), engl. Niiwam and Taaw: Two Novellas ( Oxford and Portsmouth, N. H.: Heinemann, 1992).
[edit] Selected filmography
- Borom Sarret (1963)
- Niaye (1964)
- La Noire De...(1966)
- Mandabi (1968)
- Xala (1974)
- Ceddo (1977)
- Guelwaar (1992)
- Faat Kiné (2000)
- Moolaadé (2004)
