Focus on African Films

Films by Ousmane Sembene

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Books by Francoise Pfaff

Focus on African Films / The Cinema of Ousmane Sembene, A Pioneer of African Film / Twenty-five Black African Filmmakers

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Ousmane Sembene, African cinema pioneer, dies

10 June 2007

DAKAR (AFP) - The Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene, regarded as one of the pioneers of African cinema, died this weekend at his home in Dakar at the age of 84, his friends and family said Sunday. He had been ill since December.

Born into a fisherman's family in the southern region of Casamance in 1923 he moved to Dakar in the 1930s. He held a series of jobs in Africa and Europe, as a mechanic, carpenter and builder and was conscripted into the French army in World War II, subsequently becoming a labourer and docker.

These experiences provided Sembene, a self-educated writer, with material for his literary and film works, in particular his books "The Black Docker", "God's Bits of Wood" and "The Money Order."

Realising that "pictures are more accessible than words" Sembene attended film school in Moscow before launching into what he called "fairground cinema."

"I can go to a village and show the film. Because everything can be filmed and transported to the most remote village in Africa," he said in 2005.

He began his film-making career in 1963 with "Borom sarret," a short black and white production which tells the story of a poor cart-driver.

In all he made some 10 films. His first long film, "The Black Girl from..." is seen as Africa's first full-length feature.

One of his last films "Moolade" was a denunciation of female genital mutilation and won him an award at the Cannes Film Festival.

He won two prizes at the Venice Film Festival, in 1968 and in 1988. The first was for "The Money Order", the second for "The Camp of Thiaroye" which recounts the
violent repression by French troops of protests by Senegalese soldiers demanding their pay.

He was also a prolific writer and a co-founder of the Panafrican festival of film and television of Ouagadougou held every two years.

After African countries won independence he was among the first African artists to warn of the danger of excesses in the post-colonial era and to call for "a radical change in African policies."

Former Senegalese president Abdlu Diouf, now secretary general of the French-speaking club of states the Francophonie, said that Africa had lost "one its greatest filmmakers" and a "fervent defender of liberty and social justice."

A tribute from the Malian Culture Minister Cheick Oumar Sissoko, himself a filmmaker and a friend of Sembene, said that "African cinema has lost one of its lighthouses."

"The man only worked fully in Africa and for Africa," he said.

Sembene had "led Africa to understand its identity and build its cultural horizon."

Cheikh Ngaido Ba, president of the Senegalese directors' association, said a "great master" had died.

"For him the cinema was the best school to tell stories." Sembene's funeral was due to take place Monday.

Francoise Pfaff, professor of French and Francophone Studies at Howard University, has edited an in-depth analysis of Africa's newest and least-known art form. This critical collection presents the aspirations and issues expressed in African films, their significance in world culture, and their enrichment of our intercultural heritage.

Dr. Pfaff is an internationally recognized expert on Francophone African cinema and the author of The Cinema of Ousmane Sembene, A Pioneer of African Film and Twenty-five Black African Filmmakers. Joining Dr. Pfaff in the presentation will be Dr. Maria Roof of Howard University, one of the contributors to Focus on African Films.

Copies of the author's book will be on sale at a book signing following the program.

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Mandabi (The Money Order)
Directed by Ousmane Sembene (Senegal, 1968)

Director: Ousmane Sembene
Screenplay: Ousmane Sembene
Cast: Mamadou Guye, Ynousse D'Diaye, Issa Niang, Serigne N'Diayes.

Modern Dakar is the setting for this comic yet heartbreaking story about Ibrahim Dieng, a faithful Moslem who lives there with his two wives and seven children. This simple man, although he has been out of work for four years, lives with dignity, until one day he receives a money order from his nephew living in Paris. This dubious windfall threatens to destroy the traditional fabric of his life. 90 minutes, in Wolof with English subtitles.

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Xala

Starring: Fatim Diagne, Makhouredia Gueye Director: Ousmane Sembene

It is the dawn of Senegal's independence from France, but as the citizens celebrate in the streets we soon become aware that only the faces have changed. White money still controls the government. One official, Aboucader Beye, known by the title "El Hadji," takes advantage of some of that money to marry his third wife, to the sorrow and chagrin of his first two wives and the resentment of his nationalist daughter. But he discovers on his wedding night that he has been struck with a "xala," a curse of impotence. El Hadji goes to comic lengths to find the cause and remove the xala, resulting in a scathing satirical ending.

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The Cinema of Ousmane Sembene, A Pioneer of African Film

By Francoise Pfaff

The films of Ousmane Sembene are powerful representations of the newly emerging black African cinema. In this interpretive study of his most significant films, Francoise Pfaff examines Sembene's pioneering efforts over the last two decades. While focusing primarily on the realistic and symbolic levels of his works, the stylistic and technical aspects are also examined. Pfaff discusses the aesthetic, sociopolitical, and metaphysical values of Sembene's oeuvre within its African context. His depiction of the tension between traditional and modern African life is explored. Pfaff includes film stills and excerpts from interviews with Sembene and other African filmmakers. She concludes with comments about Sembene's contributions to our intercultural heritage.

—Publisher

“A comprehensive yet accessible introduction to black Africa's foremost filmmaker, Ousmane Sembene. Indeed, Pfaff's work should serve as the standard reference for some time. The author's appraisal of Sembene is unabashedly flattering. Nevertheless, Pfaff's impressive discussion of her subject's genius thoroughly familiarizes the reader with a director and film area too frequently neglected in cinema studies.”

—Choice

“Pfaff's book is a major study of a major and very singular talent of the cinema.”

—Cahiers du Cinema

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Twenty-five Black African Filmmakers

By Francoise Pfaff

Black African motion pictures emerged in the 1960s, at the height of the sociopolitical upheavals experienced by many nations in the transition from colonialism to independence. Working mostly with minimal budgets and limited distribution opportunities, African filmmakers nevertheless have been consistent prizewinners at international film festivals. Francoise Pfaff introduces this developing artistic tradition to American readers with her informative and highly readable guide to the work of twenty-five Black African directors.

—Publisher

“The importance of this work lies in its examination of a 'too often neglected area of cinema studies,' Black African film. Pfaff looks in depth at a representative group of significant filmmakers, e.g. Moustapha Alassane, Safi Faye, and Ousmane Sembene. Each chapter provides a biography of the cineast, major themes of his/her films, a critical survey, filmography, and a bibliography that includes interviews of and film reviews/studies of each filmmaker. Pfaff, author of The Cinema of Ousmane Sembene, clearly demonstrates her expertise in Black African cinema. The entries are well researched. They are also extremely interesting because they include information taken from personal interviews with the filmmakers, and offer a variety of viewpoints. Stills of selected films, a general bibliography, and index complete this overall fine work.”

—Choice

“An invaluable work on black African cinema has at last appeared in English. Francoise Pfaff's volume synthesizes relevant information, devoid of hagiography, about twenty-five sub-Saharan African filmmakers, according a separate chapter--consisting of a biography, filmography, and thematic analyses of individual films--to each. Varying critical viewpoints are brought to bear from both African and non-African perspectives. The author has gone beyond translation and compilation to explore the decades of black African cinema within the historical context of the continent's problematic emancipation. . . . Twenty-Five Black African Filmmakers offers enormous insight along with valuable data heretofore unavailable in English.”

—Cineaste

“This much-needed book on a neglected area of world cinema presents a chapter on each of twenty-five directors whose films have significantly enriched African filmmaking and received substantial international exposure. Each chapter includes a biography, a breakdown of the films and major themes, a survey of criticism written by both African and non-African critics, filmography, and bibliographic information for further reading.”

—The Bloomsbury Review

posted 26 January 2005

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updated 5 November 2007