Sembene, Ousmane

Sembene, Ousmane (smä`nĕ səmbĕ`nĕ), 1923–, Senegalese writer and film director writing in French and Wolof, often regarded as the father of sub-Saharan African cinema. He left school at 15 and after being drafted into the French Army in 1939, joined the Free French forces in 1942, accompanying them to liberated France in 1944. After World War II, Sembene became a longshoreman in Marseilles and drew on his experiences for his first novel, Le Docker noir (1956; tr. The Black Docker, 1981). He became disabled, and turned to literature as his primary occupation. His books from this period include Les Bouts de bois de dieu (1960; tr. God's Bits of Wood, 1962), which chronicles a Senegalese railroad strike of the late 1940s. In the early 1960s, he studied film at the Gorki Studios in Moscow.

Sembene returned to Senegal in 1963 and since then has produced a number of feature and short films, ranging from satirical comedies to serious dramas and documentaries. In 1966 he directed La Noire de … [black girl], about the mistreatment of a young African woman by a French family. The first feature ever produced by an African filmmaker, it won a prize at the 1967 Cannes Film Festival. Beginning with Mandabi [the money order] (1968), Sembene has produced films in the Wolof language, taking his work to cities and villages throughout Senegal in order to reach a broader local audience. His subsequent films, including Xala (1973) and Ceddo [outsiders] (1977), have often been temporarily banned or censored in Senegal because parts of them were deemed offensive to government standards. His later films include Guelwaar (1992), a groundbreaking satire on Muslim-Christian conflicts in a small village; Samori (1994); and Faat-Kine (2000), which again reflects Sembene's concern for African women.

Bibliography

See R. Faulkingham et al., ed., Ousmane Sembene: Dialogues with Critics and Writers (1994); S. Petty, ed., A Call to Action: The Films of Ousmane Sembene (1996).