Creativity
We liked… The life and work of Sembène Ousmane
Sembène Ousmane, who died on 9 June 2007, could claim to have created fictional cinema in Sub-Saharan Africa. While his title of “father of African cinema” is well deserved it is much more that earned him the love, respect and affection of his many fans.
Yonamine, The best of the best, 2007. Installation + video.
Courtesy Sindika Dokolo African collection of contemporary art
Sembène Ousmane was an influential writer, major filmmaker and a shrewd producer. First and foremost, he understood that the cinema was a not only a tool for cultural development but also a force behind economic development. This was something he realised long before it occurred to others.
He first tried his hand at the art that would put him in the public eye in 1960, at the age of 37, when he went to study film-making at the Gorki Institute in Moscow. Six years later he made his first real film, La Noire de…, which will go down in the annals of the cinema industry as the first African made feature length film. It was awarded the prestigious Jean Vigo Prize at the Cannes Film Festival, which was the first of many such honours. Before that, Sembène Ousmane had made three other films but these had failed to make the impact of La Noire de…
The film tells the story of Diouna, who leaves her country (Senegal) to work as a domestic servant in France. In the film, Diouna ends up committing suicide and, as a result of her employer’s feelings of guilt, her employers set off for Dakar to explain her death to her family. The film illustrates that even at this early stage of his career Sembène Ousmane was able to show the extent of his wisdom and directorial control. As a campaigner for the black cause, he soon realised that the only way of being an activist in his art was to show compassion for the trials and tribulations of all human beings, rather than seeking to equate activism with fanaticism. He stayed clear of using his works as simple signposts and strove to portray slices of human existence.
During the 1970s his honesty caused him some personal anguish with the film Ceddo (1977), which took aim at those selling African slaves, and wes banned in his native land. In total, Sembène Ousmane made 15 films in his career as a director. His most well-known are La Noire de…, Ceddo, Xala, 1974 and Faat-Kiné, 1999. His last work, Mooladé, was released in 2004.
Some of the films were adapted from his novels, such as La Noire de…, Xala and Taaw, and his career as an author began a dozen or so years before he took up film direction. His first book, Le docker noir, (The black docker) was published in 1956 when Ousmane was 33 years old.
Born in Casamance (Senegal) he was a very average scholar and attended the Marsassoum Ceramics School. From the age of 15 he worked manual jobs to help out the family, which was dependent on the small income his father made as a fisherman. From 1942 to 1944, during the Second World War, he served in the Free French Forces.
A much loved and respected artist, he was always ready to offer his time and lend a sympathetic ear to others.
More than a great artist: a great man!
