Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-lj6df Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-03T01:35:06.026Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Silent Revolutionaries: Ousmane Sembene's Emitai, Xala, and Ceddo

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  23 May 2014

Extract

The art of filmmaking in the last two decades has been enriched by the works of various African filmmakers. This relatively modern form of visual representation seems more amenable to understanding at all levels of the social and cultural strata of the African populace than one would expect from even the earliest forms of the visual arts. Although many remarkable works have been produced by African filmmakers, few of these works have focused on the largely illiterate African majority as the target audience: this is not without reason. Filmmaking is arguably the most expensive form of art in any medium. It is difficult not to approach the profession primarily as a potentially viable business venture, or to continue in the pursuit of artistic excellence without healthy financial support. The governments of French speaking African countries, however, readily fund film projects, thereby mitigating the problem of finance for their filmmakers. As a result, for Ousmane Sembène of Senegal, filmmaking has become a very prolific enterprise. Despite the financial assistance received from the government of Senegal, Sembène does not compromise his artistic inclinations for this patronage. He has even had a serious disagreement with the government over the title of one of his films, Ceddo, 1977 (Gabriel, 1982).

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 1986

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barthes, Roland. 1972. Mythologies. Trans. Annette Lavers. New York, Hill and Wang.Google Scholar
Bazin, Andre. 1967. What is Cinema? Vol. 1. Trans. Gray, Hugh. London: University of California Press, Ltd.Google Scholar
Berger, John. 1977. Way of Seeing. London, BBC and Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Callaway, Barbara. 1984. “Ambiguous Consequences of the Socialization, and Seclusion of Hausa Women,” The Journal of Modern African Studies 22/3.Google Scholar
Fall, Aminata Sow. 1981. The Beggars' Strike. Trans. Blair, Dorothy S. United Kingdom: Longman Group Ltd.Google Scholar
Fanon, Frantz. 1966. The Wretched of the Earth. Trans. Constance Farrington. New York: Grove Press, Inc.Google Scholar
Gabriel, Teshome. 1982. The Cinema in the Third World: The Aesthetics of Liberation. Michigan: UMI Research Press.Google Scholar
Garb, G. and Enchill, Nii K. 1981. “Ousmane Sembéne: The Medium is the Message,” Africa Now 6/1981.Google Scholar
Gellar, Sheldon. 1982. Senegal: An African Nation Between Islam and the West. Colorado: Westview Press, Inc.Google Scholar
Johnson, G. Wesley Jr. 1971. The Emergence of Black Politics in Senegal. California: Stanford University Press.Google Scholar
Kracauer, Sigfried. 1979. Theory of Film: The Redemption of Physical Reality. New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Onyejekwe, Okey. 1984. “Decolonization and Recolonization in Africa: The Trend for the 8OsJournal of African Studies, Fall, 1984.Google Scholar
Pfaff, Francoise. 1984. The Cinema of Ousmane Sembène: A Pioneer of African Film. London: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Relich, Mario. 1981. “Ousmane Sembène in London,” West Africa 20: 861–65.Google Scholar
Sembène, Ousmane. 1970. God's Bits of Wood. Trans. Price, Francis. New York: Anchor Books.Google Scholar
Snyder, Francis G. 1981. Capitalism and Legal Change: An African Transformation. New York: Academic Press Inc.Google Scholar
Weaver, Harold. 1972. “Interview with Ousmane Sembène,” Issue 2/4: 60.Google Scholar