{"id":81377,"date":"2021-06-02T12:09:05","date_gmt":"2021-06-02T10:09:05","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/?p=81377"},"modified":"2021-06-09T10:50:09","modified_gmt":"2021-06-09T08:50:09","slug":"ousmane-sembene-griot-of-the-screen","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pan-african-music.com\/en\/ousmane-sembene-griot-of-the-screen\/","title":{"rendered":"Ousmane Semb\u00e8ne, griot of the screen"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

PAM salutes the great Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Semb\u00e8ne with a panning shot of his life and a pull focus on his use of music in cinema<\/strong>.<\/h4>\n\n\n\n

Ousmane Semb\u00e8ne or simply “Le Vieux” (the old man) left us eleven films and nine works of fiction. Instead of a kora or a balafon, Semb\u00e8ne chose the camera to fulfil a similar calling to that of West Africa’s guild of musical historians – the griot. Always uneasy with the title of father of African cinema, Le Vieux is nonetheless a reference point for all who have come since.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Born on New Year’s day of 1923 in Ziguinchor – capital of Senegal\u2019s Casamance region, Semb\u00e8ne was the son of a fisherman and nephew of an Islamic scholar but his two grandmothers would prove a significant influence and inspire him to celebrate the courage and everyday heroism of African women in his films and literature. Legend has it Semb\u00e8ne was expelled from a colonial school at the age of thirteen when he retaliated in kind after a French teacher struck him, after which he was sent to his paternal family in Dakar where he took various jobs and began to attend the cinema.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Filmmaking at this time was still subject to The Laval Decree passed in 1934 which sought to suppress content seen as anti-colonial. Authored by Pierre Laval, the decree banned colonised people from filming themselves, instead of casting them as documentary subjects of a European gaze. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Fast forward a few frames and in 1944 Semb\u00e8ne is conscripted to serve in Niger and France during the 2nd World War thus beginning a period of time spent outside of Senegal during which he also worked as a docker in Marseille (documented in his semi-autobiographical first novel Le Docker Noir<\/em>) before returning home at independence in 1960. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But let\u2019s press pause at this point to hear from a scholar of African cinema Dr Estrella Sendra Fernandez (author’s note<\/em>: Dr Estrella Sendra Fernandez is a member of the Cambridge African Film Festival Advisory Board<\/em>) on the effect of the Laval Decree and its repeal in 1960: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf former films had contributed to colonial rule and to the misrepresentation of Africa and African people as seen through an alienating gaze<\/em>\u201d explains Fernandez \u201cThen Semb\u00e8ne sees film as a medium to restore African dignity<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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