Ousmane Sembène and the Politics of Culture PDF
Preview Ousmane Sembène and the Politics of Culture
After the Empire: The Francophone World and Postcolonial France Series Editor: Valérie Orlando, University of Maryland Advisory Board RobertBernasconi,MemphisUniversity;ClaireH.Griffiths,UniversityofChester,UK;Alec Hargreaves,FloridaStateUniversity;ChimaKorieh,RowanUniversity;MildredMortimer, UniversityofColorado,Boulder;ObiomaNnaemeka,IndianaUniversity;KamalSalhi,Uni- versityofLeeds;TracyD.Sharpley-Whiting,VanderbiltUniversity;NwachukwuFrankUka- dike,TulaneUniversity RecentTitles OusmaneSembèneandthePoliticsofCulture,editedbyLifongoJ.VetindeandAmadou T.Fofana ReimaginingtheCaribbean:ConversationsamongtheCreole,English,French,and SpanishCaribbean,editedbyValérieK.OrlandoandSandraMessingerCypress TheFrenchColonialImagination:WritingtheIndianUprisings,1857–58,fromSecond EmpiretoThirdRepublic,byNicolaFrith NarrativesoftheFrenchEmpire:Fiction,Nostalgia,andImperialRivalries,1784tothe Present,byKateMarsh AfricanPasts,Presents,andFutures:GenerationalShiftsinAfricanWomen'sLiterature, Film,andInternetDiscourse,byTouriaKhannous WritingtheNomadicExperienceinContemporaryFrancophoneLiterature,byKatharine N.Harrington TheBodyBesieged:TheEmbodimentofHistoricalMemoryinNinaBouraouiandLeïla Sebbar,byHelenVassallo WriterlyIdentitiesinBeurFictionandBeyond,byLauraReeck France’sLostEmpires:Fragmentation,Nostalgia,andlafracturecoloniale,editedby KateMarshandNicolaFrith GlobalizingthePostcolony:ContestingDiscoursesofGenderandDevelopmentin FrancophoneAfrica,byClaireH.Griffiths WritingandFilmingtheGenocideoftheTutsisinRwanda:Dismemberingand RememberingTraumaticHistory,byAlexandreDauge-Roth TheStar,theCross,andtheCrescent:ReligionsandConflictsinFrancophoneLiterature fromtheArabWorld,byCarineBourget Ousmane Sembène and the Politics of Culture Edited by Lifongo Vetinde and Amadou T. Fofana LEXINGTONBOOKS Lanham•Boulder•NewYork•London PublishedbyLexingtonBooks AnimprintofTheRowman&LittlefieldPublishingGroup,Inc. 4501ForbesBoulevard,Suite200,Lanham,Maryland20706 www.rowman.com UnitA,WhitacreMews,26-34StannaryStreet,LondonSE114AB Copyright©2015byLexingtonBooks Allrightsreserved.Nopartofthisbookmaybereproducedinanyformorbyany electronicormechanicalmeans,includinginformationstorageandretrievalsystems, withoutwrittenpermissionfromthepublisher,exceptbyareviewerwhomayquote passagesinareview. BritishLibraryCataloguinginPublicationInformationAvailable LibraryofCongressCataloging-in-PublicationData OusmaneSembeneandthepoliticsofculture/editedbyLifongoJ.VetindeandAmadouT.Fofana. pagescm.--(Aftertheempire:thefrancophoneworldandpostcolonialFrance) Includesbibliographicalreferencesandindex. ISBN978-0-7391-9254-2(cloth:alk.paper)--ISBN978-0-7391-9255-9(electronic) 1.Sembene,Ousmane,1923-2007--Criticismandinterpretation.2.Senegaleseliterature(French)-- Historyandcriticism.3.Motionpictures--Senegal--History.4.Cultureinliterature.5.Culturein motionpictures.I.Vetinde,LifongoJ.II.Fofana,AmadouTidiane,1965-editorofcompilation.III. Series:Aftertheempire. PQ3989.S46Z782014 843.914--dc23 2014036921 TMThepaperusedinthispublicationmeetstheminimumrequirementsofAmerican NationalStandardforInformationSciencesPermanenceofPaperforPrintedLibrary Materials,ANSI/NISOZ39.48-1992. PrintedintheUnitedStatesofAmerica Contents Acknowledgments vii Introduction:CulturalPoliticsinSenegal:AQuestforRelevance ix LifongoVetinde I:CultureandDevelopment 1 Culture,Development,andtheAfricanRenaissance: OusmaneSembèneandLéopoldSenghorattheWorld FestivalofNegroArts(Dakar1966) 1 DavidMurphy 2 OusmaneSembèneandtheAestheticsofNégritude 17 LifongoVetinde 3 IslamandtheQuestionofIdentityinOusmaneSembène’s FilmCeddo 33 CherifA.Correa II:Discourses 4 ATwice-ToldTale:ThePostcolonialAllegoryofLaNoire de...andFaatKiné 51 DaynaOscherwitz 5 BringingtheRainIndoors:RereadingtheNationalAllegory inOusmaneSembène’sXala 67 MatthewH.Brown 6 WomeninSembène’sFilms:SpatialReconfigurationsand CulturalMeanings 85 MoussaSow 7 WhyDoesDiouanaDie?:FacingHistory,Migration,and TraumainBlackGirl 97 LyellDavies III:LanguageandAesthetics 8 Language,RacialDifference,andDialogicConsciousness: Sembène’sGod’sBitsofWood 117 AugustineUkaNwanyanwu v vi Contents 9 AnOnomasticReadingofOusmaneSembène’sFaatKiné 131 MouhamédoulA.Niang 10 Trans-FormalAestheticsandCulturalImpactonOusmane Sembène’sExplicationofXala 145 RachaelDiang’a Appendix:TestimoniesonOusmaneSembène:MakhèteDiallo, PathéDiagne,andFatouKandéSenghor 159 Index 173 NotesontheContributorsandEditors 177 Acknowledgments Theideaofthisbookgoesbacktothethirty-secondannualmeetingofthe African Literature Association that was held in Accra, Ghana in 2006. During that meeting, a group of scholars, including the editors of this volume,formedtheSocietyfortheStudyofSembène(SSS)whoseprinci- pal objective is to contribute in the dissemination of critical studies on Sembène’s oeuvre. We are thankful to many friends and colleagues for theirsupportinproducingthisanthology.Wewouldliketoparticularly thank Jude Akudinobi at the University of California, Santa Barbara, Kenneth Nolly at Willamette University, and Ayo Coly at Dartmouth College for their input in the initial phase of the project. We also thank colleaguesatLawrenceUniversityfortheirhelp:JudithHollandSarnecki for proofreading some of the chapters and Lori Rose for her work on formattingthetext.SpecialthanksareduetoDaourWadeattheAfrican Consultants International (ACI) (also known as Centre Baobab), Dakar, Senegal, for kindly introducing us to Ousmane Sembène’s close collabo- rators who were interviewed for this book. Thanks to Seydou Nourou Ndiaye, the manager of Editions Papyrus Afrique, in Dakar, and the Office of the Provost and Dean of the Faculty, Lawrence University, for their support. Finally, we would also like to thank our very dynamic editors at Lexington Books for their assistance in preparing the manu- scriptforpublication. vii Introduction Cultural Politics in Senegal: A Quest for Relevance Lifongo Vetinde Cultureinallitsaspectsispolitical.—OusmaneSembène1 AccordingtoNobertElias,theGermansociologist,“theconceptofKultur mirrors the self-consciousness of a nation which had constantly to seek out and constitute its boundaries anew, in a political as well as spiritual sense, and again, had to ask itself: ‘What is really our identity?’” (1978: 5–6). I concur, for culture is the measure of what constitutes a people’s specificity: their customs, traditional values, art, cuisine, forms of com- munication, and elements of social contract. It is indeed the window through which we can understand the way a society perceives itself in relation to others. The role of politics in shaping cultural practice has been the subject of discussion by social critics such as Antonio Gramsci who, in his discussion of the affinity between culture and hegemony, positsthattheculturalvaluesthatareupheldinsocietyare,forthemost part,transmittedbytherulingclass. The nexus between culture and power is particularly evident in the colonialcontextwherethedevaluationandstigmatizationofindigenous culturesconstituteanimportantelementintheapparatusofdomination. Indeed,therepressionofthesubaltern’scultureisanefficientmethodof domination.AsAmilcarCabralputitinhislecture,“NationalLiberation andCulture,”deliveredatSyracuseUniversity,NewYork,in1970: Historyteachesusthat,incertaincircumstances,itisveryeasyforthe foreignertoimposehisdominationonapeople.Butitalsoteachesus that,whatevermaybethematerialaspectsofthisdomination,itcanbe maintainedonlybythepermanent,organizedrepressionofthecultural lifeofthepeopleconcerned.Implantationofforeigndominationcanbe assureddefinitivelyonlybyphysicalliquidationofasignificantpartof the dominated population. . . . In fact, to take up arms to dominate a peopleis,aboveall,totakeuparmstodestroy,oratleasttoneutralize, toparalyze,itsculturallife.(ReturntotheSource,1988:1973) ix
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