Dossier 2: Ousmane Sembène

The Pan-African Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO) was founded in 1969. It began as an intimate week-long gathering of filmmakers and enthusiasts in the capital of what is now Burkina Faso to watch contemporary films made by African filmmakers. At its peak in the 1990s, it attracted hundreds of thousands of spectators, both local and international. Since the 2000s, iterations have been smaller affairs, significantly impacted by both changes of government in Burkina Faso and wider political instability in West Africa, as well as ongoing debates about what films it should be showcasing. Despite such challenges (and with only one exception in the mid-1970s), however, FESPACO has remained a constant on the African continent, faithfully screening films by African and diaspora filmmakers every two years for more than half a century. FESPACO was conceived in the age of decolonization by a group of men and women who are considered to be the pioneers of African cinema, including the Senegalese writer and filmmaker Ousmane Sembène. It was established as the first sub-Saharan showcase of African filmmaking, an emergent and significant field in the era of independence when cinema was prized for its ability to make visible African realities and to (re)constitute national histories eclipsed by colonial rule. The concept of a distinctly “African” cinema was articulated most extensively by filmmaker and scholar Paulin Soumanou Vieyra and referred to films made by Africans, telling African stories, principally for African audiences. For Vieyra, Sembène, and their contemporaries, it was essential to take back control of the art of cinema on the African continent, where it had predominantly been deployed as a colonial tool; FESPACO was conceived as the regular forum for those committed to its development to come together and share their work. Through the course of its development, FESPACO has been confronted with a number of challenges regarding its form and its evolution. Its strong connections with the Burkinabe state have been seen as both a significant factor for its growth and its success, and, particularly in the era of Blaise Compaoré, as a source for concern regarding freedom of expression. Since the turn of the 21st century, questions about where video filmmaking—an industry that has proliferated on the African continent in a manner unprecedented internationally—fits within FESPACO’s definition of cinema have been consistent. The festival has, over the years, been accused of being both outdated and elitist in its commitment to celluloid, but also of straying from its original remit to showcase African stories for African audiences, accusations it has responded to by the creation of new prize categories and requirements for submission. The year 2019 was one of reflection, but many critics felt that after some difficult years the festival was showing signs of rejuvenation. Though it is now one of many film festivals on the continent committed to showcasing African cinema, there remains significant appreciation for the historic status of FESPACO as a preeminent sub-Saharan cultural institution.

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Histoire, mémoire, et légitimation politique dans les cinémas africains1

Revue de l’Université de Moncton ◽

10.7202/044604ar ◽

2010 ◽

Vol 40 (1) ◽

pp. 5-31

Author(s):

Samuel Lelièvre

Keyword(s):

Ousmane Sembene

L’objectif de cet article est de rappeler l’importance du ‘rapport à la mémoire’ dans les médias cinématographiques et audiovisuels d’Afrique subsaharienne par opposition aux usages souvent idéologiques qui ont pu être fait d’un ‘rapport à l’histoire’. Dans un premier temps, il s’agit de revenir sur des tentatives de représentations de l’histoire telles qu’elles ont pu apparaître chez des réalisateurs comme Ousmane Sembène, Med Hondo ou Haile Gerima, en considérant ces représentations dans le cadre de discours de légitimation politique. Dans un second temps, cet article veut situer ces discours de légitimation politique au sein de la littérature critique et théorique qui a pu apparaître à propos des cinémas africains depuis les années 70; il s’agit alors de déterminer les limites qui, dans un cadre théorétique englobant un questionnement d’ordre ‘méthodologique-épistémologique’ aussi bien qu’esthétique, doivent être nécessairement assignées à ces discours de légitimation politique. Finalement, dans un troisième temps, il s’agit de revenir sur un certain nombre de films africains réalisés à partir des années 90 dans lesquels un ‘rapport à la mémoire’ est engagé. En conclusion, on considère que, dans les discours sur ces médias, le danger a toujours été plutôt du côté de la légitimation politique de tel ou tel rapport à l’histoire que du côté d’une relation symbolique et esthétique à la mémoire.

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Listening between the Images

The Oxford Handbook of Communist Visual Cultures ◽

10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190885533.013.15 ◽

2019 ◽

pp. 363-384

Author(s):

Lindiwe Dovey

Keyword(s):

Cold War ◽

Soviet Union ◽

Ousmane Sembene ◽

The Soviet Union ◽

Transnational Film ◽

The Cold War

This article explores the relationships between African filmmakers and communism during the Cold War period, with a particular focus on those African filmmakers who were trained in the Soviet Union, such as Sarah Maldoror, Ousmane Sembene, and Abderrahmane Sissako. The essay argues that, while affinities can be found between the work of African and Soviet filmmakers, these relationships were often compromised by utopian assumptions of “brotherhood” or racism—an issue frequently critiqued by African filmmakers in their films through creating tension between images and soundtrack. The analysis thus foregrounds the aural language of film, the sonic contexts in which films are made and viewed, and the language(s) in which research is conducted, to emphasize how the aural is an important aspect of the visual even in its absence, and to sound a note of caution against overly celebratory accounts of transnational film relationships.

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Negritude: Some Dissident Voices

Issue A Journal of Opinion ◽

10.1017/s0047160700007277 ◽

1974 ◽

Vol 4 (4) ◽

pp. 23-25

Author(s):

Barbara Ischinger

Keyword(s):

African Literature ◽

Wole Soyinka ◽

Ousmane Sembene ◽

Ferdinand Oyono ◽

Literary Evolution ◽

French Speaking ◽

The 1950S ◽

Ezekiel Mphahlele ◽

African Writers

Only eight years ago Janheinz Jahn stated in Neo-African Literature that the critics of nigritude were all writing in English—not in French. Jahn was referring to writers like Ezekiel Mphahlele, Gerald Moore and Wole Soyinka, whose criticism he regarded as “based on an inadequate translation.” 2 The most important movement in the literary evolution in French-speaking Africa had, according to Jahn, only been criticized out of ignorance and misunderstanding. Today, criticism of Negritude has become a major issue in those French-speaking countries which were among its strongest supporters originally. It should be mentioned, however, that certain French African writers—among them Ferdinand Oyono and Ousmane Sembene—have opposed Negritude since the 1950s.

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