| Chapter 1: | Introduction |
|
|
and political economic tensions that are so characteristic of Sembène’s work are best understood within the sociocultural context of each film’s production. Hence, to make sense of Sembène’s cinema, one must be willing to read beyond the denoted meaning of the storyline and to dig into the cultural significance of the carefully selected and manipulated codes and images.
Lastly, Sembène advocated for a pragmatic African cinema, as clearly articulated by the Sembène scholar Sheila Petty: “Sembène himself has declared that African cinema is a useful instrument for change born out of social necessity [which] is in the process of becoming the most important tool for the fertilization of a new African culture.”17 Here, the ideas behind “social necessity” and “African culture” suggest that African cinema in general, and Sembène’s in particular, serves as an instrument for instigating social change. As an instrument for change, African film is tied to a given social and historical context that frames its meaning and validates its existence.
What Distinguishes This Volume
There is no dearth of published writing about Sembène. In fact, his name and references to his works recur in almost every publication on the history of African cinema. It simply is not possible to survey African literature and cinema from its beginnings without seeing mention of Sembène’s works. This is due to his prominence and status as one of the first African authors and film directors as well as the fact that he had so many “firsts” to his credit: La Noire de… (1966) was the first feature-length postcolonial Black African film, and Manda bi (1968) was the first postcolonial Black African film in color and the first postcolonial Black African film in a national language. Sembène was also among the first and most prolific West Africans to write in French. Yet despite the fact that so many articles, book chapters, and PhD dissertations have been