The Films of Ousmane Sembène: Discourse, Politics, and Culture By ...

showed no interest in changing the colonial legacy. Thus, to reinstate the people’s victory over colonialism, one must speak to them in the languages they understand. For that reason, like those of many other African directors, Sembène’s films are strongly grounded in and inspired by African oral tradition. As the Burkinabe filmmaker Gaston Kaboré explained, “We have a perception of space, a certain notion of pacing and rhythm, and a narrative tradition that we can invest in our films. We can’t be Africans and make films like Americans.”⁵ Kaboré pointed to the necessary influence of oral tradition as a characteristic feature of African films. If Hollywood production is, rightly or wrongly, known to be primarily a commercial enterprise, in Africa filmmakers set for themselves the goal of using films as instruments to achieve the mental revolution necessary for the political liberation and the socioeconomic development of their corners of the continent. Given that few people have access to the official languages of education, local languages serve to challenge the long-held colonial and neocolonial prejudice against African languages.

This understanding of cinema by individual African filmmakers is in line with the objectives of the Algiers charter of African film written by the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI), which Sembène helped to create in Tunis in October 1970. The primary aim of FEPACI was to promote the creation of national cinemas in all African countries.⁶ The Algiers charter stipulates, “African film should be a vehicle for education, information and consciousness-raising, and not strictly a vehicle for entertainment.”⁷ At their second congress of January 1975 in Algiers, they adopted the following charter:

Les sociétés africaines contemporaines vivent encore une situation objective de domination qui s’exerce sur plusieurs plans: politique, économique et culturel. La domination culturelle d’autant plus dangereuse qu’elle est insidieuse, impose à nos peuples des modèles de comportement et des systèmes de valeur dont la fonction fondamentale est de renforcer l’emprise idéologique et économique des puissances impérialistes…Aussi, face à cette situation