|
|
This is a limited free preview of this book. Please buy full access.
Preface
[M]an is an animal suspended in webs of significance he himself has spun, I take culture to be those webs, and the analysis of it to be therefore not an experimental science in search of law but an interpretive one in search of meaning.
– Clifford Geertz, citing Max Weber,
The Interpretation of Cultures
On a cold Wisconsin night after watching one of Ousmane Sembène’s most compelling and politicized films with several companions, I became intrigued with the creative mind behind the film’s impassioned social commentary.1 On my walk home in the deep snow that night, I promised to dedicate myself to learning more about the minutiae that inspired the film’s powerful narrative. Soon this became an obsession with meeting Sembène himself. But at that time, I had no idea how challenging it might be to actually meet with the famous filmmaker. When I began to investigate, I learned that Sembène was not often willing to be interviewed, and he rarely agreed to speak about the specifics of his films. This did not deter me from my quest, but I needed a strategy.
Having learned that Sembène very much admired the former iconic leader of Burkina Faso, Thomas Sankara, and by extension the people