Sembene Ousmane is touted as the Father of African cinema, not only for being one of the earliest film makers, but that he can equally boast of a filmography that encompasses all the basic styles and genres that characterize the broad categorizations of African cinema. Social realist narratives, colonial confrontation, and return to the origins, according to Manthia Diawara, are the three basic trends of films in Africa (Diawara 1992, 140).
Right through his illustrious filmmaking career that span well over a quarter of a decade, Sembène’s interests were encyclopedic. Sembène’s interest in history, his militant confrontation with colonialism, his fight for justice in his role as the social conscience, inspired him to produce a good number …show more content…
Borrom Sarret (1963), Le Mandat (1968) and Xala (1972) are social realist narratives; Camp de Thiaroye (1988) and Emitai (1971) are the films of confrontation with colonialism. Even though Manthia Diawara categorises Ceddo within the class of “confrontation with colonialism”, this research would rather class it as a polyvalent film that could best be located in the returns to the origins, even though it has elements of confrontation with external influence on the continent. In Ceddo however, we see film making at crossroads in Sembène Ousmane.
4.1 SEMBENE OUSMANE – CEDDO (SENEGAL)
Ceddo is the longest and the most controversial film of Sembène Ousmane. It treats the delicate topic of pointing out the ills of Islamic clientilism in a country like Senegal with over 95% of the population. Islamic jihads, Catholic missionary ventures and the white slave merchants are the three distinct realities that serve as avenues of rude …show more content…
The Imam first came into the village pledging his allegiance to the King, Demba War, and little by little convinced him and his nobles to be converted to Islam. This was the Imam’s subtle way of exercising unquestioned power to the point that he eventually usurped the throne by stirring up mutiny amongst the elders of the king’s court. In this alliance between the king and the Imam, in which he was acting as the spiritual guide for the village, a set of stringent laws were put in place. Principal amongst those stringent laws were the forced religious conversions, forced labour to take care of the needs of the Imam, the banishment of all fetish and the abrogation of a host of cultural practices and hereditary laws.
The kidnapping of the Princess Dior Yacine was a formal act of rebellion against these Islamic laws by the Ceddo who took her into their camp outside the village. Initially Yacine Dior offers some resistance to her captors, but eventually she resigns to her fate in the hope of a possible rescue that was to come her
Right through his illustrious filmmaking career that span well over a quarter of a decade, Sembène’s interests were encyclopedic. Sembène’s interest in history, his militant confrontation with colonialism, his fight for justice in his role as the social conscience, inspired him to produce a good number …show more content…
Borrom Sarret (1963), Le Mandat (1968) and Xala (1972) are social realist narratives; Camp de Thiaroye (1988) and Emitai (1971) are the films of confrontation with colonialism. Even though Manthia Diawara categorises Ceddo within the class of “confrontation with colonialism”, this research would rather class it as a polyvalent film that could best be located in the returns to the origins, even though it has elements of confrontation with external influence on the continent. In Ceddo however, we see film making at crossroads in Sembène Ousmane.
4.1 SEMBENE OUSMANE – CEDDO (SENEGAL)
Ceddo is the longest and the most controversial film of Sembène Ousmane. It treats the delicate topic of pointing out the ills of Islamic clientilism in a country like Senegal with over 95% of the population. Islamic jihads, Catholic missionary ventures and the white slave merchants are the three distinct realities that serve as avenues of rude …show more content…
The Imam first came into the village pledging his allegiance to the King, Demba War, and little by little convinced him and his nobles to be converted to Islam. This was the Imam’s subtle way of exercising unquestioned power to the point that he eventually usurped the throne by stirring up mutiny amongst the elders of the king’s court. In this alliance between the king and the Imam, in which he was acting as the spiritual guide for the village, a set of stringent laws were put in place. Principal amongst those stringent laws were the forced religious conversions, forced labour to take care of the needs of the Imam, the banishment of all fetish and the abrogation of a host of cultural practices and hereditary laws.
The kidnapping of the Princess Dior Yacine was a formal act of rebellion against these Islamic laws by the Ceddo who took her into their camp outside the village. Initially Yacine Dior offers some resistance to her captors, but eventually she resigns to her fate in the hope of a possible rescue that was to come her