Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Ousmane Sembène (Born Jan. 1

Britannica Concise Encyclopedia: Ousmane Sembène (born Jan. 1, 1923, Ziguinchor-Casamance, Seneg., French West Africa ² died June 9/10, 2007, Dakar, Seneg.) Senegalese writer and film director. He fought with the Free French in World War II. After the war he worked as a docker in Marseille and taught himself French. His writings, often on historical-political themes, include The Black Docker (1956), God's Bits of Wood (1960), and Niiwam; and Taaw (1987). About 1960 he became interested in film; after studying in Moscow, he made films reflecting a strong social commitment, including Black Girl (1966), which was considered the first major film produced by an African filmmaker. With Mandabi (1968), he began to film in the Wolof language; his later films include Xala (1974), Ceddo (1977), Camp de Thiaroye (1987), and Guelwaar (1993). Moolaadé (2004) received the prize for Un Certain Regard at the Cannes Film Festival. Read more: http://www.answers.com/topic/sembene-ousmane#ixzz1jVAO5VZm Gale Encyclopedia of Biography: Sembene Ousmane Top Home > Library > Miscellaneous > Biographies The Senegalese writer and film maker Sembene Ousmane (born 1923) was one of Africa's great contemporary novelists. His work is characterized by a concern with ordinary decent people who are victimized by repressive governments and bureaucracies. Sembene Ousmane was born on Jan. 8, 1923, at Ziguinchor in the southern region of Casamance. Among Francophone African writers, he is unique because of his working-class background and limited primary school education. Originally a fisherman in Casamance, he worked in Dakar as a plumber, bricklayer, and mechanic. In 1939 he was drafted into the colonial army and fought with the French in Italy and Germany. Upon demobilization, he first resumed life as a fisherman in Senegal but soon went back to France, where he worked on the piers of Marseilles and became the union leader of the longshoremen. His first novel, Le Docker noir (1956; The Black Docker), is about his experiences during this period. Well before independence in 1960, Ousmane returned to Senegal, where he became an astute observer of the political scene and wrote a number of volumes on the developing national consciousness. In Oh pays, mon beau peuple!, he depicts the plight of a developing country under colonialism. God's Bit of Wood, his only novel translated into English, recounts the developing sense of self and group consciousness of railway workers in French West Africa during a strike. L'Harmattan focuses upon the difficulty of creating a popular government and the corruption of unresponsive politicians who postpone the arrival of independence (1964). Ousmane's international reputation was secured by his films based on his stories and directed by himself. He had turned to film to reach that 90 percent of the population of his country that could not read. Borom Sarat is remarkable for the cleavages Ousmane reveals in contemporary African society between the masses of the poor and the new African governing class who have stepped into the positions of dominance left by the French. La Noire de - is about the tragedy of a Senegalese woman who is lured from her homeland by the promise of wealth and becomes lost in a morass of loneliness and inconsideration. Ousmane's prizewinning work Le Mandat (The Money Order) shows what happens to an unemployed illiterate when he is apparently blessed by a large money order; he is crushed by an oppressive bureaucracy and unsympathetic officials. Sembene Ousmane lived a simple existence in Senegal in a beach-front cottage that he built himself. Further Reading The only work by Ousmane thus far translated into English is God's Bit of Wood (1960; trans. 1962). A full-length study of Ousmane is not available. The most significant critical assessments are written in French. Claude Wauthier's essentially descriptive summary of a host of black writers, including Ousmane, appeared in English as The Literature and Thought of Modern Africa (1964; trans. 1966). A chapter on Ousmane is in A.C. Brench, The Novelists' Inheritance in French Africa: Writers from Senegal to Cameroon (1967). For general background see Judith Illsley Gleason, This Africa: Novels by West Africans in English and French (1965). Gale Contemporary Black Biography: Ousmane Sembène Top Home > Library > History, Politics & Society > Black Biographies filmmaker; writer Personal Information Born Ousmane Sembène, January 1, 1923, in Ziguinchor, Senegal; son of a fisherman; married Carrie Moore, 1974; one other marriage; children: Alain and Moussa, both sons. Education: Attended Gorki Film Studios, Moscow, 1962; Politics: Leftist. Career Worked as a laborer in a variety of occupations, including fisherman, plumber, mechanic, and bricklayer, 1938-42; served in the Free French Forces, 1942-46; dockworker, 1948-60; novelist, 1956--; filmmaker, 1963--; Kaadu newspaper, founding editor, 1972. Life's Work Ousmane Sembène has frequently been referred to as "the father of African cinema." Yet even such a grandiose title fails to capture the full impact of Sembène's accomplishments as an author, filmmaker, and social critic. Taken together, his work represents an ongoing literary battle against corruption, colonialism, and hypocrisy in all its forms. Despite the international attention his films and novels have received, Sembène has chosen to ignore the lure of commercial moviemaking, preferring instead to remain in his homeland of Senegal, where he is revered as a champion of working people and other victims of exploitation. Sembène was born into a family of fishermen on January 1, 1923, in the village of Ziguinchor, Senegal. His parents divorced when he was a child, and the young Sembène was sent to live for varying periods of time with different relatives. Of all the family members he spent time with, the most influential was his mother's oldest brother, Abdou Rahmane Diop. Diop, a teacher, intellectual, and devout Muslim, instilled in Sembène a sense of pride in his African heritage. At the age of eight, Sembène was sent to Islamic school. When Diop died in 1935, however, Sembène moved to Dakar to live with another uncle. In Dakar, he began attending French schools. His formal education ended at the age of 14, when he quit school after a physical fight with a teacher. During the next few years, Sembène worked at a series of odd jobs to support himself, including stints as a mechanic, a carpenter, and a mason. It was during this period that he became mesmerized by the cinema, where he and his friends would spend as much of their free time as possible. He also absorbed a great deal of Senegalese culture in the form of traditional storytellers (griots) and musicians. In 1938 Sembène had what he has described as a mystical experience, resulting in a renewed commitment to Islam. Although this religious fervor was short-lived, it sparked in Sembène a sense of justice and commitment that he carried into his subsequent secular life. When he was 19, Sembène joined the French colonial forces in their battle against Nazi Germany. After four years in the military, during which he fought in both Europe and Africa, Sembène returned to Dakar, where he helped organize the Dakar-Niger railroad strike of 1947 and 1948. His experience in the railroad strike provided the material for his 1960 epic novel God's Bits of Wood, widely considered to be his literary masterpiece. When the strike was over, and with job opportunities in Senegal scarce, Sembène made his way to France as a stowaway on a ship. Arriving in Paris, he worked at a series of factory jobs. He then moved to Marseilles, where he became a longshoreman; he also resumed his activities as a labor organizer and became affiliated with the French communist party. By the early 1950s, Sembène had begun writing on a regular basis, mostly as an outlet for his political and philosophical thoughts. His poetry and short fiction began appearing in such magazines as Presence Africaine and Action poetique. In 1956 Sembène's first novel, Le Docker noir (The Black Docker), was published. Le Docker noir incorporated Sembène's experiences as a Senegalese dockworker laboring in Marseilles. Although the novel did not gain widespread attention, it set the tone for much of his later writing in dealing with the difficulties of an African trying to adapt to Western life. Sembène's second novel, O Pays, mon beau peuple! (Oh My Country, My Beautiful People!), was published the following year. Meanwhile, Sembène traveled the world to connect with writers from different regions. In 1956 he attended the First International Congress of Black Writers and Artists in Paris. Two years later, Sembène went to the Soviet republic of Uzbekistan to attend the First Congress of African and Asiatic Writers, where he met and was strongly influenced by writer and social critic W. E. B. DuBois. He also met with other writers and artists in China and North Vietnam during the last part of the 1950s. Sembène's biggest career breakthrough came with the 1960 publication of Les Bouts de bois de Dieu (God's Bits of Wood). The novel received international acclaim, and after its publication Sembène was finally able to devote himself to writing full-time. It also made him a visible figure among France's leftist and intellectual communities, both black and white. Sembène's filmmaking career began in the early 1960s. Traveling in West Africa, he became increasingly aware of the difficulties of reaching out to a population that was largely illiterate. In 1962 he went to Moscow for a crash course in filmmaking technique. Upon his return to Africa, Sembène was commissioned by the government of Mali to make a short documentary, L'Empire Sonhria, which was completed in 1963. He then formed his own production company and made his first important film, Borom Sarret, which won the First Film Award at the 1963 Tours Film Festival in France.

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