Ousmane Sembène, une conscience Africaine or An African awareness

Samba Gadjigo

Background

This book is the biography of Ousmane Sembène. It beautifully traces the political, literary and identity itinerary of this Senegalese politically engaged writer and film director, considered as the father of the African cinema. Ousmane Sembène was born in Casamance during the colonial era, participated to the second world war, then left for France and worked as a docker at the port of Marseille. With the advent of the African independences in 1960, he went back to Senegal in order to settle there. He had a broad range of life experiences that framed his understanding of man, especially the African man, within the historical context of colonisation. These influences shaped his work and broadly, a large generation of Africans in a quest to find their identity and unity again, and reconnect with their traditional customs and values. Indeed, the episode of colonisation occasioned for many Africans, especially those who were enrolled in the French schooling system or sent to work closely within the colonial administration, an uprooting from their traditions and to some extent, an alienation to the occidental culture; rejecting their own while trying to clone what was being portrayed to them as the better way, the civilised way. The book heavily relies on conversations between the author and Ousmane Sembène (those two were friends); this gives more life and authenticity to the story which is beautifully written, mixing quotes from Ousmane Sembène and other African authors notably Cheickh Hamidou Kane, with the author’s thoughts, interpretations and story-telling.

Summary and criticism

I want to focus this criticism on certain historical, political and philosophical aspects tackled in the book. I also want to touch on the notion of patriotism and identity quest which I think many Africans who experience the life in Europe, come to face when they reach a certain stage. Ousmane Sembène was born in 1923, he benefited from the status of French citizen because his father was from Dakar; since September 1916, the Loi Diagne (Diagne Policy) enabled the natives from Dakar, Gorée, Saint-Louis and Rufisque to automatically be granted the status of French citizen to thank them for their participation during the first world war. Those 4 cities were also the first autonomous boroughs created by France in Senegal. We learn that Ousmane Sembène’s father couldn’t care less of this first-class citizen status. This definitely influenced Ousmane Sembène, giving him this free mindset to not always fear and conform to the orders of the authority when he was judging these to be unfair. The author tells us that this need for Ousmane Sembène to explore on his own and learn independently, coupled with this carefree attitude caused him to leave school due to a problem he had with the director. This also contributed to turn him into the man he was; autodidact, close to his people, less contaminated by the colonial ideology compared to the intellectuals raised within the occidental schooling system.

Ousmane Sembène also fought for France during the second world war. Full of dreams and hopes, he thought of doing what was right but many disappointments came along, notably the bombing of Dakar on the 25th September 1940 by the Allies forces in an attempt to get control back on the city; all the Europeans and Lebano-Syrians were evacuated while the local population was left behind. The operation was unsuccessful and resulted in 175 deaths and 350 wounded, mostly Africans. There was also the Thiaroye massacre on the 1st December 1944; the African troops (more than 1600 soldiers from all the French colonies) who had been held prisoners by the German forces while fighting for France during WWII were released after the Normandy landings in June of the same year. These were held in the Thiaroye Camp (surroundings of Dakar). They protested against the colonial administration since their salaries and war compensations were still not paid to them nor to their families. Due to that, they have been shot by the French soldiers and colonial troops while their peers were still on the battlefield, fighting to free France and the allied forces. This event is still unknown by most of the Africans of the younger generations; this is a shame for the French government and until today, the real number of deaths remains a mystery, the official number is 35 deaths but recent researches show that it is much more. Yet, after the war, Ousmane Sembène decided to go to France; he had this desire to educate himself and to be exposed to another way of life. This exile was beneficial to him in the sense that it helped him grow, have a large share of experiences, meet people from all over the world, have access to a multitude of books such as those of Jack London, which greatly influenced his first pieces of work and pushed him to start his writing career with his first book, Le Docker noir (The black docker) published in 1956.

After the independence of Senegal in 1960, Ousmane Sembène decided to go back there for good and settle. A quote that draw my attention is that the dignity of a man is his country. This made me question a lot of my choices as an individual, my purpose, and what I can bring to my community and my country as a whole. It made me question my role and the role of many like me, all citizens of African countries, and the image we give back to the rest of the world, which is not always objective given the negative bias fuelled by the media. It made me question the repercussions it has on how people from different cultures may perceive the diaspora of certain African countries, especially the ones considered as the poorest in the West and Central regions. Most of our African countries are perceived as corrupted, politically and financially unstable and exhibiting very large social inequalities. It made me realise that as individuals, we may thrive, we may excel, we may be clever, we may have a voice, but this wouldn’t make any sense if as a community, we are still divided and not really contributing to the social, politic, economic and financial emergence of our different countries. Without that latter which is the most important, we would still remain insignificant and it would be a game, as often observed today, of putting down our own in order to shine and have a seat at a table where we are not really wanted. It made me wonder why we are not trying to build our own table and take our rightful and fitted seats instead of begging for seats at the table of people who would not even consider us. It made me wonder why we are not standing together, going back to our communal values to try to build strong nations so that we would finally earn the respect that we lost very long ago. It made me wonder why we are so weak and limited to not think big and act in order to shake things and leave our marks. It is true that an inferiority complex has been instilled for a very long time within our communities and we still see the scars in our current society. However, it makes me wonder; if we know that there is an inferiority complex, at least part of the work is done since we diagnosed the illness, then all we need is to fight it off. As soon as they echo within us, we should chase away those thoughts and replace them with positive ones, we should challenge ourselves and especially, we have to teach the younger generations, we must look for these parts history that have been hidden, distorted and restore them. We must rebuild ourselves, our identity, our community by and through our own people because no one else would do this work if not our very selves.

This work can be done by each one of us, it can even start individually but we definitely need some triggers, something that would activate this awareness, this curiosity to ask questions, this burning desire to look for answers, to analyse these answers with a critical mind and with objectivity in order to recollect our history and rebuild our collective identity, piece by piece, step by step because if this work is done by us, if this work is done methodically, I don’t think that the process can be reversed, it can only be strengthened through time. Ousmane Sembène himself said to Samba Gadjigo that before, he was like anyone else, living the events without really asking questions; most of us as well do not put things into perspective, we do not try to find the root of a certain problem, we do not challenge the authority, we just let ourselves be subjected to whatever would happen. He also said that the people of his generations lived in the same atmosphere, however, they did not all have the same path. Like the soil and the trees: the soil is one but the trees are diverse even though they draw the nutrients from the same soil. As I was pointing out earlier, the trigger for Ousmane Sembène has been this experience as a docker in Marseille, where he had this opportunity to experience this cultural mix and get his independence, this independence of thoughts that helped him mature. Experiencing the war, witnessing and being the victim of injustices due to racism must also have reinforced his political awareness and definitely led him to this turning point. Furthermore, it is important to note that he renounced to his French citizenship in 1960 before returning to Senegal. This is a strong patriotic gesture since in the light of our current economic and social paradigms, some Africans are leaving their countries for Europe or North America, pursuing a better life, a citizenship, also, most of the West and Central African leaders have the dual citizenship given that the majority of the passports granted by African countries are not strong in terms of freedom of movement. Africans are not respected, not trusted, not considered, especially when neo-colonialism is a reality in all the ex-French colonies. Since history is repeating itself, what was true then is still true today; Samba Gadjigo pointed out the fact that Ousmane Sembène never took seriously the African political representatives during the colonisation period; they are depicted in his work as collaborators of the colonial administration. Ousmane Sembène stated that it would not be necessary to count on them to cut the branch on which they are sitting to actually be at the service of the populations and work for their well-being. It is a shame that what he said more than 60 years ago can still be applicable now with the majority of the ex-French colonies’ economies still dominated by the French multinationals while the political elites on both sides have the monopole on most of these countries’ wealth and resources. The populations, the masses are being marginalised, living in poor conditions with their basic needs not met. What these current political leaders (and some other people) do not understand is what their peers during the colonial era also did not understand; Ousmane Sembène summarised it by saying that even though they are French on paper, if they are black, this does not mean anything, this is useless. This truth, we all need to accept and process it in order to really stand up and start building our own identity, our countries, our pride, our dignity, to definitively free ourselves and our younger generations from this unhealthy and vicious yoke.

Finally, I want to end this criticism with a reflexion from Samba Gadjigo, he wrote that once achieved, freedom can only be conserved through constant fighting. I agree with him in the sense that for most of the ex-French colonies, except for Guinea, Cameroon, Madagascar and Algeria, Independence was simply granted through the signature of agreements. The populations and political leaders did not have to fight for it so naturally, it does not feel like it was hardly earned since there was no apparent suffering, protestations and wars. Hence, there is not this burning desire to constantly fight to preserve it, to actually own it and not virtually think that it is owned while the domination is still present though insidious; still there culturally, ideologically, politically and economically with the consequences being observed through this ever growing social fracture. This book is very good and beautifully written; it invites the reader to an introspection, to a political and historical awakening and understanding of the new global economic and social challenges; it is totally worth reading.

Go deeper

Frantz Fanon in Les damnés de la terre analyses in more depth the dynamics of violence and wars and the role they play in the decolonisation fight.