Culture, Media & Creative Industries @ Kings

Ousmane Sembène (1923-2007) was a pioneering Senegalese filmmaker often referred to as the father of African cinema. He would have been 100 years old this year. In recognition of his enormous contributions to African cinema, which he conceived as a weapon for decolonisation, a series of tributes are being celebrated all over the world. CMCI researchers Estrella Sendra and Ana Camila Esteves had the privilege to participate in the centennial celebrated in Ousmane Sembène’s home country: Senegal, hosted by the Université Gaston Berger both at the University at the Museum of Photography in Saint-Louis, from 18 to 20 May 2023.

The conference was carefully organised, offering local transport, accommodation and meals to all conference participants, as well as social and networking opportunities with international scholars and practitioners who shared admiration for Ousmane Sembène. These included his son, Alain Sembène, and his biographer, Samba Gadjigo. The morning and afternoon panels were followed by evening screenings followed by discussions with Sembène’s son, his biographer and some of the people who had worked with him. A moving experience of a much complex figure who devoted his life to writing and filmmaking, and who ensured his work was targeting and reaching African audiences. This desire was respected during the conference, which was attended by over a hundred students, present at panels and screenings, participating as volunteers and actively engaging in the debates, sharing their interpretations of the films and the way in which they felt represented in Osumane Sembène’s characters, contexts and stories.

The conference was an excellent occasion to gain insights of the way in which Senegalese and African scholars are teaching and researching on Ousmane Sembène, through inner frameworks, and to put these in conversation with international film educators and researchers. Estrella Sendra’s presenation of ‘Ousmane Sembène: the tailor of Afrotopias’, a paper co-authored with Prof Sheila Petty (University of Regina), started by sharing approaches to teaching Sembène in diverse film courses at their universities in Canada and the UK, respectively, to then continue to offer an analysis on the mise-en-scène with a focus on fashion. A link was made between cinema as a dream-machine which started as a sewing machine, and the kind of dreams tailored through the costume design in his cinema. This was informed by the philosophical concept of ‘Afrotopia’, by Senegalese scholar Felwine Sarr. The live streaming of the presentation can be watched here.

Ana Camila Esteves presented a paper entitled ‘The Comedy as a Subversive Strategy in the Development of Female Characters in Ousmane Sembène’s Cinema’, offering an analysis of this genre supported by examples from different films. The live streaming of the presentation can be watched here. The full programme of the conference can be downloaded here. The conference participants were invited to submit their presentations to a special issue to be published in Présence Africaine.