In part one of my series “On Ousmane Sembène”, I focus on Black Girl (1966), or La noire de…, Sembène’s first feature-length film.
A gifted Senegalese writer, producer, and director—the “father of African film”—Ousmane Sembène is a name to know. His work centers on postcolonial Senegal, providing non-Francophones with a unique perspective on the lasting impacts of French colonization in his home country.
I have enjoyed a brief tour of Sembène’s work and hope to contribute to his legacy through this three-part series. Not to suggest that he is unknown, but to shed a greater perspective on his artistic achievements. And to maybe introduce a reader to him for the first time.
Black Girl
I first encountered Sembène through his best-known work, Black Girl (1966). The protagonist, Diouana, migrates from Dakar to serve as a domestic worker for an affluent white French household in Antibes. But the more time she spends in Antibes, away from her homeland and family, the more she begins to question her own sanity and the purpose of her existence.
Through flashbacks, viewers learn that Diouana envisioned a much different life for herself. Initially serving as a caretaker for the white family while they resided in Dakar, her responsibilities in Antibes slowly balloon before swallowing her whole.
Diouana had hopes of exploring France and discovering a new country. Instead, the house mistress referred to as “Madame”, confines her to the small apartment and limits her access to the outside world. Diouana is forced to care for children, cook, clean, and withstand mental and racial abuse while doing so.
Diouana becomes a deflated version of herself. Madame prohibits Diouana from wearing nice dresses and heels while completing housework. She relentlessly calls Diouana’s name, constantly reminding her that she is nothing but a servant.
By the end, Diouana is withdrawn and dejected. She has limited contact with her family, especially her mother, who sends a letter to France and receives no reply. Diouana stages a protest through refusal. She sleeps in late and stops working. Madame denies her food and support as a result, leaving Diouana without any recourse. Trapped in a house full of enemies, Diouana makes an irreversible decision.
Black Girls of the World
Black Girl is reminiscent of the experiences of Black domestic workers globally. From southern Black women working in white women’s homes under Jim Crow laws to South African Black women traversing Bantustans and presenting passes to work in “White Areas” during apartheid, Diouana’s story is a well-known one.
For so many Black women, life seems equivalent to servitude. Whether it’s your children, spouse, or employers. Black girls are for a certain kind of labor. We aren’t meant to think and create, or so we’re told. So many Black scholars and artists have shed light on the Black female experience and for much of history, it’s been an ugly one.
I appreciate that as a man, Sembène recognized our plight and immortalized it. The fictional Diouana’s story was modeled after a true one, which Sembène read about in a French daily newspaper while working as a dock worker. He was moved to translate it to a bigger audience, first as a short story then as a screenplay and film. Black Girl is especially important because it exposed the plight of West African women to an international audience.
Where to Next?
We have a tendency to favor the modern and in this way, we have lost touch with the classics. Sembène created Black Girl less than 60 years ago, and it has already been pushed to the back, or else relegated to the status of “art film”, missing a more mainstream audience. It did not make it onto the syllabus of my supposed “transnational” feminist film class back in college, and none of my friends or family had heard of the film before.
The rise of on-demand television in America has contributed to this trend. Modeled on aspects of the fast food industry, the entertainment industry produces “fast” content, an endless barrage of single-season shows to be binged over a weekend and promptly forgotten the next. By recovering classic films, we can not only change the course of our viewership but also engage with quality content that moves us to action.
And we need to continue telling Black girls’ stories, whether we are plucking them from the newspaper, archive, or our daily lives. In doing so, we ensure our own longevity in a world that refuses to recognize our full humanity time and time again.
Further reading:
- “Sembène’s ‘Black Girl’ is a Ghost Story” by Doyle Calhoun. Click here. (Warning: spoilers!)