I am embarrassed to say that during my years as a film studing the only film I saw of Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène was Moolaadé, and I don't even remember much about it. But the truth is that Sembène was one of Africa's most influential filmmakers, even beyond the continent's borders (as acknowledged by Martin Scorsese while receiving an award recently, just to cite an example).
So it shouldn't come as a surprise that even after his death he continues to inspire filmmakers, such as Samba Gadjigo and Jason Silverman. They are the authors of an eight-part animated film about not only Sembène, but also about the importance of reclaiming African stories. Combining animation and archival footage, this film shows the making of Sembène as an influential African storyteller, through the dialogue between an 82 year-old narrator named Bouabacar and his grand-daughter Coumba. The film starts with this message:
Africa has survived slavery. We have survived genocide and civil war. We have survived the seizure of our land by outsiders. But we will never survive the loss of our stories. Stories define cultures. Today our stories are only told to us by strangers. I believe Africa has a strong future, but to claim this future it has to reclaim its stories.Although it's not finished yet, you can watch the first part here [h/t Por fin en África]:
While talking about French colonization, at one point the narrator says that as time passed, the French "spent more energy trying to control our mind and our stories". All this reminded me of a great talk by the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on the danger of a single story about Africa. In a way, the current portrayal of Africa in a unidimensional way, from a single viewpoint, is a new form of colonialism. The video has made the rounds all over the interwebs, but in case one of my two readers hasn't seen it yet, it's well worth watching:
via twiga.maneno.org