Before the film Sembene! began, Samba Gadjigo told us that until the age of 12 he had never seen a movie, seen television or heard a radio in his village in Senegal. All he had were storytellers. He said he was giving us a gift - the story of Ousmane Sembene. And what a gift it was.
My husband and I knew absolutely nothing about the father of African cinema, Sembene. He started life as the son of a fisherman in Senegal. He left Africa for France and was a dockworker. He broke his back when a huge bag a coffee landed on it, and during the 6 months he spent lying on his stomach in a hospital, he educated himself, reading as much French literature as his union's library contained. He... |