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La noire de11/6/2022 ![]() ![]() When Diouana later removes the mask from the white wall, she restates both her agency and heritage. Diouana herself is called upon to play the part of the exotic object – a guest asks for a kiss, noting he has never kissed a black woman before. The mask is a novelty and, like the Senegalese food that Diouana prepares for guests, serves as a signifier of the French couple’s colonial past: something that they can use to set themselves apart from their fellow bourgeois guests, bringing a borrowed exoticism and mystery. Originally given to Diouana’s employers in Senegal, the mask travels with them to Antibes and, like her, is out of place. Sembène also explores domination through the symbol of the mask. Patriarchy is the gatekeeper to reality and communication, in Senegal as well as France.) (The letter to Diouana was also penned by a male teacher –played by Sembène – her mother being illiterate. Monsieur reads her mother’s letter to her and then proceeds to write a reply on her behalf: their subjugation of her extends to control over her communication. Her dignity is further echoed when she receives a letter from her family. In response to Diouane’s misstep, Madame forces her to wear an apron. They are not the clothes of a servant they are not the clothes of an African. While in Dakar, Diouana studies fashion magazines and hopes to replicate the style of the French models, but when she arrives in Antibes, she is ridiculed for wearing dresses and heels. He was drawn by the intersection of colonial and women’s oppression it exposed.Įverything Diouana expects of her new life in France falls through, as, over and over, she runs up against the cultural and social dominance of her employers and their world. Diouana’s story is based on an account of an African maid that Sembène happened upon in a newspaper. La Noire de…, his debut feature and the first film by a sub-Saharan African director, was released in 1966. Worrying that these French-language novels would only reach an elite readership, Sembène turned to film in hope of achieving social change through his art. His first novel, Black Docker (1956), explores the racism and exclusion that Sembène encountered during his time in France it was an experience he shared with Diouana. ![]() His most famous novel, God’s Bits of Wood (1960), depicts a railroad strike across Senegal and Mali, dwelling on the solidarity that was shared between the oppressed of both nations. His early French-language novels drew upon his experiences as a labourer in his native Senegal and in France, to which he migrated in 1947. The themes explored by La Noire de … were preoccupations that Sembène studied throughout his work. This contrast underscores the way in which, for Sembène, voice and power are intimately connected. Diouana’s dialogue in the film is mostly limited to her time in Dakar: in Antibes she only speaks in voiceover. Through a series of fluidly shot flashbacks, Sembène contrasts these experiences with the openness of her life in Senegal. In France, Diouana is entombed she leaves the ship and enters Monsieur’s car that takes her to the flat that she doesn’t leave. She is without money, friends or company, and is unable to escape. It is this nature that the couple deliberately exploit in France, where Diouana’s role is not limited to being a nanny: she must also clean their house, cook their meals and wash their clothes. ![]() We learn that Madame first saw Diouana on a street corner amid other women desperate for work, and hired her because of her submissive and unforthcoming nature. She is following the family for whom she had worked as a nanny in her native Senegal after the country gained its independence, the French couple left their sprawling house, cook, nanny and cleaner in Dakar and returned to their flat in Antibes. To take part in the African revolution it is not enough to write a revolutionary song you must fashion revolution with the people – Sékou Touré.Īt the beginning of Ousmane Sembène’s La Noire de…, Diouana arrives in the French Riveria. ![]()
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