African patriarchy in the prose of Ousmane Sembène

Abstract

Senegalese Ousmane Sembène (1923-2007) stands out among the first generation of filmmakers from sub-Saharan Africa. His last two films, Faat Kiné (2000) and Moolaadé (2004), offer a critical view of African patriarchy. His cinematographic art has become more internationally known than his literary art although this criticism also  appears in his book entitled Voltaïque (1962).  Adopting a thematic and transversal analysis of three novellas from that book, this paper aims to unravel Ousmane Sembène’s criticisms of the African patriarchy and polygamous system. It seeks to demonstrate how the novellas “Ses trois jours,” “Souleymane” and “Lettre de France” contain some sociological and historical elements for the analysis of the female condition under patriarchy that later gained prominence in the feminist Marxism of Silvia Federici (2019) and in “Sub-Saharan reflection” by Odome Agone (2021). At the avant-garde of the French-speaking critique of African patriarchy, Sembenian’s prose also anticipated that of his compatriot Mariama Bâ in Senegalese literature. The analysis points that the three novels reveal a literature engaged in the mission of emancipating men and women in a context of political independence of African countries and new projects of post-colonial society.