BLACK GIRL (1966; restored 2016)
Directed by Ousmane Sembène
New Yorker Video, 55 minutes, Not-rated
In French with subtitles
★★★★★
Black Girl is considered a pioneering work in African cinema. This film by Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène probes the impact of colonialism in just 55 minutes, yet still manages to show how it damaged Africans and Europeans alike.
The film’s namesake is idealistic Diouana (Mbissine Thérèse Diop), who meets a French husband and wife on temporary assignment in rural Senegal. She is hired by the couple, known only as Monsieur (Robert Fontaine) and Madam (Anne-Marie Jelinek). When the couple return to their home on the Côte d’Azur, they offer to pay for Diouana to come to France and continue her employment. It seems a dream come true for Diouana and she arrives with visions of acquiring sophistication and cultural enrichment. She is so excited that she buys a carved mask at the marketplace in her village that she gifts to the couple.
Euphoria gives way to a metaphorical slap in the face. The friendliness she experienced in Senegal gives way to haughtiness and a master-servant arrangement. Diouana has no grasp on European racial dynamics. In Senegal she was treated with respect but in France she is viewed as little more than a trained and caged curiosity. Madame is especially barbed in her commands. Diouana is expected to clean, cook, and take care of the couple’s children and she’s so unprepared for her situation that she wears heels and a tribal dress as she toils around the clock.
In one horrifying moment, Diouana is supposed to cook an unspecified African dish for a dinner party at which a male guest embraces her because he wants to know what it’s like to “kiss a black girl.” Diouana is a prisoner in all but name inside the couple’s home, though she does manage to acquire a black boyfriend whose motives are unclear. To say that things do not get better understates how bad things are. At one point Diouana goes on a one-woman strike, though Madam insists that if Diouana refuses to work, she will not be fed. Queue two unfortunate endings, one tragic and the other dangerous and ironic.
Despite its age, Black Girl is such a fine film that Sembène is often considered the first African director to attract international acclaim. It should also be noted that it was a timely production. In 1966, Senegal had only been independent for six years, after three and a half centuries of colonial rule, mostly by France, which used it as a center for its foray into the slave trade. It has been a slow and difficult transition. Even today 70 percent of the population lives in poverty, life expectancy is 68 years, and 44 percent of the population is illiterate. It was much worse in 1960, when life expectancy was under 38 and the illiteracy rate was 66 percent.
In the 21st century, Senegal’s legacy of colonialism has fostered resentment toward former masters. We can see the seeds of this in Black Girl. Again, though, part of the brilliance of Sembène’s film is that he shows how erstwhile masters inflicted damage upon themselves as well. We get a palpable sense of how the racist past entrapped Monsieur and Madam, so much so that we draw the conclusion that they left their better selves in Africa. The film’s coda-like second ending powerfully drives home the blindness of Western perspectives.
This is a must-see for film buffs. Even if you’re not one, watch Black Girl. It will make you understand what is meant when someone speaks of the cancerous effects of colonialism. Never assume that the past quietly retires to the south of France and simply fades away.
Rob Weir
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