ISBN : 9782296137318
ORAL TRADI T ION AND SEMBENE'S CINEMA
Amadou T. Fofana, Willamette University
Abstract
The oral tradition is a prominent feature of African cultures. As a mode of
transmitting knowledge by word of mouth, orality is often opposed to
literacy. Because it is not written, this traditional source of knowledge
was often derisively looked down upon. For that reason, the griot in
Sundiata, an Epic of Old Mali (1993) tries to persuade his incredulous
audience of the trustworthiness of the sources of his story. He makes it
clear that he derives his knowledge from his father, who also received it
from his father. He declares the purity of his word and its truthfulness
before vowing to transmit it exactly the way he received iti. Sembène is by
no means a griot by heritage. In fact, even though he chooses to call
himself a griot to fulfill the self-assigned duty of educating his people, he
was born in a fishermen family in the southern region of Senegal.
Contrary to the griot whose role as memory of society is culturally
assigned, Sembène is a self-appointed, politically motivated griot, who
primarily concerns himself with the present; that is, with the way things
are, not the way they used to be, how the past impacts the way things are
now, and how things should be.
This essay discusses oral tradition and the role of the griot on the one
hand, and examines, on the other, how the celebrated Senegalese
Director, Ousmane Sembène, proudly appropriates the title of griot but
draws a clear line of demarcation between the kind he considered himself
to be, and the current, post-colonial, cash-driven kind as represented in
Borom Sarret.