Reimaging Gender and African Tradition? Ousmane Sembène's Xala Revisited

Abstract

In the film Xala, Ousmane Sembène's interrogation of gender, African tradition, and modernity in postindependence Africa is problematic in many ways. While Sembène reimages gender and tradition in contemporary Africa, his vision is also surreal and romanticized. The paper critiques several binary oppositions which Sembène seems to create in Xala: between the "decadence" of modernity and the "purity" of African tradition, and between revolutionary, "masculine" women and villainous, "feminine" men. The paper raises questions regarding Sembène's vision for Africa: is his symbolic depiction of the xala (the curse of impotence on the African elite) as at once the "curse" of Western colonialism and modernity convincing? and does he see "modernity" as an entirely negative force in Africa?