Sembène Ousmanes Xala - The Use of Film and Novel As Revolutionar
Sembène Ousmanes Xala - The Use of Film and Novel As Revolutionar
Sembène Ousmanes Xala - The Use of Film and Novel As Revolutionar
Volume 4 Article 7
Issue 2 Special Issue on African Literature
1-1-1980
Part of the Film and Media Studies Commons, French and Francophone Literature Commons, and the
Modern Literature Commons
Recommended Citation
Harrow, Kenneth (1980) "Sembène Ousmane's Xala: The Use of Film and Novel as Revolutionary Weapon,"
Studies in 20th Century Literature: Vol. 4: Iss. 2, Article 7. https://doi.org/10.4148/2334-4415.1084
This Article is brought to you for free and open access by New Prairie Press. It has been accepted for inclusion in
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Sembène Ousmane's Xala: The Use of Film and Novel as Revolutionary Weapon
Abstract
Sembène Ousmane's Xala was written as a novel and made into a film in 1974. It is a biting attack upon
the newly risen bourgeois class that has ascended to power and wealth in Senegal since independence.
The ideological framework of Xala rests upon Marxist assumptions adapted to and modified by the
circumstances in Africa. The distinctively Senegalese features which mark Sembène's portrayal include
Muslim and traditional religious beliefs which form the basis of the class oppression and the sexism
depicted in Xala. They also supply the title to the work since xala means impotency in Wolof, and it is
described with great humor by Sembène, as the result of a marabout's curse. Sembène's treatment of the
theme of class oppression focuses upon the great disparities that exist between the wealthy, elite classes
and the impoverished masses, especially the beggars and cripples who live on the streets of Dakar. By
focusing upon the issue of acculturation in the film, and by emphasizing the importance of imagery
related to sight and the act of seeing, Sembène effectively overcomes the deficiencies of the novel in
creating the film version of Xala.
Keywords
Sembène Ousmane, Xala, film, novel, bourgeois, Marxism, sexism, oppression, classes, impoverishment,
imagery, sight, act of seeing
KENNETH HARROW
Michigan State University
Harrow 179
does not leave one with pure choices, but rather midway between
the two poles of the modern European and the traditional African
worlds. A character caught strikingly thus is Rama, El Hadji's
eldest daughter. El Hadji wishes that this daughter had been a son
(as did Okonkwo in Things Fall Apart), since she is both more
courageous and less mercenary than his other children. In the novel
she drives a Fiat, and by dress and ideological choice asserts her
identity as a modern African against both European «Tomism»
and African, Islamic traditionalism. It is she alone who tells her
father of her opposition to his third marriage and refuses to accept
polygamy for herself when the time comes. In the film version her
revolutionary role is made more visible and is accentuated. Instead
of a Fiat, she is on a mobylette, out for all the city to see. Her hair
is plaited in the traditional African fashion, not straightened in the
modern European style. And her University work involves transla-
tions into Wolof, not French, which she refuses to speak in the
film.
Yet she enjoys the fruits of her father's corruptly earned
wealth, and all her actions take on somewhat the air of a bad cons-
cience. This point is brought out at the end of the novel in which
the differences between her and the lumpenproletariat are stressed.
When the host of beggars and cripples comes to Adja Awa Astou's
house and attacks El hadji, Rama is filled with indignation and
anger. Her loyalties divided, her bad conscience-or is it bad
faith?-leaves her «bursting with anger. Against whom? Against
her father? Against those wretched people? She who was always
ready with the words 'revolution' and 'new social order' felt deep
within her breast something like a stone falling heavily into her
heart, crushing her» (p. 112). Rama's position must have been the
most compelling of all, for the successful revolutionary author
himself whose own dilemmas are most accurately reflected in her
anguish.
Except for Rama, the women are generally portrayed as vic-
tims. The first and only faithful wife, Adja Awa Astou, suffers
deeply but patiently because of her husband's polygamous
choices-enduring the decline in his favors and, in the end, of his
fortunes as well. Her nobility is admirably figured in her majestic
bearing and, in the film, in the telling roar of the sea and the wind
which accompany her as she leaves the wedding celebrations of the
third wife. She dresses in traditional fashion and belongs to a
generation older than that of the other two wives-but still her villa
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Harrow: Sembène Ousmane's Xala: The Use of Film and Novel as Revolutionar
Harrow 181
and wealth, all bestowed by El Hadji, place her in the ranks of the
new African bourgeoisie, living in the suburban, luxurious quarters
of Dakar with their well-trimmed yards and well-patrolled streets.
The pathos of her victimization, like the purity of her religious
beliefs, is thus qualified by her material conditions.
The second wive, Oumi N'Doye, wears an elaborate wig and
dresses in modern European clothes in a sexually appealing style. In
the film especially she is played as a domineering, almost castrating
female. In the novel her function as servant to El Hadji's sexual
and worldly tastes is accentuated. Above all, her mercenary
qualities, seen in conjunction with her style and place in the mar-
riage, clearly accord with the classical Marxist doctrine which holds
that in the bourgeois marriage the woman is exploited and her role
is reduced to little more than that of a prostitute. In the novel this
aspect of Oumi's nature is emphasized when El Hadji's fortunes
collapse and she deserts him to become, probably once again, a
high fashion woman of easy virtue.
The third wife, N'Gone, is purely a sexual object. She is seen,
not heard. In the novel her more vulgar features are emphasized, as
is her inconsequential and shallow personality. She is depicted as
being the adjunct or counterpart of her «mother,» actually her
aunt, the Badyen, who arranges the marriage and clearly
manipulates El Hadji with the beautiful young girl as bait. The
helplessness of N'Gone is reflected in the impotency of her aunt,
whose two former husbands have both died and who cannot now
find herself a third due to the superstitious belief that husbands die
in threes. However, the Badyen is not left bereft of powers. It is she
who knows how to challenge the foolish male ego of El Hadji and
to seduce him with her niece. She is characterized in the novel as
manipulative and greedy, but with the particular insensitivity of the
victim, who grasps with the anxiety of the threatened, aware of
having no other recourse to power.
She is thus a counterpart to El Hadji himself and to all the cor-
rupt businessmen who resemble her in their own practices, mirror
her situation in their own life style, and yet, ironically, have ex-
ploited her counterparts in all of their own women. Love and
hatred, as with the African-European relationship, are also
reflected in the male-female relationships because they are based
upon power, upon an authority which devolves not from natural
gifts or venerable customs but from force wielded always for selfish
interest.
Harrow 183
ing pacts with the others when necessary, but never forming a truly
living community. The poor, in contrast, must band together in
order merely to survive. Their misery finds relief in the fraternity
created by the commonly shared conditions of their existence. They
have learned the law of survival, banding together, and can thus
cope with misfortune far greater than El Hadji's.
In the novel bourgeois life and values are underscored by the
use of imagery related to sight and the act of seeing. Almost every
emotional response is evoked in terms of ocular reactions. The
characters are even defined by the appearance of their eyes, as in
the case of Adja, characterized by the «frankness in her almond-
shaped eyes» (p. 11). When she was hurt by El Hadji, «her eyes
were lifeless» (p. 14). People are constantly looking away, or down,
or at someone, so as to convey pain or disinterest. The co-wives
«watch» the third's happiness (p. 23). Adja, unhappy, has «tiny
bright dots (shining) in her eyes» (p. 25). When Yay Bineta and the
Badyen check to see if N'Gone has been deflowered, they arrive at
the door and knock: «The two women exchanged glances. A vague
anxiety appeared in their eyes. The Badyen turned the knob and
slowly pushed the door open. She peered hesitantly inside. She was
met by the blue light of the room. Frowning, she looked around»
(p. 21. my stress).
The characters become cameras, and their expressions poses
for the lens of the others-what the existentialists call being-for-
others. This imagery recurs throughout the novel and is reinforced
by El Hadji's reliance upon «seers» and his vulnerability to the
curse of a blind beggar. What he doesn't want to see-the obverse
image of himself in the street beggars and cripples-is really his
own hypocritical, shallow self. A «Hadj» who drinks and steals,
evoking his «religious patrimony» to justify his greed and desire for
a pretty, young wife; who sleeps through the hours of prayer and
seeks a cure from holy men so he can fornicate; whose prosperity is
won by theft and who lacks in real charity for the poor-in all
respects is really the opposite of a pilgrim of great piety, which is
the meaning of the title «Hadj.» Sembene describes this man's pro-
blems in terms of seeing, since being, for such a superficial and cor-
rupted bourgeois, resides in the eye-in the impressions created by
such wedding presents as a car with a bow around it, by Western
businessmen's clothes which replace the African dress, and above
all, by an awareness of the other as an object to be seen and judged,
and which in turn sees and judges on the basis of appearance.
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Harrow: Sembène Ousmane's Xala: The Use of Film and Novel as Revolutionar
Harrow 187
NOTES
1. Sembene Ousmane, Xala (Westport: Lawrence Hill and Co., 1976), trans. Clive
Wake. All references to the novel, Xala, will be denoted by parenthetical indications
to the pages after each quotation. Quotations from the film will be given in French
without footnote or page number.
2. «L'Eternel Jugurtha,» Etudes Mediterrangennes, 2ieme trimestre, 1963, 11,
pp. 53-54.
3, Mouloud Feraoun, Journal (Paris: Editions de Seuil, 1962), pp. 70-71.
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