The colonial era was characterized by two opposing forces in which the colonizer tried to forcefully take control over the natives’ lives while the natives tried aggressively to resist the oppression of the colonizers. A rather common phenomenon during this period was the natives’ struggle for liberation and nationalism. The Fanon’s theory explains clearly the stages that natives went through in search for cultural nationalism. This paper will discuss the Fanon’s theory of the dynamics of colonization and anti-colonization. It will then discuss Ousmane Sembene whose cinematic work revolves around the struggles of the colonizers and the colonized.
Fanon’s theory of the dynamics of colonization and anti-colonization
Fanon’s theory of the dynamics of colonization and anti-colonization revolves around his stand that culture is predicated on his fundamentally materialist acknowledgment of the manipulative economic intention of colonialism as the crucial aspect of the life of the colonialized. However, Fanon’s stand on the complexity of culture goes beyond such perfunctory materialism and recognizes some inherent changes in the progress of culture in the midst of the colonized. Based on this regard, the most long-term element of Fanon’s beliefs on the cultural issue is found in the evolutionary archetype which he created in addition to the weight he placed on the national aspect of the anti-colonial perception as opposed to the racial emphasis of his peers. Deriving from the well-known principle that cultural development of the colonized population is the essential link of colonialist entrenchment, Fanon predicted the blueprint of cultural growth among the subjugated both throughout and even following the colonial period. Fanon’s theory of the dynamics of colonization and anti-colonization has three stages (Amuta, 1995).
The first stage is referred to as the assimilationist stage in which the local scholar provides evidence that he has absorbed the cultural values of the dominating authority. Typically, the mythical constructions of the local intellectual during this stage carry the similarity to the literary constructions of the dominating power. The second stage is referred to as cultural nationalist stage in which the local scholar recalls his original self and resists any effort made at assimilating him in the colonizer’s culture. However, due to the native’s own cultural isolation, his own efforts of cultural reaffirmation fail to go beyond reminiscence of the past days rectified by idealistic values and artistic principles obtained from the world of the colonizer. The third stage is referred to as the nationalist stage commonly known also as the struggling stage in which the local man of culture after having attempted to assimilate himself in the people and among the people will in contrast shake them. In the literature of the subjugated, this is referred to as the activist and nationalist stage in which the disclosure of more locals to the actuality of colonialist cruelty also leads to a democratization of the desire for literary expression (Amuta, 1995).
In the stage of nationwide struggle, colonialism attempts to deactivate nationwide hassles by proposing economic principles. Immediately after the first demands are defined, colonialism acts as if to think about them, distinguishing with pretentious modesty that the boundary is affected by grave underdevelopment which requires a huge economic and social endeavor. Indeed, some impressive actions (such as the creation of job opportunities for the unemployed) create a hindrance to the development of national awareness for several years. However, earlier or later on, colonialism acknowledges that it does not have the powers within itself to implement a scheme designed to improve the economic and social conditions of the people under colonialism through a transformation that will make the colonized people content. The inherent limitations of colonialism are also evident in cases concerning with food supplies. The colonialist state then soon realizes that if it needs to neutralize the nationalist parties on stringently economic issues, then it would have to put into practice measures which it cannot carry out in its own country (Fanon, 1995).
In the framework of Fanon’s theory, the applicable reaction of the subjugated intellectual is found in the second stage, that is, cultural reaffirmation typified by unrestrained conventionality and even the worship of traditions. This alternative to the revival of past splendor in literature is used as a defense instrument by local intellectuals to abstain from the Western culture in which the locals are prone to being assimilated. Fanon was nevertheless deeply conscious of the shortcomings of this demonstration obsession in terms of changing the current material circumstances of life amidst the subjugated. Fanon (1995) states that, “all the proofs of a wonderful Songhai civilization will not change the fact that today the Songhais are underfed and illiterate, thrown between sky and water with empty heads and empty eyes,” (p.153).
Cultural nationalism, since it is predicated on a reversal of racially-affected abuse and psychological harm, has political consequence chiefly at a local or at most a continental level. The local intellectual who chooses to fight against colonial ties fights not only on his behalf but on behalf of the entire region affected by colonialism. Fanon was adequately practical to acknowledge the legality and past requirement of this stage in the awareness of the local. Nevertheless, he uniformly warned that it must comprise of only a passing stage. This is because the adoption of a continental cultural reaffirmation and evocative idealism as a long-term standpoint would add up to a counterfeit realization absolutely dysfunctional in the undertaking of national freedom. In this regard, Fanon’s expression of the fundamental necessities of a national culture was adequately thorough to have predicted some of the most far-reaching stands of our modern disapproval. Fanon put emphasis on the necessity of the writer to observe and comprehend evidently the parties who comprise the objective of his literary works through a course of self-immersion that plainly equals class suicide. Thus, accurately considered, cultural deeds cannot be separated from the wider fight for the freedom of the nation. As a consequence, there should be a mutual association between national culture and the struggle for freedom, an association in which national culture helps to promote national freedom (Williams and Chrisman 1994). Regardless of Fanon’s emphasis on the here and now, he did not completely disapprove the understanding that can be provided by the past during the struggle for national liberation. According to Fanon, the nationalist writer’s obsession with the past ought to be with the purpose of creating opportunities in the future for action and a foundation for optimism. This acknowledgment has an implicit caution with extensive consequences for the association between the writer and his readers (Amuta, 1995, p.160).
Application of Fanon’s theory to the work of Ousmane Sembene
Following the post-independence era of the 1960s and 1970s, majority of the African filmmakers, and Sembene especially, were categorized as advocates of ‘Third Cinema’. The meanings given to the term ‘Third Cinema’ regularly varied quite considerably from one reviewer to another but a general agreement pertaining to it was that it differed from the prevailing Hollywood cinema and the auteur cinema both in technique and subject matter (Landy 2001). Others argue that Third Cinema puts emphasis on its ability to characterize the difficulty of postcolonial societies. Ousmane Sembene is an exemplary Third Cinema practitioner due to the fact that his film works recognize the multi-facedness of the African culture and typify a means of dwelling in this culture which is neither shortsightedly nationalist nor deceptively international.
Through his films, Sembene tries to activate people at the back of his own dream of the past, present and future of Africa. His depiction of the French colonial authorities (for instance in Emitai and Camp de Thiaroye) are the most misrepresented in his entire work of art but, even in such situations, he nonetheless portrays the contrasting group of the subjugated in a relatively intricate style, emphasizing the inner disagreements that are mainly based on gender and allegiance to the colonial authorities. Sembene’s work uniformly discards any unsophisticated conflict between an exploitive tradition and a progressive collective modernity. In its place, he portrays collectivism as a reaction to the necessities of African societies, a collectivism that results from the mores and way of life of the communal Africans. In this manner, he contradicts both conservative ideas of a rigid rural Africa and some modernist dreams of the entire continent, which verbalize the necessity for change, but which in actuality demand an inactive recognition of the requirements of the international capitalist system. Sembene’s artistic work therefore comprises of a captivating illustration of a cinema that takes part in the premeditated utilization of binaries, but which is however time and again conscious of the shortcomings of rigid ideas of uniqueness and culture (Murphy and Williams, 2007).
The era lasting between 1971 and 1976 is considered by majority of the critics as the most imaginative era of Sembene’s filmmaking profession. Throughout this five-year period, Sembene created a series of three extremely inventive films namely: Emitai (1971), Xala (1974) and Ceddo (1976). Each of these films pushed his investigation of cinema far ahead of the tag of social realist that had long been associated with his work. These three cinemas are structured visually around a sequence of opposing rites that are part of an effort to take up the screen. Emitai is situated in a village located in southern Casamance in the course of the Second World War and opposes the fruitless efforts of the Diola menfolk to call upon their gods to intervene on their behalf against the French colonial powers with the more energetic and realistic struggle of the women. Xala contrasts the extreme and wasteful ceremonies of the post-colonial African bourgeoisie with the collective harmony and the beastly ceremonies of the urban poor. Ceddo on the other hand, opposes the ceremonies of a native beastly Africa (the rituals of the ‘ceddo’) with the foreign subjugating power of Islam and Christianity (Pramaggiore and Wallis, 2005).
The strength of Sembene’s films lies in the fact that he tries to visualize that which Africa lost to the new colonizing forces of Islam and Christianity, and, as a result, he provides a tone of voice to a verbal culture that is often deprived of the real condition of culture. Sembene’s narratives often address the clash between the contrasting social forces, but he has compassion with those who struggle against the control of their colonizers. On occasion, resistance is personified by a whole group, while at other times it rests on certain persons who execute representative deeds of revolt. However, the schematic resistance found between individuals and groups is one that is hard to sustain throughout Sembene’s work because his films constantly emphasize the stand of the individual within the wider society (Salhi 2003). For instance, in Emitai, it is chief Djimeko who directs the resistance carried out by the villagers but it is consequently the women as a group who maintain this uprising. On the other hand, in Ceddo, the deeds of the entire group motivate the Princess to end the life of the imam, which although looks like a lonely act is perceived emblematically in view of the impoverishment of a whole group.
In conclusion, Sembene often relates the issue of resistance with that of gender. Majority of his films therefore have strong female characters who take on new social roles and who defy the long-held male dominance of African societies. Murphy and Williams (2007) argue that, “this is most evident in Ceddo where Sembene imagines an alternative version of the past in which the survival of indigenous, animist culture is predicated on the emancipation of women, embodied in the figure of the Princess,” (p.61). Even though the spectators of Sembene’s films become accustomed to the bravery acts and struggle in his work, his films do not hide the affliction suffered by those who resist. This aspect of Sembene’s films typifies the era of colonialism in which those who attempted to resist it were tortured by the colonizing powers (Murphy and Williams, 2007).
Reference List
- Amuta, C., 1995. Fanon, Cabral and Ngugi on national liberation. In Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G. and Tiffin, H., eds. The post-colonial studies reader. London: Routledge, 158-60.
- Fanon, F., 1995. National culture. In Ashcroft, B., Griffiths, G., & Tiffin, H., eds. The post-colonial studies reader. London: Routledge, 153-7.
- Kennedy, V., 2000. Edward Said: a critical introduction. Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.
- Landy, M., 2001. The historical film: history and memory in media. New Jersey: Rutgers University Press.
- Murphy, D. and Williams, P., 2007. Postcolonial African cinema: ten directors. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
- Pramaggiore, M. and Wallis, T., 2005. Film: a critical introduction. London: Laurence King Publishing.
- Salhi, K., 2003. Francophone post-colonial cultures: critical essays. Lanham: Lexington Books.
- Williams, P. and Chrisman, L., 1994. Colonial discourse and post-colonial theory: a reader. Columbia: Columbia University Press.