Between socialism and sufism: Islam in the films of Ousmane Sembene and Djibril Diop Mambety

Abstract

The films of two of Senegal's most acclaimed directors, the Marxist Ousmane Sembene and the maverick Djibril Diop Mambety, illustrate a range of possibilities for engagement with Islam within the postcolonial Senegalese context. In Sembene's Ceddo (1976) we see a critique of Islam from a modernist/modernising and African nationalist perspective. Mambety's Touki-Bouki (1973) is imbued with a sceptical but distinctly Senegalese Sufi aesthetic and, despite the director's ambivalence towards religion, the visual style and narrative structure of his films are informed by the values and worldview of the mystical and highly syncretic form of Islam that exists in much of Senegal. The overall aim of the article is to trace the complex representation of Islam in these two directors' work, which reveals the intricate interplay between various forces - religious, social, cultural, political - in Senegal's predominantly Islamic and democratic republic. © Third Text (2010).