Xala: Sembene’s approach to postcolonial independence.

Looking at Ousmane Sembene’s film Xala, one swiftly becomes aware of the pieces of postcolonial thought that work symbiotically with the body of work, whilst also individually exposing their postcolonial processes as transubstantiating elements that conjoin with the axis of axiomatic belief under this face eating mask of symbiosis. In my analysis I intend on lifting this mask, so the butchered face of the elite can be recognised as being on par with every other classes anatomical design, and thus ‘equal’. This procedure shall be implemented through the inspection of the blatant postcolonial depictions in the film, that pave the way for interpretation and a reimagining of a system that quite often tends to hide under the veil of hybridisation. The question one has to ask is will the lifting of this veil reveal a kiss of life or the kiss kiss of death?

Marxist Sembene directs his film so as to depict the issues of class inequality primarily caused by the ridiculous principles of “African Socialism”. Social interaction throughout the film becomes a friable personification of such ideals under a discreet dismemberment, which evolves into complete clinical precision with the allocation of such principles upon the body of the elite. “This insistence on social interaction merges with satiric tone in such a way so as to be an excellent instrument for a clear, even fable – like critique of the new formations of nation state that followed the political liberation of Senegal and much of Africa”. These new formations of nation state are quite evidently a huge part of the nucleus of Sembene‘s movie. The movie opens with traditional African men kicking the colonisers out of the chamber of commerce and consequently taking their rightful roles. The satirically gelid nature of their representation becomes evident when much like the pigs of George Orwell’s animal farm they soon find themselves dressing and acting like their previous masters, in other words, “Animal farm applied to African independence”. With the fetishisation of the briefcase bribes it becomes apparent that they are still under the control of the white man as they are dominated and controlled by their colonial paper paraphernalia. The protagonist and foil to those who are not in a position to speak, El Hadji Aboucader Beye, first makes the class inequalities apparent when he asks the president to remove the poor and the polio ridden people off the streets in a key pertinacious moment. Their removal embodies their animal like positions in an extremely skewered class system. The treatment of the elite in the film is personified through the curse of impotence (Xala) which befalls upon El Hadji on the night of his third marriage. This embodiment is used to depict the impotent nature of a society where the Africans in command have assumed the role of their obdurate colonial fathers. The subject of impotence in the movie also appears to follow “El Hajji’s pursuit of material enrichment and social advancement at the expense of his compatriots”, as a stabiliser that allows the piped postcolonial prerogatives to expand until the viewer fully realises that “he is quite prepared to sacrifice his “Africanness” and grasp neo-colonial power by standing on the backs of his fellow Africans”. Power relations in the film are depicted as unfair and conformist to the previous colonial masters. Such issues are argued in 'A Call to Action' when it is said that movies such as these that surface sociocultural shifts tend to be manipulated by the, “universalisation of the money form”. A universalisation that moves me towards the capitalistic slandering evident in the movie.

Through the Africans reprising the roles of the coloniser we also find them adopting European habits and values despite keeping lip – service to African nationalism. Such a development makes the viewers aware of “the rituals that are most significant to the bourgeoisie are those of the capitalist, consumer society”. Sembene depicts this newly established society in a manner that tends to deal with both sides of the argument. The core of this virual implant is first cinematically portrayed towards the start, when the African men who over throw the white colonial oppressors, soon find themselves stripped from their traditional African clothing and now wearing business suits. Some even ironically having white bow ties which could be perceived as the neck grasping decadent position that the white men still have over the newly formed leaders. This puddle point is dried under dialogue such as “we must be African as well as modern”. But what is gradually made aware to the viewer is that these are draconian examples of the self perpetuating lies that mask the reality of the situation. From here the red carpet literally paves the way for luxury, which in this case is expressed through the indulgingly flamboyant life of the main character El Hadji. Throughout my essay I intend on following this path so as to create a clear picture of this decadent character so as to give insight into the underlying metaphors that enwrap the capitalist choices and paths in which El Hadji both follows and indulges in, while at the same time using this insight to encode meaning into one of many of the pieces of ebullient postcolonial thought that infest Sembene’s world of both contradiction and reason. As El Hadji’s story develops, one has no choice but to recognise the capitalistic cloud that is constantly floating over head. At the wedding the clearly imported cake is decorated with a figurine of a white couple. Coca Cola keeps surfacing throughout the film and as well as it appearing to be one of his main products in his ironic import business, it is also symbolically the first drink that is offered to his two previous wives at the wedding. An iconographic capitalist depiction takes its form in the movie through the use of Evian water which El Hadji is constantly seen to be drinking and it is also used to both clean and fill the radiator of his Mercedes. These are but few of the capitalist chinks in the movies armour, which in their entirety amount to a colonial dependency that seems to thread the garments of this elite society.

Like many of the postcolonial issues that Sembene arises in his film, many of them tend to weave in and out of each other to give support and strength. Breaking away from the clear capitalist distinctions that are made apparent in both the treatment of language and how African traditions are represented. One is still left with a verisimilitude of postcolonial patterns lying in wait of optical categorisation. The infectious power of the colonial voice, which in this case so happens to be French, is in many cases seen to squash that of the traditional African tongue. This first takes embodiment when we witness El Hadji slapping his daughter on the face, because she refuses to speak French before him. This incident acts as a presentiment of both the films representation of the postcolonial effect on Wolof as a language, whilst also instigating a starter to clear the postcolonial palette before feasting on other aspects of African tradition. The introduction of the curse of impotence on the film’s central narrative makes for a disequilibria that finds El Hadji resorting to more traditional methods due to complete and utter desperation. His first immersal in the African world of tradition is when he visit’s the Marabout that resides in a rural residence on the outskirts of town. The lift of the curse soon finds ground again when El Hadji’s cheque bounces. The treatment of Marabouts in this movie mark a direct stab in the heart of African ritual. A postcolonial attack which finds new positioning in the hearts of the lower class, who climb, limp and drag themselves to the fore towards the end of the movie. A resurfacing which marks and extreme bend in the postcolonial arrow that has until this point being hurtling with a growing velocity throughout the entire field of the film. At this point one must question what this projectiles destination is?


Looking at the earth on a grand scale, what becomes evident is that yes there is some level of national consciousness withstanding this viruses hybridised attack, but what becomes apparent is that at its core it is not an issue of control, a subject that most men desperately grab onto due to this being embedded in the universal instinct of man. To me it appears to be more of an underlying issue of levels of absorbance in their contemporary form. Take the shocking conclusion of Xala, in the final scene we witness the issue of control being taken apart when the beggars demand for El Hadji to be stripped. After resisting we eventually find the icon of paternal, political and capitalist power being reduced before an audience of angry misfits. Their saliva flies towards him like spears of imminent battle defeat and as their whiteness shines, whilst simultaneously trickling down his body like a glaze of honey, the uncanny resemblance of semen soon becomes apparent. This can be perceived as a metaphor for the need for the newly established African neo-colonial master to absorb, quite literally the seed, which consists of half of what is needed for a completed formation. So as to become the form which has the characteristics of both sides that are continually in opposition embedded in its dna. With both levels inherent there would also come with this a stability that may lead to a real end to all forms of both embedded and surface level colonialism. Parallel to this is the narrative conclusion to the film, which appears to finally release the irony that Sembene tenses throughout the entire film through his postcolonial prerogatives.