Mandabi

Tea time in Dakar

Ousmane Sembene's Mandabi (The Money Order), from 1968, was the first African language film; specifically Wolof, a language of Gambia, Mauritania, and, in this case, Senegal. Set primarily in a Dakar shanty town, the film pictures a country dealing with the vestiges of colonialism. Senegal had gained its independence from France in 1960, but was still very much under its economic sway. The Senegalese elite retained French as its official language. Ibrahim, the protagonist of the film, receives a large money order from a nephew who is working as a street sweeper in Paris. Because he lacks proper identification or even a birth certificate, his attempts to cash the money order proves ridiculously difficult. Illiterate and not able to speak the language of Senegal's bureaucrats, Ibrahim is a lamb to the slaughter in a nation of wolves.

Mandabi is a satire of Senegal under the regime of President Senghor who, despite his academic and Socialist bona fides, was considered a lackey of France by the Senegalese Left. Sembene was certainly of that ilk. He characterized Mandabi as a denunciation of the "dictatorship of the bourgeoisie". Sembene had worked as a laborer and was a trade unionist before embarking on a career as a writer. (Mandabi had been published as a novella in 1965) Pivoting to filmmaking, Sembene studied at the Gorky Film Studio in Moscow. Mandabi certainly exposes the systemic corruption and greed of post-colonial Africa. Like in fellow traveler RW Fassbinder's Fox and His Friends, a sudden windfall for the protagonist brings on unwanted attention from gold diggers, creditors, and leeches.

Sembene engages in Brechtian juxtapositions of traditional African culture and modern Western influence to expose the dislocated nature of his country's culture. Senegal is bifurcated and alienated in his vision. Frilly bras and white plastic baby dolls coexist with Islamic prayers and ritualistic ablutions. Though a Marxist, Sembene eschewed socialist realism. It is Mandabi's humor and colorful parade of humanity that makes its bitter message palatable to a relatively right wing reptile like myself. The use of music in Mandabi, as in all Sembene's films, is sublime.

Almost all socio-political oriented commentators have steered clear of addressing the role of Islam in the film. Sembene certainly regards Ibrahim's polygamy with feminist irony, but the moments of prayer and devotion are handled respectfully. In contrast to the dog eat dog machinations of the daily hunt for mammon, prayer and rituals, like sharing tea, provide communitarian gatherings of solace and rapprochement amid the hubbub. These are rare moments of calm and reflection in a world containing myriad hustles. Moments like these signal that Sembene, like Jacques Tati, senses the losses to humanity resulting from modernity. Because its complexities and contradictions transcend the politics of 1968, Mandabi stands as one of that year's better films.