David Murphy is professor of French at the University of Strathclyde and author of Sembène: Imagining Alternatives in Film and Fiction.
The Senegalese director Ousmane Sembène earned his reputation as the father of African cinema with a series of brilliant movies. Socialist and anti-colonial politics had a profound influence on Sembène, who was also one of Africa’s great novelists.
In post–World War I Paris, wounded Senegalese veteran Lamine Senghor used his experience to denounce the evils of imperialism. A militant in the French Communist Party, he married working-class politics with a consistent anti-racism — putting the unity of the colonized peoples at the heart of the fight against oppression and injustice.