Dorothy J Burk

12/1/09
Film
Nicole Koschmann
Dear Colonialism: on Black Girl
(film response 4)
Ousmane Sembenes Black Girl is the striking and melancholy story of Diouana, a young Senegalese woman
who travels to the French Riviera at the behest of her white employers. Diouana began working for the family while
they were in Senegal, as their nursery maid. At first she is excited to go to France; the woman for whom she works
has told her of fabulous shops and points out the beautiful view of the French coastline upon her arrival. It is not
long before Diouana discovers that she is essentially a domestic slave, brought to France to be the house maid of
the family for whom she works. At times, she is a showpiece; there is a sad scene where Diouana is serving lunch to
guests and one man jumps up and kisses her, exclaiming that he has never kissed a black girl before.
Throughout the film, Diouana asserts her identity as opposed to her employers through internal monologue.
She tells herself that her life in France is the kitchen, the bathroom, the living room, her bedroom. She realizes that
she is defined, to her employers, as those things which she does. Due to her constant workload, Diouana never goes
outside, never sees whoever it is that actually lives in France. This is quite the opposite of her life in Senegal, where
she went home to her family every night, had a boyfriend, and was part of a community. The type of colonialist
discourse which Stam amd Spence discuss, and which Solanas and Getino avidly detest, is highlighted in Sembenes
work. Diouana becomes commodified, her country occupied and torn, her pleasure in life destroyed by employers
who have essentially imprisoned her as their domestic.
The metaphor for colonialism, and anti-colonialism, which stood out the most to me in the film was the
mask which Diouana presented to her employer in Senegal. From what we can tell, it is a piece of Senegalese folk
art which the little boy in Diouanas neighborhood (who is possibly her brother) runs around with. After Diouana
has presented the mask, we see all the masks the French family ownsall the trophies of pieces of Africa
conquered, no doubt. Upon Diouanas arrival in France it is hanging on the familys wall, one of the only
decorations on the otherwise barren (and white) walls. The mask demonstrates the colonial possession of the
Senegalese people and their country; it represents their culture turned into a fetish object.
At the end of the film, Diouana gives back the shackles of her servitude: her apron and her wages. She goes
into the bathroom, hangs up her housecoat, and kills herself in the very same tub we saw her scrubbing at the
beginning of the film. And what a heartbreaking ending...as a viewer I thought many times during the movie, leave!
leave! But of course, the issue of colonialism is not so simple as asking the invading empire to leave; Sembene was

true to his metaphor by demonstrating what colonialism has meant and continues to mean: the death of not only
cultures and ways of life, but of people and their souls as well.
The very last scene of the film shows Diouanas little brother following her employer out of their
neighborhood after he has come to offer Diouanas mother money (which she refuses). The little boy puts on the
mask and follows the man. Though there is nothing inherently threatening about the boy, the scene seems to have
the revolutionary potential which Solanas and Getino advocate. Its as if the little boy is saying, Dear Colonialism:
get the hell out. I, in all my glory, as I was before you came and will be after you leave, am going to chase you out.