Islam in Senegalese literature and film

Abstract

Opening ParagraphIn few other places in the creative traditions of sub-Saharan Africa is the factor of Islam more prominent and influential than in Senegal. Manifested in form and subject matter and spanning a wide cross-section of talent in both the traditional and modern media of creative expression, this prominence and influence can be attributed to a number of factors ranging from the artistic maturity, religious sensibility, intellectual astuteness and ideological orientation of individual artists, to the more general impact that Islam as a dominant religious force is perceived to have had on secular life in Senegal. These factors to a large extent determine the various ways in which individual Senegalese artists define themselves and their art vis-è-vis Islam in particular and society in general. These definitions are creatively translated into choice of form, thematic focus and, to use a cliché, ‘message’.