Abstract
In the film Xala, Ousmane Sembene's interrogation of gender, African tradition, and in postindependence Africa is problematic in many ways. While Sembene reimages gender and tradition in contemporary Africa, his vision is also surreal and romanticized. The paper critiques several binary oppositions which Sembene seems to create in Xala: between the decadence of and the purity of African tradition, and between revolutionary, masculine women and villainous, feminine men. The paper raises questions regarding Sembene's vision for Africa: is his symbolic depiction of the xala (the of impotence on the African elite) as at once the curse of Western colonialism and convincing? and does he see modernity as an entirely negative force in Africa?
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