Abstract
Senegalese author and filmmaker Sembene Ousmane is justly touted as a radical feminist attuned to the power of women in colonial Africa in his fiction and his films. Critics correctly hail his 1960 novel, God’s Bits of Wood , as the place he embodies this radical feminism most decidedly. However, none of these analyses accounts for the very real limits to their liberation that the women in the novel face—both from colonial ideologies and traditional Oulof family structures. In this paper, reading Sembene alongside the socialist feminisms of Friedrich Engels, Maria Mies, Selma James, and Mariarosa Dalla Costa and paying particular attention to the issue of colonialism in each of these works, I demonstrate that Sembene is a theorist not just of women’s potential for liberation, but also of the very real limits they face in their struggles for liberation.
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a callDisclaimer: All third-party content on this website/platform is and will remain the property of their respective owners and is provided on "as is" basis without any warranties, express or implied. Use of third-party content does not indicate any affiliation, sponsorship with or endorsement by them. Any references to third-party content is to identify the corresponding services and shall be considered fair use under The CopyrightLaw.
