The Father Of African Cinema
Sembène learned filmmaking because he believed the novel — his first medium — could not reach the masses in Africa. Cinema was his tool for decolonization. Black Girl, his 1966 masterpiece, is the first feature film by a Sub-Saharan African director.
Language As Liberation
Sembène made films in Wolof, not French. This was a political act. By choosing the language of his subjects over the language of the colonizer, he reclaimed cinema as an African art form.