Senegalese author and director Ousmane Sembène's 1966 film La Noire De…, which translated means "Black Girl", created history as one of the first African films to be seen and known by international audiences. Based on Sembène's short story of the same name, the film speaks on the relations between the French and the Senegalese after Senegal received its independence from France in 1960. Released six years after their independence from France, this film speaks to the relationship between the two countries written by Sembène, a Senegalese native. Black Girl takes a political connection and embodies it in the form of its protagonist as she fights for her freedom against the antagonists, her French employers. Sembène's creativity transfers from the paper to the screen in this film. It gives you everything that you need by getting to the point. Because of the seriousness of the subject, there is no need to add anything else.
Black Girl takes place in both France and Senegal, showing Senegal mostly through flashbacks. The film focuses on a naïve young Senegalese woman named Diouanna (Mbissine Thérèse Diop) as she heads to France to be a caretaker for a French couple's children. When she arrives in France, her employers tell her that she will have the opportunity to explore the country. It is soon proven false as Diouanna cleans her employer's small apartment and has yet to see the children she is supposed to take care of. Her employers tell her to do tasks that she is not supposed to be responsible for. Through flashbacks, we learn that Diouanna was selected by her female employer to be a nanny for them while they resided in Dakar. During this time, her only task was to take care of the children while others would cook and clean. During her time taking care of the children, her employers were friendly to her, but their demeanor changes when they move Diouanna to France. They yell at her, and they tell her to do things that are not her responsibility and all for a smaller pay than she was expecting. Diouanna feels like a prisoner, so in a final act of freedom, she packs her bags to indicate her leaving. However, in the only surprise of the film, she slits her throat in the bathroom and dies. To amend the situation, the male employer travels back to Dakar, searching for Diouanna's mother to return Diouanna's things and pay the mother. Her mother denies the money and walks away. The male employer walks back to his car and drives away as the people of Dakar watch him leave.
Black Girl shows a form of modern-day slavery through the character of Diouanna. When picked to be a nanny, her employer selects her out of a lineup of African women sitting on the corner, looking for one that behaves well. Her employers treat her as less-than. Her female employer tells her friend that Diouanna does not speak French, even though it is clear that she does through her voiceovers. The employer's friend finds Diouanna to be feral for this. Her employer tries to belittle her by forcing her to wear an apron, change her clothes, and remove her heels. She claims this is because she is "not going to a party" and is too well-dressed for her job. Her employers and their guests reduce her to be a silent servant and an addition to their collection of African artwork displayed in their home. At a dinner party, Diouanna's female employer tells her to cook an African meal, even though she does not know how to cook. A male guest also kisses her cheek because he has "never kissed a negress”. Much like the African mask on the apartment's white walls, Diouanna is a black object that sticks out among her white surroundings.
This film delivers a great deal of emotion and artistry with a run time of just under one hour. While being visually simplistic throughout most of the film, there are rare moments in which the camera will intentionally focus on an impactful image. For instance, when Diouanna first arrives from France, she is wearing a white dress with black spots, white earrings, and a white scarf that contrasts against her dark skin. This image amplifies when she stands in front of a white concrete wall. There are also moments when the film invokes happiness through the upbeat piano playing as Diouanna drives down the coast. This same song plays in the scene following Diouanna's death as people sit on the beach and read the newspaper, in which there is a short article telling of Diouanna's death. The joy they feel from this scene indicates the naiveté of the French people as someone has died due to the false promises of the happiness they would find in France. The film's simplicity also adds to the overall artistry and the message that the film wishes to portray. Each scene adds another element to Diouanna's character and tells us only what needs to be known. As viewers, we don't even know the name of Diouanna's employers. All we know is that she calls the woman "Madame". Her employers are nameless because it doesn't matter what their names are. You must only know how Diouanna sees and addresses them to understand the relationship between them.
Throughout this film, we see a mask shown in several different locations. The first time we see the mask, it is on Diouanna's employer's wall. We learn that Diouanna bought the mask from a little boy through a series of flashbacks and gifted it to her employers. They happily accept her gift, saying, "it looks like the real thing", and add it to their collection of other African masks. After protesting her work, Diouanna reclaims the mask from her employer's wall. Curious about the mask's location, the Madame finds it in Diouanna's room and quarrels with her for its possession. Eventually, Madame's husband steps in and sides with Diouanna. After Diouanna's death, the husband takes the mask with him when returning to Dakar, and the little boy steals it back. As he leaves, the little boy follows him, wearing the mask and scaring him off. The mask is an iconic prop in the film because wherever Diouanna is, so is the mask. In this way, they are connected. In the end, as the little boy stares through the mask at the man, it is not the boy looking through the mask, but Diouanna because even after her death, she is still there and watching.
This film was saddening and reflective of black and white relations of the time. Being a woman of color myself, I found myself connecting to Diouanna. Though she is fictional, I felt that I got to know and understand her in our short hour together. This film was simple, occasionally to a fault in that you are sometimes puzzled. With some harsh transitions and long quiet scenes, one could find the outdated quality to be laughable. However, this piece was impactful and brings to life the relationship between two countries and two different lifestyles, then shows how they interact with each other. While one could say that the employers are innocent in that they are merely products of their society, I find that they are not blameless in this situation. To them, Diouanna was both a slave and another piece of artwork added to their collection. This film doesn't end happily and with reason. Diouanna didn't finish her life happily, and often life doesn't either. Having a film from Senegal, we get to see their perspective and take on French-Senegalese relationships, instead of from the Europeans' perspective, as history usually is. Hopefully, one can get past the occasionally awkward transitions and appreciate the beauty of this film. For this reason, I'm giving it 4/5 Senegalese Stars.
