Gyasi, Kwaku Addae. "From God's Bits of Wood to Smouldering Charcoal : Decolonization, Class Struggle, and the Role of Women's Consciousness in Postcolonial West Africa."  French Colonial History 5 (2004): 173-191.

Kwaku Gyasi’s article compares and contrasts the elements of class struggle, African female power and hopes for post-colonial reform between Ousmane Sembène’s God’s Bits of Wood (1960) and Tiyambe Zeleza’s Smoldering Charcoal (1992). At its outset, the article briefly lays out the historical context in which Sembène released his novel, describing the emergence of a heavily French-influenced class of intellectuals and writers, and a religious elite class influenced mainly by Islam. The article was lengthy, so I focused on Gyasi’s argument about women as a social/political force. She shows how Sembène’s women represent a new force of assertive, combative individuals that reject Western stereotypes of gender roles and personality traits. These women are “architects of their own destiny,” and are portrayed as protagonists rather than submissive sidekicks to the male characters. Additionally, Gyasi expounds upon the women protagonists’ refusal to speak French, or to speak to white men.

Gyasi’s analysis of the characters and themes in God’s Bits of Wood reminded me a lot of Xala. The portrayal of female protagonists, in particular, smacked of Xala’s character Rama, who refused to speak El Hadji in French, and later on confronts her father about his treatment of Adja (his first wife). Not only this, but Rama tries to galvanize Raja and her brother into action, engaging them in dialogue about the unfairness of polygamy and the men that choose it. Additionally, the historical introduction of the article fit well with the opening scene of Xala, when the colonial powers are replaced by locals that end up idolizing and emulating the culture they supposedly kicked out.

Thomas, Lynn M.  Politics of the womb : women, reproduction, and the state in Kenya.  Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 2003.

Chapter three of Lynn Thomas’s book Politics of the womb: women, reproduction, and the state in Kenya talks about the ban on female excision (female genital cutting, a cultural and religious tradition in many African people groups) in Kenya from 1956-1959.  The ban resulted in a significant backlash, not from indigenous men in positions of leadership, but rather from young indigenous women.  Girls organized excisions on their own, as it was firmly believed that the coming-of-age ritual was necessary to live morally and even birth healthy children.  However, the girls didn’t follow all of the rituals, celebrations and formats of the traditional excision ceremony, which resulted in the older generation of women criticizing, and even not recognizing the excisions as legitimate.  Interestingly, this marked a significant shift in women’s mentality in Kenya.  The new generation of women represented a hybrid between rebellion against authority (both colonial and traditional), and preservation of tradition.

This article relates to the film Xala, and specifically to my thesis, in the way that demonstrates how one people group navigated the friction between traditionalism and modernism.  While the girls from this time period rejected the imposition of colonial modernism, they nonetheless diverged from complete traditionalism as well.  This generation even stood in rebellion to their maternal elders, who insisted upon the most “traditional” and thorough rituals associated with female excision.  The character and actions of Rama in Sembène’s film run parallel to the Kenyan girls’ attitude.

Mushengyezi, Aaron. "Reimaging Gender and African Tradition? Ousmane Sembene's Xala revisited." Africa Today 51, Number 1 (Fall 2004): 47-62.

Aaron Mushengyezi’s Reimaging Gender and African Tradition? Ousmane Sembène’s Xala revisited is written in direct response to Ousamane Sembène’s film Xala. The article challenges Sembène’s polarization of Western and African influences in post-colonial Africa, setting out to raise questions about the director’s vision for the country. The author argues that Sembène romanticizes and idealizes as he reimages Africa for foreign audiences, demonizing Western modernity and idolizing the “purity” of African tradition. It critique’s Sembène’s views of gender, his reimaging Africa and the symbolism of the Xala in an attempt to uncover the director’s worldview.

The article questions whether Sembène includes gender in his list of polarized worldviews, as he depicts males as incompetent, greedy and weak, and females as redemptive, wise and more “masculine” in spirit than their physiological counterparts. Although each of the female characters is comparatively strong, they individually represent different point on the continuum between African traditionalism and Western modernism. The author gives special attention to Rama, Sembène’s idealized heroine - educated yet untouched by Western corruption, speaking her mind, both true to her African heritage and disapproving of her father’s polygamy. The author, however, cites Rama as the primary example of Sembène’s idealism. He argues that such a person does not exist in Africa. The author questions Sembène’s criticism of the paternal system of family and government, hoping to determine what he would suggest in its stead.

The article does admit that Xala raises important questions as to whether Western modernity is solely to blame for the impotence of post-colonial African government. At its conclusion, it explores the paradoxical metaphor of the xala as both a curse and a redemptive force in cleansing El Hadji, the main character, of his Western and African fetishes.

Okom, Mojúbàolú Olúfúnké.  “African Women and Power: Reflections on the Perils of Unwarranted Cosmopolitanism.”  Jenda: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies 1:1.

This article explores African women’s positions of power in the pre and post-colonial eras.  The author first argues that it is incorrect to describe pre-colonial African women’s roles as “traditional,” as they had been steadily changing for centuries.  Not only that, but they varied dramatically from people group to people group.  The author focuses on one particular people group, the Yorùbá of Southern Nigeria, to demonstrate the rights and power exercised by women in the capacities of mothers, wives, daughters, sisters, political officials, owners of capital, monarchs, deities and religious leaders.  The author shows how women’s anatomical role as child-bearers was a position of honor in pre-colonial Africa.  Of particular interest was the rigid power structure within each clan of the Yorùbá people group.  Women belonging to the clan actually had authority over men that chose to marry into the clan.  Although the clan still operated as a patrimony, being a clan insider trumped sex.

As it relates to Xala, this article gives several real examples of how women in Africa can and do exercise power.  In Xala, we saw this in the way El Hadji’s first wife explicitly pointed out her superiority to the second and third wives both to her husband and to the other wives.  She could essentially hold her husband’s treatment of the second and third wives in check, and demand respect and submission from the other wives.  The author would also argue that many cultural “traditions” claimed by the males in the film were actually much less traditional than they claimed when one examines Africa’s history, which is very interesting.