LA NOIRE DE…

Black Girl, Ousmane Sembène’s first feature film, consciously explores the nature and effects of cultural domination. Black Girl records the story of a young black Senegalese woman, Diouana, brought to Antibes by a French couple previously based in Dakar. Under the mistaken assumption that she has been employed as a governess for the couple’s children, Diouana quickly learns that she must do the cooking, laundry, cleaning, and babysitting. Without salary and any friends, ignored by her employers, confined into the house except for shopping, and disillusioned by the sad discrepancy between the realities of her life in France and her old dreams about France as a Mecca of beautiful people, fancy life and adventure, Diouana finally commits suicide.