MANDABI The Postal Money Order (SN 1968. D: Ousmane Sembene)

Lecture & Film “Black Atlantic Cinema”

Lecture: Daniel Fairfax (Frankfurt)

Lecture: Symbolic Capital: Mandabi (1968) by Ousmane Sembene
An adaptation of his own novella Le Mandat, Ousmane Sembene’s Mandabi (1968) was the first feature-length film made in the Wolof language, following Senegalese independence in 1960. The protagonist Ibrahima (Makhouredia Gueye), an endearingly feckless unemployed man who lives with his two wives and a brood of children in Dakar, has his life turned upside down when a money order for 25,000 CFA francs arrives from his nephew in France. Working in an ironic mode, Sembene’s focus on the trans-national capital flows symbolized by Ibrahima’s money order highlights the continued economic control that France wields over its former African colonies.
Daniel Fairfax teaches film at Goethe-University Frankfurt, where he coordinates the international master degree in Audiovisual and Cinema Studies. He is the author of The Red Years of Cahiers du Cinéma (1968-1973 (Amsterdam University Press, 2021)), has translated the writings of Jean-Louis Comolli, Christian Metz and Jean-Pierre Meunier.

Film: MANDABI (The Postal Order. SN 1968. D: Ousmane Sembene)
“Ibrahima, an amiable unemployed man living in Dakar with his two wives and a host of children, is thrown off balance when a money order for 25,000 CFA francs arrives from his nephew in France. While he is supposed to keep most of the money for his nephew’s return to Senegal, Ibrahima becomes entangled in a bureaucratic nightmare as he tries to establish his identity status in order to cash the money order. Ousmane Sembene’s MANDABI, an adaptation of his own satirical novel Le Mandat, was the first feature-length film to be made in the Wolof language after Senegal’s independence in 1960.” (Daniel Fairfax)

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