Djibril Diop Mambéty: Sounds in the Keys of Ordinary Folk

DJ IBRIL DIOP MAM BETY SOUNDS IN THE KEYS OF ORDINARY FOLK Film still from Hyenas, 1992 M bye B. Cha m 6 8 > N k a Journal of Contemporary African Art D jibril Diop Marnbety is celebrated as the bad boy of African cinema, the quintessential iconocl ast whose creative acts of insurgence against rigid established conventions have garne red him critical and popular acclaim as one of, if not the most invent ive and sophisticated filmmakers in Africa. One element that stands out in his creative thinking and practice is the premium he puts on the imperative of invention, of difference , of the free play of the imagination in all domains of life. In an interview with Catherine Ruelle, he iterates th e necessit y of choosing between" ... la recherche et Ie constat," insistin g that for him, the filmmaker "...doit aller beaucoup plus loin que le constat," and that it is an obligation of the African filmmaker to "...reinventer le cinema let] .. . chercher et trouver un langage africain, excluant le bavardage et s'interessant davantage al'image et au son,"! In pursuit of such a program, Djibril posits aggression as de rigeur for any artist seriously invested in change; he makes a case for its value as a necessary aesthetic strategy, a required tool for invention. In short, a moral obligation: "Ie pense que notre devoir est d'aggression. Si nous voulons changer quelque chose il nous faut 'aggresser' le public: l'agacer, le mettre mal al'aise, sans esperer tout de suite des resultats tangibles."2 In this article I want to focus on music (and sound, in general) in his short film, Le Franc (1994) , to reflect on the nature and complexities of Djibril's attention to and deployment of form, and how this rhymes with his ideology of art and aggression, as formulated in the statements above. I want to argue that much of the artistic innovation and the social and moral appeal and force of Le Franc, in particular, and other films by Djibril, in general, such as Touki Bouki (1973), Hyenes (1992), and La Petite vendeuse du Soleil (1998), derive from Djibril's compassionate Ithe language of aggression, notwith standing], parodic, nuanced and radically transformative engagement with a broad range of the musical styles and sonic elements of his environment. So central is music and sound to the very fabric of Djibril's film narratives that it can be seen as retaining a certain measure of aesthetic independence, an autonomy that confers on music the status of character, a narrative entity unto itself that aggressively calls attentions to itself and compels equal analytic focus as the visual and other narrative elements that have so far been the focus of mu ch of the critical commentary on the work of Djibril. Th e admonition by Robert Bresson regarding image and sound-"Image and sound must not repeat each other, but must work each in turn through a sort of relay"-has a particularly apt reson ance in the work of Djibril where music and sound constitute a productive locus of invention and critical discourse . In man y ways, Le Franc is about music-music as subject as well as narrative and analytic device. Dedicated to Billy Congorna, Roberto Fonseca and all the mu sicians of the world, the film pays tribute to a particular musician, Billy Congorna, and his brand of music, goumbe, and musical instrument , the congoma, all figures of marginality in the sociocultural context of urban Senegal. Djibril also deploys this brand of music, as well as others, such as the Wolofized blues of Aminata Fall, dubbed the Mahalia Jackson of Senegal, the marna tunes of Roberto Fonseca of Cabo Verde origin, along with other sounds to spin a tale of money, morality, and ordinary folk in their encounter with the economic hurdle of devaluation. The unobtrusive convergence of music at these two levels, music as subject matter and music as form, works effectively to draw attention to and underscore the idea of valuation/re-valuation Iof a marginalized art form tgoumbe music) and artists] in a socio-economic context of currency and moral devaluation, a major thrust of the story...