Negritude: A Dialogue between Senghor and Soyinka by Manthia Diawara (review)

Manthia Diawara is one of the significant scholars of African cinema. As Kenneth Harrow notes about Diawara’s book African Cinema: Politics and Culture (Indiana University Press, 1992), “his study of cinema production in various African countries . . . set the stage for many major critical approaches that would later inspire other scholars that emerged after him, in many ways. Among other contributions he promoted the use of archival research into the directions taken in Anglophone, Lusophone, and Francophone cinema” (“ARS Forum: What’s New in African Cinema? Introduction,” African Studies Review 58 [3], 2015).

It is not surprising that Diawara has also tried his hand at filmmaking itself—specifically documentaries in form of “cine-essays” in which the filmmaker, as Harrow says, serves as “guide commentator.” The recurring role of the “guide commentator” is evident in his recent film, Negritude: A Dialogue between Senghor and Soyinka. With Diawara as the narrator, the work offers a critical visual critique on some of the exegeses and tenets of négritude, which Leopord Senghor espoused during his lifetime, and of Soyinka’s assessment of the concept. Diawara juxtaposes archival footage of interviews with Senghor on the dialectics and practices of négritude with real time interviews with Soyinka in order to create a meaningful dialogue.

The work is divided into ten episodes with titles such as “Migration, Restitution and Europe,” “Imagination within Africa,” “Multiculturalism,” and “Negritude as Universalism,” each of which treats négritude and other questions connected with culture, the social history of Africa, colonial and postcolonial matters, democracy, politics, political economy, capitalism, and dictatorship. In each episode Diawara explores how the concept of négritude, via the contributions of Senghor and Soyinka, developed and was transformed (as well as deconstructed), leading to its status as a global phenomenon and influence not only on European perspectives on race relations, but also on African art and architecture, and the pernicious effects of neocolonialism. While the fashioning of négritude and the controversies surrounding the term were prominent issues of the twentieth century, Diawara emphasizes its continuing relevance in the twenty-first century.

Diawara plays the role of cultural courier by evoking elements of the African world, and the subversively transformative elements of modernism or postmodern lifestyles, in an already threatened cultural ambience. For instance, while he depicts aspects of négritude in theatrical performances, or in the performance of a griot playing his ngoni, he places these traditional tropes of art within the frames of daily life in the cities, demonstrating the constant transformation that comes with globalization. Another aspect of the film that merits mention is the fact that Senghor’s interviews were recorded in French, while those of Soyinka were conducted in English, which stresses the continued hegemonic status of these languages in Africa.

Diawara’s documentary was partly inspired by two of Soyinka’s articles: “L. S. Senghor and Negritude: ‘J’accuse, mais, je pardonne’” and “Negritude and the Gods of Equity,” included in the book The Burden of Memory, Muse of Forgiveness (Oxford University Press, 2010). Both essays offer a critical and humane tribute to Senghor and his commitment to négritude, along with Soyinka’s dense understanding of the concept and how it has managed to persist as a global phenomenon and cultural practice.

Diawara’s documentary attests to his profound intellectual depth. The film traces the historical development of a tradition from its earliest beginnings to our present times, and its potential to influence generations to come.