Ousmane Sembène is arguably Africa's foremost film director and one of the continent's leading writers. Indeed, he is rightly regarded as the “father of the African cinema”. Sembène was born in Ziguinchor (Casamance) in southern Sénégal in 1923 and began life as a fisherman, following in the line of work of his father. Sembène's achievements are all the more impressive given the fact that he received very little formal education, mostly at l'Ecole de Ceramique (trade school) at Marsassoum where he remained until the age of 15. He moved to Dakar to work as plumber/bricklayer and apprentice mechanic and in 1939 was drafted into the French army in the war against Nazi Germany. In 1942 he joined the Forces Françaises Libres (Fr

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First published 30 June 2002 ; revised 18 April 2008

Citation: Nzegwu, Femi. "Sembène Ousmane". The Literary Encyclopedia. 30 June 2002.
[http://www.litencyc.com/php/speople.php?rec=true&UID=5016, accessed 9 February 2010.]