Ousmane Sembene Quotes

The development of Africa will not happen without the effective participation of women. Our forefathers' image of women must be buried once for all.

It isn't those who are taken by force, put in chains, and sold as slaves who are the real slaves; it is those who will accept it, morally and physically.

However long it stays in the river the tree-trunk will never turn into a crocodile.

I think cinema is needed throughout Africa, because we are lagging behind in the knowledge of our own history. I think we need to create a culture that is our own. I think that images are very fascinating and very important to that end. But right now, cinema is only in the hands of film-makers because most of our leaders are afraid of cinema.

Actually, even our virility depends on the gaze and the control of women. Without women, we cannot do anything. I think it's a good thing.

The only way for us to come out of poverty is to work hard. Poverty means begging throughout the world.

Nobody can deny that we have a lot of wars going on; brothers killing brothers; we have a lot of diseases and catastrophes. But on the other hand, we have a majority of individuals, both men and women, who are struggling on a daily basis in a heroic way and the outcome of whose struggle leaves no doubt. This is a struggle whose purpose is not to seize power, and I think the strength of our entire society rests on that struggle.

In our society, talking about sex is still a taboo, and of course many village chiefs don't want to hear about that issue. "You are trying to deviate us from our way of life, our traditions." And of course the argument they give is that these traditions date back to before our birth, and actually they accuse us of being funded by the outside world to subvert their way of life.

I am really unable to talk about my life - I don't know my life. I've travelled a lot and this is the life that I have lived, but that doesn't mean that I know myself.

I think what we need is goodwill because now our struggle is harder because it is an economic struggle. And now Europe is organising itself. So I think there needs to be a rupture between Africa and Europe, and all the international laws being conceived here in the west have to be revisited and changed.