Everything Begins in the Middle: Xala and Futurity

Xala is perhaps the film that best encapsulates Ousmane Sembene’s entire career. It also hints at the future of African cinemas and the next generations of African and/or African diasporic filmmakers. To pull at this thread, my reading of Xala goes through the prism of African futurity, as understood by Senegalese philosopher Felwine Sarr and others, and focuses on the final scene and on several female characters. Initially laser-focused on colonial and postcolonial tensions, African cinemas remained largely pessimistic in their developmental stages. While concerns with postcolonialism tinged with heavy doses of pessimism have somewhat remained the norm, a variety of more hopeful cinematic productions have appeared in the new century. In short, pessimism and optimism have been clashing in contemporary African films, much as they were in Xala’s final scene fifty years ago. What might this moment teach us about African futurity more specifically, though?