Nationalist African Cinema by Niang Sada;

Author:Niang, Sada;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: undefined
Publisher: Lexington Books
Published: 2012-03-15T00:00:00+00:00

In Badou Boy (1970), either Al Demba, Badou Boy or even the Parisian voice-over could have been the narrator of the story. After all, Ousmane Sembène’s Borom Sarret (1966) had attempted the technique of the voiceover four years earlier, and in 1969, Mambéty had adopted a similar narrative structure in Contras’ City (1968). Yet in Badou Boy (1970), none of the characters visible on screen uses the first person pronoun to narrate the events. Al Demba, Badou Boy, and the viewer are in the same position. They hear exactly the same story, see exactly the same thing thus deferring any authority either of them might have acquired through a narrating position. Further, although we hear a male voice address Al Demba and issue orders to him using the authoritative first person pronoun “I,” we do not see who is speaking and can only guess that it is a police superintendent. Even then, as we pointed out earlier, the credibility of this voice is much undermined by its failed promises, vain threats, and useless pretenses. Authority in Badou Boy (1970) does not go beyond the affected diction of the voice, Al’s uniform, or the oft repeated image of the prison. The impossibility to identify the voice, and the reluctance of Al to arrest the boy he has been pursuing since the start of the film, all combine to create irresolvable paradoxes in the narrative. All that is left is a multiplicity of points of view, ultimately converging towards an oppositional possibility. Through its parodic and postmodern features Badou Boy (1970) “refines our sensitivity to differences and reinforces our ability to tolerate the incommensurable. Its principle is not the expert’s homology, but the inventor’s paralogy” (Lyotard 1984: xxv). Such an approach will resurface in Hyenas.

Djibril Diop Mambéty on the set of Hyenas (1992)

Photo Courtesy of Madieye Mbaye

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