Power to the Women!

            Ever since they left Thies, the women had not stopped singing.  As soon as one group              allowed the refrain to die, another picked it up, and new verses were born at the hazard of chance or inspiration, one word leading to another and each finding, in its turn, its rhythm and its place.  No one was very sure any longer where the song began, or if it had an ending.  It rolled out over its own length, like the movement of a serpent.  It was as long as a life. –192 Semben Ousmane  God’s Bits of Wood

            Throughout God’s Bits of Wood, the position of women shifts from the acceptance of their traditionally oppressive roles and culminates into a unified battle against this oppression, which this passage depicts.  Though their battle is not for the struggle of women alone, their activism in the face of oppression unites and unifies their strengths, which the men on either side of the fight (the Europeans and the Africans) can no longer deny.

            Contextually, the placement of this passage is significant and can be found as the women are marching for days and nights without end to Dakar in an effort to fight alongside the strikers for the equal rights that the Europeans have unfairly denied them.  It is in the face of hardship, hunger, thirst, and exhaustion that the women “had not stopped singing”.

            The nature of the singing is symbolic of a fight for change and the fight for the recognition of the humanity that has long been denied to their people.  Though the women were often thought to lack strength enough to fight for themselves, their continued singing while facing these hardships challenges these restrictive and oppressive boundaries.  The singing not only presents their strength, but also represents the faith they have in each other as a unified front,  that with “one word leading to another and each finding, in its turn, its rhythm and its place,” the fight for equality would never die, only be “picked up” by another.  It is the song itself, representative of their activism, that Ousmane describes to be as “long as a life” that will ultimately live to challenge and disassemble the patriarchal system imposed upon them by the Europeans (which they are outwardly fighting) as well as the systems of oppression that exist within their own culture.

            Though there are moments in the novel where the singing is subdued or even stops, it is always picked up again.  In fact, the novel ends with Maimouna, the blind woman, singing.  Ousmane ends the novel in this way to present the fundamental changes that have taken place.  By the end, not only have the woman challenged the patriarchal system and redefined their roles, but will also continue to do so perhaps with “new verses” and new songs to sing.

Notice that it's a woman on the cover >> 

Objective Point of View in Sia

                While viewing the film Sia: The Dream of the Python, it is essential to recognize the objective point of view of the camera and how it affects both the narrative and its respective audience.  Through this technique the narrative is able to portray the story of Sia, which revolves around the event of a woman being chosen to be sacrificed to the Python-god, in a detached manner.  This removed approach structures the narrative in such a way that allows the audience to have a personal response to each scene without attaching them to any one character.  In a Short Guide to Writing about Film, Timothy Corrigan explains that this technique does not confine the audience “to any one person’s perspective”, but rather allows them to experience the narrative from a more objective standpoint (49). 

            The first scene of the film reinforces this idea as it presents the audience as the spectators, not participators, in a story that is being retold.  In the opening scene the camera, almost voyeuristically so, approaches a group of cloaked men who seem to be participating in some kind of ritualistic gathering.  One man in particular begins speaking of a legend that has “the privilege of being ageless”. Not only does this scene establish that the narrative itself is literally a story (a technique that furthers detachment), but it also introduces the camera’s role as an objective lens through which the audience will view it.

            Though the title of the movie is the same as the name of the woman that is chosen to be sacrificed, the objective point of view throughout the film suggests that the conflicts that each individual faces as a result of this decision are just as, if not more, important than the struggle of Sia alone.  In fact, the majority of the film does not follow Sia, but rather follows the peripheral characters that are affected by the priests’ demand that Sia is to be the sacrifice.  For instance, Walkane, the head of the tyrant king’s army must choose between upholding the “good” of the state or the happiness of his family.  The objective point of view allows the audience to experience both his acts of evil and of good without attaching them to his personal perspective.  After illuminating an issue Walkane must face, the camera may then focus on the tyrant king, the mother and father of Sia, etc., with the same result.

            Ultimately, the camera presents a detached narrative, allowing the viewer to understand the story on a broader, rather than intimate, level (this is not to say that there are no intimate moments in the film). Without being aligned by the camera to the point of view of a particular character, the audience must decipher for themselves how to respond to the internal and external conflicts that each of these individuals must face within the confines of a corrupted society.