Quotes from Ousmane Sembene

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.

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

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

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.

Real misfortune is not just a matter of being hungry and thirsty; it is a matter of knowing that there are people who want you to be hungry and thirsty

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

At the moment the eyes of the body closed, the eyes of the mind were opened.

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.

A cool breeze laden with iodine blew in from the sea.

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.

Grandfather, I know now what it is that washes the water. It is the spirit. The water is clear and pure, but the spirit is purer still.

For a moment, the passage of the locomotive would calm the torment in their hearts, because their fellowship with the machine was deep and strong; stronger than the barriers which separated them for their employers, stronger even than the obstacle which until now had been insurmountable--the color of their skin

Je préfère devenir aveugle, être brûlée dans un incendie ou mourir par petits morceaux que d'adresser la parole à ce bouc. Ce que j'ai fait à son Vendredi, je suis prête à le refaire. Ces gens-là ne sont ni des parents, ni des amis, ils sont prêts à lécher le derrière des toubabs pour avoir des médailles, tout le monde le sait. Ne pleure plus, lève-toi, on s'en va. Moi j'ai assez vu leurs figures!