| dc.description.abstract | This thesis entitled "Tradition and Social Change in
the works of Sembene Ousmane" investigates the treatment of
traditional African institutions in selected works of
fiction by Ousmane.
institutions to the present from Ousmane's point of view.
Our analysis starts from the premise that SembeneOusmane's
work of art has a didactic purpose: to educate the target
audience about the necessity of social change. To
communicate this message, Ousmane has to address the issue
of tradition and state, unequivocally, its place in the
world of his fiction. This is crucial because the target
audience--the masses-- is still largely traditional. The
message would only be meaningful if Ousmane's opinion On
tradition is explicit.
The thesis has addressed the extreme and controversial
critical views on Ousmane, some of which build on his
cynical remarks on Negritude to conclude that he is
contemptuous of traditional culture. Others harp on his
advocacy for African consciousness to accuse him of total
refusal to accommodate ideas from outside Africa. This work
takes this controversy and Ousmane's attitude towards
African institutions (as is evident in his work) as its
point of departure. The work also investigated the roles
allocated to the youth and the old in the struggle for
social change to expose Ousmane's attitude towards
traditional association of wisdom and Jeadership ability
with the old and relegation of the youth to anonymity. This
analysis therefore explicates the mode of social change
advocated by Ousmane vis-a-vis age in the traditional
African context.
Our investigation has exposed a new definition of
kinship relationship in the new ideal society of Ousmane's
fiction and shown the importance of relationship with the
outside world. Refusal to open one's window to events and
inventions outside one's own society is portrayed in images
and symbols of incest.
The analysis also shows Changes in Ousmane in his
advocacy of new approaches to social change through, for
instance, military coups. Aware of the controversy in this
suggestion, we have undertaken a deeper analysis of the way
Ousmane's kind of military will be distinct from what we are
used to in Africa. We have also analysed Ousmane's changed
attitude towards assimiles and seen him as engaged lh d
mission of reclamation, bringing them into the mainstream of
the struggle for change. In that way we have shown that a
writer's attitude changes with time. This change in Ousmane
indicates his flexibility, which any writer must have. | en |
