Photograph: Sarah Lee
The death of the Senegalese writer and film-maker Ousmane Sembène has shocked people across the world.
Although he was 84 years old and had been in poor health for more than a year, he continued to work on his last feature film project, Brotherhood of Rats. During his last visit to London, in 2005, he looked so youthful both in body and mind. He engaged us, his audience, with some hilarious stories of his experiences in Europe and Africa as a second world war veteran and a trade unionist, respectfully lampooning the impotent African leadership until the small hours of the night.
He was an important figure in post-colonial politics and spent most of his spare time in public libraries, attending seminars on Marxism and Communism wherever he could.
He was revered as a true cinematic griot, a custodian of history and a wise counsellor. He was also deeply aware of the urgent need for political and social change in Africa - as reflected in his body of work, which includes more than a dozen feature films, many more short films and several books.
Sembène's pivotal works include his seminal short film Borom Sarret about a day in the day of a Dakar cart driver, which he admits was influenced by 1940s Italian neorealist cinema, and Xala which is a satire about the new bourgeoisie at independence. In them, Sembène reveals his sharp scrutiny and critique of the incoming African nationalist leaders, their western supporters and the departing colonial officers.
He continued to stress up to the last days of his life that unless the whole continent was prepared to fight for its own true identity and self respect, smart national anthems and flags of whatever colour would not translate into a genuine liberation of the African continent.
