Quote by Ousmane Sembène: “Cinema is the night school of my people.”

Sembène saw film as a tool for mass education in societies with high illiteracy rates — a classroom that did not require reading, a story that could reach everyone. By calling it a 'night school' he acknowledged both the hardship of poverty (people work all day) and the power of gathering in the dark to learn and dream together.

Sembène made this statement in the mid-1970s as African cinema was establishing itself as a distinct artistic movement. The Fédération Panafricaine des Cinéastes had been founded in 1969, and filmmakers were grappling with how to make films in African languages for African audiences, independent of Western distribution.

Senegalese filmmaker and novelist often called the father of African cinema. He began as a novelist — his 1960 novel God's Bits of Wood is a classic of African literature — and moved to film to reach audiences who could not read. His films, including Moolaadé and Xala, tackled colonial legacy, corruption, and women's rights.