The Continuing Colonial Problem: Reflections of Cultural Tensions in Djibril Diop Mambéty’s Touki Bouki
Against the backdrop of a newly independent Senegal in the 1970s, Djibril Diop Mambéty’s groundbreaking film Touki Bouki (1973) presents a disenchanting exploration of the enduring impacts of colonialism. Rather than portraying independence as a clean break, Mambéty illustrates that Western colonial domination does not simply disperse with the French government's political exit from Senegal. Instead, it continues to manifest through cultural avenues, creating tensions that persist and mutate into complex hybrids of tradition and modernity. By visually and narratively juxtaposing traditional Senegalese life with invasive Western influences, Touki Bouki critically questions the reality—and possibility—of true decolonization.
From its opening scenes, the film sets up stark visual and thematic contrasts to underscore these cultural tensions. Beginning with a fixed wide shot, the first frame captures a rural Senegalese landscape as a herd of white cattle, led by a shepherd, approaches the camera slowly and from a distance. As the shepherd and cattle reach the camera, the film cuts to a similar landscape, repeating the same serene and stable framing. Accompanied by a gentle, wandering flute melody, these initial shots evoke tranquility, tradition, and harmony with nature, reflecting simplicity and a deep, rustic connection to the land.
However, this pastoral tranquility is immediately shattered as the sound of a wailing cow interrupts the scene, and the film abruptly cuts to a graphic depiction of a slaughterhouse. The gentle flute yields to distressing cries and harsh industrial sounds. The mise en scène completely contrasts the earlier serene representation of nature, now depicting the cold brutality of industrial slaughter with concrete walls and blood-stained white tiles. Stylistically, Mambéty shifts dramatically from the fixed wide shots with minimal editing to handheld close-ups and rapid, violent cuts depicting the slaughtered cattle. These starkly diametric film techniques symbolize the traumatic intrusion of Western industrialization and consumption into Senegalese culture.
This juxtaposition does more than merely shock the audience; it embodies a broader cultural dissonance lingering after colonial rule. The graphic content of this opening scene poses a challenge for viewers to visually engage with the image due to its unrelenting degree and depiction of violence, making it easier in fact to look away than to look. However, in the intentional inclusion of such brutality, Mambéty creates a confrontation, demanding that we engage with such products of Western colonization. Upon highlighting the painful, uneasy, even ironic coexistence of traditional pastoral life and Western mechanization, the shepherd’s subsequent isolated return to the pastoral scene, now conspicuously devoid of cattle, poignantly signifies a loss of harmony and traditional way of life having been disrupted by colonial modernity.
Throughout the film, similar contrasts persist. Another prominent example emerges through the portrayal of the protagonists, Mory and Anta, whose desire to escape Senegal and reach France epitomizes the allure of Western modernity. They dream of a life liberated from the economic hardship and social constraints of post-independence Senegal. Yet their journey itself embodies the inherent contradictions of decolonization: escaping colonial legacy through emigration ironically means embracing the colonizer’s culture even more profoundly. This sentiment of desired escapism through adoption is further represented as they steal and dress in flamboyant and polished Parisian suits and hijack a star-spangled Jeep to transport them to their ship sailing out of Senegal and away to France.
Additionally, the juxtaposition of urban Dakar, filled with symbols of Western affluence—motorcycles, flashy clothing, modern architecture—with traditional rural environments further highlights the discordant coexistence of old and new. Mory’s motorcycle, adorned with animal skulls, serves as a potent visual metaphor of hybridity, merging indigenous symbolism with Western technology. It is neither purely traditional nor entirely modern, reflecting the unresolved tensions of a nation caught between two worlds.
Ultimately, Touki Bouki does not merely depict the coexistence of the traditional and the modern; it argues that true independence requires reconciling this coexistence without allowing the colonial past to define the terms. The film’s vivid imagery, formal hybridity, and thematic depth compel viewers to confront the uncomfortable reality that colonial influence does not vanish overnight but remains embedded within cultural and societal structures long after political independence is declared.
Through Mambéty’s unflinching lens, Touki Bouki thus presents a powerful critique and meditation on the enduring complexities of colonialism, urging a reflection on whether true cultural liberation is possible, or if independence merely reconfigures the imprint cast by colonial legacies.
