The representation of African womanhood in Sembene’s Moolaade: An Africana womanist reading

In Moolaade, Sembene engages the subject of female circumcision (excision). Female circumcision has generated several debates in many circles within and beyond the borders of Africa. Feminists and other activists consider it a violation of human rights and an extreme form of women oppression. On the other hand, its practitioners consider it a rite of passage and a procedure of purification. In many of the debates, the image of African womanhood is subjected to a pornotropic gaze. Pornotroping, as explained by Tamura Lomax, refers to the ‘othering’ of black women and girl’s bodies that occurs through the production, reproduction, circulation and maintenance of myths, superimposed on these bodies through signs, symbols, significations and representations. This article seeks to utilize an Africana womanist reading in examining how Sembene represents the identities and subjectivities of African womanhood within the circumcision debate in Moolaade. The article questions whether Sembene subscribes to or subverts pornotropia in his representation of African womanhood and the larger female circumcision debate in Moolaade.