Excerpt from his Wikipedia page:
Ousmane Sembène (French: [usman sɑ̃bɛn]; 1 January 1923 or 8 January 1923 – 9 June 2007), often credited in the French style as Sembène Ousmane which he seemed to favor as a way to underscore the "colonial imposition" of this naming ritual and subvert it, was a Senegalese film director, producer and writer. The Los Angeles Times considered him one of the greatest authors of Africa and he has often been called the "father of African film". Descended from a Serer family through his mother from the line of Matar Sène, Ousmane Sembène was particularly drawn to Serer religious festivals especially the Tuur festival.
Early life
The son of a fisherman, Ousmane Sembène was born in Ziguinchor in Casamance to a Lebou family. From childhood he was exposed to the Serer religion especially the Tuur festival, in which he was made "cult servant". Although the Tuur demands offerings of curdled milk to the ancestral spirits (Pangool), Sembène did not take his responsibility as cult servant seriously and was known for drinking the offerings made to the ancestors. Some of his adult work draws on Serer themes. His maternal grandmother reared him and greatly influenced him. Women play a major role in his works.
Sembène's knowledge of French and basic Arabic besides Wolof, his mother tongue, followed his attendance at a madrasa, as was common for many Muslim boys, and a French school until 1936, when he clashed with the principal. Sembène worked with his father—he was prone to seasickness—until 1938, then moved to Dakar, where he worked a variety of manual labour jobs. In 1944, Sembène was drafted into the Senegalese Tirailleurs (a corps of the French Army).[6] His later World War II service was with the Free French Forces. After the war, he returned to his home country and in 1947 participated in a long railroad strike, on which he later based his seminal novel God's Bits of Wood (1960).
Late in 1947, he stowed away to France, where he worked at a Citroën factory in Paris and then on the docks at Marseille, becoming active in the French trade union movement. He joined the communist-led CGT and the Communist party, helping lead a strike to hinder the shipment of weapons for the French colonial war in Vietnam. During this time, he discovered the Harlem Renaissance writer Claude McKay and the Haitian Marxist writer Jacques Roumain.
Film
As an author concerned with social change, Sembène wished to touch a wide audience. He realized that his written works would reach only the cultural elites, but that films were "the people's night school" and could reach a much broader African audience.
In 1963, Sembène produced his first film, a short called Barom Sarret (The Wagoner). In 1964 he made another short entitled Niaye. In 1966 he produced his first feature film, La Noire de..., based on one of his own short stories; it was the first feature film ever released by a sub-Saharan African director. Though only 60 minutes long, the French-language film won the Prix Jean Vigo, bringing immediate international attention to both African film generally and Sembène specifically. Sembène followed this success with the 1968 Mandabi, achieving his dream of producing a film in his native Wolof language.
Later Wolof-language films include Xala (1975, based on his own novel), Ceddo (1977), Camp de Thiaroye (1987), and Guelwaar (1992). The Senegalese release of Ceddo was heavily censored, ostensibly for a problem with Sembène's paperwork, though some critics suggest that this censorship had more to do with what could be interpreted as anti-Muslim content in the film. However, Sembène distributed fliers at theaters describing the censored scenes and released the film uncut for the international market. In 1971, Sembène also made a film in French and Diola entitled Emitaï, which was entered into the 7th Moscow International Film Festival, where it won a Silver Prize. It was also banned throughout French West Africa. His 1975 film Xala was entered into the 9th Moscow International Film Festival. In 1977 his film Ceddo was entered into the 10th Moscow International Film Festival. In the same year he was a member of the jury at the 27th Berlin International Film Festival. At the 11th Moscow International Film Festival in 1979, he was awarded with the Honorable Prize for the contribution to cinema.
Recurrent themes of Sembène's films are the history of colonialism, the failings of religion, the critique of the new African bourgeoisie, and the strength of African women.
His final film, the 2004 feature Moolaadé, won awards at the 2004 Cannes Film Festival[18] and the FESPACO Film Festival in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. The film, set in a small African village in Burkina Faso, explored the controversial subject of female genital mutilation.
He is the subject of the 2015 documentary film, Sembene!
Sembène often makes a cameo appearance in his films. For example, in Mandabi he plays the letter writer at the post office. (Hexaflexagon note: no wonder Scorsese decided to restore one of his films)
Some retrospectives:
https://harvardfilmarchive.org/programs/ousmane-sembene-cinematic-revolutionary-2
https://theconversation.com/ousmane-sembene-at-100-a-tribute-to-senegals-father-of-african-cinema-197421
https://www.nytimes.com/2023/09/08/movies/ousmane-sembene-film-retrospective.html
https://www.newyorker.com/culture/the-front-row/ousmane-sembene-may-be-revered-but-his-films-are-still-underappreciated
Criterion collection essay about his movie, Black Girl
Criterion collection essay about his movie, Mandabi
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As a followup to previous keyboard problems, my x key has now ceased working altogether, its a scissor switch and taking it apart nothing seems like its visibly the issue, from what I can gather the only real solution for a laptop keyboard like this if the dome or whatever itself is busted, is to just replace the whole thing altogether.
That sounds really stupid to me so I would prefer to just make like a shortcut for that key and adjust to it. Would autohotkey be the best way to do something like that? I was thinking just making like a shortcut each for small and capital x on the nearby keys, fn + z or something.
Same thing happened to me. Never really came up with a great solution.
When my w, s , 2 and other letters started failing on my old laptop, my solution was to just get a USB keyboard and kinda plop it over the laptop keyboard XD. Or have it nearby and ready. If I was working or something having a better keyboard was nice anyway. If I just needed it for an occasional search it was handy.
I'm no expert but the process you described:
Key worked correctly sometimes, then worked if you pressed it long/enough times, then just stopped working, was how all my Keys went.
So whatever solution you come up with be prepared to have to use it again.
Also if you're really in a pickle you can try copying+pasting the letter lol.
I almost got fucked because my login password had an s in it. So be careful if such a situation arises.
Luckily for now its still a relatively rare letter so I can either just copy paste it or hack together a keybind for it.