Sembene, Vieyra, and the Making of Xala

The production of Xala (1974) provided an opportunity for Senegalese filmmaker Ousmane Sembene and Paulin Vieyra, his reliable collaborator and long-term producer, to confront a challenge in African cinema—the hardscrabble conditions of making films in the face of limited resources and official indifference. Famously tagged “mégotage” (literally, “gathering cigarette butts”) by Sembene, this problem formed part of the contingencies of production and circulation that have shaped the careers of many African filmmakers. Preparatory work on Xala in particular coincided with the establishment of the Société National de Cinématographie (SNC), the new Senegalese state organ that co-produced it, even as the completed film fell victim to official censorship and curtailed circulation. Through a careful examination of relevant documents in the collections of Sembene and Vieyra at Indiana University, Bloomington, Indiana, this essay illuminates in granular detail the nature of these persistent challenges that might have inspired Sembene’s unforgettable neologism.