News: Aid Critic Ousmane Sembene, Passed Away

Senegal's leading film maker and author Ousmane Sembene, who was a staunch critic of Africans taking aid from the West, passed away.
His films and books often touched on issues of colonialism and Western racism but his subject always focused on what Africans need to do for themselves.
Born on 1 January, 1923 in southern Senegal's Casamance region, Sembène had little formal education, starting work at age 14 as a fisherman and auto mechanic. He was drafted by the French Army in World War II then worked as a dockworker in Marseilles after which he wrote 'Le docker noir' the first of his many acclaimed books. He also became a trade unionist and member of the French Communist Party until 1961 when he went to Moscow to study filmmaking.
Sembène was influenced by the Marxist-based 'dependence theory' which was popular in the years following Africa's independence. The premise of the theory was that wealthy nations need Africa to remain impoverished as a way for them to sustain their own wealth. (More in this article.)

Thanks to E. for the link.