Touki Bouki (1973)

Directed by Djibril Diop Mambéty in 1973, »Touki Bouki« or »The Journey of the Hyena« is an exceptional film that plays a crucial role in the movement of African cinema on the global stage.

The film follows the story of Mory and Anta, a young couple from Senegal, who aspire to escape their mundane lives and flee to Paris, the land of their dreams. Their journey incorporates ambition, harsh realities, and conflict between tradition and modernity, offering a social critique of post-colonial Africa.

Mambéty uses unconventional, avant-garde narrative techniques, scrutinizing non-linear storytelling, fluctuating between reality and the subjective perceptions of Mory and Anta. It clearly reflects the director's background in French New Wave cinema, pushing for dense and complex sequences that require intuitive understanding rather than straightforward interpretation.

Symbolism plays a significant role in Touki Bouki. The film's title, translating to "The Hyena's Journey," is an allegory to the main characters' pursuits, offering an animalistic representation of their predatory survival instincts and nomadic journey. Additionally, Mambety often uses the skull imagery — presenting Mory with a cow skull mounted on his bike symbolizing the ghost of Africa's past that continues to haunt its present.

While the characters, Mory and Anta, intend to escape to Paris, the film cleverly never shows the city, adding a mythical quality to it. It is a distant dream, a representation of Western modernity and a supposed paradise in contrast to their present Senegalese reality.

Critically, one of Mambéty's significant contributions in »Touki Bouki« is the commentary on neocolonialism and the psychological effects on the people of Senegal. The film explores how Senegalese society (like Mory and Anta) is torn between maintaining its past rooted in tradition and meeting the influence and attraction of colonial western modernity. This struggle and the glorification of western culture cast a significant impact on their psyches and desires.

Djibril Diop Mambéty’s soundtrack choices in »Touki Bouki« also deserve a mention, as traditional African music is mixed with sounds of the city's hustle and bustle, animal cries, and sequences of haunting silence, presenting a contrasting and multi-layered experience.

In conclusion, »Touki Bouki« is an essential film in African cinema that navigates complex thematic explorations through avant-garde filmmaking techniques. Mambéty provides an intimate, gritty, and surrealistic look into post-colonial Senegal and the struggles of its youth, offering a unique cinematic vision unparalleled in its time.