Sembène spent his early years as a fisherman on the Casamance coast. He studied at the School of Ceramics at Marsassoum and then moved to Dakar, where he worked as a bricklayer, plumber, and apprentice mechanic until he was drafted into the French army in 1939. In 1942, during World War II, he joined the Free French forces and landed in France for the first time in 1944. After demobilization he remained in France, working as a docker in Marseille, and became a militant trade unionist.

Sembène taught himself to read and write in French and in 1956 published his first novel, Le Docker noir (Black Docker), based on his experiences in Marseille. After a spinal disorder forced him to give up physical labour, he made literature his livelihood. Among the works that followed were Ô pays, mon beau peuple! (1957; “O My Country, My Good People”), Les Bouts de bois de Dieu (1960; God’s Bits of Wood), which depicts an African workers’ railroad strike and the attempts to combat colonialism, a volume of short stories titled Voltaïque (1962; Tribal Scars and Other Stories), L’Harmattan (1964; “The Wind”), and Xala (1973), which also provided the subject of one of his best films (1974). In 1987 the novella collection Niiwam; suivi de Taaw (Niiwam; and Taaw) was published.

About 1960 Sembène developed an interest in motion pictures, in an attempt to reach an African popular audience, 80 percent of whom did not know French or have access to books in any language. After studying at the Moscow Film School, Sembène returned to Africa and made three short subject films, all reflecting a strong social commitment. His 1966 feature film, La Noire de…(Black Girl), was considered the first major film produced by an African filmmaker. It depicts the virtual enslavement of an illiterate girl from Dakar employed as a servant by a French family. The film won a major prize at the 1967 Cannes international film festival.

With Mandabi (“The Money Order”), a comedy of daily life and corruption in Dakar, Sembène in 1968 made the revolutionary