Ça Twiste á Popenguine is an enjoyable story of two different gangs in the town of Popenguine, Senegal. The youth of this town are a rebellious group that is coming to terms with who they are and what they want out of life. In the story at this point the youth find themselves seeking a record player so that they can listen to their favorite music artists, which they dress like. The youth like most rebellious teens concoct a plan to raise the money needed to purchase a record player for them. To do this, the youth create puppet shows of traditional England and use them for entertainment in French speaking Senegal.
The underlying theme of the story is a direct rebuttal to the claim by many famous African minds such as Franz Fannon who believed that nothing good could come from colonization. Fannon believed that the natives of Africa would be oppressed by the European power, culture, and religion. Mousa Sene Absa, the director and writer of this film respectfully disagrees and uses this film as a catalyst to carry his claim. Unlike Fannon, Absa makes the point clear in the film that Africa and Europe can learn from one another and can benefit from one another as well.This is an idea of complete opposite beliefs as Fannon, or Jomo Kenyatta.
The film expresses the richness of culture that the European powers and America offers Africa, but also the rich heritage and culture that the Senegalese can offer Europe. Absa supports this by the French teacher Mr. Benoit. Mr.Benoit is a lonely man who believes that he has no home, but in order to keep him in their town the Senegalese people, in a sense adopt him into their town. They do this by serenading him in music, taking him to sacred lands, and even attempting to offer him a potential wife.
In the movie, Absa uses the music of the people of Senegal in key points of the movie. He does this on purpose to illustrate that the rich history of the people is not lost, but still alive. The people of the town themselves, when they had been singing to Mr. Benoit were singing to him in their traditional music. Absa did this on purpose to help connect the idea that Africa can offer Europe something as well, which is their culture, whether that is tradition, customs, song, dance, or instruments, the people pf Africa have much to offer to Europe.
In conclusion, the movie Ça Twiste á Popenguine is a story of African youth who aspire, like all teenagers, to achieve greatness. The story is more than that however, it is a statement that the fears that Fannon and many like him had had about colonization may have been incorrect. That with the suffering that came to the people from war, famine, and oppression, there is still a positive aspect to this. That even with the grievances that Europe has put on Africa, the intercontinental exchange of culture, may be proving to be beneficial to both.
The underlying theme of the story is a direct rebuttal to the claim by many famous African minds such as Franz Fannon who believed that nothing good could come from colonization. Fannon believed that the natives of Africa would be oppressed by the European power, culture, and religion. Mousa Sene Absa, the director and writer of this film respectfully disagrees and uses this film as a catalyst to carry his claim. Unlike Fannon, Absa makes the point clear in the film that Africa and Europe can learn from one another and can benefit from one another as well.This is an idea of complete opposite beliefs as Fannon, or Jomo Kenyatta.
The film expresses the richness of culture that the European powers and America offers Africa, but also the rich heritage and culture that the Senegalese can offer Europe. Absa supports this by the French teacher Mr. Benoit. Mr.Benoit is a lonely man who believes that he has no home, but in order to keep him in their town the Senegalese people, in a sense adopt him into their town. They do this by serenading him in music, taking him to sacred lands, and even attempting to offer him a potential wife.
In the movie, Absa uses the music of the people of Senegal in key points of the movie. He does this on purpose to illustrate that the rich history of the people is not lost, but still alive. The people of the town themselves, when they had been singing to Mr. Benoit were singing to him in their traditional music. Absa did this on purpose to help connect the idea that Africa can offer Europe something as well, which is their culture, whether that is tradition, customs, song, dance, or instruments, the people pf Africa have much to offer to Europe.
In conclusion, the movie Ça Twiste á Popenguine is a story of African youth who aspire, like all teenagers, to achieve greatness. The story is more than that however, it is a statement that the fears that Fannon and many like him had had about colonization may have been incorrect. That with the suffering that came to the people from war, famine, and oppression, there is still a positive aspect to this. That even with the grievances that Europe has put on Africa, the intercontinental exchange of culture, may be proving to be beneficial to both.