Representations and Reminders of Colonial Legacy in Xala and Tsotsi

Deidre Carney
Spring 07
Jessica Langer
International Cinema
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The end of outright colonial dominion is certainly a reason to celebrate, but as

the events of the African films Xala and Tsotsi make quite apparent, the process of

decolonization is far more complicated than perhaps both former colonizer and colony

are willing to admit. As evidenced by the sequence in the opening of Xala as the

French “advisor” smugly opens the door for the new president, the process of

decolonization was not an instant one. It was as Robert Young writes, “a shift from

colonial rule and domination to a position not so much of independence as of being

in-dependence."1 Just as the audience’s ability to put the film into context is a crucial

part of any film, Xala and Tsotsi must be viewed in terms of their history. Though the

films could be argued to be fundamentally different as one is intended to be a satire

and the other a character driven drama, the two converge on the issue of the societal

problems intertwined with the legacy of the colonial system. It could be argued that

one of the more interesting aspects of both films in terms of Postcolonial study is the

relative absence of white people within the film. However, neither film is completely

absent of non-black characters. Though in each film all of the primary characters are

portrayed by native black Africans, in both films a minor part is played by a

Caucasian. Moreover, despite each of these characters having few-to-no lines and

seemingly little impact on the direct action of the film, these characters can be used to

analyze the complicated issue of race in contemporary Africa.

Simply put, the constructed issue of race is perhaps one of the most

complicated and farthest reaching problems created by the expansion of European

colonialism. The transfer of power from one group to another regardless of

circumstance is certainly not without social implications, but in the case of

contemporary Africa, the vestiges of the atrocities committed by former colonial

1
Robert J. C. Young, Postcolonialism (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2003), 3.
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leaders left an indelible mark on the shape of the social structures of the societies that

followed. In the case of South Africa, the horrific system that followed was entirely

justified by its legacy. As argued by Robert Young:

Colonial and imperial rule was legitimized by anthropological theories which

increasingly portrayed the peoples of the colonized world as inferior, childlike,
or feminine, incapable of looking after themselves and requiring the paternal
rule of the west for their own best interests.2

Even if considerable progress has been made in the ending of outright colonial

dominion, the relationship between the new country and the former colonial power is

often far from equal. 3 It was in response to this phenomenon that inspired the

academic theory of Postcolonialism. Whether or not either of the films was intended

to be a directly “Postcolonial” film is the subject of debate, but it cannot be ignored

that even after the supposed removal of colonial powers, the ramifications of their

actions remain the basis of the bulk of social and economic crisis in Africa.

Furthermore, as explored by Xala, the former colonial culture often plays a direct role

of influence. It could be argued, that in some cases, the only change that came with

decolonization is the race of the face at the forefront. The former oppressors, in effect,

become the white character in the background. Although not dealing with the removal

of a foreign dominator, race in Tsotsi is significant because until recently race was the

only factor that mattered in the constructed caste system in South Africa.

It could be argued that the issues of race and decolonization are the primary

focus of Sembene Ousmane’s 1978 film Xala.4 Xala tells the story of the rise and fall

of a Senegalese bureaucrat named El Hadji in the context of decolonization. Quite

2
Robert J. C. Young, Postcolonialism. (Oxford, England: Oxford University Press, 2003), 2.
3
Siba N. Grovogui, "Postcolonial Criticism," in Power, Postcolonialism, and International Relations: Reading
Race, Gender, and Class ed. Geeta Chowdhry and Sheila Nair (London: Routledge, 2002), 33.
4
P. Vincent Magombe, "The Cinemas of Sub-Saharan Africa," in The Oxford History of World Cinema ed.
Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1997), 668.
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literally, the film tells the story of El Hadji’s sudden onset impotence on the day of his

marriage to his third wife. This “xala” or curse, placed upon El Hadji by a beggar he

has cheated, sparks the beginning of a series of escalating tragically comic events that

ultimately result in El Hadji losing everything. While it is uncertain if Ousmane

would consider his work as “Postcolonial”, he was undoubtedly influenced by the

theories of Third Cinema and deliberately creating a politicized work.5 Given

Ousmane’s Marxist background and general approach to film making, it can be said

that the characters in the film are as primarily representative as El Hadji’s affliction

itself. In that regard, though the role played in the direct action of the film is limited,

the presence of the white advisor must be understood as a significant contribution to

the depiction and satire of the Senegalese decolonization process. Furthermore, the

presence yet relative silence of this character must be taken as a direct statement about

the role of “former” colonial power’s influence within a supposedly self-determined

country. Essentially, it can be argued that Ousmane is alluding to the idea that though

the formerly oppressed may have autonomy in name, Senegal was still very much

dependent on the “help” of the former colonial dominator. Perhaps one of the most

outright comical sequences in the film is when the French advisors bring the president

and members of the chamber of commerce their attaché cases. It can be observed that

the pride that these men take in simple possession of these briefcases is a running joke

throughout the film. At one point, it is indicated that these cases are empty. The sight

of these men dressed in tuxedos and otherwise arguably inappropriately posh outfits

could be considered comical enough, but the final sequence in which El Hadji is

forced to give his briefcase to his replacement, who literally gained his position by

stealing from the poor, is in many ways the punch line of the film.

5
Susan Hayward, Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts (London: Routledge, 2000), 392.
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The issues of identity within the film are explored on a variety of levels

through the utilization of language. The connection between the new elites being

preoccupied with becoming their former colonial aggressors rather than undoing their

injustices is brought into the story through the conflict between the use of French and

the use of Wolof. This debate is echoed throughout the film, in discussions and

arguments between many characters in the film. With the exception of the French

advisor, it is obvious that all of the characters are fluent in both French and the local

language Wolof. Therefore, language choice becomes inherently a sign of self-

definition and identity, rather than a tool of mere communication. By speaking

French, the Senegalese middle and upper class are either mimicking their colonial

oppressors or at minimum openly facilitating the continued participation of the French

in cultural and political affairs. It then can be taken as a deliberate joke when El

Hadji admonishes the board for communicating only in French when being removed

from his position by the chamber of commerce at the end of the film, in direct contrast

to the argument he posed to his daughter earlier in the film.

While quite different in tone, Gavin Hood’s 2005 film, Tsotsi also explores the

role of race in postcolonial Africa. Tsotsi is the story of an imijondolo dwelling

teenage gangster who accidentally kidnaps a child and how this leads to his

redemption. Although Tsotsi is a recent film, it must be taken into serious

consideration it was less than twenty years ago that South Africa began the process of

breaking down the rigid system of apartheid.6 Unlike Senegal, contemporary South

African society carries both the legacy of direct colonial dominion and the relatively

recent break down of an internal authoritarian regime. While South Africa ceased to

be under the dominion of the United Kingdom in 1931, the rise of South African

6
Lindsay Michie Eades, The End of Apartheid in South Africa (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999), 77.
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Nationalism can be taken as an example of the worst possible outcome that can occur

in a decolonized state.7 Decolonization led to a government backed by a racial caste

system that itself was a vestige of the racial construct created to justify colonial

dominion. Perhaps coincidentally, Tsotsi and his friends are all approximately as old

as the new South Africa. The world that Tsotsi lives in, therefore, carries the

compounded legacy of his country’s history. In fact, the film primarily takes place in

one of Johannesburg’s most visually obvious remnants of apartheid: Soweto slum. In

that regard, in many ways the central question of “Who deserves this baby?” can be

taken to be asking, “Who deserves to be a person?” Although it could be argued that

Xala addresses the issues of self-determination and the remnants of the colonial

system more directly, in the discussion of the disparity between rich and poor in

South Africa, race implicitly is a dominant factor.8 For that reason, the fact that the

wealthy family is also black must be viewed as significantly contributing to the

superstructure of the film. Alternatively, it can also be argued that Tsotsi seeing

himself in the child is one of the fundamental mechanisms of creating suspension of

belief in the audience. However, whether or not the audience would have as

instinctively understood this connection if the child was white is an unfortunate

question that can be posed. In turn, it is the race of the child’s family that is the

element that perhaps allows the moral issues within the film to be explored without

being tainted by arguments attributing the search for the child to the family’s race.

Essentially, for the allegory within the film to be that simple would profoundly

misconstrue the complexity of race relations within the film. It could be argued that

this complexity is perhaps most directly suggested by the inter-racial pairing of the

detectives looking for the child. It is of note that the issue of race is not mentioned

7
Lindsay Michie Eades, The End of Apartheid in South Africa (Westport, CT: Greenwood Press, 1999, 5.
8
Richard Alleva, "Mean Streets: Gavin Hood’s 'TSOTSI'," Commonwealth, April 21, 2006, 21.
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once within the sequences featuring the detectives. Nevertheless, given the ages of the

detectives and the nuances of the slight power struggle between them, the issue of

authority in post-apartheid South Africa is handled with extreme care within the film.

Perhaps significantly, when it is revealed that Tsotsi is shot in the final sequence of

the film it is the common initial speculation that it was the white detective who fires

the gun. Yet in a decision that much more accurately addresses the realities of the

racial situation in South Africa, it is a security guard of likely Indian decent.

Ultimately in the case of Tsotsi, the most significant Caucasian in the

background is director Gavin Hood himself. Despite the fact that the bulk of the cast

of the film came directly from grassroots community theatre, Hood is a reasonably

mainstream director. The work of everyone who participated in the film has been

praised for the work’s honesty and achievement, but it is Hood who won the

Academy Award. Sembene Ousmane was an intellectual and political figure in his

own right.9 Beyond his films, Ousmane is widely regarded as one of the greatest

native African writers of all time. His active participation in both Senegalese and

French politics and his creation of works with the specific intent of stimulating

discussion about the decolonization process sets him apart from Hood.10 Perhaps

cynically, it could be argued that any attention that Hood has received beyond bit

parts on syndicated American science fiction programs has been the result of utilizing

and adapting the cultural issues of the people he implicitly oppressed in his youth.

However, conceivably, the alternative can be also argued. In contrast to Xala which

was heralded for its independence, Tsotsi could be taken as evidence of cooperation.

99
Samba Gadjigo, Ralph Faulkingham, Thomas Cassirer, and Reinhard Sander, eds., Ousmane Sembene:
Dialogues with Critics and Writers (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 1993), 2.
10
Frederick Ivor Case “Aesthetics, Ideology, and Social Commitment in the Prose Fiction of Ousmane Sembene”
in Ousmane Sembene: Dialogues with Critics and Writers eds. Gadjigo, Samba , Ralph Faulkingham, Thomas
Cassirer, and Reinhard Sander, (Amherst : University of Massachusetts Press, 1993), 6.
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Furthermore, it can be viewed as a sign of progress. As Gavin Hood said in response

to Nelson Mandela’s praise of the film:

"You put us on the map so that we could follow, because without what you

did, we would not have been able to make this film together as South Africans

in a free country."11

In that regard, it begs the question if analyzing Tsotsi in terms of race is not itself the

product of the constructed worldview used to justify apartheid in the first place. It can

be generally observed that discussing issues of race in contemporary Africa is

linguistically limited by the question of what constitutes an “African” in an ideally

non-racially divided society. This is not to say that it is of no value to analyze the

significance of Hood’s background in regards to the film, but that perhaps to say that

this background does not necessarily preclude him from having a legitimate opinion

about the social problems of his home country. In the case of the analysis of the role

of the detective in Tsotsi, given the lack of proper characterization, it could be argued

that the only guiding impression given to the audience is the character’s race and

position of authority. However, given the minor role of his character, it is

questionable if the audience would be given much background detail in any film.

Given the character’s age, it would be impossible for him to have not have begun his

career under apartheid, but the character’s motivation to find the child seems to be

very simple. A child has been kidnapped and it is his job to find him. Nothing more,

nothing less. Perhaps Hood would have a similar position on his role in this film. A

story is being told, and it is his job to direct it.

11
“Mandela the teenage pig stealer”. BBC, 17 March 2006. http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4816266.stm.
Accessed: 29 April 2007.
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Ultimately, it could be argued that neither El Hadji nor Tsotsi are able to

overcome their problems in the end. However, perhaps strikingly, the greatest

difference between the two is the issue of guilt. It is apparent that within Xala the

problems that plague El Hadji are of his own doing. El Hadji betrayed his own

brother, stole from the poor, and denied his culture. If there is any doubt in the

audience’s mind about Ousmane’s opinion towards El Hadji, it is made abundantly

clear as his character is stripped naked and spit on. On the other hand, it is interesting

to note that in the final sequence, the French advisor is simply waiting in the

background to give out another briefcase. In Tsotsi, the answer is not so clear. Perhaps

ironically, it is Tsotsi who the audience is left feeling sympathetic towards. This may

seem strange considering in the opening sequence Tsotsi is shown participating in the

robbery and murder of a seemingly nice man, in contrast to El Hadji’s triumphant

pan-Africanistic retaking of the chamber of commerce. Furthermore, Tsotsi violently

injures one friend and kills another, shoots an innocent woman in an impromptu car

jacking, and kidnaps a small child. Although it is never said by Tsotsi or anyone in the

film, the sight of the shantytown stands as a constant reminder of the legacy of

apartheid. In many ways it could be argued that one of the fundamental differences in

the films are the mechanisms used to explain how each character became the man he

is. Due to Ousmane’s linear storytelling style, the contributing factors to El Hadji’s

plight are primarily revealed through second hand accounts of characters who have

been wronged by him. In Tsotsi, the utilization of flashbacks and the standard editing

tricks of contemporary filmmaking elicit sympathy for the wrongs that have been

done to Tsotsi. However, fundamentally it could be argued that El Hadji’s position in

the decolonization process is one of choice. Tsotsi is a product of the injustices

committed to him as well as his own decisions. The alternate endings of the film can
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be seen to be a direct contrast to the futility expressed at the end of Xala. Tsotsi stands

as proof that a man can make a decision to change. This change perhaps is not easy or

without possible casualties, but it is possible.

Despite the end of the constructed connection between race and worthiness to

rule, the question of race remains a contributing factor to the messiness of the

decolonization process. Xala and Tsotsi are very different films that treat the social

complexity of two countries attempting to move forward both delicately and directly

through the experiences of their main characters. However, both of these films are

effective because how they humanly portray these complexities as background issues

as opposed to primarily driving the action. Through the utilization of only minor

white characters, both of these films are able to address the issue while creating

successful works of art that perhaps help dismantle these issues.

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Bibliography

Alleva, Richard. "Mean Streets: Gavin Hood’s 'TSOTSI'," Commonwealth, April 21,
2006, 21.

Eades, Lindsay Michie. The End of Apartheid in South Africa. Westport, CT:
Greenwood Press, 1999.

Gadjigo, Samba, Ralph Faulkingham, Thomas Cassirer, and Reinhard Sander, eds.
Ousmane Sembene: Dialogues with Critics and Writers. Amherst: University
of Massachusetts Press, 1993.

Grovogui, Siba N. "Postcolonial Criticism." In Power, Postcolonialism, and

International Relations: Reading Race, Gender, and Class, edited by
Chowdhry, Geeta and Sheila Nair, 33-55. London: Routledge, 2002.

Hayward, Susan. Cinema Studies: The Key Concepts. London: Routledge, 2000.

Magombe, P. Vincent. "The Cinemas of Sub-Saharan Africa," in The Oxford History

of World Cinema ed. Geoffrey Nowell-Smith (Oxford: Oxford University
Press, 1997), 668.

“Mandela the teenage pig stealer”. BBC, 17 March 2006.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/africa/4816266.stm. Accessed: 29 April
2007.

Tsotsi. Dir. Gavin Hood. 2205. DVD. Mirimax.

Young, Robert J. C. Postcolonialism. Oxford, England: Oxford University Press,

2003.

Xala. Dir. Sembene Ousmane. 1978. DVD. Domirev.