Dehumanization In Film

Throughout history, is has often been seen that when a person or country holds power over another, the process of them dehumanizing whomever they are overpowering comes into play. When the French colonized an extremely large portion of Africa, it was of no exception to this dehumanizing process, which can be seen through many examples in both of the countries histories. A number of these historical events are depicted in French and African films, including director Rachid Bouchareb’s depiction of the French Army in World War II with Days of Glory. Numerous films have also been produced to create fictional portrayals that represent the horrid acts and unjust treatments of African people, such as Ousmane Sembène’s Black Girl, which shows the

Rather than take care of the couple’s children, Madame asks Diouana to do a wide variety of other things when they are in France; things she and Monsieur had other workers for while they were in Dakar. Diouana is asked, or told, rather, to do the cooking even though she has absolutely no experience whatsoever with being a chef (she did not cook when she worked in Senegal). When Madame and Monsieur have company over and Diouana cooks for them, they are thrilled to have experienced her culture and one of the guests kisses her because he had never been able to kiss a black woman before, showing ignorance and a gross violation of her person, not even treating her like one to begin with. Diouana is also made to do all of the cleaning as well, all out of her job description. Madame and Monsieur do not treat Diouana like she is the nanny of their children, but rather like she is their slave, their property. The couple make Diouana do everything for them even though that is not what she was hired for nor was she told she was going to be doing these things before she went to