La Noire de.../Black Girl explores the lingering racism that shapes the relationship between Africansand Europeans even after decolonization. A young Senegalese woman named Diouanne (Mbissine ThereseDiop) is taken from Dakar to Antibes by her French employers. Ostensibly, Diouanne is to work as agoverness, a position she regards as a means of self-advancement. But once in France, she is treated as amaid-only the "black girl" who is abused by the Madame (Anne-Marie Jelinck) and so lives in captivity. Herdisillusionment is articulated in an anguished interior monologue, "I'm only a slave." Dehumanized and alone,Diouanne is driven to suicide. Yet it is more an act of resistance than despair. As film scholar Clyde Taylorpoints out, she is sending her spirit back home to rejoin her family and omphalos, or spiritual center.Director-writer Sembene based the story on a newspaper clipping about an African maid's suicide. La Noirede... is considered Africa's first dramatic feature, for which Sembene was awarded the 1966 Prix JeanVigo as Best Director. Renee Tajima, Journey Across Three Continents (PFA '85)