Twist à Popenguine

Absa's movie Twist à Popenguine is based in Popenguine, Senegal. It's a movie that is, on the surface, about teenage angst and struggle-however it ends up being a tale of western colonization into Africa. It begins with two different gangs of teenagers one named the 'ins'(the inseparables) and the other named the 'kings'. Both of these groups gave each other American rock star nick names and lived in Popenguine. However the ins had the girls, school, and a ocean-side shack while the kings had a record player. The two groups constantly rivaled over trivial matters and they're fighting eventually broke into a fire and turmoil for all the residents of Popenguine.

The older generation in Popenguine sees they're westernized sons and daughters with a sense of hope for them, but disgrace for their culture. The rabbi is one of the leading examples of continuing African culture. He sees the young kids and teenagers of Popenguine as the almost death of African culture. It seems though that he doesn't know if this is a good or a bad thing because he makes friends with the children's french teacher.

Watching this movie, at first, seemed to be just another trendy teenage movie. But once you dig deeper you find the prominent struggle between African and western culture and can't help but to feel intrigued. I highly recommend this movie to anybody studying African history today.

Ca Twiste a Popenguine allows its' viewers to take a somewhat raw glimpse into the conflict between generations, caused by the colonization of one's country. Moussa Sene Absa (director and writer) does not convey a clear pro or con stance on the changing culture of Senegal, but does provide a rather complete look at both sides of the issue. He provides this raw look through his characters and their interactions with one another, the setting (Poponguine, Senegal), and time frame (1960's) of the film.

Ca Twiste a Popenguine is a movie best suited for one with some background information about Senegal or Africa in general. An uniformed (or entertainment-seeking) viewer would most likely miss the messages being sent by Absa; However, he does include many humorous perceptions of the American culture throughout the movie to keep the attention of the uniformed!

The main theme behind the movie, Ca Twiste a Popenguine was the colonization of the Wolof culture. Popenguine, located in Senegal was a good location, Absa the author picked for the movie. I liked the fact that Absa used regular people and not actors, this help to portray the culture changes even better. The Wolof culture had many different influences, tradition, French culture, and American culture. The culture was affected traditionally by the adults and older people. They liked there traditions and ways of living and didn't want to change. You could tell this by the traditional cloths they were wearing. On the other hand the French teacher was trying to modernize the young culture, by teaching them the French language. The American culture and music played a big part in the young kid's eyes. They wanted to act like, and dress like the American singers.

Things that didn't work was the way Absa went from day to night, one minute it would be the middle of the day and the next minute it would be pitch dark. Woman had a very unique role in the movie, and defiantly a different role today in the American society. During the first party, the two young women were not able to dance because they had to serve food. It seemed like the movie wouldn't appeal to the American movie watcher, for one we don't like to read subtitles. The movie was hard to follow and didn't seem to make sense in many different accounts. The movie overall had a very good plot line and did a good job in showing how the three different cultures worked together.

Ca Twiste a Popongunie brings to light several issues with the culture change that is taking place not only in Popongunie but in Africa as a whole. The director does a very good job of showing African culture without bringing any western influences or ideas into the actual filming and making of the movie. He does a very good job of showing how western culture is effecting the youth in the village. For example how the kids in the gang have a party and play music and one of the village elders hearing the music walks in to find people dancing. The village elder cuts the music and the boys who through the party were punished. Many of the children's parents were said to be "lost in the city". He refers to western cities and the mothers choose to go there and not come back because they liked the western culture better. The director shows the English teacher when he is drunk and is speaking very harshly about Poponguine, he insults the community greatly. The people of the town to not take any offense to what he says, he shows this in the movie and how the people care for him and try to make him more comfortable. He shows the kindness of the people of Poponguine very well. For the most part the movie was very easy to watch and understand. I did at times question how well the French was translated into English. There were however a few times during the movie that were hard to watch and agree with being from the western culture. In one scene the French teacher made it a rule that the students were not allowed to speak Wollif in the class, only French was to be spoken. One boy in the class broke the rule and the teacher made a younger boy take a decent sized stick and spank him 4 or 5 times. Corporal punishment to be used in that type of situation is looked down upon in most western cultures. As a viewer of the film I would recommend it to any one who is studying Africa and how western civilization and colonization has affected Africa. This is not a film to watch as entertainment it will be best used for educational purposes.

Ca Twiste a Popenguine is directed by Moussa Sene Absa. The film was directed in Senegal in 1993. The genre in the film is comedy. The main characters in the movie are just locals from Senegal where the movie was filmed. The major character is Baac whom the story is told by. In addition, the Ins and Kings are main groups in the film. The film takes place weeks before Christmas in a small seaside town in Senegal in 1964. The entire movie is based around the teenagers where they go to school, work, and try to put together a party. During the school the teens are forbidden to talk in Wolof (their main language) because in this era French is what is being taught and forced. Baac is the main story teller of the film where he takes love letters and runs other errands for the older teens. During the film the Ins whom have the ladies want to throw a surprise party, but have no record player. In the end when everything is going good they get into trouble by the older tradition that still follow the old African culture. The message Moussa Sene Absa is trying to push is the coming of age. The point of the story is to show the coming-of-age through the use of the teenagers in the village. For instance, the story shows two different African cultures through the old generation who follow the traditional and the young teens that follow the new era. He wants to show how the future is in the teens hands. In addition, why beat someone for being different for that is why we have diversity and what keeps the world unique. I would recommend this film for someone interested in Senegal or the non-western point of view. However, I would not recommend it if you do not like captions because the entire movie is in captions.