The Distant Dream of Cash

So you want to send money to a poor man in Senegal. Shouldn't be too hard, right? Witness the odyssey undertaken by one man in 1968's Mandabi. Writer and director Ousmane Sembene portrays the surprising labyrinth of ignorance, social custom, politeness, graft, outright theft, and even honesty that stop a man cashing a money order from his nephew in Paris. Featuring many candid shots of the Dakar streets and businesses, it's an instructive and well crafted glimpse into a life of poverty in late 1960s Senegal.

Ibrahima Dieng (Makhouredia Gueye) is an unemployed but scrupulously religious man who lives with his two wives and seven children. They get by, apparently, largely on the generosity of their neighbours, relying on credit and likely empty promises of repayment. But this is a devoutly Muslim community. In one scene, where it looks like Dieng has been robbed, people throughout the town automatically donate foods and essentials to Dieng's family. Dieng himself is shown giving money to beggars when he hardly has anything himself because he believes it's good luck to do so--or bad luck not to.

Then one day, the money order comes. The postman delivers it to Dieng's wives while Dieng is sleeping. Later, Dieng tells them not to breathe a word of it but the damage is done. His younger wife has already talked about it at the market and even bought some water on credit. But was the family supposed to go without water?

Well, it should be a simple thing for Dieng to go to the post office and pick up the 25,000 francs. Except they won't cash the money order if Dieng has no photo ID. Dieng can't even read and barely understands the important papers he keeps, papers that do not include a birth certificate but do say he was born "around 1900 in Dakar."

Frustrated in his first attempt to get a birth certificate from City Hall, Dieng surmises he needs an influential friend, his self-esteem not countenancing the possibility that his troubles could be due merely to miscommunication and incompetent staff. Fortunately, he does have a relative in town who can read and even spots him some cash for a bus trip home. This cash Dieng too soon gives to beggars and is conned out of the rest. Meanwhile, back home, his wives are at their wits end dealing with creditors and other people who have dreamed up reasons they're owed money or rice. And Dieng's younger wife even takes it into her head to buy a bra.

Finally, it seems the well-meaning, perfectly decent society and rickety low level bureaucracy are like a wire net that closes tighter and tighter the more an individual attempts to assert any distinguishing space for himself. A minor act of kindness could mean complete disaster for Dieng and his family.

Mandabi is available on The Criterion Channel.