“Man is born with dignity. And no man needs the honor of queens!” Sembène was awarded the British Royal Family Special Honor Award in 1997. The 74-year-old writer attended the ceremony and addressed Queen Elizabeth II from the podium. He made the following speech to Elizabeth’s face, which shocked the world, and left the hall without receiving the award: “I apologize to all of you for not continuing my speech in English.

I am on your land and I am honored by you within the system you own. However, my main speech will be in my own language. Those who are curious can find the translation of my speech into English on their couches… When the British came, they had the Bible in their hands and we had our lands. They taught us to pray by closing our eyes.

When we open our eyes; We had the Bible in our hands, we had our land in their hands… We learned the religion and language of the British. The new language and religion that came from the distant world made us obedient slaves who always had to work. Every time we stood up for freedom, they convinced us to fight each other and gave us weapons.

Before the British came, there was only fighting in our lands. The sacred religion of the English took advantage of our quarrelsomeness; He made our children warriors. And wild warriors who fought only with their own brothers and thought the world consisted of the English language and the Bible… They spread diseases. They made us sick and weak with drinks we didn’t know what they were. They chained our ancestors and took them to their big cities as slaves.

They built those big buildings, streets, tunnels and churches on human flesh… In order to cleanse themselves, they had their artists and intellectuals prepare “human recipes that include only themselves.” They poured medicines on our lands where all kinds of foods grow. They killed us for the flammable black hell blood (oil) under the ground.

They inflicted great pain and deadly torture… From every ship that came, boats split in two always approached our shores. Those who came first oppressed us, and their friends who came after us captured us with the promise of stopping the oppression.

Those who come today are still continuing the occupation with the same system… We do not want your volunteer doctors who test new drugs, biological weapons and diseases. We do not accept your food aid, which is actually exploitation with the recycling economy in your imperialist system. We reject your poor language, which makes it difficult for us to understand each other and makes us forget our songs and fairy tales. We oppose your superficial art theories that force us to shape us in the invitation of the contemporary world. We declare our freedom, that we were born as African people, and that we are leaving all of Europe to die as Africans. Africa will fight you until you erase from African lands the racism you taught us to kill each other, the shallow-minded words of the West you put forward in the name of philosophy, all your chauvinism you do in the name of law, and all your aesthetic doctrines you impose as art. Even if you do not accept it, an African is at least as honorable as a westerner anywhere in the world. A human being is born honorable.

And no human being needs the honor of queens.” Sembene was born in 1923 and died in 2007. He is the most famous writer, screenwriter and director in the history of Senegalese art. However, what makes him ‘a very special person’ is not these talents or the books he wrote such as God’s Bits of World, He made a much more special artist.Melih Şencan