Senegalese novelist and director Sembene dies at 84

DAKAR, June 10 (Reuters) Senegalese novelist and film director Ousmane Sembene died at home overnight aged 84, state radio in the west African country reported today.

The son of a fisherman from Senegal's southern Casamance province, Sembene wrote several novels on social themes inspired by his experiences serving in the French army in World War Two, as a railroad worker in West Africa and as a docker in France.

Sembene also made ''La Noire de...'' (Black Girl), credited as being the first feature film directed by a black sub-Saharan African director. Sembene won France's Jean Vigo film prize in 1966.

The film tells the story of a Senegalese nanny working for a wealthy French couple in Senegal's capital Dakar who moves with the family back to France only to have her hopes of a new life dashed.

REUTERS RJ BST2326