This thesis analyses political corruption as a recurrent theme in three of Ousmane Sembenes novels. In this study, Senegal, on which all the three are based, is seen as a microcosm representing any newly independent African country or even the whole continent where the problem of political corruption is rooted in existing social classes. In Sembenes work the elite emerges as a privileged class which, in cahoots with a former colonial power, continues to exploit the people in stead of empowering them and developing their young nation. It is therefore clear that, to Sembene, corruption is a deliberately engineered disease which was initiated during the colonial era during which, among the colonized, only a select few could benefit from an education system that was racist and segregationist in nature. When the people demanded their independence, the elite took over power; they merely replaced the imperialist and established a new colony which thrives on a new form of exploitation which manifests itself as corruption.