The collection is organized into the following series: Films, Films (Unrealized), Writings and Publications, Writings by Others, Professional Organizations, Correspondence, Personal, Photographs, and Audio-Visual. The Films series, as well as Writings and Publications, are arranged chronologically by date of release or publication, while Films (Unrealized) are arranged chronologically by rough date of development/production. Writings by Others and Professional Organizations are arranged alphabetically by author or source organization. Correspondence is arranged chronologically, and major correspondents are sorted into individual folders arranged alphabetically when possible.

A note from the archivist: some of the letters within the Correspondence series are missing the first page. Care has been taken to reunite orphan pages when possible, but approximate dates were assigned when the first page could not be located. Additionally, subjects of photos in the Photographs series have been identified and separated into their respective films when possible, but the "Friends, Family, and Production Photos" folders may contain stills from these films that were not identified. Similarly, unidentified photos of Sembène may be contained within these folders rather than in the "Sembène with Friends and Family" folders if his identity could not be confirmed with a degree of certainty.