# Ababacar Samb Makharam

Ababacar Samb Makharam (also Ababacar Samb-Makharam or Samb for short, Dakar, Senegal, 1934 – Dakar, 1987) was a Senegalese filmmaker, actor, screen writer and film producer with his own company Baobab Films.

## Biography

Born in Dakar, Samb Makharam was a pupil of the Navy school Centre de Formation Professionnelle de la Marine de Dakar in 1950–1951 and worked in a law firm (1952–1953). He then left for Paris in France and attended the École française de radioélectricité Rue Amyot (1954–1955, now EFREI Paris). From 1955 up to 1958 Samb Makharam trained as an actor at the Centre d’Art Dramatique de la Rue Blanche in Paris and performed in the movies Tamango (1957) directed by John Berry and Les Tripes au soleil (1958) by Claude Bernard-Aubert [fr; de; hu; lb].
In 1955 he founded the Paris theater group Les Griots uniting various Antillean and African actors such as Timité Bassori, Toto Bissainthe, Robert Liensol [fr; ht], and Sarah Maldoror. From 1959 to 1962 Samb Makharam was a cinema student film at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia (Experimental Film Centre) in Rome, after which he travelled in the United States for further study (1962–1963). He returned to France to join the Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française (ORTF) as an assistant director for television.
On returning to Senegal in 1964, Samb Makharam worked for the Ministry of Information there, was a cameraman with the Senegalese TV news, and served as a director and producer at Radio Sénégal (Dakar). In 1965 he directed his first feature film Et la neige n’etait plus / There Was No Longer Snow, followed by Kodou in 1971. Samb Makharam served as the Secretary General of the Pan African Federation of Filmmakers (FEPACI) from 1971 to 1977. He pioneered a new style with a timeless role for the traditional Senegalese griot in his 1982 movie Jom ou L'Histoire d'un Peuple (Jom or the History of a People).
In October 1987 Samb Makharam passed away in Dakar at the age of 52.

## Theater

Between 1955 and 1964 Samb Makharam performed as an actor in various productions of his Paris theater group Les Griots:
| Play | Author | Director |
| L'ombre de La Ravine (In the Shadow of the Glen, 1903) | John Millington Synge | Roger Blin |
| La Fille des Dieux (1958) | Abdou Anta Ka or Kâ | Roger Blin |
| Huis-Clos (1944) | Jean Paul Sartre | Roger Blin |
| Papa Bon Dieu (1958) | Louis Sapin | Michel Vitold |

## Filmography

Samb Makharam's films include:
| Year | Film | Description | Role | Duration |
| 1957 | Tamango | Feature film directed by John Berry. Historical drama about a failed slave rebellion on a slave ship. | Actor | 98 minutes |
| 1958 | Les Tripes au soleil [fr; it; cy; bg; ht] | Feature by Claude Bernard-Aubert. Dramatic comedy about racial segregation and romantic love with a happy ending. | Actor | 125 m |
| 1961 | L'Ubriaco (L'Ivresse) | Short film, love story. Final exam film at the Centro Sperimentale di Cinematografia, Rome. | Screen writer, film director | 5m 34s or 6m |
| 1966 | Et la neige n'était plus... [fr] | Short, drama. After completing his studies in France a young Senegalese evaluates his past and future on return to his country. First Prize (Grand Prix) at the World Festival of Black Arts (Festival Mondial des Arts Nègres). | Screen writer, film director | 22 m |
| 1968 | La Terre et le Paysan | Short, black and white documentary. | Screen writer, film director | |
| 1971 | Kodou [fr] | Feature, drama. Kodou, a young girl flaunts the traditions when she flees a lip tattooing ceremony. Her family is discredited and Kodou goes insane, preying on young children. When a European psychiatrist cannot cure Kodou, her parents subject her to a traditional exorcism session. Winner of the Prix Georges-Sadoul [fr; it; ca], France. | Screen writer, film director | 100 m |
| 1982 | Jom ou L'Histoire d'un peuple (Jom or the History of a people) | Feature drama with an important role for the griot Khaly who exhorts striking workers. He explains them that the traditional Jom – a Wolof word for self esteem – is the source of all virtues. It includes the resistance to any oppression, be it by the enslaving colonizer or by the factory employer Mr. Diop. | Screen writer, film director, producer | 80 m |