“We all want the same thing: to be loved by our parents”
By: Eline Versluys
Tags: Interview, Africa, Film, Terrorism, Islam

Senegalese film goes behind the scenes of terrorism

The film ‘Baamum Nafi’ shows how religious extremism is finding its way across West Africa. Director Mamadou Dia tells the fictional story of a small town in northern Senegal that falls prey to jihadists. But beside religious fanatism Dia wants to urge us to recognize the early warning signs of every form of extremism. “When Trump was elected, we also said we hadn’t seen it coming.”

Still from the film ‘Baamum Nafi’ ©JoyeDidi

It’s a Wednesday night in Dakar (Senegal), pre-Covid times. While the usual evening traffic continues to congest the streets, a fancy crowd gathers in Cinema Sembene Ousmane. Senior film critics, young hipsters and middle-aged culture lovers have come together to watch ‘Baamum Nafi’. Dia’s first feature received multiple awards at festivals worldwide, but this is the first time the film is being presented in Africa. Dia looks tired. He has been on the road for a week to show his film in the most remote villages across Senegal. He and his producer travelled the country with a big screen and a projector, “because this film belongs to the Senegalese people”.

‘Baamum Nafi’ (‘Nafi’s father’ in Pulaar language) tells the story of two brothers fighting over their children’s marriage. As tradition prescribes, young Nafi is about to get married to her cousin. But Nafi’s father, the village’s moderate imam, doesn’t want his daughter to get involved with his brother’s family. The brother, Ousmane, is a radicalizing Muslim who uses religious extremism to extend his power. Throughout the film we see how Ousmane’s radical ideas and friends progressively take hold of the village.

What message did you want to bring with this film?

I wanted to show that the majority of Muslims don’t correspond to the stereotypical image of the radical extremist everyone thinks of. The main character in the film, Tierno, is a very moderate imam. He represents most of the Muslims I know. I have been raised in a very tolerant environment. My great-grandfather was an imam, as were my grandfather and father. At home we had a Quranic school, but we also celebrated Christian holidays, I went to parties and none of the women in my family wears a veil. In the US there is a lot of ignorance when it comes to Islam. That’s why I wanted to make a film about the African, moderate Islam.

Aren’t you concerned that nevertheless people will focus on the radical parts of the film?

With my film I also wanted to show how you can eventually still radicalize, what the mechanisms behind that evolution are. How come a radical figure like Trump could be elected in America? Does this mean that all Americans are extremist? How come a peaceful town like Timbuktu can fall into the hands of jihadists? As an outsider it is very easy to blame the people. “They chose it themselves”, or “they didn’t resist hard enough”. With this film I want to show how a community can get under the influence of extremism, little by little, often even without noticing it themselves. Until it’s too late, and there is no way back.

The film shows very clearly the mechanisms of influence and power. People start following Ousmane because he gives them money and seeds. Is that the most important message in the film?

It certainly is one of the most important things I wanted to show. The fact that people are easily influenced by the person who helps them with a practical need. In Pulaar we have a saying: “if you hand a machete to someone who is drowning, he will reach for it”. When people are in need, they will follow the person that offers them help, regardless of what this person’s intentions are. That is what is happening in so many places in the world. Extremists manage to fulfill a need in places where the government or the community is failing to do so.

Director Mamadou Dia © JoyeDidi

Senegal is often viewed as an example of ‘moderate’ Islam. At the same time, I have met many Senegalese who think they don’t practice the ‘real’ Islam. How do you look at that?

The film also raises this question, the question of what the ‘real’ Islam is. Ousmane’s comrades say that they bring the ‘real’ Islam to town. But what is that, ‘real’ Islam, or ‘real’ Christianity? Religion is a spectrum, with many possibilities to live your faith. I know a lot of Muslims and Christians who never go to the mosque or to church, but who nevertheless feel profoundly Muslim or Christian. It’s about your faith deep inside, your spiritual center. You can believe in many things, whether it’s a god, charity or your personal therapist (laughs).

Beside religious extremism, the film also tells a much more universal story: the one about the jealousy between two brothers. What did you want to tell with this theme?

In my films I always want to link news items to personal experiences. For me, this film is about a family drama in the first place. The two brothers fight about a lot of things, political power, decisions regarding their children, money. But essentially, they fight about the thing all brothers and sisters fight about: the love of their parents. In the end we all want the same thing: to please our parents, to show them that we’ve succeeded better in life than our brothers and sisters. In that sense extremists want in an ‘extreme’ way what we all want: to be somebody and to be seen.