Femi Nylander on African Apocalypse: my journey into today’s beating heart of darkness Femi Nylander
At the end of the 19th century, European powers came together to carve up the great African cake. One of the pieces of land allotted to the French was an area branching into the Sahara Desert in what was to become Niger. My BBC Two film African Apocalypse follows the road created by the French invasion of 1898-99 in which a French colonial officer, Captain Paul Voulet, established the Southern border of the country.
The film brings the past up to date. It’s a personal journey that opened my eyes to the fact that the horrors of colonialism are not a thing of the past, but something that people are still fighting to overcome today. As I travel the road, I uncover a brutal history of colonial violence recounted so harrowingly by the direct descendants of its victims.