(waves crashing) - Africa. (traditional African music) - One of the fastest growing
regions in the world. The youngest continent
where six in every 10 people are under 25. With hundreds of different ethnicities and some 2,000 languages, Africa is the most culturally
diverse place on earth. I'm Afua Hirsch. I've been lucky enough
to work across Africa as a journalist. (cheerful African music) - And now I'm exploring Africa's history through its extraordinary
creativity and culture. I'm looking at how three
very different countries, Ethiopia, Senegal and Kenya emerged from the shadow of
empire in the 20th century and are thriving in the 21st. These African countries are
reasserting their identities, gaining new recognition for their role as cultural powerhouses. I am interested in how that's happened and how the struggles for
liberation in the past have helped shape today's
African Renaissance. (melodious music)
(waves crashing) - In this episode, Senegal, a French speaking country
of 15 million people in the far West of Africa. (traditional African music) - It has a cultural
influence far beyond its size with a dynamic film,
fashion and hip hop scene. (speaking in a foreign language) - Here, the struggles for
liberation from the slave trade and from French rule in the 20th century created heroes and leaders
who redefined what Africa is. (speaking in a foreign language) - A country of exuberant murals and street culture responding to the past. (traditional African music) - So many people forgot their
past, where they come from. The Griot is here to tell you who you are. (melodious harp music) - When I was growing up in 1980s Britain, Africa was depicted as a
dark continent without hope. Trying to make sense of
my own African heritage, I was determined to see
the other side to the story and I came here to Senegal to find it, and what I found was a country
that's had its problems, its suffering and oppression, but to be here is to
experience the resilience of an African peoples culture. In Senegal, art gives
expression to the suffering of the past, but it does
much more than that. It's the very thing that's
powering Senegal's future. (traditional upbeat African music) (melodious music)
(waves crashing) - This story starts
with a statement piece. Standing high above
Senegal's capital, Dakar, at the very western tip of Africa is a striking 49 meter sculpture. This is the African Renaissance Monument. It was unveiled in 2010
to commemorate Senegal's 50 years of independence. Despite a bombastic style reminiscent perhaps more of
North Korea than West Africa, it's an imposing and assertive work. It depicts a strong African family. A mother, father and child, a symbol of an independent continent striding forth into its future. This is a monument to Africans
all over the continent and in the diaspora, a signal to the world that the African Renaissance has arrived with Senegal at its center. This is an African Statue of Liberty. (melodious music) - To understand why
it's being erected here, what makes Senegal so
confident about its place in African culture, we have to understand Senegal's
struggle for liberation, and further back in earlier centuries, how the country was formed
in the clash of empires. (melodious traditional African music) (motorbike engine roaring) (melodious music) - Long before Europeans
arrived in Senegal, great empires fought bitterly to control the West African coastline. (traditional African drumbeat music) - The Mali Empire flourished
here in the early middle ages, rich from trade in copper,
ivory, salt and gold. Mali was reputed to be
the source of almost half of the Old World's gold. Gradually, during the 14th century, the Malians were superseded
by the Wolof Empire whose people today make up two fifths of Senegal's population, the
largest single ethnic group. (bus engine roaring) (gentle melodious music) - In its quest for power
the Wolof Empire established trading networks across West Africa along which people, ideas, and
crucially materials flowed. (gentle melodious music)
(people chattering) (water gushing) - When Europeans came to
this West African coastline they weren't really interested in engaging with this rich history of
tradition, culture and art. They saw it as a place
that could make them rich, and they did that by
taking things; gold, land, and for hundreds of
years, enslaved people. - This is Gorée Island,
just two miles off the coast of modern day Dakar and
only half a mile long. Gorée was first settled by the Portuguese as far back as the mid 15th century, but then the Dutch, English
and finally the French took their turns. (melodious gentle music) - The House of Slaves was
built in the 18th century for a wealthy French slave-trading family. The architecture is
immediately unsettling. Above, airy verandas. Below, grim cells. (gentle melodious music) - This isn't the only place
on the West African coast where slaves were kept in
dark, overcrowded rooms like this would have been before being shipped across the Atlantic, but every time I come
to one of these sites I find it chilling to the core. It's impossible not to
stand in a dungeon like this and imagine the squalor, the
overcrowding, the violence, the death, the uncertainty of
being sent across the ocean to a lifetime of enslavement. Gorée was just one of
dozens of similar bases along the West African coast
from which slavery continued until it was finally
abolished here in 1848. There's ongoing debates
about how many people actually left via Gorée Island,
but this site has become a potent symbol of the
transatlantic slave trade as a whole, and a place of pilgrimage for Africans and the diaspora. I think it's so important that this Island and the House of Slaves
that still stands here has been preserved as
a world heritage site, and it's good to see people coming here and engaging with that. At the same time, I can't
help but feel a bit uneasy at the ways tourists have this experience, seeing Gorée Island as a nice
day out, a bit of shopping, some fun. There's a frivolity that I can't imagine at other equivalent
sites of past atrocities, like concentration camps
or scenes of genocide. (birds chirping) - Competing European
powers clawed their way along the West Coast of Africa, inflicting cruelty upon the people here. But it was the French who
succeeded in claiming Senegal as theirs, and it's
the French whose legacy is most felt today. (melodious music) (motorbike engine roaring) (melodious music) - This is Saint Louis. In 1659, the French
established a trading base here at the mouth of the Senegal river. For centuries, the city was the epicenter of the whole French-African empire, the base from which they
spread into the Sahara. (melodious French music) - The French legacy
lingers in Senegal today. In language, architecture, but also in the people themselves. France turned Saint Louis
into a grand experiment, seeding a hybrid Creole culture like that of Havana and New Orleans, and it created a new cast
who would bolster their rule. French traders had children
with local African women creating a new, mixed race
population called the Matisse. The Matisse became an elite merchant class wielding significant power
within the colonial structure. Saint Louis is still renowned
for its Matisse culture. Matisse women, called Signares, became known for their
extravagant gold jewelry and French style clothes which they wore in procession to church in their adopted Catholic faith. (melodious music)
(people chattering) - Today, their descendants
continue to show off that exuberant heritage. (speaking in a foreign language) (melodious French style music) (speaking in a foreign language) - How did having European
heritage make a difference to their status and also
how other Africans saw them? (speaking in a foreign language) - In some ways, I want to smile along
with these Signare women. On the face of it, there
seems to be an empowering multicultural story of mixed race people unusually respected, of black
women wielding economic power at a time in history
when that was not common anywhere in the world. On the other hand they were complicit in
the colonial system, profiting from it, even buying and owning their own slaves. It's a complicated history. Saint Louis with its Matisse overlords was Senegal's most
important city until 1902 when power transferred
to Dakar in the South. There, the French faced a major challenge. (melodious music) (melodious traditional music) - Sufi Islam had taken root in West Africa in the 11th century, but in the 19th century it
became a formidable rival for power. Sufi preachers saw the
potential for revolution. Organizations, known as
Brotherhoods, sprang up across the country radicalizing followers against French rule. (melodious traditional music) - This is Touba, sight of the great mosque
of the Mureed Brotherhood. Laid out in classic Islamic style, it was begun in 1887 and
only finished in 1963, a vast projection of religious power. This is an absolutely
amazing mosque and it's huge, one of the biggest in Africa. It can hold around 7,000 worshipers. It's sheer scale feels like a
rebuke to French Catholicism. It has five minarets, the tallest looks like a lighthouse calling the faithful to prayer, an Islamic version of Notradame. Touba Mosque is emblematic
of the failure of the French to fully colonize Senegal. Even the way they
practice their faith here shows that this is a culture
that has always done things its own way, that has always fought back. (Adhaan- the Muslim
call to prayer echoing) - The man behind the
building of the mosque was Cheikh Amadou Bamba. Bamba inspired his supporters
to nonviolent protest and passive resistance
against French rule. Like the British against Gandhi in India, the French struggled to contain it. This is the only surviving
picture of Bamba, taken by the French authorities in 1913. Bamba wears a flowing white robe and his face is almost entirely covered. It's a cryptic, almost mythic image. (melodious traditional music) - The French exiled Bamba twice, then allowed him back but
tried to keep him quiet, but it was too late. Bamba's image had, in itself,
become a powerful symbol of resistance. It's still dobbed all over Senegal today. (melodious traditional music) - Like the iconography of Che
Guevara or Lord Kitchener, the power of the image has
transcended the real person it's meant to represent. (melodious traditional music) (speaking in a foreign language) - When you see the image
of Cheikh Amadou Bamba what does it do to you,
what does it mean to you? (speaking in a foreign language) (traditional singing) - Members of the Baye Fall sect, particularly devout and
vocal followers of Bamba within the Mureed Brotherhood, come to celebrate the
new mural of their hero. (traditional singing) - It's hard to overstate how
much a part of everyday life Bamba's legacy is here in Senegal, and painting his image is a way for people to connect with him. It's also a blessing for those
who walk past and see it, and a way of asking for Divine help. (traditional singing) (speaking in a foreign language) (traditional singing) (speaking in a foreign language) (speaking in a foreign language) - The French Empire failed
to win hearts and minds in its campaign against Bamba and Islam. By the time he died in 1926,
many Senegalese revered him as a prophet and a Saint. French power was weakening
and what would now push it to the brink was war. (melodious music) - 200,000 young men
from French West Africa were enlisted to fight for France during the First World War. 30,000 were killed and those who survived
experienced vile racism and abuse. When Senegalese troops
occupied the Rhineland area of Germany, the Nazis
stoked fear about the mixing of white women with
black African soldiers. The children born from
these relationships, labeled the Rhineland Bastards,
were forcibly sterilized after the Nazis took power in Germany. Worse was to follow. During World War Two, many
Senegalese troops captured fighting for France with
similarly executed by the S.S. simply because they were black. France's defeat in 1940 and the Vichy Government's
collaboration with the Nazis also proved to Senegalese soldiers that the French empire was rotten. (horns honking)
(traffic bustling) - In November, 1944, when Senegalese troops
protested against conditions they were kept in at
Camp Thiaroye near Dakar, things turned violent. At least 35 Senegalese were
killed by white French troops. The massacre galvanized the
generation and in particular the life of one 21-year
old Senegalese soldier called Ousmane Sembéne. Sembéne is hailed today as
the Father of African Film. Originally a novelist, he turned to cinema to get his message across when he realized it's far greater reach
and power for Africans. "The Wagoner", made in 1963,
was the first ever film made by a black African. But Sembéne's most famous
and controversial film came two decades later,
when he revisited the trauma of the Thiaroye massacre. The film was released in 1988 in Senegal, but banned for 10 years in France. Clarence Delgado was Ousmane
Sambéne's assistant director who worked with him on most of his films, including "Camp de Thiaroye". (speaking in a foreign language) (tank engines roaring) (gunshots echoing) (loud explosion)
(people screaming) (gunshots echoing)
(loud explosion) (speaking in a foreign language) - What was he like as a person and what was he like to work with? (speaking in a foreign language) - Ousmane Sembéne was not
the only former soldier transformed by war, the Thiaroye massacre and the French coverup helps turn another towards nationalist politics, leading Senegal to independence. (upbeat music) - Léopold Senghor is one
of the most intriguing and significant figures in
20th century African history. He was the architect of
Senegal's peaceful breakaway from French rule and his
country's first president in 1960. Both a Francophile intellectual and a man steeped in Senegalese culture, neither a pro-Western capitalist
nor a hard-line socialist, perhaps the secret of Senghor's success was that he was something of a go-between operating in different cultures. He wanted to rejuvenate Senegal
and assert its independence after years of French colonial rule. Not by displays of force, but by displays of art and culture. (traditional singing
in a foreign language) - Senghor was from Joal
Fadiout, South of Dakar, a member of a minority ethnic group known as the Serer, Christians within a
country that's 95% Muslim. (traditional singing
in a foreign language) - Senghor never lost touch with his roots. Even as president, he came back regularly to visit his home village. Many of these women sang
praise songs for him and do so again today in his honor
at the village Baobab tree. (traditional African drumbeat music) (traditional singing
in a foreign language) - He is the father of this
village and father of this nation and this is how they used
to show their respect to him and they still show their
respect to him this way today. (traditional African drumbeat music) (speaking in a foreign language) (speaking in a foreign language) - You really feel connected
to the African story here in this village, and even
though he was an intellectual, a writer, a politician,
he was absolutely grounded in his spiritual heritage
as a proud African and a member of this community. Senghor wanted to project
a confident new vision of African culture. His philosophy centered on
an idea he called Negritude. Negritude rejected western
labels of tribal art as primitive and envisaged African identity
being rebuilt through pride and traditional culture. (melodious jazz music) - So after Independence,
the poet president pumped state money into the arts. He showed off his country's
progress to the world with the first World
Festival of Negro arts. - [Poet] Let joy fill the streets. (drumbeat music)
(people chattering) - [Poet] Gather around, gather around. Let young and old join
in, a festival is born. - For three weeks in April,
1966, Dakar was alive with thousands of people
attending performances and exhibitions. Senghor opened the festival. Ethiopia's emperor Haile Selassie mixed with African-American jazz
pioneer Duke Ellington, there were steel drum
musicians from the Caribbean, and traditional dancers from
Benin were on the same bill as contemporary dancers from New York. (melodious jazz music) - Negritude came of age in the 1960s when African decolonization
was at its height and the consciousness raised by the American civil rights movement was sweeping across the world. So this was an extraordinary celebration for Africans and the diaspora. (classical style singing) - Senghor didn't let up. In the 1970s Negritude
was a policy that affected every aspect of Senegalese culture. (traditional drumbeat music) - This is the École des
Sables, an African dance school and it's a direct legacy of
Senghor's push for Negritude. (traditional drumbeat music) - This school is the
successor to the Mudra Afrique founded by Senghor in 1977. He wanted to find out what
Negritude would look like in dance. And he put Senegal's
most influential dancer and choreographer,
Germaine Acogny, in charge. The result was a unique fusion of traditional African movement to music with European forms,
the best of both worlds. (speaking in a foreign language) (speaking in a foreign language) - Can you tell me more about what the philosophy at Mudra Afrique was and what the legacy of
that school has been? (speaking in a foreign language) (traditional African drumbeat music) (speaking in a foreign language) - What is it about African art and African dance that
captivates the world? What is the spirit here that
makes our art so powerful? (speaking in a foreign language) (traditional drumbeat music) - I found meeting
Germaine truly inspiring. A lot of people talk about Negritude but she's taken those ideas
and put them into practice, creating new forms of
artistic self-expression and for me, that's a
really powerful reminder of the fact that art can
change the way we think about ourselves and our identities and it can change the way
we imagine the future. (melodious upbeat music) - Not everyone in Senegal
saw Negritude as that future. While Senghor tried to
redefine Senegal's culture, many ordinary Senegalese found
his state-sponsored vision too prescriptive and top-down. (upbeat music) - They accused him of using the arts to inflate his own status and power, and they responded with
an explosion of creativity from below, with art that expressed
the voice of the people and of the streets. The legacy can be seen across the country. The very walls of Dakar
are evidence of people challenging prevailing ideas and expressing their cultural freedom. Murals began appearing in
Senegal in huge numbers in the 1980s, as part of a
movement called Set Setal from the Wolof, to clean up. This was a mass act of urban renewal by largely untrained artists
fed up with the decay of Senegal cities, but this was also about
metaphorically cleansing Senegal cities with
positive social messages of renewal and change. (upbeat jazz music) - Dakar's streets have become a canvas on which Senegal's people
tell their own story in their own way. (upbeat jazz music) - And it's not just on the walls. (traditional upbeat drumbeat music) - Spontaneous expression
erupts from the people asserting their identity
and pride in their own past. (traditional African music) - This dance is performed
by the Jola people, migrants to the city
from Southern Senegal. (traditional African music) - They're an ethnic group who believe that when the dancers wear masks, they're transformed into spirits. (traditional African music) - (indistinct) ...captivating to watch, but it's more than just the performance and the dancer is doing
more than just representing the characters whose masks he's wearing, while he's dancing he's
embodying the spirit of the mask, becoming a medium between the spiritual and the physical realm. It's so amazing to see. (traditional African music) - The dancers play evil ghosts or demons that need exorcizing
out of this community. (traditional African music) - That's why this dance is
so urgent and exuberant. (traditional upbeat African music) - Mask ceremonies are
cathartic and healing, a way for minority
people to assert control over an ever changing world. (traditional African music) (melodious gentle music) - The freedom and confidence
that you see on Senegal streets has deep roots. (melodious music) - To understand the country's strong sense of national identity and story, we have to understand
a cast of people here known as Griots. For centuries Griots have been guardians of Senegal's popular culture. Storytellers of song, music and dance, a living repository of a
community's traditions. (melodious music) - Many Griots, like Diabel
Cissokho, play the Kora, a traditional 21 string harp. (melodious harp music) - The Griot is a messenger. We are (indistinct), and we keep story and we tell a story. (gentle harp music) - So many people forgot their
past, where they come from, and the Griot always have this with them, the Griot is here to tell you who you are. - How did you become a Griot? - I become a Griot
because my dad is a Griot, so that's how you become Griot. - [Afua] How did your dad become a Griot? - He become a Griot
because his dad is a Griot, you know? So that means my granddad
also used to be Griot, his dad used to be Griot, so he'd been passed to
generation to generation. - [Afua] Do you know how many
generations of your family are Griots? - Yeah, because I could say we are 200. - [Afua] 200 generations?
- From my family. From the past. Even now, the Griot is here for everybody to share and then to make peace, not even in the community,
but to the country, you know? He is the one who's- Two people that has problems, the Griot is always there. - What's it like being a full time Griot? - Full-time Griot is very nice, honestly. So full time Griot, I
feel like you talk a lot. You play a lot, you know? You share a lot. So I am lucky to be Griot, honestly. - What kind of things do you sing about? - We are in the society,
living with everybody, living with rich, we're living with poor, living with happy, living with non-happy, you take everywhere to
share with everybody and also to explain everybody's story. For example, for me now, I had a very big inspiration
today talking to you, I can write that as a Griot. (melodious harp music) (singing in a foreign language) - That was gorgeous. What
were you thinking about? - I was singing, you see what is around us today. - [Afua] I knew, I was blushing. (laughing lightly) - You know, I was singing
what is around us, today I'm very happy to
welcome my friend here, coming from England to
come and see the Griot. (melodious harp music) - Griots are just part
of everyday life here as musicians, storytellers, giving a voice to Senegalese
people and that voice has been a very stabilizing force in Senegal. As eras, regimes and
individual politicians have come and gone, Griots
have always been there. Some people even say
it's because of Griots that Senegal has been
such a stable country. (waves crashing) - The French branded
Dakar The Paris of Africa for its style and sophistication. (upbeat music) - The Dakar (indistinct)
and the Dakar Fashion Week draw international artists,
designers, and buyers. (upbeat music) - NuNu is one of Dakar's
top young designers, finding success by combining
traditional Senegalese styles with international ideas. (speaking in a foreign language) (speaking in a foreign language) (melodious music) - In the 21st century, the world is looking at African cool and Senegal is leading the
way as a top destination, particularly for the African
diaspora from Europe, the Caribbean and America. The very descendants of
those who were shipped out centuries ago from
places like Gorée Island. (melodious music) - Now they're coming back to reconnect with their African heritage. Some even make Senegal their home, the place for them to fulfill
a dream of repatriation back to Africa. As somebody who's lived in America, do you feel that people
in the diaspora understand what it's really like living
in an African country? Do you think they know what a
country like Senegal is about? - No. A lot of people that I've talked to, they didn't even know Senegal. Unfortunately for a lot of our media, they only show starving children, right? Starving children, and
they show the poverty or they'll hear about
like police corruption and things like that. Those are the images that our
media in the United States portrays of Africa, and it's not true. - You get the weirdest
questions from people, you know, they asking you, do you
have to shower outside? Does your house have a roof
or is it like hay on the top? (everyone laughing loudly) - You know, and so
that's when we were like, okay, we're gonna just have
to take a lot of photos and videos and show people. - R.J. Mahdi from Georgia,
USA, five years ago to live in Senegal. He set up a business helping other African-Americans
to do the same. - We want to have a positive
impact on the economic future of, not just Senegal or West
Africa, but the continent. We want to create home and we want it to be here
for our children, and I think that's what we've got to
look forward to right now. - Gigi, you have been here a few weeks. - [Gigi] Yes. - So of this group, you're
the most recent arrival. - I am the new one. - Can you see this becoming a
more permanent home for you? - I definitely see the potential for this becoming home for me, I'm
slowly falling in love. - We're returning and we're finding that parts of us never left, and we're not in a place
where we even feel foreign. These are cousins, they're just cousins
that you haven't met yet. (melodious music) - [Afua] Senegal has emerged
from it centuries of history as a country that's stable,
tolerant and welcoming with vibrant art and culture. A place where people are
used to expressing themselves in their politics, where clashes of ideas have
fed a unique creativity.
