Senegalese filmmaker Moe Sow hadn’t heard of Thierno Souleymane Baal — the religious leader and revolutionary historical figure at the center of his latest docu-fiction — 1776! Thierno Souleymane Baal — until he attended a lecture about Baal’s life. The lecture, which took place at the University of Dakar, was not only eye-opening for Sow, it fought strongly against the lopsided history lessons he was taught as a child, lessons that intertwined and situated the beginning of Senegal’s documented history with the arrival of French colonialism.
Many facets of Baal’s life stood out to Sow. The Islamic scholar and visionary led the Fouta Revolution, a resistance against colonialism around the same time as the American Revolution. But the history of the man, who wasn’t hungry for power despite his pivotal role in bringing about change, is not well known. This is what Sow aims to correct with 1776! The film, filled with heart and compelling acting from Oris Erhuero, Mentor Bâ and others, captures the angst and restlessness of a generation hungry for change. Combining real-life anecdotes with fast-paced scenes that amp up excitement, Sow embarks on an ambitious mission to make history, specifically African history, deliciously interesting.
“I was amazed by the person that I was told about. He was a scholar who built a country from the inside,” Sow says. “He built a proper democratic state and if you read the constitution that he wrote, it is pretty much the same thing with today’s constitution.”
Sow, who is an NYU-trained filmmaker, has since found himself digging into largely unacknowledged African history in a bid to understand the continent’s contentious past and make sense of where it is going. “What I’m trying to do is re-establish our historical proof,” Sow says. “To know where we come from and that we have a solid history with democracy and country-building.”
SOURCE: OK PLAYER
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