Njangaan. 1975. Senegal. Directed by Mahama Johnson Traoré. Screenplay by Chérif Adrame Seck. With Abou Camara, Fatim Diagne, Mody Gueye, Bassirou Kane, Mame N’diaye. North American restoration premiere. DCP courtesy Sunu Films. In Wolof; English subtitles. 86 min.
Mahama Johnson Traoré’s Njangaan, which made its North American debut in MoMA’s landmark 1978 survey of Senegalese cinema, is the heartbreaking portrait of a young village boy forced by marabouts (Muslim teachers) at a Koranic school into begging on the streets of Dakar. An influential founder of the Pan-African Film Festival in Burkina Faso in 1969, Traoré created a political cinema that refused to pull punches, striking at abusive husbands and fathers who kept women and children in a state of perpetual enslavement, the punishing hypocrisies and cruelties of religious fundamentalists, the shameful legacy of French colonialism, and the venalities of Dakar’s nouveau riche with their ill-gotten Mercedes Benzes, gated communities, and system of political patronage.
Restored in 2024 by Cinémathèque Afrique – Institut français, with support from Sunu Films and the filmmaker’s family. The 4K restoration was carried out by the Transperfect Media laboratory using the original 35mm negative.