Senegal and Canada / 2007 / 52mins / Documentary / French and Wolof

In this feature documentary, Senegal-born director Musa Dieng Kala returns to Dakar, where he grew up, and asks this painful question: has God forsaken Africa? The answer is bitter. As he films 5 young adults seeking to immigrate to the West at any cost, the filmmaker discovers the helplessness of individuals faced with international indifference and the apathy of the leaders of a society emptied of its resources and incapable of meeting its needs.

Musa Dieng Kala

Native to Senegal where he lived until the age of 30, Musa Dieng Kala is more known in the world of music than in that of cinema. Author-composer-singer recognized internationally for the quality and the depth of his works, he first involved himself in the promotion of African music before turning to production. He managed Youssou N'Dour's recording studio in Dakar from 1991 to 1993. During this period, Musa produced many video clips. In 1993 he emigrated to Montreal in Canada where he was educated in filmmaking and where he discovered his talent as a singer. Having inspired by Sufi poem and the teaching of his spiritual master sheikh Amadou Bamba, first peaceful resistance fighter to broadcast the message of non-violence before Gandhi and Martin Luther King, he produced his first album in 1996. The media nicknamed him straightaway the “Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan of Black Africa.” In 1996 Musa Dieng Kala obtained a Bachelor of Arts in cinema, at the University of Quebec in Chicoutimi. Eager to translate into pictures the topics which he develops in his albums and shows, he registered at the University of Quebec in Montreal for a Masters degree. He has directed several films including Borom Touba (2001), Le Serviteur privilégié du prophète (2007), and Dieu a-t-il quitté l'Afrique? / Has God Forsaken Africa? (2007). Learn More