USA and Senegal / 1993 / 12mins / Documentary / English, French and Wolof

Senegalese boxing legend Battling Siki, a World War I hero and the first African to win a world championship, fascinated and intrigued many in his short life; he was 28 years old when he was murdered in New York City in 1925. This short film is a story of his most famous fight and the saga of the excavation of his remains, buried for 67 years in a Queens cemetery. "No man ever came out of Africa who had a more dramatic life or had a more tragic ending," said Rev. Adam Clayton Powell at Siki's funeral.

Mamadou Niang

Mamadou Niang is a journalist and broadcast producer with more than 40 years of experience covering news and producing documentaries for global television, print and digital outlets. Niang is known for his reports that explore social, political, and cultural issues. They are featured on most of West Africa’s national television channels in Europe, the One Caribbean Television network, and WNYC-TV in New York. They have aired on France Télévisions, the Canadian broadcaster CBC, and Radio Quebec. In December 2011, Niang founded NextMedia.tv, a New York-based television news production, and digital media content agency aimed at bringing a global multicultural experience and sensibility to visual communication.

He also launched Access Africa, a television group partnering with a select roster of African television content providers to broadcast a package of high- quality entertainment, news, and sports to viewers in the United States. For more than 25 years, Niang held senior production and editorial management positions in the New York bureau of France Télévisions, France’s leading national public network. He has led the production team of France 2, French Television’s Channel 2s operations in the United States from 1998 to 2009, overseeing the U.S. coverage of major signature events for France’s leading public television network. Learn More