African Apocalypse

Rob Lemkin’s harrowing yet urgent documentary shines a lens on the trauma and legacy of colonialism in one of Africa’s poorest nations, Niger.

When British-Nigerian poet and activist Femi Nylander discovered Joseph Conrad’s Heart of Darkness, the novel that Barack Obama claims helped him understand why ‘white people are afraid’, he was immediately drawn to understanding this distorted vision of Africa. Embarking on a spiritual journey to Niger, Femi uncovers the violent legacy of the real-life counterpart to Conrad’s novel, French Captain Paul Voulet, whose genocidal mission in 1898 can still be felt today, through subsequent generations of his victims. A brutal indictment of colonialism that never shies away from the horrifying terrorism Africans endured under colonial rule, African Apocalypse is a visually compelling, visceral experience that seeks to understand how our colonial past shapes our present with a passionate conviction that it doesn’t define our future.