BBC Arena: African Apocalypse

Contains some strong language and disturbing scenes.

British-Nigerian poet and activist Femi Nylander travels to West Africa to discover the modern-day impact on its people of atrocities that took place over a century ago.

Femi traces the footsteps of a French army officer, Paul Voulet, who forged a path of unspeakable barbarity across the West African state of Niger.

Voulet’s actions closely mirror the colonial horror depicted in Joseph Conrad’s celebrated novel Heart Of Darkness, which was written at the very same time that Voulet unleashed his killing spree in 1899.

In Niger, with words and images from Conrad’s time still echoing in his mind, Femi finds painful memories and communities still living with the traumatic consequences of the violence of a century ago. But amidst this terrible history, Femi also encounters beauty and a spirit of hope: young people working together and a country determined to find its way out of the horror by harnessing the power of its most precious resource - the light of the sun.

Video: 720p MP4 H264 @2.0Mbps 50fps
Audio: AAC 2ch @128Kbps
Subtitles: English .SRT
Duration: 90m