Clarence Delgado's Niiwam, with Samba Gadjigo and Mahen Bonetti

The African Film Institute is pleased to invite you to e-flux Screening Room on Thursday, May 21, 2026 at 7pm for a screening of Niiwam(1988) by Senegalese film director Clarence Delgado. The evening will be followed by a conversation between filmmaker and author Samba Gadjigo and film programmer Mahen Bonetti.

Niiwam recounts the travails of a young couple’s attempts to save the life of their infant son. Unable to find a cure in their village, Thierno and his wife take him to a city hospital, only to discover that the “blessings” of modern life have caused a degradation of even the most basic human relationships. Delgado adapted his film from a novel of the same name by Senegalese writer and film director Sembène Ousmane, for whom Delgado worked as an assistant. Niiwam, Delgado’s first feature film, won the prize for best first film at the 1992 African Film Festival in Milan.

The presentation is organized with the support of the New York African Film Festival, which presented Niiwam in 2006. Now in its 33rd year, the New York African Film Festival has bridged the divide between three decades of changes in Africa and the American public through the medium of film. The 33rd edition of the festival runs from May 1 to May 30 across various locations in New York City.

The screening and the conversation will touch upon the relationship between literature and Black cinema in general, and in Sembene’s oeuvre in particular. The conversation will also reflect on the merits and pitfalls of the conditions of relative obscurity under which the makers behind the makers support more visible artists and auteurs: what is the place of assistants, technicians, interlocutors, custodians or thought partners within the authorship and working relations? Finally, the screening reflects on the reluctance of the society to extend to the most vulnerable of its members the most serene of human rituals: burial and commemoration.

Altogether, the evening reflects on the legacy of the filmmaker, the enduring challenges facing today's world as reflected in Niiwam, and the importance of maintaining and preserving the Black archive in the face of institutional neglect.

Biographies

Clarence Delgado was born in Dakar, Senegal in 1953. After studying cinematography in Algeria and Portugal, he worked as the assistant to Ousmane Sembène, and as assistant director on Guelwaar. Niiwam, his first feature film, won the prize for best first film at the 1992 African Film Festival in Milan.

Samba Gadjigo, writer, producer and director, is the world's foremost expert on the career of Ousmane Sembène. He was the official biographer of the late filmmaker, and acted as Sembène’s agent in the United States. Born and raised in Senegal, Gadjigo was educated at the University of Dakar and the École Normale Supérieure, also in Dakar, and received his PhD from the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign. Gadjigo has lectured widely on Sembène and on African cinema, literature and culture at institutions including Harvard and Brown universities. He is director of The Making of Moolaadé, a documentary that was shown at film festivals and is available on the DVD of Sembène's award-winning film Moolaadé. He is also the co-director of the 2015 documentary, SEMBENE!, profiling the African freedom fighter and "father of African cinema."

Mahen Bonetti is the Founder and Executive Director of African Film Festival, Inc. As ED, she curates and facilitates all AFF programming in conjunction with AFF staff and participating partners. She has served on panels for the Panafrican Film and Television Festival of Ouagadougou (FESPACO), the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs, the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture, and Africa's U.S. diplomatic offices, among others. Bonetti is the recipient of France's Chevalier De L'Ordre Des Arts Et Des Lettres, an award bestowed by the French government. Mahen Bonetti is originally from Sierra Leone.

For general and press inquiries, contact [email protected].

For inquiries addressed to the African Film Institute, please write to [email protected].

Accessibility
–Two flights of stairs lead up to the building’s front entrance at 172 Classon Avenue.
–For elevator access, please RSVP to [email protected]. The building has a freight elevator which leads into the e-flux office space. Entrance to the elevator is nearest to 180 Classon Ave (a garage door). We have a ramp for the steps within the space.
–e-flux has an ADA-compliant bathroom. There are no steps between the Screening Room and this bathroom.

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