Before Christianity, before missionaries, before the slave trade—Africans had their own gods. What many today call juju was, and still is, African Traditional Religion. Every community had spiritual leaders. These weren’t just background figures—they were central to society. Consulted before wars, Present in marriage decisions, Involved in major community choices, and even influential in selecting

Was looking for movies that laid the groundwork for African cinema—the pioneers, the godfathers, the early voices in directing, acting, and storytelling—I stumbled on this classic: Straight out of Senegal, this film is directed by Ousmane Sembène, one of the most respected and influential figures in African cinema. Sembène isn’t just a director—he’s often called