The film Malcolm X is to Spike Lee's career what peanut butter is to mafé: an essential ingredient. What is less well known is that this project also provided the recently appointed Benin ambassador to African Americans with the opportunity to set foot on Senegalese soil and be introduced to Africa... as well as his own origins.

Black cap with the inscription "1619" on his head - a reference to the year the first African slaves arrived in the United States -, salt and pepper beard, face with "oxymoronic" features mixing joviality and toughness depending on the context: this is how Spike Lee appeared at the opening press conference of the 74th edition of the Cannes Film Festival, in July 2021.

The New York director, the first Black filmmaker to chair the jury of this prestigious film festival, has always placed the condition of Black Americans at the heart of his artistic and political commitment.

"He's more 'American ghetto' than African," tempers a well-known Senegalese media figure, a specialist in the United States, who requested anonymity for "personal reasons." Yet, Spike Lee remains a figure of pride on the African continent. Long before Benin made him, on July 23, the figurehead of a platform dedicated to Afro-descendants wishing to obtain Beninese nationality, officially offered since the end of 2024, there was Senegal, and Cameroon, this country where we sometimes like to confuse ourselves with an entire continent. On the sidelines of the opening of the Cannes Film Festival in 2021, Spike Lee was received by the Cameroonian ambassador to France.

Raised in Brooklyn, he long envied his Italian-American friends who returned to their families in Italy every summer. The question of origin has always haunted him. In the early 2000s, a DNA test allowed him to trace his lineage: Cameroon and Nigeria on his father's side, Sierra Leone on his mother's, all lines broken by the slave trade. But long before the vogue for genetic evidence, Spike Lee was already testing his Senegalese culture.

Dakar, a Jungle Fever

The land of Teranga has never lived up to its name better than under the gaze of Spike Lee, who made it his gateway to the mother continent. In May 1991, his first commercial success, Jungle Fever, was selected at Cannes. After the screening, a question at a press conference was about... Senegal. "He answered without hesitation: 'I had the richest experience of my life there,'" recalls Bara Diokhané, a lawyer practicing in Dakar and New York, who was invited that day by the American director.

"To be admitted to the New York bar, I needed letters of recommendation. Spike Lee provided me with one," the Senegalese lawyer explains. But their meeting dates back a few years. As part of the Malcolm X Project, Spike Lee had learned that Nelson Mandela was planning to visit Senegal, where a major concert was to celebrate his release. Peter Gabriel, Bobby McFerrin, Youssou Ndour, and others were expected to perform.

“Spike wanted to include Mandela in his film. He contacted me through a mutual acquaintance. I welcomed him to Dakar. For ten days, I contributed to his African education and his reunion with the continent,” says Diokhané. Since Mandela’s visit was canceled, Spike Lee took the opportunity to discover the country, the filmography of Ousmane Sembène, and the works of Mor Faye, of whom he has become a collector. He also visited Touba for a very specific reason.

From Touba to Mecca

"As everyone knows, Malcolm X made the pilgrimage to Mecca. For the biopic, Spike Lee was supposed to film in this holy place. However, not being Muslim, he couldn't access it. He was told about the Magal de Touba as a plan B." His visit to Senegal coincided with Independence Day, and President Abdou Diouf invited him, along with the other concert artists, to a reception at the palace. It was there that he met the Saudi Arabian ambassador to Dakar, who facilitated his authorization to film in Mecca.

His stay in Dakar also strengthened his professional and personal relationship with Youssou Ndour. “We had already started working together,” recalls Bouba Ndour, the artist’s brother and producer. He sees Spike Lee as a figure of Black identity, even beyond their physical resemblance. Arriving in the United States around the time of the release of Do the Right Thing, he remembers him as a very inspiring man. “The beanies that accompanied the song Wooy were born from a visit to a Spike merchandising store in New York. It became a trend in Senegal.”

Happy coincidence

And the name of the production company Xippi, whose logo featured a capital X, at a time when Malcolm X was a global hit? "It was a coincidence," swears Bouba Ndour. "But I told Youssou that the X could make you think of Malcolm X." The meeting led to the production of the legendary album New Africa. Spike Lee's company produced it. The album was nominated for a Grammy Award. The video for "Africa Remember" was filmed in New York under the director's supervision, by a South African employee of his company. In Dakar, Spike Lee was full of praise: "Your country, it's a paradise," he said to Youssou Ndour, admiring the beaches, the sun, the colorful outfits, and the local cuisine. "He often asked us: but with a country like this, what are you doing in the United States?" smiles Bouba Ndour.

For Bara Diokhané, Spike Lee shared our values. "He's very family-oriented: his sister acts in his films, his brother is a cinematographer, and he's very attached to his grandmother. He has a strong character, which is necessary to succeed in this field." The director hasn't forgotten his friends or what Dakar has given him. "We ran into each other by chance in New York eight or nine years ago. It was as if we'd never been apart." But ties with the Ndour family have since weakened. "He loves Africa, yes, but knowing it is something else. When you claim to be a cultural leader in the United States, you have to collaborate with the continent's major figures," says Bouba Ndour.

Binary but universal

The anonymous media man qualifies: "He's a divisive character. To say he loves Africa is too general. His vision of the world is binary: Blacks on one side, Whites on the other. It's not a universal interpretation."

A criticism that Bara Diokhané disputes: "In 25th Hour, for example, there are more white people than black people. It's reductive to say that. Spike Lee has a strong civic conscience. He has valorized the image of the black man. Being pro-black in a world that has always excluded them is already a universal message."

Having moved from the margins to the presidency of the Cannes Film Festival, Spike Lee benefited from a more favorable context with the Black Lives Matter movement. In the 1990s, denouncing police violence was more isolated than it is today. His voice has remained powerful on these issues.

For Bouba Ndour: "Spike Lee hasn't changed, it's the people who have. Rodney King was a struggle, George Floyd was a turning point. After the rain comes the good weather."

At 68, Spike Lee, author of more than 25 feature films, is now a sage with encyclopedic knowledge, some of whose pages are rooted in Senegal.

Moussa DIOP