A filmmaker and academic from Jos, Dakwom Makrping Longgul, the director of a soon to be premièred Documentary film titled Wake the Flies, is advancing the conversation surrounding trauma healing, socio-psychological support, and the remembrance of victims who have lost their lives, displacing countless individuals from their ancestral farmlands in Jos-Plateau State, Central Nigeria. While addressing inquiries from journalists in Jos, the filmmaker states
“despite all the violence conflict on the Jos, Plateau, call it any name- clashes between Christians and Muslims communities, or the mass killings and attacks of innocent citizens in their sleep in the country side, one thing is certain, there is no concreate effort to remember the vulnerable victims that died for no fault of thiers,nobody remembers the community that are wiped out,infact, most of the event are forgotten and the political class is claiming they want to make good again, we cannot make good again, without remembering our past for no secure future can be build without the idea of what has happen to our people. Second the issue of trauma healing and socio-psycho support to victims is an angle that our community gate keepers must take up, many people who are affected by this conflict have nothing now, the walk without a family, without shelter, without an ancestral home and all they remember is the conflict and the violence, I think its time to start thinking about those people before its late…
Longgul Makpring Dakwom and Lena Trüper, (co-Producers) both university educators, share a passion for film and activism. Their paths intersected in the summer of 2023 after Lena’s captivating lecture at the Sticky Films conference in Frankfurt, Germany. They delved into deep discussions about using film for educational purposes and in community screenings. These dialogues fostered a common objective to engage in public education as instructors, aiming to bridge social gaps, whether in Nigeria, Germany, or the United States.
The outcome of the discussion will result in a documentary film centered on the concept of “wake work” (Sharpe 2016), defined as artistic creations that can provoke resistance and consciousness, enabling survival within the Diaspora. This film crew adopts an artistic and activist approach to engage with a worldwide audience. In Jos, local viewers will access the film through community screenings, providing an alternative information source that challenges religious divides and promotes a more impartial dialogue. Globally, the film can shed light on the continuous loss of black lives, often overlooked by the international media amidst other global crises. Through diverse perspectives, the film has the potential to dismantle stereotypes about individuals from Africa, prompting viewers to contemplate the collective responsibility in the enduring repercussions of colonial past between Europe and Nigeria.
Director Dakwom Longgul and Co-director Lawuna Yilwatda on set with Prince Charles Dickson a development worker slated for interview
By presenting a range of viewpoints on the ongoing conflicts in Jos- Plateau and its vicinity, the short film Wake the Flies strives to address the continuous religious divisions. Instead of attributing blame to a specific party, the documentary suggests that the roots of the discord stem from a shared, long-standing history of oppression of Indigenous groups by European colonizers. To depict this history, the film combines a rich assortment of visuals, such as insights from academics at the University of Jos and other public intellectuals, accounts from displaced individuals, aerial footage capturing the devastation in the communities, traditional performances preserving knowledge predating colonialism, and artifacts from the Jos Museum illustrating various migration patterns. The storyline of the film revolves around a character’s battle with a fly, symbolizing the mundane nature of a conflict scenario where perpetrators and victims blur together. The film Wake the flies is funded by the German cultural organization, HessenFilm & Medien and will be premièred in the month of may, 2025 in the state of Hessen, Frankfurt-Germany and multiple community screenings in Jos- Plateau state, Central Nigeria in June 2025.
cross section of crew on set
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