Halima Gadji, the actress behind Marème, one of the most striking characters in the history of Senegalese television, has died. She was laid to rest on Wednesday, January 28, with a national tribute. A striking paradox, given how much she faced rejection for on-screen roles deemed too “irreverent” for society.

There are some faces that catch the light in a way that seems reserved for people who have wrestled with life and won. That may have been what made Halima Gadji’s face feel so striking. On screen and in everyday life, the actress carried the bright presence of someone who fought and prevailed. With a stutter and dyslexia, she went on to become one of the best-known African actresses of her generation. But maybe she fought for too long, on her own.

Behind the magnetism on screen and the intensity of her stage work, there were also signs of deep unease. Too proud to ask for help, she did not hide her struggles either. Away from red carpets and the success of her iconic character Marème Dial, she spoke openly about depression and mental health problems. That may be why the news of her death, announced on Monday, January 26, landed with such a jolt: the sense that many had listened to her, without ever truly hearing her. 

From a very young age, she dreamed of becoming an actress. Born on August 25, 1989, in Dakar, Khalima grew up near the Médina and Sacré-Cœur neighborhoods, shaped by three cultures: her father’s Senegalese roots and her mother’s Moroccan-Algerian heritage. “My mother taught my brothers, sisters, and me Moroccan Arabic dialect, Darija, and passed on to us, from an early age, her love of cooking and authentic Moroccan traditions,” she said in an interview.

She quickly developed a love for cinema and began to dream of a career in front of the camera, like her favorite actors. That dream soon drew mockery. Dyslexic and struggling with a pronounced stutter, she was ridiculed by some classmates when she spoke of her ambitions. Already teased for her academic difficulties, which led to repeated grades, young Khalima faced bullying that deeply affected her mental health.

“I had my first depression between the ages of 8 and 11,” she recalled. “Very early on at school, teachers noticed my stutter. They did not give me enough time to express myself. I was made to believe I was stupid. I suffered deeply inside.”

“Halima was truly passionate, deeply passionate about her work and about acting. When she came to audition for Tundu Wundu. She was very motivated, even though she stuttered”.

In 2004, she reached her limit. At 15, while still in the equivalent of ninth grade, she decided to leave school to pursue her dream. “School was really not for me,” she later said. Moving from one audition to the next, she eventually turned to modeling, appeared in television commercials, and took part in advertising campaigns for a few brands.

In 2010, barely in her early twenties, she became a mother. She would only reveal the existence of her daughter to the public years later. In the meantime, she had to work twice as hard to support both herself and her child. During that period, she gradually moved closer to her goal.

Tundu Wundu and a breakthrough on screen

“Halima was truly passionate, deeply passionate about her work and about acting,” recalls director Abdoulahad Wone. “I remember when she came to audition for Tundu Wundu. She was very motivated, even though she stuttered. She kept telling me that people often rejected her because of it. I was the first to give her a chance, because I felt she deserved it. She was more motivated than the others.” Wone was indeed the first to cast Halima Gadji on screen, in 2015.

Tundu Wundu is a crime series that quickly achieved regional success, winning the award for Best TV Series at FESPACO in 2017. From that point on, her career took off. The timing coincided with a key moment for Senegal’s audiovisual sector, as Dakar saw a surge in locally produced series and soap operas distributed on YouTube.

Audiences gradually embraced these new formats, and between 2017 and 2019, Halima Gadji gained wider recognition with her role as Aïcha in the series Seybi 2.0. She played a young newlywed discovering both the joys and the challenges of marriage in Senegalese society.

In 2019, she also appeared in Sakho & Mangane, a crime series created by Jean-Luc Herbulot, broadcast on Canal+ and later made available on Netflix. By then, Khalima Gadji already had international visibility. But it was another series, shot the same year, that would make her truly iconic.

Maîtresse d’un homme marié (Mistress of a Married Man), produced by Marodi TV, arrived like an unexpected breath of fresh air in Senegalese society. The series explores married life in the West African country and follows the daily lives of four women: Djalika, Marème, Lalla, and Racky. Marème, a free-spirited young woman, is the mistress of Lalla’s husband. Lalla embodies the model wife according to Senegalese social norms. Over time, Marème, played by Khalima Gadji, becomes Lalla’s co-wife.

Loved or hated, the character left no one indifferent. Younger viewers admired her independence, while older generations saw her as immoral and incompatible with traditional values assigned to Senegalese women.

Younger viewers admired her independence, while older generations saw her as immoral and incompatible with traditional values assigned to Senegalese women.

Either way, audiences followed the series in massive numbers on YouTube, with each episode drawing between 2 million and 5 million views. The show even achieved international success. During the Covid-19 lockdowns, episodes were discussed by thousands of African users on social media. Khalima Gadji’s face became a fixture on television screens across Francophone Africa, before international media picked up on the phenomenon and helped turn the young actress into a star in her own right. In Senegal, the success of the series was such that Khalima Gadji herself began to be blamed for the boldness of Marème Dial.

The fragile line between fiction and reality

From its first broadcasts, conservative groups attacked Maîtresse d’un homme marié. In a decision published in March 2019, the National Audiovisual Regulation Council (CNRA) said a complaint had been filed by a committee claiming to defend “moral values,” with the backing of the NGO Jamra. The regulator later criticized scenes and dialog deemed shocking or indecent and demanded “corrective measures,” while allowing the series to continue airing under certain conditions.

In reality, the character of Marème introduced a moral conflict into households across the country. Senegalese society promotes the image of the model woman, yet women like Marème Dial—who defy those norms—often end up becoming favored wives. Two visions, and two generations, clashed on social media with every episode. In the end, much of this social questioning was partly directed at Khalima Gadji herself, whose only fault in this story may have been portraying her character too convincingly on screen.

In an interview with Ayana Webzine in October 2019, the actress described the confusion some Senegalese viewers drew between fiction and reality. Women would stop her in the street, judge her, and accuse her of being a “bad role model.” She explained that the role was not an invitation to “be like Marème,” but rather an invitation to reflect, to take responsibility, or to debate. In the end, she was subjected to insults on social media and slipped back into a depression that had, in truth, followed her since childhood.

In November 2020, Khalima Gadji received the Sotigui Award for Best African Actress in a TV Series for her role in Maîtresse d’un homme marié. She walked red carpets and appeared in other productions, but the character of Marème clung to her, along with the resentment of a deeply conservative segment of the population in her country.

A long struggle with mental health

In 2021, Khalima Gadji publicly disclosed her mental health struggles on social media. During an Instagram Live session, she spoke of severe depression, a burnout diagnosis, and a psychiatric hospitalization. But in a cultural space where mental health is often reduced to brief, unfinished conversations, she remained widely misunderstood. Her condition worsened. Between 2021 and 2022, she experienced several hospitalizations.

She later tried to confront the issue by speaking in the documentary Don’t Call Me Fire, directed by Oualid Khelifi and focused on mental health. In 2022, she appeared to regain some momentum, notably by joining the cast of the series Le Futur est à nous, broadcast on Canal+. In 2024, she returned in Bété Bété, another series that addressed social taboos. While her performances on screen remained strong, there was a growing sense that, away from filming sets, Khalima Gadji was slowly fading. She continued to raise awareness about mental health, but showed few signs of personal recovery.

If I were to go tomorrow, I ask only for two rakats in my name and your forgiveness, if I ever caused you harm.

On January 26, 2026, the news broke: the actress had died at the age of 36. Senegal’s Ministry of Culture, Handicrafts, and Tourism confirmed her death in an official statement. The Senegalese Press Agency even mentioned the possibility of a national tribute.

Just hours before her death, she had taken to social media to encourage young people to come forward and take part in a cultural project. The hardest message to read, however, had been posted a few days earlier on her Facebook page.

 “Because the dead do not read Facebook posts, if I were to go tomorrow, I ask only for two rakats in my name and your forgiveness, if I ever caused you harm. That would mean a lot, in shaa Allah,” she wrote.

Today, it is the wider public that feels the need to ask forgiveness—for not having been able to help her 

Servan Ahougnon