大象传媒

In the city of Kaduna in northern Nigeria, the most normal of activities - a Saturday afternoon football match - can take on enormous significance. The city is divided by the river Kaduna into a Muslim-dominated north and a Christian-dominated south. The inter-religious violence has lasted 20 years.

But two youth teams - the mainly Muslim Zooboys and the mainly Christian YMCA teams - agreed to a game to celebrate world peace day.

Celeste Hicks explores how economic and social pressures in this rapidly-growing city have exacerbated tensions between communities, who for years traditionally lived side by side. Post-election violence in 2011 - after supporters of the opposition candidate, Muhammadu Buhari, a northern Muslim, clashed with those of the winning PDP candidate Goodluck Jonathan, a southern Christian - has only entrenched animosity and suspicion further.

Kaduna is in the centre of Nigeria and at the heart of the precariously balanced country, a microcosm of tensions seen across the north of Nigeria in a zone sometimes called the 'Middle Belt' - where the desert Muslim-dominated north meets the more verdant Christian-dominated south. The violence of Boko Haram and inter-religious violence in cities such as Jos continue to send shockwaves across the region.

What hope is there for reconciliation between Christians and Muslims? This documentary meets the courageous Interfaith Mediation Centre, led by Pastor James Wuye and Imam Muhammed Ashafa. Based in Kaduna, they travel across the whole of the north of Nigeria trying to encourage the two communities to see eye to eye. Can simple activities like a community football match heal the divide? It asks if communities can truly forgive and forget without justice and reconciliation.