Nigeria Content Online

Yes, Nollywood had
its worst outing ever at the seventh Africa Movie Academy Awards
(AMAA), held in Yenagoa, Bayelsa State on March 27 but there are
lessons Nigerian filmmakers can learn from the humiliation. That is, if
they are willing. Though some of the players had always canvassed
collaboration between themselves and their foreign colleagues,
Haitian-American actor, Jimmy Jean-Louis, reiterated it at the awards
ceremony somewhat indirectly. The movie star who was attending his
third AMAA, disclosed while receiving the Best Screenplay award (for
‘Sinking Sands’) on behalf of Leila Djansi that the cast and crew were
drawn from different countries. He said American, British and Nigerian
actors and crew collaborated to make the Ghanaian movie which
eventually took two other prizes.

Producer, Fidelis
Duker had also said the same thing at the ‘Reading and Producing
Nollywood’ international symposium held earlier that week at the
University of Lagos. Femi Ogunrombi, producer of ‘Aramotu’, one of the
two films that redeemed Nigeria’s image at the ceremony shared Duker’s
view. Indian Ramesh Babu Raparthy was director of photography during
the shoot of ‘Aramotu’, and Ogunrombi reiterated that Nigerian
filmmakers cannot do it alone. “There is no harm working with others
outside, we are good but we can still learn from our colleagues out
there.” Nollywood, which is famous for its ‘kpa kpa kpa’ productions
(movies shot under, or in a week) also paid dearly for its belief in
quantity over quality. A number of Nigerian filmmakers have been known
to boast of their ability to shoot films in under a week, going to the
extent of offering to teach their foreign counterparts how to do this.
But ‘Viva Riva’, the Congolese film that swept six awards on the night
has made a case for quality. Its producer, Boris Vanglis, disclosed
that it took five years to make and it’s instructive that ‘Aramotu’
which won Best Costume Design and Best Nigerian Film wasn’t rushed.
“Writing Aramotu, the first draft took about seven weeks, then final
draft another four weeks. We shot it for about three weeks in
Erijiyan-Ekiti and it took about 10 months after then for post
production,” disclosed director Niji Akanni in an earlier interview.

Africa Rising

Though it wasn’t
a good outing for Nigeria, it was the opposite for the rest of Africa
as the continent burnished its filmmaking credentials. “We received a
stunning range of films, films that tell us the cinema is alive in the
continent,” said Keith Shiri, who read the jury’s report on behalf of
its chair, John Akomfrah. The Zimbabwean had earlier disclosed that an
unprecedented number of entries were received and that there were a
number of ambitious projects made “with scope and verve.” Apart from
Ghana, South Africa and Nigeria, countries including Mozambique and
Cameroun also registered their names on the table of winners.
Jean-Louis also noted that it is time for Africa. He said, “We
shouldn’t underestimate the power of Africa” while receiving the prize
for Best Diaspora Short Film for ‘Precipice’ alongside the director,
Julius Amedume.

Timipre Sylva’s secret

Being an election
year, one would have expected Governor of Bayelsa State and chief host
of the event, Timipre Sylva, to make political capital out of the
event. Though he couldn’t resist urging people to support President
Goodluck Jonathan’s re-election bid, he refrain from trumpeting his own
quest.

He dwelt on the
growth of the movie industry and thanked the filmmakers and actors for
their efforts. “The movie industry has grown tremendously in Nigeria
where I have lived for over 40 years now. We can remember vividly those
days not far gone when the only entertainment available to us was ‘The
Village Headmaster’, ‘Baba Sala’ and later ‘The New Masquerade’. Today,
we have moved steadily forward, thanks to all of you practitioners in
this most important industry.” Sylva, who kept his secret till the end
of his speech, urged filmmakers to stop portraying Africa as a dark
continent, saying we should “position her in the mind of the world
outside Africa as a land full of opportunities.” He commended the
founder of the award, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, for incorporating more
events into this year’s ceremony and then disclosed that, “We in
Bayelsa are deliberately positioning our state to be the capital of
moviemaking in Africa.” It’s all good but…

There were
significant improvements at this year’s AMAA but organisers can still
do better. The first ever media interaction with the AMAA jury at an
awards ceremony was a master stroke which afforded reporters the
opportunity to clear the air with the jurors on issues including
quality of entries, submission of entries and rules of the AMAA. Steve
Ayorinde, Ayoku Babu, Berni Goldblat, Shaibu Husseini, Dorothy Werner,
Keith Shiri and Hyginus Ekwuazi all took questions from journalists to
prove that there were no underhand dealings in the selection of the
last 30 films.

The training for
50 youths of Bayelsa in various aspects of filmmaking was well received
and the intellectual angle added by the book fair was a welcome
development. Writers Jumoke Verrissimo, Ayo Arigbabu and Mobolaji
Adenubi were among those at the fair.

Another noticeable
improvement was the stage at Gloryland Cultural Centre during the
awards ceremony. It was beautiful and people couldn’t resist talking
about it. The only problem was the organisational hitches which Peace
Anyiam-Osigwe and her team will do well to address in subsequent
editions. They can also take lessons in prompt timekeeping.

Tee-Mac, Wande Coal and others

Like previous
editions, this year’s awards ceremony witnessed a number of
performances. The choice of internationally renowned flutist, Tee-Mac
and his band to open the show was an inspired one. People, especially
the three dancers with South African band, Malaika, danced with abandon
to numbers including ‘Nefertiti’ and ‘Island of Happiness’ from the
maestro’s album, ‘Just Like a Dream’. He would later blow away the
crowd with jazzed up instrumentals of Asa’s ‘Mr Jailer’ and Dbanj’s
‘Fall in Love’ amongst others.

The guitar
clutching Tare, a Project Fame finalist, gave a forgettable performance
while the Bayelsa State Cultural Troupe was only marginally better.
Malaika gave an energetic performance while members of Mo Hits Crew, Dr
Sid and Wande Coal, wowed the audience with a number of songs. Sid, a
Dentistry graduate of the University of Ibadan had people dancing to
his hits: ‘Something About You’, ‘Pop Champagne’ and ‘Over the Moon’.
Coal, for whom the hall practically stood still, sang ‘Bumper to
Bumper’, ‘You Bad’ and ‘Se Na Like Dis’. The only downside of their
performances was that they sang to beats of the songs which didn’t
quite synch in places.

Peace’s tears

Two issues that
seem to hurtfounder of AMAA, Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, is the lack of
corporate sponsors for the awards, filmmaking in Africa and the
perception that the awards is all about her. Anyiam-Osigwe, who never
fails to seize any opportunity to drum support for Nollywood and
African cinema, did so dramatically during the ceremony. She requested
filmmakers in the hall to stand and told them, “It’s your award. We
have to change how people perceive us. If people don’t appreciate you,
you have to appreciate yourself. We are getting there but it’s a slow
process,” she said. Anyiam-Osigwe also pleaded with corporate
organisations and governments to take the filmmakers seriously. “You
and I need to tell our government to take us seriously, we are the
reason Africa’s perception is changing. The positive thing coming out
of Nigeria is Nollywood. I am not here to campaign but I need my
industry to be taken seriously. I need piracy wiped out of Africa, we
should recoup our investment. That’s the responsibility of our
government. I love to see filmmakers make money out of our films.”

Galaxy of stars

This year’s AMAA
was witnessed by a number of foreign and Nigerian stars who added
glamour to the event. Actress Rita Dominic who was loudly applauded by
the audience; ‘The Figurine’ and ‘Anchor Baby’ star, Omoni Oboli; Kunle
Afolayan; Paul Obazele; Gloria Dede, O.C. Ukeje; Kate Henshaw-Nuttal;
Chioma Chukwukah; Idiat Shobande and Folake Aremu (Orisabunmi) were
some of the Nigerian artists in attendance.

The inimitable Olu
Jacob whom fans kept disturbing for photographs and who got an even
bigger applause than Rita Dominic when he came on stage, was also
present. Kannywood star, Nuhu Ali, was not left out.

Lydia Forson, a
past AMAA winner, the handsome Majid Michel and Ekow Blankson were
among delegates from Ghana. Stars from the US also registered their
presence. They include Jimmy Jean-Louis, Nate Parker, Hakeem Kae-Kazeem
and LaQuita Cleare. In all, it was a well attended AMAA.

Writer and
academic, Kole Omotoso, eventually made it worthwhile for the small
group of people who waited patiently for the start of his reading at
Jazzhole, Ikoyi, Lagos on Thursday, March 24.

The event where the
South Africa-based scholar read from his book, ‘Achebe or Soyinka: A
Study in Contrasts’ was supposed to have started by 4.30pm but it
didn’t until 6pm. In spite of this, no one was in a hurry to leave when
the man with the greying beard started because he offered illuminating
insights into the writings of the subjects of his book.

Executive editor of
The News magazine, Kunle Ajibade, moderated the session; and asked very
meaningful questions about the book, first published in 1996 but now
re-issued by Bookcraft.

Worthy role models

The author of
popular factional work, ‘Just Before Dawn’ apologised for his lateness,
disclosing that he was held up at a voters’ sensitisation meeting in
FESTAC Town, before revealing why he wrote the book. The academic said
‘Achebe or Soyinka: A Study in Contrasts’ is a, “Compliment to two
figures that have been part of my development as a literary person.”
Omotoso who highlighted the similarities in the development of both
writers added that though they started writing in English, they are
well grounded in their respective languages. The book, he said, also
arose out of the need to appraise African literature by an individual
who shares the same linguistic antecedents with the two writers unlike
foreign critics.

“You cannot be a
critic of Russian literature if you do not understand and read Russian.
I cannot make a statement on Arabic contemporary writing if I didn’t
read Arabic and speak Arabic neither can I say anything about French
writing in West Africa if I do not read French. But it seems as if it
is possible for anybody in Europe and America to start writing about
African literature without knowing about the linguistic antecedent of
Africa.” He disclosed that the offer to write the book came in 1994 and
that it is “the only book as a writer in which I have earned a lot of
money because as a hard back edition, it was sold for 45 pounds and it
sold out.”

Nigerian sensibility

The main argument
in ‘Achebe or Soyinka’, the author disclosed, “is that it is possible
for a writer, an artist to write, to produce, to draw towards a
community of sensibility. That is, there is something we can call a
Nigerian community of sensibility. You can put it down even in our
local langauge, ‘tiwa n tiwa’ and ‘temi n temi’.But ‘temi n temi’
doesn’t disturb ‘tiwa n tiwa’ and both work together. What I have done
is to look at the background of the giants, look at their writings,
look at their politics, look at the critics and come to the conclusion
that Soyinka and Achebe represent for Nigeria what Dostoyevsky and
Tolstoy represent for Russian writing. You have two people coming from
the same community but representing two sets of ideas. And I think
Chinua and Wole represent that for us. Achebe or Soyinka, each is a
contribution towards that possibility of writing towards a community of
Nigerian sensibility. That’s what I have tried to do. I don’t know
whether it has succeeded.” The author of ‘The Combat’ also touched on
the politics of both writers, noting that contrary to the belief of
some artists, writers, musicians, dramatists and artists cannot remain
apolitical. “The issue is not that politics is not part of our art but
part and parcel of our Nigerian experience and I think we need to
accept that. My issue is with the younger generation of writers who
simply want to be known as writer and they think that is sufficient. It
is not enough for me and I think it is not enough for some people that
writing is not an innocent activity.”

No alternative

Omotoso, who read
excerpts from the first chapter of the work, stated his position on
criticisms of ‘unrelieved incompetence’ and ‘relieved competence’
Soyinka and Achebe said about each other. “Basically, it’s a question
of language. There’s an incredible playfulness in Yoruba which anybody
who understands Hausa or Igbo knows it’s not the same thing. Soyinka
endlessly centres language as an issue, he doesn’t take it for granted;
whereas Achebe came to the conclusion that English competently written
and with an Igbo bit of input is enough to carry this message. This is
alright because one of the greatest issues; and I raised this, is that
the success of most modern writers is to write one culture in the
language of another. Marquez in Columbia, Salman Rushdie living in
London and Achebe succeeds fantastically in that.

“But my worry is
this: if you critic Conrad and Joyce Carey as misrepresenting Africa
and yet write a book like ‘Things Fall Apart’ where at the end of the
story the hero commits suicide; you write ‘No Longer at Ease’ at the
end of which the central character goes into prison. You write ‘Arrow
of God’ at the end of which the community abandons their priest. I then
ask you, where is that alternative to the British, American
representation of Africa culture?”

A cultural matter

The actor who plays
Chief Abayomi in South African drama series, ‘Jacob’s Cross’ also tried
to rationalise some people’s perception of Soyinka as Eurocentric and
Achebe as Afrocentric.

“The Yoruba culture
is a very accumulative culture; the Yorubas keep accumulating knowledge
no matter where it came from. I’m not sure we can talk about
Afrocentrism or Eurocentrism because the world has become smaller. It
has become a village but we don’t want to be the village idiot so we
have to participate, we have to make our voice heard and ensure that we
are also part of the society. So, the accusation that Soyinka is
Eurocentric, Achebe is Afrocentric is a non-starter. Yoruba culture is
acquisitive, continuously accumulating.” He added that while Soyinka
sides with his Yoruba kinsmen in projecting their culture after
colonialism, the opposite is the case with Achebe.

“It’s that fight
back that one sees a lot of in Soyinka’s writings but Achebe simply
stays at that period of negotiated communal humanistic existence.” He
added that Africa has spent too much time dwelling on the past. “You
find African countries everyday responding to the past as if the
totality of our experience is enslavement, colonisation, imperial
imposition and resource plundering. 50 years on, we are still
complaining; the white man forced us to adopt their language. Nobody
forced us to adopt their language. Anyway, if they forced you to learn
their language 50 years ago, why have you not changed it?

No regrets Omotoso,
author of other works of fiction including ‘Fella’s Choice’, ‘The
Scales’ and ‘To Borrow a Wandering Leaf’ also disclosed that he did not
regret embarking on a crusade for indigenous publishing. He said this
in response to a question from Ajibade, that the move probably accounts
for his lack of popularity outside Nigeria. “I had published two novels
in Britain when I was doing my PhD, I came back to Nigeria and nobody
knows I published books,” he began. “It became for me a need to begin
to cultivate a local audience so we started this thing about being
published locally. And it’s interesting that between 1972 when my last
novel was published in Britain and 1988 when I left Nigeria, I had
published nothing outside of the country. I don’t believe it’s a
mistake to do that.

“Within that
period, we started the Association of Nigerian Authors. I was the first
general secretary and I spent a lot of time travelling round setting up
local chapters. The failure of Nigerian publishing is part of the
failure of Nigeria. Publishers don’t publish anymore because there are
pirates but the issue is not to stop publishing because there are
pirates. What is important is that because of the technology we have in
our hand, we can stop pirates.”

Not political enough

Omotoso reads
young writers but he is worried that they have assumed problems older
writers highlight in their works have been resolved. “If you read
Adichie’s collection of stories, you‘ll begin to feel that sense that
we are not really that accepted by either the American or European
society. It filters through and it is to that extent that I think the
political is still a major issue in our writing and I don’t seem to see
enough of this in their writing. Of course, one Catholic priest guy,
his collection of short stories… In fact, I was a member of the
Commonwealth judges who decided that year on those prizes. It was a
straight contestation between him and a South African white woman
writer and I said the white woman doesn’t need it. I have to read (new
Nigerian writing) because I keep commenting on it. The only thing I
miss is: where are the new younger writers in Yoruba?” People assume
that it is only Nigerians that don’t read but Omotoso disclosed it’s
the same in South Africa. “Right now, only eight per cent of South
African secondary schools have libraries. The reading culture does not
exist. In fact, they say in South Africa, if you want to hide anything
from a Black man put it in a book because he will never touch it. There
was also the culture, and it is whites who say this, that black people
don’t like to read because they feel white people want to influence
them. But then, you will think they will continue their own oral
culture in their own language but they don’t. It’s a general problem in
Africa. I thought we had resolved it in Nigeria but it has come back to
haunt us. People are not reading, books are not being sold so what do
you do? I don’t know. We can use electronic gadgets, get an iPad, you
don’t have to carry books. I don’t know what we can do.”

Award winning
photographer, Nick Danziger was the guest speaker during an interactive
session held on Monday, March 28 at the British Council, Ikoyi, Lagos.
The session featured slide shows from the photographer; discussions;
and a question and answer segment.

In his opening
speech, Kelechi Amadi Obi, photographer and moderator of the event,
gave a reason for the gathering. “We are creating an avenue for people
who are creative. This time, we’re putting emphasis on the visual arts
and to find ways to succeed in the creative industry,” he
stated.According to him, the choice of the guest speaker wasn’t a mere
coincidence. “The whole idea behind this programme is to bring
practical examples and what better way to do that.” Nick Danziger won
the World Press Photo first prize in 2004 for a picture of Tony Blair
and George Bush facing each other. It gives the impression of a man
looking at his reflection in the mirror.

In the course of
the session, Danziger showed his photos in a slide to the audience. The
photographs which were mainly taken on wide angle lens, revealed his
worldwide travels. There were photographs of his travels – from Iran,
Afghanistan, Pakistan, China, Turkey and back to London where he was
born.

He explained, “I saw different parts of life and that in itself inspired me.”

A depicter of real life

The different
parts of life captured by his camera included the issue of war,
poverty, drug abuse, depression, struggle for survival, discrimination
against women, smuggling and migration amongst others.

Danziger explained
that his love for capturing images which depict real life inspired the
photographs. Thus when a newspaper commissioned him to cover the Iraq
war, he readily accepted. “When the newspaper offered me a chance, I
took it because I thought I could do things that others hadn’t been
able to do,” he declared. He however learnt something worrisome. “Over
90 percent of the casualties are civilians,” he said. It was even more
worrisome that the newspaper that had commissioned him was unwilling to
publish the photos because “they felt that it will upset people as they
ate their breakfast.” During the slide-show, the audience saw the
injustices women face in Pakistan. Members of the Taliban prevent women
and female children who are ill from visiting doctors. Danziger
explained that there is only one ward in Pakistan where women can be
treated.

Contrary to popular
belief, Danziger sees the Taliban’s ban on women as a cultural movement
as opposed to a religious one. “I will like to say they are a cultural
movement. They will rather let their women die than be treated,” he
said. Danziger’s skiing photographs from Iran might have seemed at
first like those taken for thrills but they also depicted gender bias.

He explained that,
“In Iran, the laws allow both sexes to ski but they are not allowed to
ski together.” He however added that in all of the countries he has
travelled to, “the women have the greatest personalities.” The
slide-show also revealed the need for survival and migration to the
United States, thus creating cases of internally displaced persons.
Danziger affirmed, “This shows how many people look for opportunities
and travel where they think [exists] a life of opportunity.” He ended
the slide show with a brief summary of the photos. “I hope it gives you
some idea of the world at large and its diversity,” he said.

Victims of War

A short
documentary, shot in 2001, showed the attacks against civilians during
war and documented its effects on Mariatu, a 13-year-old from Sierra
Leone.

“I want to get
married. I really want to get married but I’m afraid that my husband
will leave me for another woman,” she says at the beginning of the film.

Her fear springs
from her belief that a wife should be responsible for taking care of
the home, but Mariatu cannot do this because she has no hands. Her
hands were hacked off during an attack while on her way back from farm
during the war. And she has to live in a camp with 213 amputees,
including children as young as two and three.

Question and answer session

There was a
question and answer session during which the award winning photographer
fielded questions from journalists and other photographers.

In response to a
question on how he translates his work into money, he said, “I don’t do
this to raise money but to raise awareness.” He continued, “There’s no
easy answer on translating your work into money. Never equate how many
naira’s you will earn in an hour because you will be disappointed.”
Danziger’s advice to young and upcoming photographers was that they
shouldn’t delve into it for the money. “If you’re into photography or
journalism for the money, then my advice to you is, get a job.
Photography is a way to earn a living but it’s going to take you a lot
of time and tremendous hard work.” In addition to possessing the
required skills for photography, Danziger advised that photographers
should possess inner strength.

“Without inner strength, it’s difficult to produce, take pictures
and to paint,” he affirmed, further stating, “You should always be
critical of your own work. Stand your ground and believe in what you
produce.” When asked what he would like to change in photography, he
said, “I would like more outlets for photographers to do more real
stories. There should be less celebrity photos and more real photos.”

As someone who thoroughly enjoys reading Nigerian poetry, let me just observe that several of our new poets are timid holdovers from the Soyinka-Okigbo era; that era that Chinweizu famously derided as unreadable and obscurantist. Such an uncritical adherence to that era ignores the fact that even as oblique as their works were, Soyinka and Okigbo were truly relevant to the times in at least one sense. They spoke in decipherable code to their fellow intellectuals (some of them in uniform) and the intended audience listened closely. Soyinka has many seasons of incarceration to show for the effectiveness of his poetic rage. Okigbo died carrying his message.

An uncritical adherence to a Eurocentric approach has the unintended consequence of isolating our best voices, and assigning their songs to a pantheon of obscure mediocrity. On behalf of our long-suffering people, I would like to urge a return of voices to the true songs of our people. Africa cannot afford the consignment of its griots to the barracks of the unreadable. How does the poet become truly relevant to the yearnings and anxieties of our people?

Soyinka, Gabriel Okara, Okigbo, these poets spoke to the oppressors in the language they understood. Our new oppressors do not understand the complex nuance of the type of poetry that many of our poets seem to favour, that pass the smell test in the West. And if therefore they do not read our poetry, when will they hear the clanging of the chains around our people’s necks? Which begs the question again: What are our poets living for today? It is about seizing opportunities. Our lands lie devastated, enduring rape upon rape. Our poets stare stunned, in disbelief and in shame, because, this time, their voices have been drowned in shallow pools of self-absorption.

Word to the poet: turn your poems into songs of freedom, and let your songs morph into weapons of war. We are at war, what are you doing stringing together incoherent sentences? The poet lives, breathes in all of us. And as Soyinka would probably say it, the poet dies in all who keep silent in the face of tyranny. Let us honestly define the difference between poetry and unadulterated drivel. The consumer is the ultimate arbiter of what good poetry is and what is painful to the eyes. But I miss the haunting lyricism and imagery of poets like Okogbule Wonodi. Hear him sing to me: “But we have poured more wine/than the gods can drink/more than the soil can drink/and have become outcasts/dispersing the fishes/for which the baskets are laid/and the fisherman did not like us.” [Okogbule Wonodi, Icheke: IV] Is Wonodi a bad poet? I would never know. I hope that there are many more bad poets where he came from. I come from a land of simple people who hide deep meanings inside simple words. One has to listen carefully to my people to get the insult or the accolade. I look for those kinds of poems to enjoy. Freed from the stifling confines of classrooms, I have taught myself to only pay for that which my heart seeks. If a poem turns out to be what the acerbic reviewer Randall Jarrell refers to as giving “the impression of having been written on a typewriter by a typewriter,” I will simply move on quietly to a more worthy pursuit. Our poetry is not dead; it just needs packaging.

Thriving societies of thinkers and doers look at their world and they see visions of possibilities and they say, why not? We have inherited a culture that celebrates customs as sacrosanct, and the past poses as the present tense. The great societies take their best thinkers and exhort them to think, no, dream of a better world, and worry about the constraints later. Every day, we lose our tenuous grip on our continent; I think we are going to drown in the syrupy fluid of Western customs and traditions.

In the beginning there were walls. And in the beginning walls defined every being and everything. The Berlin Wall is no more and poets lament the coming of the new dispensation. Except that the new dispensation is not new; it is here. Books are dying, poetry as we know it is limping on life support and prose is hawking her wares in obscure literary journals like a junkie in need of a fix. But the world lives, life goes on and ideas continue to rock our foundations. In the seeming irrelevance of the written word, the poet lives. Poet, do not cripple your voice with silly little sentences that make sense only to the terminally drunk. I say, speak up, don’t stutter. Straighten up and lift our people’s dreams on the strong backs of your strong voices, and carry them through to the deaf myrmidons of darkness who live beyond the valley of darkness, past the hills of decadence. And sing it; sing it for a people long used to the silence of her priests. The poet lives. The poet lives in all of us.