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The 2011 Lagos
Black Heritage Week will start tomorrow with ‘FELA! in Lagos’, the
acclaimed Broadway musical making its debut in Nigeria.

Unlike last year’s
festival, which was held on a grand scale, the 2011 event themed
‘Animating Heritage’ will be a mini-festival because of the ongoing
elections.

“The 2011 Black
Heritage Festival was confronted by a formidable challenge from another
aspiring ‘festival’ – the Nigerian Festival of Democracy 2011 – at
least as eternally hoped by the Nigerian populace and outside democracy
watchers. Both performances falling within the same week, the
unpredictable nature of encroachments by the aspiring ‘festival’ nearly
caused a cancellation of the creative original. In the end, however,
the Heritage Festival’s commitment to a calendar regularity won the
day, and a final decision was taken to stage ‘Heritage’, albeit on a
much reduced scale. Perhaps the ‘Festival of Democracy’ will extract
some useful lessons from the humanistic order of its unintended rival,”
explained the festival consultant, Wole Soyinka.

Though the event
will take place on a much smaller scale, it will not be devoid of its
basic components. The opening ceremony of ‘FELA! in Lagos’ will start
at 5pm tomorrow at the Eko Hotel on Victoria Island, while the 2011
festival exhibition featuring artists Tola Wewe and Nike
Davies-Okundaye will start on April 22 at 9am at Freedom Park, Lagos
Island. It will run until April 29.

The children’s
heritage village, featuring games, adventures and creativity, will also
hold in Freedom Park on Friday with the renowned Uncle Jimi Solanke
anchoring the proceedings. There will be a special video feature by
Henrietta Fagbo and guest appearances by some public figures whose
identities are being kept secret, as a surprise for the children.

Drama and music

The festival
symposium themed ‘Animating Heritage – The Lagos Experience’ will hold
at Terra Kulture, on Tiamiyu Savage Street, Victoria Island, on April
27 at 10am while drama follows later in the day. “The Drama section is
especially pleased to be able to feature Sefi Atta, 2005 winner of the
Noma Publishers Literary Award and the 2006 Wole Soyinka Award for
African Literature. She partners Wole Oguntokun in a double
presentation bill aptly described as ‘Two Parables for Naija’, a pair
of thought-provoking plays that should complete any process of
reflection that may have been missed out in the Easter season of
professing Christians! No less thought-provoking is Bode Sowande’s
play, ‘Ajantala -Pinocchio’, an indictment of adult neglect of the
future as represented by children,” noted a release from organisers.

The painting
competition, an open event themed ‘Walls of Prison to Fields of
Freedom’, will hold at Freedom Park, the former site of Broadstreet
Prison, on April 28 and will culminate with an awards night on May 2,
the last day of the festival.

The Heritage Week
2011 festival will also feature a musical segment, apart from drama and
painting. Veteran highlife musician, Tunji Oyelana, will dish out
evergreen old school tunes every night at Freedom Park from April 27 to
May 2.

Lagos Carnival
2011, a key component of the fiesta, will take place on April 30
beginning at 9am, along a designated route that begins along Awolowo
Road and ends at Tafawa Balewa Square. “The public is assured that the
lessons of last year’s festival have been absorbed, and traffic control
agencies primed to a new awareness of the controls that should be put
in place to ensure that minimal interference with normal traffic takes
place,” the organisers assured in reference to hitches recorded during
last year’s carnival.

The boat regatta
will hold on May 1 at the Lagos Lagoon along Ozumba Mbadiwe and will
feature about 15 participating yatch clubs and boating associations.

The ‘fitila’
procession, a reminder of Africa’s tragic history of the slave era, and
the triumph of resilience and survival, takes place in Badagry also on
May 1.

Works by filmmaker, Tunde Kelani, will be screened at Freedom Park before the festival ends on May 2.

Mahmood Ali-Balogun
has embraced celluloid at a time when other filmmakers are giving it a
wide berth. His latest feature, Tango With Me, is shot on celluloid.
But was this necessary?

“As a filmmaker and
somebody who studied film, it is always one’s dream to shoot on the
best format. More so, there has been much noise about Nigeria where
it’s only video that we work on,” he says in his Surulere, Lagos office.

“This movie
attempts to correct that impression, in the sense that we started
shooting movies in this country on celluloid and we will continue to
shoot on celluloid though the digital format has come to stay. For us
film buffs, we believe that it’s the best format; it avails you wider
horizon in terms of exposure and acceptance. Once people know that you
shot on 35mm, they tend to respect that gesture. They believe you can’t
be investing so much money if you don’t have something worthwhile to
tell people. It’s to express myself in the format that I believe will
give best expression to my movie.”

Ali-Balogun’s
choice is also a personal statement. “There has been so much talk about
the quality of what we churn out in Nollywood – that we don’t shoot on
any other format. They are also saying we lack the discipline to work
on celluloid and I try to say within Nollywood we have that discipline.
We have that skill, we have that capacity, we have what it will take to
work on 35mm.”

Tough going

Shooting on
celluloid is far from easy and Ali-Balogun speaks from experience as he
admits, “It’s a format where you need a lot of discipline. Yes, it was
tough but if you know your onions, you can overcome these challenges.
We had problems, especially because people have not worked on that
format for a long time, and I used a mix of Nigerian crew and a few
people who came from Hollywood. It was tough, but we were able to
surmount most of the challenges. I knew what I was doing so I was
prepared for it and had the answers ready.”

Having the answers
ready, however, didn’t stop him spending about five years on the
project. He conceived the project in 2005, finalised the script in 2007
but waited until 2009 to start principal photography while he sourced
for funds and grappled with other pre-production issues.

Post production,
which had its own hitches, took place in his studio in Lagos, South
Africa, Dubai and Bulgaria. After working on the sound in South Africa,
he took the production to Bulgaria. “Getting there, I realised we had
difficulties with the sound so I commissioned the sound [to be] redone
in Sofia. I came back to Lagos again, did some more work before I took
the materials back to Bulgaria, before I got the final print about
three weeks ago.”

He went to much
trouble for the movie, but Ali-Balogun doesn’t see this as any big
deal. “That’s how it’s done,” he says. “It’s just that we don’t have
some of the support system here locally, so I had to go to these places
for a cheaper alternative. That’s why I went to Eastern Europe. I went
to Dubai on the recommendation of Kodak Motion Picture Film that
partnered with me. They advised that I work in those places; that it
won’t cost me as much as it would if I went to South Africa, England or
the US.” He also talks about how he bankrolled the production. “Funding
was essentially my funds, with support of few friends. This was not
necessarily in terms of cash but support in kind – using their homes
and other facilities. Eventually, I got the support of MTN, but it was
after I had finished shooting.”

A filmmaker who
decides to shoot on 35mm must have contemplated if the required
expertise is available in Nigeria before making his choice. Did
Ali-Balogun feel there was enough expertise in Nigeria to do what he
needed?

“I will say yes and
no. In terms of expertise, we have some old hands in Nigeria who had
worked on film before but technology has changed a great deal. A lot of
them don’t even have an understanding of the kind of film stock
available. There are improved film stocks that people are not used to.
It’s not that we don’t have the people but people with [up-to-date]
experience were lacking, so I had to bring in the camera crew from LA
and the camera itself. I used a Harry 535 brought from The Camera House
in Los Angeles and a three-man crew came with it. The other support
crew was from Nigeria. Most of the grip equipment is from Jungle Film
Works and some from Cinecraft. That’s why I said I got the support in
kind.”

Known and upcoming

Tango With Me
features big names including Genevieve Nnaji, Joke Silva, Tina Mba and
Ahmed Yerima, all of whom the producer is happy to have in the cast.
“That’s why I went for them anyway. I knew they would be able to
interpret the roles effectively and in that light, bring out the vision
I have. I did the casting myself and I wanted a mix of known and
unknown [actors],” he says. Though some would consider the casting of
newcomer, Joseph Benjamin, opposite Genevieve a risk, Ali-Balogun
doesn’t see it that way. “I felt that what I needed from the actor was
potential. I saw the potential in him and I was able to groom him to do
exactly what I wanted. To a large extent he was able to interpret the
role the way I wanted. One of the reasons why I went for him was the
fact that we must begin to build new stars. There is nothing wrong in
using the same faces all over but part of my contribution is to help
raise new people that can become the stars of tomorrow. That’s why I
had a mix of people known and who are upcoming.”

Projecting Lagos

Ali-Balogun also
explains why Lagos is prominently depicted in the movie. “It’s a
deliberate projection of my country, particularly Lagos because movie
is a tool we can use to project ourselves. A lot of transformation is
going on in Nigeria, in Lagos where I live, and one could not but
appreciate and support the federal and state governments in
transforming the nation. There are still issues that we need to solve
but there are certain aspects that are working. Why don’t we extol
those aspects rather than show negatives all the time? It is not
propaganda material, it’s a creative thing; but in the process. I
infused some of the good things happening. It’s my own way of using
film to project Nigeria and Lagos.”

Lead actress Genevieve Nnaji, plays a ballet teacher in Tango With Me but is ballet that popular in Nigeria?

“The ballet dance
is used as a metaphor. Tango is a dance that involves two people and
marriage or any relationship involves two or more people. The title in
that regard is a metaphor for marriage,” says Ali-Balogun.

Appreciative producer

Tango With Me had
six nominations at this year’s Africa Movie Academy Awards but didn’t
win in any of the categories. How does the director feel about it?

“Anyone nominated
for anything, particularly awards, is as good as winning. The
nomination is good for the film in the sense that it shows that it is
above average, it shows that it could have won but the films that won
just have some slight edge over it. In a situation where there were
over 360 entries and you are in the last five, that’s great. Anybody
could have won but I’m sure individual preferences would come in
because I’ve been on juries at film festivals and individual
preferences would come. I appreciate the nomination and I’m sure maybe
next time we will win something. It’s a great honour to have been
nominated at all. That you are nominated does not mean you must win,
the nomination shows that one has done a good job,” says Ali-Balogun.
He adds that he is currently working on ensuring that the movie is well
distributed; and that he gets a good return on his investment.

Tango With Me premieres today at the Silverbird Galleria, Lagos, at 6pm.

We are seated on a day bed of patchwork upholstery, one of the innumerable proofs of Peju Alatise’s artistic ingenuity.

The multi-faceted
artist and writer says she is usually referred to as an old soul and it
is easy to see why. She speaks like one who has lived many lifetimes
and her debut novel ‘Orita Meta’ (2006) is what she terms her attempt
at understanding what life is really about.

‘Orita Meta’ looks
at three generations of women and the challenges of being an African
woman; and borrows a lot from Yoruba philosophy and folklore. The
writer says that her Yoruba heritage is an immutable part of who she
is. “It’s a part of me. Some of the stories in the book were stories my
mum had told me when I was young; and my grandmother too,” she says.

The book’s prologue
is profound in that it goes deep into the Yoruba philosophy of the
spiritual and its influence on the destiny of man. “A lot of people
have told me they found the prologue poetic, some have said esoteric,”
she says of the segment, which depicts how a woman meets with the devil
of the crossroads, who then attempts to read her palm.

On feminism

Alatise may come
across as a feminist because her art often dwells on the female as
subject matter and ‘Orita Meta’ tells stories of women, but she is wary
of the term. “I do not think ‘Orita Meta’ is a book meant for women
(simply) because it’s about women,” she says. “It’s not about fighting
and burning the bras. If I define feminism, I see that it is about
equal rights. If a man has the right to eat, can’t a woman have the
same right? Fighting for my right to be human is ridiculous. For as
long as feminism means a woman can make her own choices, then you can
call me a feminist. If feminism says I have the right to live, then I
am.”

Starting to write

Unlike many writers
who profess an awareness of their abilities from a young age, Alatise
never knew she could write. “I am talkative, I like to tell stories and
I have a strange imagination but I was not a writer,” she insists.

According to her,
it all began with painting. She did a couple of artworks for a close
friend and he told her to write short stories about each of the works.
“It was interesting writing about all the short stories,” she says.

Before long,
writing became a part of her. “I did a lot of faces and wrote stories
behind the faces,” she adds. At her studio, she would print out the
stories and lay them out on a table and people visiting the studio
would read them. However, “my closest friend lost her husband and it
was a painful loss for her and I felt for her. That was when I began
writing ‘Orita Meta’,” she says.

‘Orita Meta’

The process of
writing the book was mostly about her asking questions about existence.
“Why do [we] cry when people die? It could be for different reasons;
lose of income, security and survival,” she says. “For some, it could
be for loss of friendship and companionship. It was about being able to
create fictional characters that were influenced by various people I
had encountered. The challenges of these characters were some of the
answers to my questions about life.”

Alatise admits to
having enjoyed the whole process of writing, getting published and
finally holding the book in her hands, in spite of the challenges of
getting a publisher in Nigeria. She reveals that she got a lot of
rejections, with varying reasons given. “I had one who said that I
should come back after five years because good books are written after
five years. I got crazy responses,” she reveals with some amusement.

Undeterred, she
sent off the manuscript to a friend in South Africa who was working
with magazine. “He showed it to his editor and they thought it was
fantastic.” She left for South Africa almost immediately and had to pay
for an editor. It was eventually published in South Africa, but Alatise
admits that it was basically a self-published work.

While Alatise began
writing ‘Orita Meta’ out of a need to understand the essence of being,
the novel has taken on a life of its own way beyond the author’s
initial intention. It was nominated for the ANA/Flora Nwapa Prize for
Women’s Writing. Alatise, who enjoys collecting books, also loves to
read and in recent times has found herself reading and being fascinated
by Magical Realism.

Rhythmic Prose

“I was recently
introduced to the works of Latin American writer, Eduardo Galeano. I
find him humorous, very philosophical and witty. He writes like he is
dreaming,” she says. Chinua Achebe and Brazilian writer, Paulo Coelho
are also favourites, whose works have influenced her craft including
‘Orita Meta’, which she terms ‘Rhythmic Prose’. “I am fascinated by
Achebe’s use of language in writing and also the fact that he writes
from the perspective of an old soul… Reading Coelho, I asked myself
‘Are you really allowed to do this?” says Alatise, thrilled by the
freedom of imagination and possibilities which Magical Realism affords.

With a children’s
story book and a play already in the works, this 36-year-old graduate
of Architecture proves that her foray into writing is not a fluke.
Having made a success of her career as a visual artist, it will not be
a surprise to see her do the same as an author, especially as her first
steps have yielded noticeable results.

I enjoyed reading
‘Waiting for Savon’ by Isaac Attah Ogezi. I love plays but I rarely get
the texts from Nigeria these days. Does anyone of my lovely readers
have any recommended plays from home? I can send my friends and
relatives to get them from the bookstores, along with my Nescafe and
groundnuts. ‘Waiting for Savon’ features a rollicking discussion about
political and ethnic tensions, using three main characters, each
representing Nigeria’s main groups. It is an interesting play on the
tensile anxieties among the three major ethnicities. I enjoyed the play
for it questions the reader’s ideals, the notion of the nation-state,
and one’s sense of the reality on the ground. The reader is forced to
reconcile all that with the rank irresponsibility of our leaders who
see us through linear lenses. And of course today, there is the reality
of blurred boundaries. I am quite fascinated by the burden of the
play’s anxieties. It is a simple play; there are no silly flourishes
with the language. I liked that because it freed me to follow the plot.
The dialogue is insistent, throbbing gently with an urgent message. It
folded itself into my pocket and followed me everywhere; it would reach
out and ask to read to me.

Plays are tricky
because the playwright is bringing together every trick of the writing
trade and you are talking dialogue; you can be easily shamed by an
audience looking for good quality dialogue because dialogue is life and
life is dialogue. Ogezi’s play is mostly dialogue; in my day, before
the Internet became everything, it would have made for a good radio
play. I hope Ogezi continues to work on his craft. I actually loved the
work’s simple trick of disembodying the three ethnic representatives,
as they were, from the people. The reader is focused on them and
fascinated by how seemingly disconnected they are from the reality on
the ground. Or are they? Ogezi provides the lots of food for thought.
This is no mean feat.

‘Waiting for
Savon’ made me nostalgic for my youth, when I used to prance around on
stage. Ogezi’s drama text made me hungry for Wole Soyinka’s ‘Jero’
plays, which I love. Soyinka is a world class playwright, genius flows
from him when he does plays. However, Ola Rotimi’s ‘The Gods Are Not To
Blame’ is my all-time favourite. I enjoyed playing Alaka the drunken
old man when I was young. The work is remarkable in how it takes a
Greek tragedy, ‘Oedipus Rex’, and adapts it into true Yoruba mythology.
Please read ‘The Gods Are Not To Blame’, if you have not done so
already. Like Chinua Achebe, Rotimi was a very confident wordsmith; the
English language did not intimidate him. He deployed English as if he
was using an indigenous language. And it shows in the play’s flow.

If I had to advise
any aspiring playwright, I would say, travel around and listen to any
and everybody. The plays are on the streets. And read, read, read the
masters. Talking about listening, my dad Papalolo taught me to listen
closely to people, to interactions, to the poetry of dialogue, to how
people really communicate. He would take me to our ancestral village
and we would visit folks in the most rugged of places and he would say
to me, “Ikhide, listen, just listen.” My dad was born with a good ear
for the poetry of living. He saw music and poetry in words and he would
say to me, all excited, “Did you hear that? Tell me, what do you think
they were really telling you?” In those days, we both hung around some
rugged places and drank several rounds of palmwine together, listening
to some great oral poets.

We both read
together voraciously. Achebe’s ‘A Man of the People’ is my dad’s
all-time favourite book. If he knew about the Nobel he would probably
say that Achebe should get the laurel every year on the strength of
that novel alone. He loved the character, Chief MP Nanga, and he used
to swagger around our parlour imitating that man. I loved the main
character, the idealistic Odili. My dad loved all the works of T.M.
Aluko and he bought them all, ‘One Man One Matchet’ and so on. He
adored ‘One Man, One Wife’ and he would read long passages aloud, to my
mother’s irritation.

My dad was an armful in his young days. But he was a warrior, who
defied the odds in that place called Nigeria. He taught himself what
the society would not teach him. As a result he got in trouble a lot,
but he taught me how to use charm and street smarts to get out of
trouble. Reading and writing and life-long learning were part of the
tricks of his trade. Growing up, my dad was a one man play, a
triumphant celebration of life. I thank Ogezi for making me remember my
dad.