Let’s Tell Our Stories
If you could go back in time to any point in your life, what would you do differently? Would you fix some silly mistake you made when you were thirteen or stop yourself from meeting someone you wish never met or would you just want to spend more time with the people you care about? Either way, in order to change something about the past, you have to be aware of what happened in the first place. It’s kind of like a job interview or test of sorts, where you need to know what you did wrong in order to prevent it from happening again.
It’s strange really, Nigeria being a country so diverse in culture, rich in history and obsessed with tradition placing practically zero importance on our past in ways that actually matter. With very few functioning libraries, limited online resources actually written by Nigerians and history not being a mandatory subject in schools, it is as if we are intentionally trying to erase our own history. Which is why it is particularly disappointing that despite a vast array of interesting topics and practically unlimited source material, we have very few quality films that speak of our history and culture . With the largest film industry in Africa and an audience that is always looking to be entertained, Nollywood has a unique opportunity to tell our stories in ways never before seen. Over the years we have seen a steady increase in the quality of Nigerian movies and it’s been absolutely refreshing to watch. From the golden years of watching Mama G poison her daughter in laws and Aki and Paw Paw cause mischief all over town to modern thrillers like Kemi Adetiba’s King of Boys and Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, the improvement in the quality of Nigerian movies over the years have been very admirable. However, recently it seems Nollywood has gotten itself into a bit of a creative rut with studios churning out the same films based on the rather unrelatable lives of rich folks. There has also been some deviation from this lazy and uncreative trend with the release of a handful of socially conscious movies like Kenneth Gyang’s Òlòtūré and Kunle Afolayan’s Citation but Nollywood needs to completely free themselves from the shackles of their obsession with the affairs of the one percent and open their eyes to an untapped well of unlimited opportunities.
In my opinion, history is defined by those brave enough to tell their stories. We complain a lot about how the rest of the world have a very fallacious view of Africans and African culture but the truth is that while their distorted view has a lot to do with their willful ignorance it also has a lot to do with the fact that there is not enough evidence to contradict their beliefs. I have seen countless Films and tv shows about Victorian England, Countless films of America in the 60s, 70s and 90s but I’ve not seen enough about pre colonial Nigeria, Nigeria during the civil war or even recent history and let’s face it, a huge chunk of what we know about western culture comes from what we saw in movies or tv shows so it’s time we take our core stories that speak of our culture and history to the big screen.
I acknowledge that movies like October 1, 76, Half of a Yellow Sun and The Herbert Macaulay Affair exist and have done a beautiful job of portraying Nigerian history and in some cases putting a refreshing spin on it but we still need a whole lot more. We need more historical dramas, more period pieces and more biopics. We have got too many beautiful stories still left to tell.
