Auteuring Nollywood: Critical Perspectives on The Figurine 9780698280, 9789780698287, 9789780698294, 9789789400690

Table of contents :
Cover
Title page
Copyright page
Dedication
FOREWORD
PREFACE & ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION. Philosophy, (Neo-) Nollywood and the African Predicament
Background and motif
Modernity and the imperative of vision
Philosophy at Nollywood
Nollywood as paradigmatic practice
Neo-Nollywood as exemplary practice
Why The Figurine? The Nigerian filmmaker as auteur
Prefiguring The Figurine
Notes
References
Part I - ARAROMIRE IN NOLLYWOOD
1. The Figurine: The Interplay of the Mysterious, the Orchestrated and the Coincidental
Introduction
Kunle Afolayan and the Nollywood scenario
The mysterious, the orchestrated and the coincidental: Fathoming the aesthetics of suspense in The Figurine
Conclusion
References
2. The Figurine and the “Torn” Individual
Background
The problem
Nollywood in perspective
Nollywood’s misrepresentation of Yoruba tradition
Nollywood’s islands of hope
Of modernity and tradition
The Yoruba world view
Figuring out The Figurine
Mental map and reality
Causality and the African mode of thought
Conclusion
Notes
References
3. Striving with the Gods: The Figurine and the Double-Bind of Realism and the Supernatural
Introduction
The magical and the empirical
Conclusion
References
4. Animist Order and the Ghost of Modernity in Kunle Afolayan’s The Figurine
Introduction
Conclusion
Note
References
5. Araromire’s Cross: A Human Dilemma
Introduction
A further elaboration on Araromire
Drawing on analogy
Conclusion
References
6. Local Going Global: Comparing the International Narrative Appeal of Araromire (The Figurine) and Love in the Time of Cholera
Films
Books
7. Alter/Native Film Narratives in Nollywood and The Figurine
Introduction
Alter/Natives film narratives
The mask code in African cinema
Techniques and motif
On postmodernism and The Figurine
Conclusion
Note
References
8. Nigerian Video Film and the Conundrum of Language: Observatory Notes on Kunle Afolayan’s Araromire and Irapada
Introduction
Language and Nigerian literary arts
A Filmmaker’s experiment with language in Araromire and Irapada
Concluding remarks
Filmography
References
Part II - NOLLYWOOD AND BEYOND
9. The Home Video Industry and Nigeria’s Cultural Development
The background
The traditional theatre films and videos
The mass society and the mass media
The Nigerian film versus the Nigerian home video
Conclusion: Home video and television as precursors of the new media
References
10. Audio-Visual Griots: On the Historiography of the Indigenous Yoruba Video Film in Nigeria
Introduction: The Nigerian video film
the Nigerian video film and its antecedents
Historiophory and Nigerian video films
Yoruba videos and politics
Conclusion
References
11. The Crippled Cinema of a Crippled Nation? Preliminary Notes on Nollywood and the Nigerian State
Introduction: Nigeria @ 50
The repression of the state
National cinema, national ambitions
Interrogating Nollywood
Conclusion
Notes
Filmography
Bibliography
12. Nollywood and the Discursive Mediation of Identity, Nationhood and Social Anxiety
Introduction
Conclusion
References
13. Towards a Morality of the African Film
Introduction
Why only the film director?
What is morality?
What morality?
Film as a work of art
What type of a film?
Conclusion
References
14. Nollywood: How Far? How Much Further
The evolution of Nollywood
The content of the Nollywood film
Marketing the Nollywood film
The Nollywood audience
Wither Nollywood?
Notes
References
Part III - INTERVIEWS
Of The Figurine, “Neo Nollywood” and the Politics of Film Festivals in Africa
The Story, the Script and the Movie
Cinematography Within Limitations
Set Design Beyond Nollywood
The Excitement of a Story
AFTERWORD - Neo-Nollywood and Its Other
NOTES ON CONTRIBUTORS
INDEX
Back cover

Citation preview

AUTEURING NOLLYWOOD Critical Perspectives on the Figurine

edited by

Adeshina Afolayan

AUTEURING NOLLYWOOD

Critical Perspectives on THE FIGURINE

AUTEURING NOLLYWOOD

Critical Perspectives on THE FIGURINE

edited by Adeshina Afolayan

UNIVERSITY PRESS PLC IBADAN 2014

University Press PLC IBADAN ABA ABEOKUTA ABUJA AJEGUNLE AKURE BENIN CALABAR IKEJA IKORODU ILORIN JOS KADUNA KANO MAIDUGURI MAKURDI MINNA ONITSHA OSOGBO OWERRI PORT HARCOURT WARRI YABA ZARIA

© Adeshina Afolayan 2014

First Published 2014

All rights reserved

ISBN 978 978 069 828 7 ISBN 978 978 069 829 4

(Limp) (Cased)

Published by University Press PLC Three Crowns Building, Jericho, P.M.B. 5095, Ibadan, Nigeria E-mail: [email protected] Website: www.universitypressplc.com

For Funmilayo Afolayan: Scholarship is incomplete without that soft touch to a fevered brain…

FOREWORD

:LWK KLV ÀUVW WZR ÀOPV Irapada (Redemption) and Araromire (The Figurine), Kunle Afolayan has already established himself as a PDMRU IRUFH LQ 1LJHULDQ ÀOPPDNLQJ +LV WDOHQWV DUH REYLRXV KLV success has been all the more spectacular for being so immediate, DQGWKHIDFWWKDWKHVWDUVLQKLVRZQÀOPVJLYHVDQXQXVXDOSHUVRQDO character to his sudden prominence as a director. At the present moment, as Nollywood struggles through its latest crisis, his success LV SDUWLFXODUO\ ZHOFRPH DQG H[HPSOLÀHV DQ LPSRUWDQW WUHQG WKH HPHUJHQFHRI DKLJKHQGVHJPHQWRI WKHLQGXVWU\WKDWZRUNVZLWK bigger budgets and includes as part of its basic strategies theatrical VFUHHQLQJV IRUHLJQ DQG GLDVSRULF DXGLHQFHV DQG IRUHLJQ ÀOP IHVWLYDOV0DQ\REVHUYHUVRI WKH1LJHULDQYLGHRÀOPLQGXVWU\KDYH EHHQZDLWLQJIRUDORQJWLPHIRUWKLVNLQGRI ÀOPPDNLQJZKLFKFDQ WDNHLWVSODFHLQWKHLQWHUQDWLRQDODUHQDSURXGO\DQGRQHTXDOWHUPV UDWKHUWKDQEHLQJH[KLELWHGRQWKHPDUJLQVRI ÀOPIHVWLYDOVDVD specimen of an exotic phenomenon of African popular culture. 2I  FRXUVH WKLV NLQG RI  ÀOPPDNLQJ LV QRW HQWLUHO\ QHZ ² LW is what Tunde Kelani has always done. There is an obvious UHODWLRQVKLSEHWZHHQWKHVHWZRÀOPPDNHUVDQGQRWRQO\EHFDXVH Afolayan got his start as an actor playing the young prince in Kelani’s Saworoide and Agogo Eewo. (Of course, Afolayan was born DSULQFHRI WKH1LJHULDQÀOPWUDGLWLRQDVWKHVRQRI WKHGD]]OLQJO\ FKDULVPDWLF DFWRU DQG GLUHFWRU $GH /RYH  $IROD\DQ OLNH .HODQL

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KDVFRQVSLFXRXVSURIHVVLRQDOWUDLQLQJDQGWHFKQLFDOSURÀFLHQF\DQ uncommon level of artistry and a slow, deliberate, careful approach WRKLVZRUN%RWKKDYHDWDQJHQWLDOUHODWLRQVKLSZLWK1ROO\ZRRG ,I  1ROO\ZRRG LV LQ WKH ÀUVW SODFH D PDUNHWLQJ DQG GLVWULEXWLRQ V\VWHP DQG D PRGH RI  ÀOPPDNLQJ JHDUHG WR LW ERWK PHQ KDYH deliberately stayed out of it. Both also distinguish themselves by the wide ambit of Nigerian FXOWXUHWKH\SXWRQGLVSOD\7KH\PDNHUHVRQDQWFDVWLQJGHFLVLRQV as Kelani has always drawn on actors from several traditions not only for their individual talents but also to suggest a blending, a broad cultural alliance; in The Figurine Afolayan casts stars with EDFNJURXQGVDQGSHUVRQDHDVGLIIHUHQWDV5DPVH\1RXDKDQG-LGH .RVRNRKHKDVWKHPXVLFLDQ/DJEDMDSURYLGHYRLFHRYHUQDUUDWLRQ and gives the painter and performing artist Muraina Oyelami, who LV D ZDONLQJ V\QHFGRFKH IRU WKH PRGHUQ DUWV LQ 1LJHULD D VPDOO EXW LFRQLF UROH OLNH WKRVH .HODQL OLNHV WR JLYH $NLQZXPL ,VKROD and Adebayo Faleti. Oyelami’s paintings and posters are a crucial YLVXDOSUHVHQFHLQWKHÀOPDQGWKH2EDIHPL$ZRORZR8QLYHUVLW\ museum of archaeology and modern art is a recurrent point of reference. Afolayan expresses his own generation’s urban culture in the edgy fashion designs, interior decoration, architecture, and VRXQGWUDFNPXVLFLQThe Figurine7KHÀOPVHWVLWVHOI RXWVLGHDQG EH\RQG WKH JOLW]\ VHOIFRQWDLQHG FXOWXUH RI  1ROO\ZRRG ZKLFK habitually showcases what money can buy but often without PXFK WDVWH RU VRSKLVWLFDWLRQ 3HUKDSV WKLV ÀOP FDQ EH VHHQ DV D UHWXUQWRWKHWUDGLWLRQRI FHOOXORLGÀOPVOLNH%DED6DOD·VMosebolatan (directed by Ade Love and shot by Tunde Kelani) and Orun Mooru (directed by Ola Balogun) which featured a performance by King 6XQQ\ $GH DQG 6X]DQQH :HQJHU·V VFXOSWXUHV LQ WKH *URYH RI  2VXQ LQ 2VKRJER /DUJH EXGJHWV DUH UHTXLUHG IRU WKLV NLQG RI 

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cultural ambition, of course, but so is an ambitious imagination. 1ROO\ZRRG LV QRZ XQTXHVWLRQDEO\ WKH VWURQJHVW H[SUHVVLRQ RI  Nigeria’s cultural energies; one could contemplate this with more joy if Nollywood engaged more fully with the wider Nigerian artistic heritage instead of merely superseding it. $IROD\DQ·V ÀOPV UDGLDWH WKH ZDUPWK KXPDQLVP EURDG mindedness and moralism that are so characteristic of Yoruba culture. Irapada KDV D :D]RELDQ SROLWLFV WKDW LV LQWHJUDO WR LWV structure rather than something preached about: the strongest, DSSDUHQWO\XQEUHDNDEOHOHDVWWKUHDWHQHGUHODWLRQVKLSVLQWKHÀOP are the friendships across ethnic lines; code-switching is constant, though there are also a couple of scenes that play around strong linguistic barriers, as if to draw attention to the problem that is QRUPDOO\RYHUFRPHZLWKRXWDSSDUHQWHIIRUWWKHVFHQHVKLIWVEDFN DQG IRUWK IURP VRXWKZHVWHUQ 1LJHULD WR .DGXQD ORRNLQJ ORYHO\ and green after the rains, with little or no hint of the communal YLROHQFHWKDWKDGWRUQLWDSDUWVKRUWO\EHIRUHWKHÀOPZDVPDGH (Perhaps the Hausa businessman’s treachery and violence towards D