28 Sep 2009 |
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There has been a lot of hullabaloo raised over the science fiction movie titled “District 9”. A lot of Nigerians felt offended by it which prompted the Nigerian Government to ban it from showing at the cinemas because in their view, it portrayed Nigerians negatively. Before continuing, I wish to state that I do not intend this article to be a movie review nor attempt to continue to pour more scorn on the movie but rather try to examine all sides of the argument and eventually find a balanced (if I am lucky) view point on the ongoing saga. Prior to the release of the movie, I considered myself a sci-fi bluff and would enjoy any science fiction movie no matter how lame it was. Sitting through torturous hours of watching the likes of Star Troopers, Battlefield Earth, Chronicles of Riddick over the years, had made me immune to any kind of contraption done in the name of Science fiction but then came District 9. The movie prior to its release had been hyped up as an Apatheid Allegory and two weeks after the movie was released in the U.S, it finally came to our shores. I decided to watch the movie in a cinema hall at Abuja, Nigeria. Once I entered the cinema hall, I could not help but notice how empty the hall was (Just I, my date and a few foreigners). The sight of the empty hall made me regret coming to see the movie on the Big Screen, thinking that the film must have been so poor to pull such a scanty crowd. However, considering I was already in the Hall with the tough hide I had developed for watching any whacked Sci-fiction movie, and of course did not want to be rude to my date, I decided to sit through it. Having previously read the synopsis of the movie, I pretty much knew of what to expect. The concept of the movie seem to be a breath of fresh air, the aliens came to Africa instead of the usual America we are so used to. Instead of the usual, “Show me your leader!” storylines which comprised of highly aggressive and invulnerable Aliens with only one motive which was the destruction of the entire planet starting with the United States. Here, the viewers are confronted with an original story of Aliens who are vulnerable to our weapons, harried in slums, despised and ill treated by us humans. After the first 15 minute document style coverage in the movie, then came the bombshell –the presence a Nigerian gang referred to as “The Nigerians” that reside in District 9. These Nigerians were criminals and there were prostitutes amongst them who serviced aliens. To make matter worse, the crippled leader of the gang was called Obasanjo – the name of a former leader of Nigeria. At first I didn’t know what to think and tried very hard to keep an enjoyable facade for the benefit of my date but inside me started the conflict between my love for Science fiction and patriotism. As a Nigerian, I felt very bad by the portrayal of “The Nigerians” in the movie. ”Surely, the director could have used a fictional country?” I pondered. Despite of this, there were some good points in film; for example, the transformer like scene was particularly pleasing to watch and was done much better than the Michael Bay’s summer blockbuster attempt in Transformers 2 as well as realistic visual effects shown especially in the levitation of the command module by the mother ship and real world decision making by the main actor (Wikus van der Merwe) which was largely influenced by self-preservation other than a prick of conscience. Another thing that was impressive about this was that all the stunning visual effects were done by an Australia Visual effects company on a modest budget of $30 million juxtaposed that with the average 150-250 million budget spent on films in the United States.
Apartheid Allegory The director, Neill Blomkamp who is a South African intended the movie to be an Apartheid Allegory- A commentary on the goings-on during the dark apartheid period in South Africa. In that era, there was a District 6 where blacks were kept after been driven out of their original homes. The director also said that lots of Nigerians lived in the District 6 hence the name “little Lagos” was given to the section of District 6 inhabited by the Nigerians. He also went further to state that Nigerians were responsible for most of the crime in South Africa which in my opinion is a ridiculous assertion based on the premise that in the aftermath of the apartheid period, there was a huge pool of weapons which were originally used to fight the white-minority led South African Government that made up 10% of the population. These weapons were later deployed by the black South Africans (Not all of them but a few), most of whom lacked jobs or education, to commit crime. Read below an excerpt of interview of the Director Neil Blomkamp
“The Nigerian thing is there because I wanted to take as many cues from South Africa as I could. I wanted South Africa to be the inspiration. If I try to keep South Africa as true to South Africa as I could, then, unfortunately, a massive part of the crime that happens in Johannesburg is by the Nigerians there. It's just the way it is. I wanted to have a crime group, and thought the most honest refraction of a crime group would be Nigerians, for one. Then secondly, the Muti, the African witch doctor, is also a huge part of Africa and many African countries. So I wanted to incorporate that as well. At the time I was writing the movie, there were all these tribal witch doctor attacks on Albinos, because Albino flesh was worth more than normal humans. That was the analogy to a different group or a different race, [with their] traditional medicine, or traditional Muti – even cannibalism, in some instances. I incorporated aliens into that. “- Neil Blomkamp (Director District 9) Source: http://www.popentertainment.com/blomkamp.htm Personally, I did not see any similarities between Apartheid and Human –Prawn segregation. This could have been easily remedied if the aliens were portrayed as gentle, loving and intelligent creatures instead of dangerous, garbage-eating and primitive people. This would have made the audience question the human intentions for ill-treating the “prawns” but due their shabby portrayal in the movie, their treatment by the humans looked justified! Therefore as an apartheid allegory, I think the movie failed miserably.
Racist Racism is a very sensitive issue. Everyone has a right to freedom of expression and association. Therefore with time, deep down everyone has a positive and negative impression about people based on their social interaction with them or hear-say. Some have accused South Africans of being racist towards Nigerian based the brewing xenophobia of South Africans at Nigerians. Last year in South Africa, there was a pogrom targeted at Nigerians. A lot of people mostly Nigerians were killed. One ponders why? If one accuses South Africans of being racists then what does one have to say about the Libyans and the Chinese who have put Nigerians on death row. Are they racists too? There seems to be a reoccurring pattern of despise at Nigerians everywhere in the world. Not long ago, in a particular Scandinavian country, Nigerians were offered $3300 each to leave the country. Sadly nowadays, in the eyes of the world, being a Nigerian is now synonymous to being either a drug peddler or a fraudster. This is a shocking contrast to the 70s and early 80s when we were very much respected. Foreigners loved to have Nigerians shop at their stores with their “Petrol Naira”.Being a Nigerian then meant being a responsible, proud brother to all Africans. It is for this reason that I would like to look beyond racism but rather take a cue from what my mother (God bless her soul) once told me; that when it seems the whole world is against you then it is time to do some introspection- a form of internal audit on one life. I won’t want to bore you with the numerous problems with Nigeria. We know them. They are well documented. These problems have pushed many of our people to the far corners of the earth in search of greener pastures and where they do not exist; take matters into their own hands. But we must not be in complete denial. The issues of Voodoo and cannibalism shown in the movie do exist in Nigeria and other African countries. We are witnesses to a certain House of Rep. member that was caught but-naked on film performing ritual rites as well as the video evidence shown in court during the Orji (Not be confused with Clifford Orji) Kalu’s case showing the then incumbent in disgusting ritual pose. There are also stories told for example: at least 1 albino is murdered per month in Tanzania for their body parts which some believe will grant them certain powers; while small children raped in South Africa because sex with a virgin is believed to cure AIDS. I would conclude this section in saying the director is definitely NOT racist but hurriedly accepted the rude caricature of Nigerians without further research which I would attribute to lazy writing. Plain Stupid A typical Hollywood action movie consists mainly of three things: a protagonist, an antagonist and a stupid reason for massive explosions and special effects. That is what makes money .It is nothing personal. Hollywood is all about profit. In the 80s and 90s, the villains in most Hollywood movies were either eastern Europeans or Russians. After the tragic 9/11 attacks, it became Arabs. This is because Hollywood is stupid. If one takes Hollywood seriously then one is bound to believe their exaggerated caricatures and stereotypes of everyone. See the following examples: Americans are gun-trotting, trigger happy people, Russians are war mongers, British men are gay, South Africans are militaristic, Africans are primitive, Asians are vengeful martial artists, Arabs are terrorists, African-Americans are drug dealers and of course Nigerians are fraudsters. One has to be stupid to believe anything that comes out of it. One is usually best advised to ignore Hollywood but ignore Hollywood at one own peril. It is the U.S biggest propaganda tool and weapon in shaping global opinion about anybody or any topic. Even opinions on other issues such as Global warming can be shaped. Does the movie “A Day before Tomorrow” come to mind. How about a certain Richard Gear movie titled "Red Corner" which in my opinion, was a critic on the Chinese Justice System. Conclusion It is easy to criticize how others portray us but we need to more careful how we portray ourselves. A great man once said that no one can show you contempt except you permit him. Nollywood, our own version of Hollywood produces so many movies with basically the same theme- Voodoo, Rituals and corruption. It is a fast easy of making money. Why spend so much time and money to write an elaborate, moving story when one can just regurgitate the same tried and tested Voodoo based template. Nollywood has been successfully at this because they have a ready accomplice in the Nigerian audience that patronizes the Voodoo tales. If our image need to change considering in a short time, something drastic needs to be done about Nollywood. I am not talking about punitive measures but rather measures that help the industry take risks in untapped storylines because it is a private enterprise with the sole emphasis on making profit. Such measures could include, a large pool of low interest loans could be made available to movie producers which show interest in adopting voodoo-free plots. Also, the scourge of piracy needs to be tackled and WON because by protecting the creative rights of our film makers, do we challenge them to making better movies. Back to District 9, it really makes no sense as a punitive measure banning the movie from showing at the cinemas since the big distribution and movie companies don’t really make much money from Nigeria anyway. I think that decision was prompted for a need to make a statement. Either way, Nigerians had already spoken by simply not turning out to watch the movie at the cinemas evidenced by the empty halls at the movie’s showings. Sooner or later the cinema houses would have had to replace the movie with more profitable ones without being coerced by the Federal Government. Furthermore, Hollywood has realized that controversy sells so the more people talk negatively about District 9, the more other people will troop to the cinemas or buy a DVD to see what the fuss is all about. I also learnt the Nigerian authorities are demanding an apology. Well, after Sony apologized for the play station advert, it made sense to continue with this line of attack but I think the results would be different. Firstly, Sony said the movie which arrived in Nigeria two weeks after release in the U.S., was given permission to screen by the Nigeria Censor Board whom I assume must have watched the movie. Therefore, it would not be fair to ask it to apologise. In concluding, I think real efforts should be made in improving the lives of Nigerian at home. If our economy and good governance improves, I believe our statue around the world will see proportional increase. Lets continue to conduct ourselves with dignity and refuse to be downcast.God has a reason he made us Nigerians. Happy Independence Day!
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