I have always wanted to time travel.
The
past has always been fascinating to me and I have often dreamed of going back
in time to meet great historical figures like Winston Churchill or Gandhi. I
imagined what I would say to them and what sort of questions I would ask. Even
more fascinating to me is imagining meeting the younger selves of people I know
right now. Like my Dad. What I would do to meet my dad as a 20 year old whilst
I am in my 30’s. And whilst Michael J. Fox did exactly this in the classic Back
to the Future movies, I have to say I kind of felt transported back in time at
the media screening event of the screen adaptation of the book, ‘Half of a
Yellow Sun’ by the erudite Chiamamanda Adichie
The
invitation had come 2 weeks before and I actually went out and borrowed the
book planning to read it before I watched the movie. But then I never actually got
round to reading it. Which was a shame because screen adaptations are usually
constrained by having to fit rich flowing narratives into 2 hours of on-screen
story-telling. Screen adaptations take huge creative licenses and it’s always
hit and miss, especially with fans of the books who build diverse and different
(but no less valid) landscapes in their mind’s eye. It’s inevitable that some
fans are left bitterly disappointed with the execution of their favourite story
on the movie medium.
I
would not be hampered by this and had to take the story at face value. Which is
what a lot of people seeing this movie are going to do anyway. My review
includes minor spoilers so be warned.
Back
to time travel.
The
movie opens with actual news reports doubtless gotten from the archives, of the
visit of Queen Elizabeth II to Lagos in celebration of the independence of the
Nigerian state from its colonial masters the British in 1960. The 60’s were
swinging in so many ways and more so for the young Nigerian nation. The opening
black and white montage made me wish I could time-travel to the streets of
Lagos with its colonial style buildings, funny looking cars and even funnier
fashion. The montage segues perfectly into the homes of the 2 young sisters of
a prominent and successful business man. The opening scenes manages to capture
the upper middle class lifestyle of a newly emerging nation who had the world
at its feet and hope in its heart. From the butler-attended dinner hosting the
Finance minister to the independence party the twin girls later attend, that
sense of privilege, education and snobbery is perfectly captured.
Thandie Newton plays the female lead, Olanna and one half of the twins whilst Anika Noni Rose
plays Kainene. Their British and American accents are accounted for early on
when it is revealed they are Yale and Oxford graduates. Ms Newton attempts to
affect an Ibo accent and I immediately wished she would stop. To my Nigerian
ear, it felt forced, not at all correct and a little bit phony. But I guess to
non-native speakers, it might seem to be a plausible attempt. But Leonardo Di
Caprio as a South African diamond smuggler in Blood Diamond, she was NOT.
Noni
never made a stab at sounding like a Nigerian born and raised girl, keeping her
Oxford trained British accent for the entire length of the film. What these two
actresses did well however was capture the essence of that bourgeoisie class
that permeates a country like Nigeria and sits on one side of a wide gulf
between the haves and have nots.
This
bourgeoisie theme runs through the entire film and is demonstrated as well in
the University surroundings depicted in the movie. Here Odenigbo played by the
supremely talented Chiwetel Ejiofor entertains his friends in his university
quarters and they debate Marx and the effects of tribalism on economic
development of the fledging country. Odenigbo has a ‘house help’ Ugwu who is a
teenage boy from the ‘village’ and who acts sort of like a major-domo to
Odenigbo. Their interactions were some of the highlights of the movie for me
and I would have liked to see a bit more character development for Ugwu. The
movie hints at how easily the two strata of society interact but are separated
by the aforementioned gulf in social class.
A
word on Chiwetel Ejiofor. I have now seen him in Kinky boots, where he plays a London
drag queen who saves a shoe factory; in Inside Man as an American detective
alongside Denzel Washington in the American crime thriller; and now as the lead
role in this movie. He proves once again his considerable talent and a very
strong connection to his Nigerian roots. His depiction of Odenigbo is nuanced
and shows the quite seemingly diverse (but not mutually exclusive) character
traits of an African man who is probably the first graduate in his family and
not just a graduate but a doctorate degree holder. He is brilliant, passionate
about national politics and well read. He drinks brandy and smokes stylish cigarettes
and is quite ready to blame another person for his own inadequacies and
irresponsibility. Mr Ejiofor’s performance has convinced me to finally go and
see the movie: 12 Years a Slave.
The
role of Odenigbo’s mother is played by the timeless Nigerian actress and
musician Onyeka Onwenu. “Mama” is an illiterate busy-body who knows beyond a
shadow of a doubt what is best for her son. She embarrasses her son’s live in
lover in the person of Thandie Newton and calls her a witch before raising a
ruckus with the neighbours. And whilst at times, she seemed a little bit of
comic relief and a caricature, I whispered to my seat partner that her over the
top pronouncements and aggressive actions were typical of mothers in Nigeria.
Literate or Illiterate.
Her manipulations in Odenigbo’s life leads to him being unfaithful
to Olanna and fathering a child with the ‘cousin’ from the village who
accompanies his mother on her visits to Nsukka. He freely confesses his lapse
to Olanna and tries to organize an abortion but his mother is having none of it
and when the child is born and revealed to be a girl, Odenigbo’s mother
abandons the baby with him and Olanna takes in the child and raises her as her
own. Reconciliation is to be had between the two women a few years after and it
is touching to see Odenigbo’s mother ask Olanna to marry her son.
This
is essentially a love story set against the backdrop of the Nigerian civil war
and the maxim that all war is a crime is shown when after fleeing the
University town Nsukka for Odenigbo’s home town in Aba and then again to
another smaller village, Odenigbo’s and Olanna’s wedding reception is bombed
out by advancing Federal forces determined to stop the breakaway nation of
Biafra from seceding from Nigeria. The Nigerian civil war was a 30 month
conflict that killed millions (mostly through starvation) and still
reverberates down in the Nigerian polity today.
The
politics of the time are however incidental to our story and only serve as a backdrop
for the interactions between the twins and their lovers. One is the
afore-mentioned Odenigbo, a fiery young intellectual and the other an
Englishman Richard who falls in love with the erudite Kainene. Richard’s horror
and distress at the airport when the counter-coup of 1966 sees armed military
personnel enter an airport and slaughter people of a certain ethnic group is
reminiscent of the scenes from the movie Hotel Rwanda. Africa has had its fair
share of genocides and outsiders with no understanding of the underlying
context would stare in horror at otherwise benign groups of people committing
atrocities in a manner as to suggest mass psychosis.
SO when you watch this movie – and I would strongly recommend it –
do not expect to be fully informed on the complexities of the Nigerian
political situation. But you will be convinced of the horror of war and how it
tears families and the fabric of society apart. It is nice to see so many local
talent in the film and the director acquits himself very well with the pacing
of the movie and telling the story. The ending was a bit ambiguous but I
understand this is how the original book was set. I am not sure how much oversight
the author had over the screenplay but she should be happy at this version of
her wartime love story.
