The Four Aishas

The Four Aishas : From Lagos To Aso Vila

This is a true life story of the four Aishas I know from Lagos to the Office of the President of the Federal Republic of Nigeria in Abuja.

The first Aisha was the beautiful daughter of a Fulani gateman at a two storey residential building on Kalejaiye Street, off the Bajulaiye Road in Shomolu, Lagos.

He wanted me to marry her even though she was only 11 years old and told him that I Iooked like a tall and handsome Fulani man with fair skin and starry eyes. Aisha always accompanied her Yoruba friend of the same age to visit a Yoruba family in our residence, a bungalow popularly known as Morocco Ville in front of the Morocco Bus Stop of the Morocco Road in Shomolu. The residence was owned by the popular Morocco family and was built during the British colonial administration of Nigeria. My family and four other families were tenants in the building of different apartments. The Yoruba families were the Akanbi family, Asigbolusi family and the family of Baba Shadia. 

Aisha often accompanied her friend to visit the Asigbolusi family who knew her parents, Mr and Mrs Ojosu. 

Mr. Ojosu worked in the office of the Nigerian Energy Commission in Ikoyi on the Lagos Island. I visited him when I was one of the youngest national program consultants of the UNICEF at the age of 25 years. We met and became familiar and often had conversations about human development and the challenges of the political leadership of Nigeria. I was already popular after the publication of my book of original poems for Children, "Children of Heaven" by Krystal Publications Limited in 1987 and in 1988, there were reviews on the book by The Guardian and The Punch newspapers and on Radio Nigeria and the public presentation at the Nigerian Institute of International Affairs (NIIA) on Victoria Island was on the prime time 7pm news of the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) read by Siene Allwell-Brown, one of the celebrated newscasters in the country. Millions of people saw me on TV and millions heard the news on radio and read the reviews in the popular national newspapers. So whenever Mr. Ojosu and his family came to visit the Asigbolusi family, he always had the chance for our intellectual conversations and admired me with the daughter gazing at me with glints of excitement in her beautiful brown eyes. Girls at puberty begin to become affectionate with infatuation of lust and love for any boy and man they like. So I understood her admiration and excitement of always bringing Aisha along whenever she visited. Aisha told her father about me and introduced me to him when I was passing by their residence to visit my relatives in my uncle's two storey house at number 13, Kalejaiye Street. I often saw them as I visited my relatives almost every day.

I had several female friends, including our beautiful hood queen, Chinwe who often visited me and was my favourite girlfriend among other girlfriends.

I couldn't marry an underage girl even though her Muslim parents thought she was ready for marriage in accordance with their Islamic religion since the founder, Prophet Muhammad (puh) married Aisha, the youngest of his 13 wives when she was only a child and ended her virginity when she was only a 9 year-old girl.

The whole narrative of their lives is the subject of my historical fiction, "Unveil Me My Love" which Amazon refused the distribution of the novella, because of the fears of provoking Islamic terrorism like the "Satanic Verses" of the famous Indian novelist and essayist, Salman Rushdie. But another American publishing company published "Unveil Me My Love" and is available by special request.

It is only available in hardcover collector's edition.

The romantic narrative of an Abbysian bodyguard and trainer of the soldiers of Prophet Muhammad (puh) who was in love with Aisha. 

https://www.lulu.com/shop/orikinla-osinachi/unveil-me-my-love/hardcover/product-519468.html

The Aisha I refused to marry, because she was  an underage 11 year-old girl is now over 42 years and married with children.

The second Aisha came from war torn Sudan in pursuit of better life in Nigeria. She was black and beautiful and slender like the famous supermodels who were also from Sudan. I met her when she among the pretty ushers at the first credible international film festival in Nigeria, the Lagos International Forum on Cinema, Motion Picture and Video in Africa organized by Independent Television Producers Association of Nigeria (ITPAN) from 2001 to 2006. It attracted local and international filmmakers and supported by the Nigerian film Corporation (NFC) and French Embassy. It started from when Chief Tunde Oloyede was President of ITPAN and continued successfully when Mr. Femi Odugbemi succeeded him as President of ITPAN. Famous Nobel laureate of Literature, Prof. Wole Soyinka and other important dignitaries were at the inaugural edition held at the Maison de France of the French Cultural Centre in Ikoyi.

I was attracted to Aisha and I gave her a phone number to reach me before I left.

Then one day, she called and said she had been kicked out of the flat in 1004 estate on Victoria Island where she had been staying with two Nigerian "runs babes" who were professional escorts. They falsely accused her of snatching their boyfriends.

She was waiting for me at the Yaba bus stop..She was homeless and wanted to come and stay with me. But there was no space to accommodate her where I was allowed to stay in the flat of a good friend in Moshalashi near the Jibowu area, off the Agege Motor Road on the way to Mushin. I would have persuaded my relatives in Shomolu to accommodate her in their two storey house, but they would most likely fight over sleeping with her. She was breaking down in distress and I was really feeling sorry for her. Her last resort was to call David Hivet, the handsome young French Regional Audio-visual Attache based in Lagos whom she met at the ITPAN's international film forum.  So, he came gallantly and rescued the Sudanese damsel in distress.

If I had accommodated Aisha, our first child would have been a grown up adult by now. 

I met the third Aisha when she was an office  assistant of a former friend I worked with as the media consultant for his communication company in Shomolu on the mainland of Lagos State. She was an attractive young woman from Kogi state  who had just completed secondary school and was waiting for the opportunity to go to any of the universities or polytechnics in Nigeria.

She was staying in the nearby Myyoung Army Barracks with her elder sister, a junior military officer married to a fellow junior officer in the Nigerian Army. 

We became close and would have become lovers, but I was distracted by other romantic affairs with more attractive female friends, including Linda Ikeji who was coming to our office in her car and with her laptop.

So, Aisha soon relocated to Akure in Ondo state to stay with her mother and family. She is now married with two kids. 

 

The fourth Aisha is Dr. Mrs Aisha Buhari, wife of the immediate past President of Nigeria, retired Gen. Muhammadu Buhari, GCFR. 

I was invited to meet with her by the Office of the President in 2018 following my request to present my book on her husband, "The Victory of Muhammadu Buhari: My Eyewitness Account of the 2015 Presidential Election".

I borrowed money from close acquaintances to travel to Abuja and paid for three days accommodation in a hotel in Asokoro close to the State House,  Aso Villa. 

I was welcomed to her office and sat down in her own official Office after meeting with the Information Officer, Dr. Haruna Suleiman and her special secretary, Dr. Hajo Sani. I was offered tea which I politely declined and accepted the cans of soft drinks and digestive biscuits. But I couldn't meet with her for three days and I said I would be stranded in Abuja without any more money to stay longer. So, I returned to Lagos in peace.

- by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Author of "Diary of the Memory Keeper" and other books distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers.

I

A Century of Nigerian Cinema: Dangerous Men

 

A Century of Nigerian Cinema: From "Palaver" To Nollywood
1926-2026

The Best Nigerian Action Movies

Dangerous Men
Genre: Action
Runtime: 105 Minutes

Storyline
Emmanuel is an assassin who goes against the order of his contractor X and refuses to carry out a hit placed on Senator Kingston. Emmanuel is forced to take turn a homeless man into the perfect killer. The deadly duo forms an alliance with Kingston and go after X. This leads to the ultimate showdown between the assassin and the head of the organization. Get ready for non-stop action, masterful fight sequences.

Produced By
Gugu E Michaels
Directed By
Gugu E Michaels

Cast
George Davidson, Leo U'Che, Gugu E. Michaels, Stella Regis

About the Crew
Accomplished filmmaker GuGu E. Michaels has worked as a director and producer on a number of projects.
Feature films include Thugz, Repentance, and Dangerous County.
Actor George Davidson is well known in his home country of Nigeria.
Winner 2012 - Best African Film at the World music and indie film festival - Washington, DC.
In 2012 Michaels, racked up over 12 nominations in organizations like World Music & Independent Film festivals with Dangerous Men including Best Action, Best Cinematography, Best screenplay and Best African film.

#nollywood
#nigeria
#centenary
#actionfilm
#crime
#politocs
#corruption
#drama
#movies

 

Cinemas For Every Community in Nigeria

Cinemas For Every Community in Nigeria

Nigeria, with a population exceeding 200 million, has a cinema screen to population ratio of approximately 1 screen for every 781,402 people.

The Filmhouse Group has the largest cinema chain in Nigeria and West Africa with more than 55 screens.

Almost all the cinemas in Nigeria are in upscale shopping malls in Lagos, Abuja and other cities in few States without any cinema in majority of the 36 states. There is increasing demand for more cinemas.

One Village, One Cinema Can Generate N29 Billion Annually To Boost Creative Economy of Nigeria.

The One Village, One Cinema initiative of the International Digitl Post Network Limited, an  affiliate partner of Cinewav Pte of Singapore can generate an estimated annual revenue of N29 billion for SMEs in the entertainment Industry in all the 774 local government areas in Nigeria, famous for the phenomenal Nollywood, the largest indie film industry in Africa. 

With only an investment of N10, 000, 000 (ten million naira) that is currently less than US$10, 000 (ten thousand dollars) you can have a low budget cinema that can be installed within an hour indoors or outdoors and it can generate an average monthly revenue of N200, 000 - N400, 000 from the sales of the tickets from one location in a village in Africa's most populous nation with an estimated population of more than 200 million people.

The One Village, One Cinema plan has an estimated target audience of 21 million people who can afford to pay for the tickets from N500 per person for the low income earners to N2,000 per person for the middle class communities and special orders for the upper class residential areas in Nigeria.

It will create more than 18,576 direct jobs nationwide.

It has socioeconomic and sociocultural benefits for the people in the entertainment, public enlightenment and economic empowerment of the people in every local government area.

Each cinema can be solar powered when there is no electricity. 

https://nigeriansreportng.blogspot.com/2024/04/one-village-one-cinema-to-generate-n29.html

Reported Facts

In Nigeria, revenue in the Cinema market is projected to reach US$134.22m in 2025.

Revenue is expected to demonstrate an annual growth rate (CAGR 2025-2029) of 5.19%, leading to a projected market volume of US$164.35m by 2029.

In the Nigerian Cinema market, the number of viewers is anticipated to reach 9.3m users by 2029.

User penetration in Nigeria will be 3.5% in 2025 and is expected to increase to 3.6% by 2029.

The average revenue per viewer in Nigeria is expected to amount to US$16.14.

In a global context, the majority of revenue will be generated the United States, with a projection of US$23.52bn in 2025.

Nigeria's cinema market is experiencing a vibrant resurgence, fueled by a growing appetite for locally produced films and innovative storytelling techniques.

The Cinema market encompasses the entertainment industry segment dedicated to the screening of motion pictures within dedicated venues, commonly known as cinemas or movie theaters. This market provides audiences with a communal experience of watching a wide range of films, including feature films, documentaries, and animations, on large screens, accompanied by high-quality sound systems, creating an immersive and theatrical experience.

More details on

https://www.statista.com/outlook/amo/media/cinema/nigeria

#Cinewav #cinema #village #culture #government #population #employment #jobs #money #entertainment #enlightenment #empowernment #singapore #nigeria #africa #market #ceativeeconomy #economy #filmindustry #nollywood, #hollywood #movies #series #shopping #tickets #billion #million #naira #dollars

Nsibidi is Older than the English Language

Nsibidi is Older than the English Language

Nsibidi existed from the 3rd century before the metamorphosis of the English language from the West Germanic languages in the 5th century.

Nsibidi used on an Efik tray made in the 19th century. A mermaid encircled with diagrams including Nsibidi ideogram.

Nsibidi has been described as a Semasiographic script comprised of ideograms and pictograms that were used in southeastern Nigeria among the Ejagham (Ekoid people), Efik, Igbo, and Ibibio societies.

The Ejagham originally came from Northeast Africa which supports my analogy of the origins of Igbo Ukwu art of the ancient Igbo Ukwu Kingdom with the ancient Indus Valley Civilization of the 2600 BCE to 1900 BCE.

Igbos believe that they are descendants of one of the Sons of God who descended from heaven and had a relationship with one of the daughters of Eve. 

(Genesis 6, Holy Bible)

Lucy (Australopithecus) the oldest

fossilized bone comprising 40 percent of the skeleton of a female of the hominin species Australopithecus afarensis was discovered in 1974 in Ethiopia, at Hadar, a site in the Awash Valley of the Afar Triangle, by Donald Johanson, a paleoanthropologist of the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Insibidi is the secret language of the Ekpe Leopard Secret Society of the Efik, Ibibio and Igbo societies.

Nsibidi means The Beginning in my mother tongue of the Igbos  sharing borders and ethnic similarities with the Efik and Ibibio tribes.

Nsibidi is more than a written language.

It is also a sign language of the Ekpe Leopard Secret Society and unknown to the various Nigerian artists who have been doing nothing more than to copy and paste Insibidi for drawings, paintings, sculptures, prints and potteries and posing and posturing as experts, Nsibidi is also expressed choreographically in a movement of hands and footsteps of secret language communication by members of the Ekpe Leopard Secret Society and used by the dreaded Ekpe masquerades.

I once confronted an Ekpe masquerade decades ago in the early 1990s on the popular Fola Agoro Road leading to the University of Lagos on my way to visit a beautiful girlfriend, Naomi, the Joy of my heart.

As others were either avoiding or running away from the scary looking Ekpe masquerade holding a machete and bell and a chain was tied to the waist held by his guides, I stood face-to-face with him. He was growling and snorting angrily. I was not afraid, because I have also met original Ekpe masquerades during festivities in my mother's hometown of Umuda Nsigwu in the Umuahia North Local Government area of Abia State of southern eastern Nigeria.

Two weeks ago, whilst waiting for a tailor in front of his residence in the Ekpri Nsukarra village in Uyo, a friendly discussion with one of his young neighbours drifted off to Nsibidi and the Ekpe masquerades and he demonstrated one of the movements of their secret language. 

- Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima

#God

#chima

#nsibidi

#ekoid

#english

#german

#igbo

#efik

#ibibio

#ejagham

#uyo

#abia

#umuahia

#ekpe

#masquerade

#leopard

#secret

#society

#igboukwu

#indusvalley

#africa

#ethiopia

#lucy

#eve

#genesis

#bible

#art

#history

IEC Applications Can End Extreme Poverty in the World

IEC Applications Can End Extreme Poverty in the World

I am one of those involved in the concerted efforts for the eradication of extreme poverty in the world. And I have reached the advanced final stage in the development of the applications that can reduce poverty by 80 percent with IEC, Information, Education and Communication methods which I have seen during my years of working as an IEC field officer for the Center for Education, Population, AIDS and Drug Abuse (CEPADA), an NGO founded by Mrs. Hadiyat O. Shitta-Bey, a former award winning Program Specialist in the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) when I did Market Based Distribution (MBD) surveys of the largest markets in Lagos, the most populous state in Nigeria and the largest megacity in Africa and when I was contracted as a public health illustrator and translator for the production and publication of family planning methods booklets in Pidgin English, Igbo, Yoruba and Hausa for semi literates distributed by the Planned Parenthood Federation of Nigeria (PPFN) and as a national Program Consultant for the Child Survival and Development (CSD) projects of the UNICEF in Nigeria.

The first mobile app for all the users to GSM phones has been in development since 2014 and I have also completed the layout for a SaaS e-commerce and fintech app for interactive IEC through social network for wealth creation and distribution among all the users of mobile phones in Nigeria and other countries.

Imagine an app with X Amazon and Paypal combined.

My advocacy for the education of the millions of girls out of school in Nigeria is fundamental in the eradication of extreme poverty in developing countries, because surveys have shown that majority of the people living in poverty come from families with mothers who did not go to school or dropped out of school.

In Nigeria, we found out that almost 90 percent of the bandits and terrorists on rampage in northern Nigeria were born by mothers who did not go to school and without any formal education and thousands of their children were destitutes. Their rebellion against law and order was caused by lack of parenting and poverty with uneducated parents who did not have the information on family planning and family welfare. 

They continue to breed children they cannot feed and they cannot afford to send to school. 

Extreme poverty is largely due to ignorance and illiteracy.

With the use of IEC applications through mobile phones, millions of the people in poverty will be taken out of poverty.

The first MVP of the mobile app was among the top finalists for tech innovation awards in Africa in 2014 and the pitch for the SaaS e-commerce and fintech app was shortlisted for the a tech startups hackathon in Africa in 2022.

Both mobile apps will advance the decentralization of e-commerce and fintech platforms in all communities in Nigeria and other countries and downloaded without any payment by all those who can use mobile phones and the IEC applications will be in their own languages. 

- by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

The CEO, 

International Digital Post Network Limited

Corruption in Nolllywood: The Diversions and Misappropriations of Grants and Loans in the Nigerian Film Industry

 

Corruption in Nolllywood: 

The Diversions and Misappropriations of Grants and Loans in the Nigerian Film Industry

The socioeconomic, sociocultural and political institutionalization of corruption in Nigeria has done collateral damage to the Nigerian society with widespread administrative incompetence in public service and political corruption is the cause of the maladministration in the Nigerian government.

Political corruption is the anathema of democracy and good governance in Nigeria with brazen corrupt practices from the local government to the Office of the President; from Alausa to Abuja. Every workplace is infected of the virus of the epidemic of corruption with corrupt and incompetent public officials posing and posturing as Smart Alecs, but they disregard the values and virtues of dignity, integrity and nobility.
There is widespread culture of conceit and deceit in the Nigerian society. Being fraudulent is no longer shocking!

Corruption is now widely reported in the Nigerian entertainment industry with several cases of unprofessional sharp practices during film and TV productions.
The entertainment industry has become a conduit for money laundering in the camouflage of international events and productions used for illicit transfers of funds and tax evasions.
We should not sweep the corruption in the entertainment industry under the red carpet.
Fraudulent activities should be exposed and reported no matter the rank and file of the entertainers and their sponsors.

The Diversions and Misappropriations of Grants and Loans in Nolllywood and the Nigerian Film Industry by  filmmakers with questionable integrity.

The recent statement by popular Nigerian comedian and film/TV producer, Bright Okpocha popularly known as "Basketmouth" that several millions of dollars given to some of the selected Nigerian filmmakers by Netflix for film productions were diverted and misappropriated (https://www.vanguardngr.com/2024/12/netflix-they-spend-10-on-movie-use-others-to-buy-cars-houses-basketmouth-slams-nollywood-producers) did not surprise me, because there have been previous reports on corrupt practices of filmmakers in Nigeria.
I have been informed about diversions and misappropriations of grants and loans for film and TV productions by the beneficiaries since 2001 to date.
The funds provided as soft loans with low interest rates by the Ecobank were misappropriated. The AccessNolly Fund of the Access Bank and NollyFund of the Bank of Industry (BoI) of Nigeria were diverted and misappropriated and the grants from the Project ACT Nollywood were also misappropriated by some of the beneficiaries. The film productions were compromised, badly done or abandoned.

A former Regional Audio-visual Attache at the French Embassy in Nigeria knew that some of the funds from the Fonds Images Afrique grants given for a short documentary film on Lagos and two other productions were diverted and misappropriated
See Nollywood and the French Connection on
https://nigeriansreportng.blogspot.com/2022/06/nollywood-and-french-connection.html

He gave me the details and I watched the documentary film.
"This is not Lagos", I said and smirked. But I did not report the disclosures. The same Regional Audio-visual Attache later told the director of the documentary film that he suspected me of being an American spy. I was amused.
I laughed and dismissed the suspicion. I have been identified sitting with certain Americans and a prominent Ghanaian politician on exile in Nigeria during an official meeting for a family planning project in Nigeria at the Eko Hotel and Suites on Victoria Island in Lagos, Nigeria. One of the Americans who was my namesake then was later accused of spying for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) in Ghana by the military regime of Jerry Rawlings in the 1980s. I was only contracted as a public health illustrator through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).
I have stopped communication with this French Regional Audio-Visual Attache who was later transferred to Burundi.
He told me that a particular young filmmaker misappropriated the funds given to him and used only the remainder to produce a feature that they rejected. But his colleague who did not misappropriate funds produced a good mystical romantic drama that was accepted by Canal France International in 2009 and broadcast to all television channels in French-speaking Africa under the title "La Métamorphose".

The details of the cases of the diversions and misappropriations, including the filmmakers involved are available.

- - by Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
The Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,
First book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.
Distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers.

#corruption
#nollywood
#filmmaking
#filmmakers
#movies
#documentary
#netflix
#entertainment
#filmindustry
#profuction
#moneylaundering
#tax
#canalplus
#nigeria
#images
#banks
#loans
#grants
#funds
#america
#french

"Dahomey" is More Important to Me than "Emilia Pérez"

 

"Dahomey" is More Important to Me than "Emilia Pérez" 

I have ignored posting on the nominees for the 97th Academy Awards, because I was disappointed that Mati Diop's critically acclaimed multiple award winning documentary film, "Dahomey" was not included among the nominees after it was shortlisted for the Best Documentary Feature category and the Best International Feature Film category. 

This is the second time that her award winning film has not made the nominees after winning a highly coveted award at one of the Big Five international film festivals in the world. 

She won the Grand Prix at the 2019 Cannes Film Festival for her feature film debut, "Atlantics" and was the entry of Senegal for the Best International Feature Film category of the 2019 Academy Awards, but it was not nominated. And her second feature film, "Dahomey" that won the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival and the entry of Senegal for the Best International Feature Film category was not nominated.

The most likely predicted winner is of course, Jacques Audiard's controversial musical romantic crime drama, "Emilia Pérez" with the record of 13 nominations, the highest number for the 97th Academy Awards to be held on March 2, 2025, at the Dolby Theatre in Hollywood, Los Angeles. But I doubt if the film can win up to five Oscars.

I don't know how the nominees are chosen, because the judges and specific  criteria are not known to the public, except the voting members of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) whose membership of the academy is based more on being recommended than on the merit of professional criteria. So, membership can be influenced by the familiarity with influential members of AMPAS. 

The content and context of "Dahomey" as an anticolonial historical film on repatriation have a more universal theme than a romantic crime thriller of sexual orientation and personal insecurities and sentiments.

It will be better and more meritorious if the winners of the highly esteemed critically juried Palme 'Or and Grand Prix of the Cannes Film Festival; Golden Bear of the Berlin International Film Festival or Berlinale; Golden Lion of Venice Film Festival; People's Choice Award and the FIPRESCI Prize, or International Film Critics Awardt at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) and the Grand Jury Prize Dramatic, Directing Award Dramatic, Grand Jury Prize Documentary and Directing Award Documentary at Sundance Film Festival qualify for the nominations for the annual Academy Awards.

I agree with the following statement by Tim Dirks, editor of AMC's Filmsite, has written of the Academy Awards:

Unfortunately, the critical worth, artistic vision, cultural influence and innovative qualities of many films are not given the same voting weight. Especially since the 1980s, moneymaking "formula-made" blockbusters with glossy production values have often been crowd-pleasing titans (and Best Picture winners), but they haven't necessarily been great films with depth or critical acclaim by any measure"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Academy_Awards

 

 -;By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Founder, Publisher and Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,
The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers.

Nastassja Kinski Can Play Mary Slessor

 

Nastassja Kinski Can Play Mary Slessor

Since 1988, I have completed my comprehensive research for the historical film on Mary Slessor, the famous Scottish missionary and heroine and saviour of twins among the Efik and Ibibio tribes in now Cross River and Akwa Ibom States of south-south region of Nigeria.

I met with the Mr. Lai Arasanmi of blessed memory, who was the Manager, Programmes, Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) , Ahmadu Bello Way, Victoria Island, Lagos whose resume included B.Sc. Broadcast Journalism, Bowling Green State University, Ohio, USA, 1975; M.A. Speech Communication; Cert. Public Entreprise Management, ASCON. Member: Nigerian Guild of Producers/Directors with several awards. But I abandoned the project and became an evangelist on the streets and public transport buses in Lagos.

There have been attempts of both film and TV productions of the dramatic life of Many Slessor. But none has been successful, because of poor research, poor characterization of her personality and erroneous art direction and production design. Jeta Amata's "Mary Slessor" was not well done in casting and storytelling as can be seen in the video on https://youtu.be/ospsnFdqsck?si=CQIjzAHamcCaFhA8.

Any "Mary Slessor" without her Scottish accent is wrong characterization and should not have been done.

In my research, I had access to copies of the letters of Mary Slessor, especially the personal letters to her sister.

Presently, no Nollywood actress can play Mary Slessor, because none of them has attained that standard of intellectual acumen and professionalism in acting historical figures of such magnitude.

Nastassja Kinski can play the leading role in the film adaptation of Mary Slessor.

I was convinced by her role as "Tess", the 1979 epic drama film by Roman Polanski, the film adaptation of Thomas Hardy's 1891 classic novel, "Tess of the d'Urbervilles". that was nominated for six Academy Awards, including Best Picture and won the Oscars for Best Cinematography, Best Art Direction and Best Costume Design.

Nastassja Kinski met Roman Polanski at a party in 1976.e He urged her to study method acting with Lee Strasberg in the United States and she was offered the title role of Tess. 

In 1978, Kinski underwent extensive preparation for the portrayal of the  English peasant girl and she had to learn and acquire a Dorset accent through elocution studies:

"I was given the book almost a year prior to read, I then had to transform myself and lose my German accent completely. I worked with a coach from the National Theatre in London, Kate Fleming. It was almost an intellectual voyage. I went to live in the countryside of the deep part of England, on a farm, did everything they did, and learned it. When the time came in Paris to do my test, it was with our director and our producers Claude Berri and Timothy Burrill, I had done a screen test with Roman prior to that, for Dino DeLaurentis, but now this was for Tess. Preparation is an amazing thing. It, somehow, after all the work, carries you if you are fully present, it carries you through like a bird, like big inner and outer wings."

Nastassja Kinski can undergo the same preparations for the role of Mary Slessor and I am convinced that even at the age of 64 years, she will bring out the great personality of the iconic Scottish missionary and also learn to speak the native languages of the Efik and Ibibio tribes she loved and lived with till her breath in their midst on earth.

The awesome life of Many Slessor would be most appreciated in the historical film based on the facts she documented in her dairies and letters.

Mary Slessor stands just outside Ikotobong court house, which can be seen with its thatched roof on the right side of the photograph. 

Mary Slessor with her adopted children.

Mary Slessor stands with a number of villagers outside her house in Ekenge

Pots in which twin babies were exposed due to the superstitions of the natives (photo c. 1880)

In 1889 the British Government established a Protectorate in Calabar and, on account of her unique influence, she was invited to take up the office of Magistrate and Superintendent of the district court. It had already become customary for locals to refer their disputes to her for settlement.

During her forty-year ministry in Africa, Mary Slessor contracted malaria (which never left her), as well as other fevers and health-wracking illnesses. She ministered to head-hunters and cannibals.

She interceded in inter-tribal warfare and she saved countless babies who were left to die in the jungle due to the superstitions of the natives. The birth of twins among the Efiks had always resulted in infanticide because they believed it was the result of a great sin by the mother and evidence of a curse. They would be abandoned in the jungle to wild animals. Mary rescued a number of twins and raised them herself, saving numerous lives. On one occasion she nursed a chief back to health, to the great relief of his wives, all of whom would have been sacrificed if he had died. They gathered around her to ask about her wonderful powers and she replied:

“I have come to you because I love and worship Jesus Christ, the Great Physician and Saviour, the Son of the Father God who made all things. I want you to know this Father and to receive the eternal life which Jesus offers to all those with contrite and believing hearts. To know Jesus means to love Him, and with His love in our hearts we love everybody. Eternal life means peace and joy in this world and a wonderful home in the next world. My heart longs for you to believe in Jesus, to walk in His paths, and to know the blessings of eternal life through Him.”

The natives said Mma Mary Slessor was a mother, a teacher, a court President, and a Consul of the Southern Protectorate of Nigeria who traversed the area as far as Arochukwu in Abia State preaching the gospel.

“Mary Slessor came from Scotland to Calabar and then moved to Okoyong. She stayed at Calabar and even built a wooden storey building house there but now they are trying to renovate that place.

“After that, She left Okoyong to Use Ikot Oku. From Ikot Obong village where you have the district court sign board to Use Ikot Oku where you have the bridge, that bounds Ibiono Ibom and Itu local government areas, her tombstone is about half a kilometre from here. 

“I have had her oral history from one of our longest Chiefs, Chief Etim Udoudo who reigned over 30 years. That man even sang the song the woman sang before she died. I have gotten the history from my grand father’s second wife, Adiaha Akpan Usung (nee Adiaha Akpan Ekarika). She told me stories about her. I have also gotten oral evidence from one of the twins that she nurtured, late Elder Mrs Ceecee Akpaninyang who happened to be my aunt.

“The woman stayed here and worked. She built her house on that hill, that was her base. According to Chief Udoudo, she used to move and she was carried on what was called ‘amake’, a sort of swing, where young men would put her on their shoulders and travel across this bridge through Arochukwu. The bridge links Atan, Onoyom to Arochukwu to Ikpe Ikot Nkon; that was the route she used to travel,” he said.

According to Elder Usungurua, it was during one of such trips that Mma stumbled on the Long juju shrine where people were used for sacrifice. Mma Slessor was said to have informed the British government of the activity there which led to the destruction of the shrine.

Her advance into Ibibios territory was aided by the fact that the British government was building roads in that region. “Get a bicycle, Ma,” government officials said, pointing to the road, “and come as far as you can. We will soon have a motor car service for you.” At fifty-seven years of age Mary gamely learned to ride a bicycle after a government official presented her with a brand new model from England.

The early months of 1909 found Mary covered with painful boils from head to foot. “Only sleeping draughts keep me from going off my head,” she related. She later became severely ill from blood poisoning. She was taken to Duke Town near the coast where members of the mission attentively nursed her back to heal. But after five weeks of such care she was eager to resume her ministry responsibilities inland, and did so before some officials and doctors thought it fully advisable.

Eventually her health declined to the point that the Mission’s doctor forbad her to travel by bicycle. Hearing of her need for an alternative means of transportation, a group of ladies in Scotland sent her a Cape cart, a basket-chair on wheels capable of being maneuvered along quite easily by two boys or girls.

In the closing years of her life Mary established churches and schools in the villages of Ikpe, Odoro Ikpe and Nkanga further up Enyong Creek. She carried out ministry at those locations unaided by fellow missionaries. To her deep disappointment, the Mission had already concluded that health conditions were not safe enough in that region to place other missionaries there. To the end, however, she continued to be assisted by several African girls who lived with her as foster daughters.

Epitome of Beauty

An Epitome of Beauty by Taiye Ajakaiye, 2024| Light in the Dark by Buchi Okeke, 2024| Gist With Us by Ogochukwu, 2024| Makoko Series 4 by John Adediran, 2024

💼 

"Kisses and Roses on Amazon To Open Offline Stores in Nigeria 

 Kisses and Roses eStore on Amazon will open offline stores in Nigeria to be located in the cities of Uyo and Lagos in 2025.

People can walk into the stores and order for the trending fashion, beauty and lifestyle products of different popular brands, including COVERGIRL, Chanel, D&G and Gucci distributed by Amazon and their orders will be delivered within a week in Nigeria.

Kisses and Roses will also cosponsor two beauty pageants in Uyo and Lagos for the promotion of Nigerian beauty, fashion and culture for the local and international entertainment industry.

PROMO CODES

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Merry Christmas To You and Your Family

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year 2025 

With all the thanksgivings to Almighty God for the best going forward to higher grounds of greater heights of triumph and Victory in the mighty name of our Lord JESUS Christ, the same yesterday, today and forever.

AMEN.

#God

#holidays

#Jesus

#christmas

#xmas 

#merrychristmas 

#newyear

#2025

Mati Diop's "Dahomey" Shortlisted for Two Academy Awards

Multiple award winning Senegalese  filmmaker, Mati Diop has made history by becoming the first filmmaker from Senegal and Africa to have a film shortlisted in two different categories for the highly coveted annual 97th Academy Awards, popularly known as the Oscars.

Her critically acclaimed documentary film,  "Dahomey" has been shortlisted for both the Documentary Feature Category and Best International Feature Film Category,  making Diop the first African filmmaker to have a film shortlisted for two Oscars.

 "Dahomey" won the Golden Bear at the 2024 Berlin International Film Festival.

Oscar Shortlist 2025: 

International Feature Film

I'm Still Here, Brazil

Universal Language, Canada

Waves, Czech Republic

The Girl with the Needle, Denmark

Emilia Pérez, France

The Seed of the Sacred Fig, Germany

Touch, Iceland

Kneecap, Ireland

Vermiglio, Italy

Flow, Latvia

Armand, Norway

From Ground Zero, Palestine

Dahomey, Senegal

How to Make Millions before Grandma Dies, Thailand

Santosh, United Kingdom

Documentary Feature Film

The Bibi Files

Black Box Diaries

Dahomey

Daughters

Eno

Frida

Hollywoodgate

No Other Land

Porcelain War

Queendom

The Remarkable life of Ibelin

Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat

Sugarcane

Union

Will & Harper

Season's Greetings From The Entire IBC Team

Season's Greetings From The Entire IBC Team

WOLE SOYINKA - ENI OGUN, An Accomplished Biopic on the First African Nobel Laureate of Literature

WOLE SOYINKA - ENI OGUN, An Accomplished Biopic on the First African Nobel Laureate of Literature

Joshua Ojo with Prof. Wole Soyinka.

Joshua Ojo's vivid biopic, "WOLE SOYINKA - ENI OGUN"is an outstanding historical film on the phenomenal life of the most lionized African writer, Prof. Wole Soyinka, the first African winner of the highly coveted Nobel Prize for Literature. 

This is the only one of the few films on the life of Soyinka to capture the essence of the spirit of the art and persona of his iconic genius in motion picture. And the first to be produced in his beloved mother tongue of the Yoruba language. The biopic produced to celebrate his 90th birthday is a must see and the film has been authorized by the Nobel laureate.

Official trailer

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1m_nA7r4CH50FjxHdNlvaixNv5F44GQI3/view?usp=drivesdk

It chronicled his trials as a fearless sociopolitical human rights activist and triumphs as an intellectual luminary of the literary world with critically acclaimed books of poetry, drama and prose for which he became famous and awarded the Nobel Prize in  Literature in 1986 for with his writings, Soyinka "in a wide cultural perspective and with poetic overtones fashions the drama of existence."

The cinematic beauty of the film with outstanding portrayal of Soyinka by the award winning Nigerian actor, Lateef Adedimeji and other accomplished actors, including Jide Kosoko, Femi Branch, Segun Arinze, Dele Odule, Funky Mallam, Haffiz Oyetoro, Bimbo Oshin, Joke Muyiwa and Olaiya Igwe showed the accomplishments of the director in the art direction with the production design, casting, characterisation, cinematography and soundtracks based on the historical facts of the celebrated author with important emphasis on Ibadan and other locations of his life and the political circumstances of his imprisonment in the Kirikiri Prison for 22 months during the Nigerian-Biafran war from 1967-1970.

"This is my most challenging film production so far. Because of the historical importance and significance of the legacy of Prof. Wole Soyinka, I have to make sure of the accuracy of the sets used for the period in the history of Nigeria. KIRI-KIRI PRISON was built from the scratch in the studios. Soyinka's house was equally built with over 98 percent of the set built by the crew, except for the scenes of the roads and the other scenes shot outside Nigeria," the director said.

"I did the casting myself, because I really wanted actors to look like the real characters in his life. For the production design, I took my time as well to draw and sketch out how I wanted them to look and the guys in that department brought life to it.

I've been to Soyinka's house, so it was easy for me to recreate it."

"I had an accident two days to shoot. I was given two options: either to cut off my right leg or I do an emergency surgery, which I did. And I went back to location a week after the surgery, with an ambulance on stand by everyday. I'll shoot for 2 to 3 days and rush back to the hospital for check-up. That was how we shot for two months to complete the principal photography."

The film certainly is an outstanding achievement in filmmaking in Nollywood and African Cinema. It will attract millions of Yorubas in Nigeria and the Diaspora; especially in Brazil where hundreds of thousands of people are devotees of the Yoruba OGUN traditional religion which Soyinka has celebrated in his life and works. Millions of others who have read his popular plays, novels and essays will be anxious and curious to watch the film subtitled in English and should be widely available in other popular languages for the global distribution.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

The Publisher/Editor,

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,

The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

#soyinka

#biopic

#life

#birthday

#wolesoyinka

#nobellaureate

#nobelprize

#literature

#writer

#author

#joshuaojo

#joshua

#filmmaker

#filmmaking

#yoruba

#brazil

#ogun

#religion

#art

#books

#travel

#history

#drama

#nollywood

#nigeria

#biafra

#war

#prison

#ibadan

#humanrights

#africa

The Top Contenders of The Best International Feature Film Oscar 2025 from Africa

 

The Top Contenders of The Best International Feature Film Oscar 2025 from Africa

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michaelchimaeyerengozi_oscars-oscars2025-academyawards-activity-7265999814826348544-FNmD?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android

Oscars international feature race 2025 guide: the contenders from Africa and the Middle East

BY BEN DALTON

Two spots on the Oscars shortlist of 15 last year for African and Middle East countries represented a modest improvement on recent years — but entries this year are down. Screen surveys a region that has made halting progress.

Africa

After 11 entries for last year’s award — just one down on the record of 12 from 2021 — African submissions for the 2025 international feature Oscar have dropped to nine. It is now four years since Kaouther Ben Hania’s The Man Who Sold His Skin made it all the way to awards night for Tunisia — the only title to do so since 2015. For comparison, over the past nine years, there have been 29 European nominees, 11 from Asia-Pacific and four from the Americas region.

The paucity of African titles at Oscar’s international feature shortlist stage suggests the problem starts early in the process, especially for sub-Saharan Africa. Ben Hania’s Four Daughters for Tunisia and Asmae El Moudir’s The Mother Of All Lies for Morocco both made it to the shortlist of 15 films last time around, but Maryam Touzani’s The Blue Caftan for Morocco was the only African selection for 2023, and there were none for 2022. No Black director has ever won the Academy’s international feature film award.

Golden tickets

Mati Diop’s documentary Dahomey, representing Senegal, offers the best chance of breaking that barrier. The Berlinale Golden Bear winner dramatises the return of 26 royal treasures from France to the Kingdom of Dahomey (in modern-day Benin). Backing from Mubi in territories including North America and UK-Ireland should guarantee it visibility. Two previous Golden Bear winners have gone on to take the international feature Oscar: Vittorio de Sica’s The Garden Of The Finzi-Continis for Italy in 1972, and Asghar Farhadi’s A Separation — also the winner of Bafta’s equivalent award — for Iran in 2012. It is French director Diop’s second time representing Senegal, after Atlantics made the shortlist for 2020 but missed out on a nomination.

Read the report on 

https://www.linkedin.com/posts/michaelchimaeyerengozi_oscars-oscars2025-academyawards-activity-7265999814826348544-FNmD?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_android

Effective Content Marketing in Nigeria Must Target the Gen Z

Effective Content Marketing in Nigeria Must Target the Gen Z

You cannot do effective content marketing if you are ignorant of the demographics of your target audience.

The target audience for online entertainment, e-commerce and fintech industry are the Generation Z, or Gen Z of people born between 1995 and 2010. The 'Z' in the name means "zoomer", as this is the first generation known to 'zoom' the internet.

Majority of them make up the population of 65 million Nigerians using social media platforms.

They spend $975m daily on online betting.

Data from the National Lottery Trust Fund (NLTF) has revealed that over 65 million Nigerians actively engage in betting, spending an average of $15 daily. This is just as it disclosed that everyday, 14 million bet takes and payments are made online in the country.

According to one of the fast rising upwardly mobile Nigerian Gen Z techies, Benjamin Unah, Co-Founder & Chairman - Primeries

https://primeries.com/, the #1

 streetwear marketplace that connecting shoppers to the hardest streetwear brands and creatives in Africa, "they are the most active shoppers online and subscribers of entertainment providers for streaming music and movies."

According to the report on Understanding the Gen Z in Nigeria: Trends and Insights - Sagaci Research

"Trends among the Gen Z in Nigeria: more likely to go to physical shops and use cash
Male Nigerian consumers aged 18-25 exhibit different shopping behaviours compared to older ones. A significant 58% of them would rather go to a shop than buying products online versus 47% of the older group. This result stems from young people’s preference for a physical experience; they want to visit stores, see the product firsthand, and make their choice in person. Additionally, 26% of these younger consumers prefer using cash, a higher percentage than the 16% observed in the 26+ demographic.

In contrast, older consumers are more inclined to use debit cards, with 41% opting for this payment method compared to 29% of the younger age group. Following recent banking issues in Nigeria, younger people now prefer to keep physical cash on hand for added security and to avoid potential problems.

Read the complete report on 
https://sagaciresearch.com/gen-z-nigeria-insights/
"
.