Realistically Profiling President Muhammadu Buhari on National Security With Facts
Part 1
Political leaders all over the world prefer euphemisms to harsh criticisms and don't often like political incorrectness in public. But flattery is the worst form of praise.
Saying the truth, whether bitter or sweet is the best in overcoming the challenges of the existential realities of life in the world.
Freedom of speech is fundamental to the establishment of true democracy and good governance in the political administraton of every federal government. But freedom of speech can be abused and misused. Freedom of speech must be based on facts and not falsehood.
I have read some news reports on those who have been arrested and even convicted for the defamation of the personality of President Muhammadu Buhari. They insulted him and so they were arrested and jailed after being judged guilty. But I have seen that those who have been prosecuted and convicted for the defamation of the personality of President Buhari were powerless poor people who could not afford the services of good human rights lawyers. Whereas, I have seen celebrated political activists and state governors of the opposition party lambasting the President with fury and vitriol in public and the law enforcement agents did not query or arrest them. Why?
The state governors have immunity? What of the political activists who insulted him and are still walking about freely from Lagos to Abuja.
Many have called him a criminal and a terrorist and other derogatory names on Nairaland and escaped prosecution and indictment.
The horrifying incidents of kidnappings and killings in different states have provoked the worst criticisms of President Buhari and blamed for the failures of the state governors in internal security. And majority of the citizens have also blamed him in ignorance of the separation of powers of the government administraton of the Federal Republic of Nigeria.
Majority of Nigerians are the underprivileged masses of poorly educated low income workers who are ruled by gullibility and the herd mentality of their religious beliefs of Christianity and Islam. And majority of them are also suffering from political amnesia, because they quickly forget the political history of Nigeria and the different political administrations and because they don't read, they often rely on hearsays, gossip and rumours for their assumptions and then jumping into ambiguous and erroneous conclusions on both the past and present current affairs in the country since the Independence of Nigeria on October 1, 1960 to date.
Whatever remarkable progress reports on the achievements and milestones in the administraton of President Buhari have been overlooked in the raging storms of insecurity ravaging the country. But the amnesia and ignorance of the majority of Nigerians would have been addressed by the Ministry of Information and Culture and not abandoned for Mr. Femi Adesina, the Senior Special Adviser on Media and Publicity and his colleague, Mallam Garba Shehu, Senior Special Assistant Adviser on Media and Publicity of President Buhari.
I have read a lot about the Buhari Media Organisation (BMO) that recommended community policing to assist in complementing the efforts of the federal government in combating home grown terrorism which actually is the best recommendation, because community policing will be more effective in the identification of the causes of the grievances for communal clashes between herders and farmers, inter-tribal conflicts and banditry.
Community policing will end communal clashes, kidnappings and killings in different states. And the state governors should be responsible for that and not always crying wolf and calling for the head of President Buhari for their failures to secure lives and properties in the various communities in their states.
Cases studies in the peaceful community relations and conflict resolutions among herders and farmers in other countries in Africa will help to end the recurrent horrifying incidents of communal clashes, kidnappings and killings in Nigeria.
Nollywood and the Image of Nigeria in the Global Village
(Written in 2006 for an African American magazine)
We all know that action speaks louder than word and seeing is believing. And nobody can deny this fact of life.
The history of the film industry in Nigeria did not start with the emergence of Nollywood as the Nigerian movies have been dubbed by the rest of the world and now celebrated as the third largest film industry in the world after American Hollywood and Indian Bollywood.
“The world has continued to marvel at how Nigerians "manufacture" and "fabricate" scores of movies in a week. It is reported that but for India, Nigeria produces more movies in quantitative terms than any other country in the world.”
~~ Tayo Aderinokun, Managing Director, Guaranty Trust Bank
Glover Memorial Hall was the venue of the first film to be shown in Nigeria in August, 1903 and this was done by the ruling colonial office of the British Empire that went on to show primarily educational clips, features and documentary reports of the royal trips to Nigeria and other colonies, English football matches, Westminster Parliamentary debates and other films of little or no value to the culture of Nigeria. And the cinema houses that soon showed up all over the popular cities in Nigeria from Lagos to Ibadan to Kano also showed Western films and later Indian films. But it is important to note that "Sanders of the River" by Edgar Rice Buroughs made in 1935 had some unique parts shot in Nigeria. The film featured the first world class Nigerian actor Orlando Martins (1899 – 1985) and was the first film to put the motion picture image of Nigeria on the map of the world.
Then Nigerian filmmakers such as Adamu Halilu, Mallam Brendan Shehu, Dr. Ola Balogun, Chief Eddie Ugbomah, the late Chief Hubert Ogunde and Francis Oladele produced classic films on celluloid since 1968 and Nigerian films were also competing among the foreign ones in the cinemas until the Indigenization Decree of 1972 transferred the ownership of over 300 cinema houses in the country from their foreign proprietors to Nigerians who did not have the expertise and capital to run them successfully and the economic depression of the late 1980s and the mass importation of Video Cassette Players worsened the situation as cinema houses lost the patronage of cinema goers who now preferred to buy the cheaper pirated films in video cassettes and watch them in the safer and more comfortable privacy of their homes. The popularity of home videos also affected the stage performances of plays by Nigerian playwrights as the numbers of people going to the theatres and town halls to watch live plays began to reduce. As the saying goes that necessity is the mother of invention, the challenges of survival for Nigerian theatre arts practitioners prompted them to dare the production of their plays in home videos. The Yorubas who were always the pioneers of the popular street theatre were also the pioneers of the home movies industry with “Aje Ni Iya Mi” by the late Isola Ogunsola who employed an Ibo man Nnebue of Nek Video Links to produce the video. And Nnebue seeing the great opportunity went on to produce the best selling “Living in Bondage 1 and 2” in 1992 before others joined the bandwagon. And now Nigerian movies have taken over TV screens all over Africa from Anglophone countries to the Francophone countries and over 20 million people watch Nigerian movies of which over 15 million are within Nigeria and the rest among the over 7 million Nigerians living in different parts of the world and most of them are in America, Western Europe, Asia and Australia. We are now living witnesses of the emergence of the phenomenon called Nollywood.
Over 50 movie titles are released weekly in Nollywood and attracting the attention of the rest of the world and Nollywood has become the picture of the Nigerian culture in the eyes of the world. Therefore, we must address the importance, relevance and significance of Nollywood as the image of Nigeria. As Dr. Odia Ofeimum stated in “In Defence of the Films We Have Made” in his keynote address at the second National Film Festival, 27 November 2003 and I quote:
“Powered by its home-grown sense which has been the source of its viability, it was primed to travel and to breach porous borders. Nigerians travel a lot and their video films have been traveling with them. Due to the surprise of self-recognition in our stories or the manner in which Nigerians tell them, other people have connected with the video films. So it was not enough to overcome the Nigerian market place. Through saturation marketing, Nigerian home-video mania crossed the borders even beyond the necessities of trade. Once the barn-storm-rating of the video camera overtook the cinema house, and by-passed its camp-following of foreign dominated distribution networks, it began to turn into a super-asset in a makeshift revolution that only those who are thoroughly impervious to social promptings have been able to ignore. The rest of the world may not have wanted to pay attention.”
Therefore, I believe the next stage of the sustainable development of the Nigerian film industry is the management of the aesthetics and ethics of the Art and Craft to portray a positive image of Nigeria to the rest of the world.
The desperation for quick profits and short-cuts to fame has made both the majority of Nigerian filmmakers and their domineering marketers to disregard the international standards of filmmaking as they rush to make over 50 movies weekly and careless about the content and context of the script and the craft. Thus making Nigerian movies to be known more for the quantity than the quality and millions of viewers have complained about the horrors of juju, lawlessness and bribery and corruption of the Nigerian public officials and others shown in most of the movies. Millions of foreigners have been shown the images of gawky Nigerian police officers collecting bribes at police check-points and engaged in other sharp practices and these negative images have only worsened the bad image of the Nigerian Police and of Nigeria as one of the most corrupt countries in the wrong. And this is the irony of the popularity of Nollywood. Because, as at present Nollywood is like a trailer overloaded with goods on the express way being driven by a desperate man without a driver's license and the others on the vehicle are struggling to correct the driver or even take over the steering from him. So, people are gasping and moping in awe and fear at the daredevil stunts of the vehicle and praying it does not crash. But is this the true picture of Nigeria?
No!
We must tell the true stories of Nigeria to the rest of the world.
The stories of our great heroes and heroines or “sheros” like Queen Amina, Emotan, Moremi, Madam Tinubu and the contemporary role models such as Dr. Dora Akunyili, Hajia Sambo and others.
Nollywood has become synonymous with the ingenuity of the smart Nigerian as Nigerians never give up in their pursuit of their goals to catch up with the leaders in whatever field of human enterprise they are interested in all over the world. But Nollywood should not ape Hollywood or Bollywood. Nollywood should be the mirror of Nigeria from the past to the present and the future. Therefore, Nollywood actors and actresses should not be competing to master who can fake the American Yankee accent or Cockney accent and should not be apes of Hollywood or Bollywood stars.
Nollywood should be proudly Nigerian, heart and soul.
Nigerian filmmakers should work in cooperation and support and pool their resources together to make Nigerian films that should be as good as any of the best films in the world. We should no longer be ridiculed for the common B-rated movies flooding the home videos rental shops and corners of the streets. We have had enough of the same rehashed stories with the same plots and badly produced too. We have had enough quantity without quality. Because, we must do our homework before we can produce excellent films that we can show at the Cannes and qualify to be nominated for the Oscars and not turned down again for poor standards.
We have a vehicle for the global village and we have already succeeded in impressing the rest of the world. So, we can now decide what our vehicle should convey and show to the whole world.
The world should see the hardworking Nigerian widow, who is the mother of six children as she wakes up at 4 am in Lagos and leaves for the far away Mile 12 market to trade and earn the means of livelihood.
Why?
She is doing it for the upbringing of her fatherless children she must send to school and pay their school fees, buy school uniform and textbooks and feed and clothe them and pay their medical bills whenever they fall ill.
The world should see the honest to God Nigerian police officers as they work day and night and they shun all temptations of bribes.
The world should see the hard working Nigerian labourers toiling daily to make ends meet.
The world should see the diligent Nigerian pupils walking miles to go to school and later to the farms, streams, and back to their.homes to do the chores.
The world should see the work-in-progress of proud Nigerians at work and at home doing their best in cooperation and support for the government in the nation building of a new Nigeria in the leadership of Africa in the comity of nations in the new millennium.
These are the true illustrations that our movies should portray and show to the rest of the world and let us be proud of Nigeria.
Nupe Historians Say the Original Ilé-Ifẹ̀ was Located in Nupe Land
I have read a very long piece of historical analysis on the origins of Odùduwà published on https://nationalsportslink.com.ng/amp/oduduwa-the-nupe-man-by-ndagi-abdullahi/ . The writer claimed that Odùduwà was a Nupe demigod by the River Niger and that the name of Odùduwà came from Odù, the Nupe name for River Niger and so Odùduwà means the man from the river. And that the Yoruba were Nupe people who migrated from KinNupe to the South West region of Nigeria.
He quoted historians and scholars, including Bishop Ajayi Crowther, Rev. Samuel Johnson and Prof. David D. Laitin, he called authorities whose analyses are indisputable and irrefutable facts of history. But unfortunately for him and his hypotheses, he did not provide any archeological evidence. If the original Odùduwà and Ilé-Ifẹ̀ were in KinNupe, then how come the sculptures of ancient Ilé-Ifẹ̀ were discovered in the present location of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ and not by the banks of the River Niger? The only sculpture found in Nupe land is included in the history of Ifẹ̀ Art on https://africa.uima.uiowa.edu/chapters/ancient-africa/ife/?start=13.
He said an Arabian historian, El Bakri, "writing in the 1060s, made it clear that the Nupe Nation, or Ed-Denden, was the greatest and most powerful empire in Africa south of the Sahara". But he failed to give any archeological evidence of this so called greatest and most powerful empire in sub-Saharan Africa.
How come we have not discovered Bronze sculptures of ancient KinNupe in the present location of Nupe people?
Not a single archeological evidence in Nupe Art and not a single link to IFA Divination.
History is full fairy tales and hearsays, but archeology is full of concrete works of facts of life.
From the dating of Ifẹ̀ Art , I can emphatically state that the history of Ilé-Ifẹ̀ dates back to 600 BCE and not in KinNupe.
Psychological Warfare with historical facts will end the agitations of the
Movement for the Actualization of the Sovereign State of Biafra (MASSOB) and
the Indigenous People of Biafra (IPOB) within three years and not military
operations. Because of their wromg premise of the historical origins of
the Igbo triibe. Since their agitations have been premised on the wrong
judgement of being historically linked to the Jews and Israel, they have shown
their intellectual ignorance of the facts of the origins of the Igbos of South
eastern region of Nigeria. You cannot have a nation without historical
foundation of the history of your country.
Igbos don't have any relationship with the Jews of Israel which DNA results
have confirmed.
Igbo Ukwu already had a king and kingdom before Abraham was born. Igbo Ukwu
civilization is the oldest with the lost wax casting for sculpture in
Africa. The oldest in the world was found in the Indus Valley
Civilization of South Asia from 3300 - 1300 BCE. Igbo Ukwu was a Bronze Age
civilization. The bronze artworks of Igbo Ukwu are the oldest bronze artifacts
known in West Africa and were manufactured centuries before the emergence of
other known bronze producing centers such as those of Ife and Benin. The
bronzes include numerous ritual vessels, pendants, crowns, breastplates, staff
ornaments, swords, and fly-whisk handles.
Abraham the founding father of the Jews existed during the Iron Age which came
after the Bronze Age which came after the Stone Age. Therefore, Igbos cannot
be from any of the lost tribes of Israel. Finis.
"Barack Obama and the American Dream" on the election of the first African American President of the United States of America is the first book by a non American citizen on the historic presidential campaign, nomination and election of Senator Barack Obama on November 4, 2008 as the 44th President of the United States.
The book will be released soon after over 10 years homework on the selections of the thousands of comments and replies to news reports, debates and arguments on the Huffington Post, my blog on the Des Moines Register of Iowa and other news media during the presidential horse race between Senators Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton.
It is a very important book on the contemporary political history of democracy in America in the 21st century.
Fincho: The Making of the First Nigerian Film in Colour By Sam Zebba
Sam Zebba directing "Fincho" in Nigeria.
Many people have read about Sam Zebba's "Fincho", the first film shot in colour in Nigeria in 1955 and post production was done in the United States of America and it was released in 1957. But majority of Nigerians and others have little or no knowledge about the great filmmaker, Sam Zebba who passed away in Israel on February 27, 2016.
I have decided to publish this comprehensive documentary report on him, comprising his own memoir on how he made "Fincho"; an article on him before he passed on and a memorial tribute written by David (Dudi) Sebba published by www.esra-magazine.com.
What Sam Zebba documented on the circumstances of the events that occurred during the making of "Fincho" can be a fanstatic movie. And publishing it on a Nigerian website is important in recognition of the Nigerian cast and crew. They have made history and we must remember them in the history of Nigerian cinema.
Fincho- Adventure in Nigeria 1955:
Adventure in the interior of Nigeria
One night in 1954, at the home of my London relatives, Boria and Rena Behrman, Boria showed some 8mm color footage he had taken at their timber concession in Nigeria. The Behrman family had been in the timber business for several generations, still in the ‘old country’ (Latvia), and the Nigeria concession was a new extension of their UK firm, Finch & Company. What I saw there was formidable. Giant trees were being felled in the jungle and hundreds of bare-handed African workers were pulling the heavy trunks through the mud.
I realized that this could be a starting point for an extraordinary documentary and perhaps even more than that. For some time I had felt a strong desire to move from the short film, my medium hitherto, to full-length form. If I could find a human story to fit into the tree felling process, perhaps the chance of realizing this was here.
Boria generously said I could stay in one of the bungalows built for the white staff at the concession, and film whatever I wanted. Admittedly, it would be foolhardy to go script-less into the unknown, but therein lay the challenge. And so, toward the end of the Central African rainy season in 1955, equipped with a 16mm Arriflex camera, a portable sound recording device, and a reasonable amount of Kodachrome color film, I set out on a flight to Lagos, the capital of Nigeria at the time, and from there, mostly over unpaved and ill-maintained dirt roads, passing through two enormous clusters of mud huts, Ibadan and Benin City, to the Finch timber concession in the faraway Kingdom of the Olowo (Ruler) of Owo.
The bungalow I was given was spacious, though the heat was unbearable. In the outdoor kitchen, an attendant called “house-boy” or “boy” for short, no matter what his age, was on duty 24 hours a day. Plagued at night by mosquitoes infiltrating my net, I could hear the house-boy in the kitchen slapping his back and shoulders incessantly, hunting the malaria-carrying little devils. He did not have the luxury of a mosquito net, nor did he have a bed.
With time I got used to the heat and humidity, and the mosquitoes at night. I almost managed to enjoy an imaginary air-conditioner before falling asleep - someone had kindheartedly handed me a copy of Sir Edmund Hillary’s and Tenzing Norgay’s "The Conquest of Everest", which kept me cool throughout my stay on the concession.
In Owo I met the Olowo, a big man amply robed in a manner quite inconsistent with the climate. His palace was a large two-storey mud structure painted white, and it seemed densely populated. “Who are all these people?” I enquired. “These are the King’s wives and children,” I was told.
Although I examined everything I saw as a potential focal point for the film’s story, I soon realized that neither the harsh colonial exploitation of the natives nor the social hierarchy of traditional African rulers would be my anchor. It was the tree-felling enterprise itself, and the impact this had on those caught in its advance.
My guide and mentor on the concession was an Englishman named Tony Lewis, the second-in-command at Finch and an old hand in the African timber trade. To the Africans he spoke a broken English, which I thought at first to be his own invention, but soon discovered this was genuine 'Pidgin,' a simplified English language in use there, delightful and humorous, and the only way the three main ethnic groups in Nigeria - Yoruba, Ibo, and Hausa - could communicate with each other. I promptly decided that wherever possible this would be the film’s language.
“I de go” was present tense. “I done go” was past. “I go go” was future. “Make you go bringam” was a command. Just a minute was “wait small.” Dialogue, such as “na whei he dei?” (now, where is he?) “he dei for house,” referred to either male, female, or neuter. Father was “Small Fahda,” while “Big Fahda” meant Grandfather. “Plenty palavah” was big trouble. Great satisfaction: “He de tickle me propa.” Disbelief: “na lie! You think you go deceive me like small boy?” Two Africans talking to a White Man: “Sah. Dis man, he be my brudda.” “Oh, really? Same mudda same fahda?” “No, Sah. My brudda.”
A most impressive man was the concession’s CEO. A WW2 ex-military man with a hyphenated name, Gordon Parry-Holroyd seemed the quintessence of a gentleman and servant of the Empire. He had a family and a cottage in the Midlands of England, but after the war, preferred the wilds of Africa to life in civilization. He was a mix of tenacity and gentleness, reminiscent of Conrad’s Lord Jim, with a tinge of a "Heart of Darkness".
Slowly the story I was looking for began to materialize in my mind. The protagonist would be a young African torn between the preservation of age-old traditions and the acceptance of encroaching modernization. His final choice would ultimately be his embracing the modern world.
To tell the story, other characters would have to be created. Representing the conservative view would be the village’s spiritual leader, the feared and angry Jujuman. Pitted against him would be the young schoolmaster who champions progress and enlightenment. Into the village enters a white timber extractor, “Mistah” Finch, who persuades the village chief to allow the felling of trees, but is refused permission to hire local labor. Our protagonist, eager to marry his girl but perpetually short of the needed dowry to buy her from her father, starts working for the White Man in spite of the proscription. Called now “Fincho” because he is “dancing around with the White Man”, he becomes something of a leader, many young men joining him. But when new earth- moving equipment is brought in to replace the local labor, violence is about to erupt against the White Man. It is Fincho who succeeds in calming the uprising, renewing the work, and thus bringing about momentous change in his community. He even triggers an understanding between the Jujuman and the schoolmaster.
The film would alternate between scenes of direct dialogue and voice-over narration, and the narrator would be Fincho himself. Many of the scenes would show local color, like at the market or at the Chief’s court, and the awesome tree-felling process would be followed in detail. Some scenes, like Fincho’s engagement in negotiations between the two families, or the naming ceremony of his first-born, were actually written out in detail by the cast and crew on rainy days when shooting was impossible.
It is my conviction that any work of fiction contains, or should contain, a message, a moral if you like, implied or explicit, that makes the story relevant. Writing this account more than 50 years after the event, I would be hard put today to vehemently defend the story’s point of view. Unfortunately, the price of deforestation and the resulting ills to society and to the planet have proven to be much higher than at first conceived, yet sadly the process goes on as before.
Clearly, a lot of thought and time is required to turn a skeleton of a story into a detailed plan, a full screenplay with dialogue written out. Simultaneously a production crew had to be trained, the actors cast, scene locations determined, costumes and props chosen, a story board devised, and a shooting schedule worked out before shooting could actually begin.
The production crew, kept to a minimum, consisted of four young local men who, obviously, had no previous connection to film-making. Samson Orhokpocha, a natural organizer, became a sort of Production Manager. Michael Nwaitabo, whose job was to carry the camera and tripod, became Assistant Cameraman. Sound recordist was Sunday Obende. He recorded the dialogue scenes, albeit as cue tracks only, for later dubbing in the studio. He also recorded the felling of trees, which sounded like heavy cloth being torn slowly, followed after the fall by a symphony of terrified animals and birds. Although sound effects were later added in the studio, Sunday’s work was extraordinary in itself. The fourth member of the crew was Rufus Atangbayila, who carried lightweight tin-foil reflectors to lighten the shadows, particularly in close-up shots. The whole picture would be shot in daylight, so no electric lighting equipment was needed.
Casting was not always easy or smooth, at times illuminating the tribal atmosphere of life deep in the jungle. Early in the production, looking for a suitable Fincho, I found a healthy-looking young man on the concession, named Aladdi. We shot some tests with him, which were sent to a London film lab for development. It took weeks before a print came back, during which Aladdi fell mysteriously ill, and soon died. Rumor had it that someone had wished him dead, presumably over an issue with a woman, and that he had died of a juju. Having been a popular figure in the community, Aladdi’s death was much talked about. One fellow on a trip to Benin City said he had seen him there alive, and another had met and spoken with him in faraway Ibadan. Both reported that Aladdi looked healthy and was well dressed, and would soon come back to close the account with his murderer.
At the compound there stood a large board built of wooden planks painted white, which served as a movie screen, and some distance away was a hut with an old 16mm projector in it. From time to time rented feature films were shown to the workers as a bonus. When the test including Aladdi arrived, I decided to run it for the crew after dark. Word leaked fast, and quickly several hundred Africans assembled there. It was a still, moonless night, and when Aladdi’s image appeared on the board in full color, a terrified hush fell over the audience. Someone screamed, women hid their babies, others fled. “He finally came back,” my crew explained to me as we dismantled the test, “and tonight he will find the man who killed him.”
My remonstration that it was only his image we saw convinced no one. In truth, it was I who felt uncomfortable that evening.
When Aladdi had fallen ill, and I suggested that he see a doctor, he said only a black man could cure him. When his condition deteriorated, and I offered to take him to them mission hospital, half a day’s drive away, he said, “If I go to a white doctor, I shall die.” I persisted, perhaps too strongly, and when we arrived at the small hospital the only doctor there, a youngish German with a heavy accent, said I should leave Aladdi there for a few days.
After some 10 days without a sign of Aladdi, I drove to the hospital again. “Good zat you come,” the doctor welcomed me, “your man is just now dying.” Indeed, in the ward Aladdi lay dying. “What of?” I demanded. “We gave him every test,” the doctore explained “All negative. There is a lot we don’t know about African diseases and Juju. And we cannot perform autopsies because we have no refrigeration. Do you want to take the body back with you or should we bury him in the mission graveyard?” I stayed till after the burial, and when I got back to the outpost, there was no need to say anything. Mysteriously, everyone already knew the sad news.
Whether by power of the Juju or by plain coincidence, during the night of the screening a thunderstorm broke out over the outpost, and next morning half the compound’s thatched roofs were gone. The crew informed me that Aladdi had been there and had found his killer. After that, Aladdi no longer returned to the living.
The role of Fincho finally went to Patrick Akponu, a conductor on the Lagos-Owo bus line, which was actually an open truck. He was a proud young tribesman from Onitsha, on the Niger River. Would he like to work on a film? Yes, he would. Could he read English? Yes, he had gone to school until his father had died, though his education had never been completed. A week later he came to the concession. He wore no shoes and ate with his fingers and he was natural and friendly. While learning his lines, he suddenly exclaimed, “I did this before, in the village school.” “You did what?” I asked. “Shakespeare,” he said. And while I marveled at the sound of this word coming from his lips, he stood up, looked about as if confronting an audience, and said boldly, “Friends, Romans, Countrymen, lend me your ears,” and broke into a hearty laugh. At that moment I knew I was lucky, and indeed it became a pleasure to work with him.
For the role of Fincho’s Girl I found a charming, expressive young girl named Amukpe. Only when I handed her the dialogue lines, it turned out she was illiterate. Her role went to a young vocalist from a band in Lagos, who could read English, memorize her lines, and act them out without effort. Her name was Comfort Ajilo.
Casting the White Man was a bit of a problem, the supply of candidates being so narrow. The only man who looked the part was the concession’s CEO, who, I feared, would decline considering his status and responsibilities. When in desperation I turned to Gordon Parry-Holroyd, he accepted with great pleasure, and filled his part conscientiously and convincingly.
To play the Jujuman I approached the real fellow, who spoke no English. His part, however, did not require it, Yoruba being sufficient, and it would add authenticity to his character. The problem arose when, after several rehearsals of a shot, as soon as the camera started rolling he would freeze completely and just stand still. One of the onlookers, a lean middle-aged man, jumped in to show him what to do. His name was Adebayo Fuwa, and in the end he got the part.
Two cast members actually played themselves - the schoolmaster, Bashiru Abibu, a bright and obliging fellow who invested in his part the same commitment he had for his profession; and Chief Adedigba, the village chief. There were also Mistah Finch’s driver, Gabriel Adebisi, forever busy polishing the boss’s LandRover, Fincho’s Father Pa, George Agho, the girl’s father, Augustine Ihonde, and a white woman on the compound who played Finch’s wife joining him in the jungle, a non-speaking and therefore a non-credited part.
Those were days before zoom lenses, and if one wanted a moving shot, one could only pan sideways or tilt up and down. To heighten intimacy by moving in slowly, imperceptibly, on a close-up or a two-shot, one needed a dolly. We built one, using two bicycles with a platform between them.
Shooting the felling of trees was particularly dramatic. The fellers always knew which way the giant trees would fall, and directed us where to place the camera for safety. Once, however, their calculation fell short. I was filming the beginning of a fall, concentrating on the trunk at the tree’s base and expecting it to fall away from us, when suddenly, amid frenzied shouting, camera and tripod were grabbed away from me as the huge mass above was crashing down toward me. There was barely time to escape when, like in a nightmare, I discovered my foot was stuck in the undergrowth. It was only a split second between the crew pulling me free from my shoe and the mammoth trunk hitting the ground. A Kingdom for a Horse? A Shoe for a Life.
All in all I spent six months in “the interior”. Except for the test with Aladdi, I saw no rushes in Africa, relying rather on the lab reports from London than having the material shipped out. I left many friends in the Kingdom of Owo, black and white. In particular Fincho remained dear to my heart. I sent him several packages and books, and hoped he would advance to a better life than he had had before. This did not come to pass. Within a month or two, one of my letters to him was returned with an official stamp “Deceased.”
The next stage was the editing and finishing of the film. This took place in Los Angeles, where I had an assistantship teaching film at UCLA, my Alma Mater. Editing was made easy as I had kept the entire film on story board, which I had updated daily during shooting. All I had to do now was to arrange the shots in sequence, and fine cut. I rounded up several Nigerian students at the university for the dubbing of voices, and was elated, amid raucous laughter, to practice Pidgin again. The dialogue and the narration of Fincho’s voice I dubbed myself. Even the short Fincho song, words written by well-known lyricist Sid Robin, I sang and recorded with a small Mexican band. As befits an almost budget-less home production, I cut the negative myself.
Film, I believe, can be made more suggestive by the use of images and sounds not necessarily connected to the scene at hand, much like metaphors in language.
When, for example, Fincho and his girl, alone in an empty riverbed, discuss their future, a close shot of a tropical bird overhearing their conversation appears momentarily.
This is not a planned shot in the screenplay, but an editing idea, and
the short clip of the bird is purchased from a ‘stock library’ in the film capital. When Fincho, riding with the timber down the river, reaches the ocean freighter, which he sees for the first time, we hear the big ship sounding its horn. This would not happen in reality, but the sound effect adds a dimension to the scene.
A kindly Hollywood composer, Alexander Laszlo, offered to compose and record an original score for the film. I was not convinced that a symphonic score was the most appropriate addition to the film, thinking a small combo or a single African instrument would be better. Eventually I was persuaded that a big orchestration would add stature to the film, an assumption I still question in my mind to this day. In any event, I had brought with me recordings of what was known as Lagos Highlife, and Laszlo adapted the syncopated rhythms with his own melody as the leitmotiv of the film, including that of the Fincho song. For the title background sheets, art student Shelley Schoenberg drew actual key scenes from the film in ink and color, to familiarize the viewer subliminally with coming events.
The final cut ran 75 minutes, a bit short perhaps for a feature, but better, I thought, than dragging it out another five or six minutes and slowing down the pace. My shooting ratio (the ratio between exposed stock to that actually used in the finished film) was 3:1, an efficient rate, made possible by the use of a detailed story board, and also by the necessity to be prudent. The net running time of finished film achieved during the shooting period was about one minute per shooting day, not a bad yield at all.
Deeply moved at the time by the enormously popular singer and black activist, Harry Belafonte, I boldly wrote him to ask if he would consider adding an introduction to the film. To my surprise he responded. He would gladly see the film, and suggested that I come to Las Vegas, where he was appearing nightly in one of the leading hotels, and show him the film. Packing a Movieola (a somewhat bulky editing machine with a small screen) and the “work-print” of the not quite finished film into my car, I drove to Nevada. Belafonte saw the film in his hotel room and agreed on the spot to cooperate. We made a date to meet at a small New York studio a few weeks later, and filmed Belafonte delivering a short address I had prepared. He did this entirely on a voluntary basis.
My Nigerian gamble thus worked out beyond my wildest dreams. After the film was completed, a most touching accolade came in the form of an unsolicited letter written by three leading Hollywood figures to the Production Head of 20th Century Fox, calling his attention to my work. The three renowned signatories were screenwriter, Norman Corwin, director Fred Zinnemann and composer Bernard Herrmann. I shall forever remain grateful for their munificence. Lastly, I also deepened a lifelong friendship with the Behrmans, who made it all possible.
Fincho: The Making of the First Nigerian Film in Colour By Sam Zebba
Sam Zebba directing "Fincho" in Nigeria.
Many people have read about Sam Zebba's "Fincho", the first film shot in colour in Nigeria in 1955 and post production was done in the United States of America and it was released in 1957. But majority of Nigerians and others have little or no knowledge about the great filmmaker, Sam Zebba who passed away in Israel on February 27, 2016.
I have decided to publish this comprehensive documentary report on him, comprising his own memoir on how he made "Fincho"; an article on him before he passed on and a memorial tribute written by David (Dudi) Sebba published by www.esra-magazine.com.
What Sam Zebba documented on the circumstances of the events that occurred during the making of "Fincho" can be a fanstatic movie. And publishing it on a Nigerian website is important in recognition of the Nigerian cast and crew. They have made history and we must remember them in the history of Nigerian cinema.
Fincho- Adventure in Nigeria 1955: Adventure in the interior of Nigeria
One night in 1954, at the home of my London relatives, Boria and Rena Behrman, Boria showed some 8mm color footage he had taken at their timber concession in Nigeria. The Behrman family had been in the timber business for several generations, still in the ‘old country’ (Latvia), and the Nigeria concession was a new extension of their UK firm, Finch & Company. What I saw there was formidable. Giant trees were being felled in the jungle and hundreds of bare-handed African workers were pulling the heavy trunks through the mud.
I realized that this could be a starting point for an extraordinary documentary and perhaps even more than that. For some time I had felt a strong desire to move from the short film, my medium hitherto, to full-length form. If I could find a human story to fit into the tree felling process, perhaps the chance of realizing this was here.
Boria generously said I could stay in one of the bungalows built for the white staff at the concession, and film whatever I wanted. Admittedly, it would be foolhardy to go script-less into the unknown, but therein lay the challenge. And so, toward the end of the Central African rainy season in 1955, equipped with a 16mm Arriflex camera, a portable sound recording device, and a reasonable amount of Kodachrome color film, I set out on a flight to Lagos, the capital of Nigeria at the time, and from there, mostly over unpaved and ill-maintained dirt roads, passing through two enormous clusters of mud huts, Ibadan and Benin City, to the Finch timber concession in the faraway Kingdom of the Olowo (Ruler) of Owo.
Groundbreaking Exhibition Explores Shared History Between African and Native Americans
Red/Black: Related Through History tells stories of the allied and adversarial relationships of African Americans and American Indians
PR Newswire
INDIANAPOLIS, Jan. 4, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- A groundbreaking exhibition exploring the shared history between African and Native Americans will open at the Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art on Feb. 12, 2011. Red/Black: Related Through History includes an object-based exhibition on the subject, created by the Eiteljorg Museum, and the Smithsonian's traveling panel show, Indivisible: African-Native American Lives in the Americas .
To view the multimedia assets associated with this release, please click: http://multivu.prnewswire.com/mnr/eiteljorg/47873/
Since the first arrival of African slaves in North America, the interactions between people of African and Native American heritage has been a combined story of conflict, cooperation, cultural growth, destruction and survival. Since 2001, the Eiteljorg Museum has pioneered research on this subject and has drawn together important art and artifacts that demonstrate shared traditions found in history, genealogy, food, dress, music and occupation. Some American Indians held black slaves and others helped them escape. Sometimes there was intermarriage and a blending of traditions.
The exhibition will explore the stories of individuals and groups that highlight the allied and adversarial relationship between blacks and American Indians. One such story talks about the life of Lucinda Davis. She was interviewed by historians in the 1930s. Davis had been born a slave around 1848 and was owned by a Creek Indian family. She spent her life in what is now Oklahoma. She spoke the Creek language, and after gaining her emancipation following the Civil War, had difficulty adapting to freedom. There were many who, like Davis, were owned by Native Americans and who struggled with emancipation.
Also found in the exhibit is the story of Charlie Grant. In 1901, Baltimore Orioles manager John J. McGraw tested the color line in professional baseball by trying to pass off Grant, a Negro League second baseman, who had high cheekbones and straight hair, as Charlie Tokohama, a Native American, which was more palatable to baseball fans.
Red/Black also explores issues of race and personal identity and the question: "Who am I and who gets to say so?" The exhibit will illustrate the complexity of racial identity and why judgments about race can so easily be misguided.
Red/Black: Related Through History includes dynamic programming and runs through Aug. 9.
SOURCE Eiteljorg Museum of American Indians and Western Art
CONTACT: Anthony Scott, +1-317-275-1352, ascott@eiteljorg.com, www.twitter.com/Eiteljorg_PR
London, UK - June 1, 2010 (RM Auctions) James Bond's actual Aston Martin DB5 as driven by Sean Connery in the enormously famous Goldfinger and Thunderball movies is for sale for the first time in history by RM Auctions - the world's largest collector car auction house, 27th October in London, UK where it is expected to achieve in excess of $5 million. (PRNewsFoto/RM Auctions) LONDON ENGLAND
1 Jun 2010 11:00 Africa/Lagos
World's Most Famous Car Comes to Market for First Time in History
James Bond's actual Aston Martin DB5 as driven by Sean Connery in Goldfinger and Thunderball to be auctioned by world's largest collector car auction house, 27th October in London, UK
LONDON, June 1 /PRNewswire/ -- PAY ATTENTION, BOND FANS! RM Auctions announces the consignment of one of the most significant cultural icons of the 20th century - the 1964 Aston Martin DB5 James Bond movie car - to its annual 'Automobiles of London' event at the Battersea Evolution in London on 27th October, where it is available for sale for the first time in history and expected to achieve in excess of $5 million. The car is being offered by RM in association with Sotheby's, with whom RM has worked in the past.
Well-known around the world by its original UK registration number, FMP 7B, this Aston Martin is one of only two, and the sole remaining, of the original '007' DB5s as featured on screen with Sean Connery behind the wheel in the enormously popular Goldfinger and Thunberball movies. With its 'rather interesting modifications' originally conceived by Oscar-award-winning special effects expert, John Stears, this authentic Bond movie car is factory-fitted with the full complement of operational 'Q-Branch' gadgets, including machine guns, bullet-proof shield, revolving number plates, tracking device, removable roof panel, oil slick sprayer, nail spreader and smoke screen, all controlled from factory installed toggles and switches hidden in the center arm-rest.
"Like 'Q', we never joke about our work, which is why RM is consistently entrusted with the sale of the world's most significant collector cars like the REAL 007 Aston Martin DB5 movie car," said Max Girardo, Managing Director, RM Europe. "RM is known for world-record-setting results and we expect nothing less for 007's iconic DB5."
The DB5 was originally loaned to EON Productions for the filming of the two Bond movies, and returned to the Aston Martin Lagonda factory after its subsequent promotional tour. Mr. Jerry Lee, an American radio broadcaster based in Philadelphia, PA, convinced the factory to sell FMP 7B to him for $12,000 in 1969, thereby becoming its first and only ex-factory owner. It has remained in his possession and has rarely been seen publicly over the past 40+ years.
Mr. Lee plans to use the proceeds from the sale of FMP 7B to further the charitable work of The Jerry Lee Foundation, a multi-national initiative dedicated to solving social problems associated with poverty, with an emphasis on crime prevention. The Foundation supports programs at the University of Pennsylvania and Cambridge University (UK), as well as in Australia, Norway and Washington, DC. It is also responsible for the establishment of the Stockholm Prize in Criminology, for which Mr. Lee received a Swedish knighthood in 2008. (http://jerryleefoundation.com/)
"The James Bond car has brought me much enjoyment for some 40 years," said Jerry Lee. "Even as I sell it and use the proceeds to fund the Jerry Lee Foundation, the car will continue to give me great pleasure as it furthers the mission of the Foundation to do good around the world."
Today, FMP 7B is presented in highly original condition and recently underwent a careful re-commissioning program by RM Auto Restoration, returning it to running condition after the many years of static display in Mr. Lee's home.
In advance of its auction debut at RM's Automobiles of London sale on 27 October, the car is set to make its first 21st century public appearance at the Bond-themed Midsummer Classic/Thunderball concours and black-tie reception scheduled for 26 June at the Stoke Park Club located outside of London. Bond fans will recognize the Stoke Park Club as the site of the first confrontation between 007 and Mr. Goldfinger. For event and ticket information, visit: http://www.midsummerclassic.co.uk/
About RM
RM Auctions is the world's largest collector car auction house and specializes in investment-quality automobiles, holding four of the top five world record prices for motor cars sold at auction.
With over three decades of experience in the collector car industry, RM's vertically integrated range of services, coupled with an expert team of car specialists and international footprint, provide an unsurpassed level of service to the global collector car market. RM's restoration division has achieved unprecedented accolades earning "Best of Show" honors at the world's top concours events. (www.rmauctions.com)
Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20100601/NY13053 AP Archive: http://photoarchive.ap.org/ AP PhotoExpress Network: PRN6 PRN Photo Desk, photodesk@prnewswire.com Source: RM Auctions
Web Site: http://www.rmauctions.com/
NOTE TO EDITORS: Media Contacts High resolution photography and broadcast-quality b-roll of the 1964 Aston Martin DB5 'James Bond Movie Car' is available for download on the RM media site: http://www.rmauctions.com/presslogin/media-center.cfm /CONTACT: Kerrey Kerr-Enskat, kkerrenskat@rmauctions.com, +1-519-437-3053, Amy Christie, achristie@rmauctions.com, +1-519-437-3047, Peter Haynes, phaynes@torquepr.co.uk, +44 (0) 7738 883259 all of RM; or Lauren Gioia of SOTHEBY'S, lauren.gioia@sothebys.com, +1-212-606-7176.
His entry Far from Utopia is among the record number of 61 entries from 36 countries and will be competing with 497 entries from 122 U.S. colleges and universities for the 2010 Student Academy Awards.
“It's a film I made about a young beggar boy of about 10 on his struggle for a day as he is confronted by the twin challenges of hunger and his bully colleagues. It's really an emotional short story. The most amazing thing about the story behind the story is I lost the most interesting part of the footage during post production,” said Nasiru. Nasiru is a student at the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) College in Jos, Plateau state, in the middle belt region of Nigeria. He took part in the 2010 Berlinale talent campus in Berlin and has been selected for another one coming up in July in Durban, South Africa.
An appeal from Wikipedia founder, Jimmy Wales Today, I am asking you to make a donation to support Wikipedia.
I started Wikipedia in 2001, and over the past eight years, I've been amazed and humbled to see hundreds of thousands of volunteers join with me to build the largest encyclopedia in human history.
Wikipedia isn't a commercial website. It's a community creation, entirely written and funded by people like you. More than 340 million people use Wikipedia every month - almost a third of the Internet-connected world. You are part of our community.
I believe in us. I believe that Wikipedia keeps getting better. That's the whole idea. One person writes something, somebody improves it a little, and it keeps getting better, over time. If you find it useful today, imagine how much we can achieve together in 5, 10, 20 years.
Wikipedia is about the power of people like us to do extraordinary things. People like us write Wikipedia, one word at a time. People like us fund it. It's proof of our collective potential to change the world.
We need to protect the space where this important work happens. We need to protect Wikipedia. We want to keep it free of charge and free of advertising. We want to keep it open – you can use the information in Wikipedia any way you want. We want to keep it growing – spreading knowledge everywhere, and inviting participation from everyone.
The Wikimedia Foundation is the non-profit organization I created in 2003 to operate, grow, nurture, and protect Wikipedia. For ten million US dollars a year and with a staff of fewer than 35 people, it runs the fifth most-read website in the entire world. I'm asking for your help so we can continue our work.
Imagine a world in which every single person on the planet has free access to the sum of all human knowledge. That’s where we’re headed. And with your help, we will get there.
Thank you for using Wikipedia. You're part of this story: please make a donation today.
Michael Jackson's Hair From Fateful Pepsi Commercial: Part of Pop Culture History Soon to Become Diamonds
CHICAGO, July 24 /PRNewswire/ -- When executive producer Ralph Cohen scooped up the charred hair Michael Jackson lost in the filming of the now-infamous Pepsi commercial, he had no idea that he was saving an important piece of history.
Now, this closest connection to Jackson himself is being preserved by John Reznikoff one of America's most highly respected collectors, and being used by LifeGem the world's first purveyor of diamond memorials to create high quality diamonds.
Cohen, executive producer for the Pepsi commercial, was among the first to reach Jackson when he was set on fire.
As seen on the now famous video, Cohen threw his jacket over Jackson's head to help extinguish the flames. As Jackson was being rushed off the set and to the hospital, Cohen instinctively, picked up the charred lock of hair and put it in his pocket- where it remained undisturbed for 25 years until Jackson's death last month.
"The provenance and authenticity of this lock of hair is impeccable, including the highly publicized video showing the original owner of the hair using his Armani jacket to extinguish Jackson's hair, said John Reznikoff. "This jacket was included with the purchase of the hair."
A portion will remain in Reznikoff's collection. Another portion is being used by Chicago-based LifeGem to create a small number of certified, high quality laboratory diamonds.
Back in 2007 LifeGem & Reznikoff collaborated to successfully create diamonds from Beethoven's hair.
"LifeGem specializes in creating diamonds from locks of hair, our plan is to give people an opportunity to own a diamond made from Michael Jackson's DNA," said Dean VandenBiesen founder of LifeGem. "We are currently evaluating the hair sample to determine how many diamonds can be created. This will be a limited collection and we anticipate great interest."
Reznikoff has assembled the most extensive collection of hair from history's most famous figures, including Lincoln, Kennedy, Einstein and Marilyn Monroe.
CONTACT: Dean VandenBiesen of LifeGem, 1-866-543-3436, dean@lifegem.com; or John Reznikoff of University Archives, +1-203-247-1155, john@universityarchives.com
