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Tag: Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie

  • World Intellectual Property Day: Through the eyes of the creative

    As writer, I have the responsibility to be creative, break bounds, be innovative in ideas. Intellectual Property ( IP ) is my exclusive preserve.

    I stay awake at night to make this happen. I work hard to put in creativity into writing and eventually come up with ingenious write ups that not only stand the test of time but also improve the social, political and economic aesthetics of my country.

    Often times, the challenge is getting a publisher with the right set of skills and attitude to birth the brainchildren to reality.

    The arduous processes of writing, editing, proofreading and other publishing processes are a few of the brain and hand work a typical writer experiences.

    There is nothing as disappoint and heart-rendering like someone else reaping the reward of your hard work by plagiarising it.

    According to dictionary.com, Plagiarism is an act or instance of using or closely imitating the language and thoughts of another author without authorization and the representation of that author’s work as one’s own, as by not crediting the original author.

    To curb the menace of plagiarism, legislations in the form of Patents, Copyrights and Trademarks were created by the World Intellectual Property Organization ( WIPO ) which was established in the year 2,000. It protects the intellectual property of the creative.

    WIPO creates awareness to how patent, copyright, trademarks and industrial designs operate.

    WIPO saw a need to protect intellectual property and came up with the global celebration called World Intellectual Property Day celebrated yearly on the 26th of April to promote creativity, innovation and intelligence.

    Intellectual property ( IP ) refers to creativity in minds such as inventions, literary and artistic works, industrial design and symbol names and images used in commercial.

    IP aims to foster an environment in which creativity and innovation can flourish.

    The theme of this year is Powering Change: Women in Innovation and Creativity.

    This day celebrates the brilliance, intelligence and courage of women who are driving change in our world and shaping our common future.

    Usually women have to work extra hard and be extra creative, influential and energetic so that their works and ideas are not swept under the carpet.

    One very quintessential example of such women is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie; she is one of the frontiers of the new generation of Nigerian authors.

    Chimamanda has won the Common Wealth Writer Prize for the best first book “Purple Hibiscus”.

    She created an intellectual property around her works and has swiftly grown  her reputation and shaping the future.

    Another is Nike Davies Okundaye,  a professional textiles artist and a painter.

    She is known for colourful batiks and paintings.

    The founder and director of Nike Arts Gallery and she offers training to young artist in visual, musical and the performing arts.

    However, intellectual property has been an important prerequisite for development of advanced goods and services. It entails patent , copyright and trademarks.

    Patent is a government authority or licence conferring a right or title for a set period especially the sole right to exclude others from making, using or selling invention.

    While copyright is a form of intellectual property protection provided by the law.

    Trademark is recognizable signs, design or symbol which identifies products and services of a particular source from others.

    Nevertheless, WIPO is poised to protect our intellectual property from being plagiarized and the protection is available for the original works of inventors that are fixed in  tangible forms, whether published or unpublished.

  • Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at 40: Ten inspiring quotes you’ll like

    Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie at 40: Ten inspiring quotes you’ll like

    Award-winning Nigerian Author, Novelist, and writer of short stories and fictions, Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on Friday marked her 40th birthday.

    Born on 15th September, 1977 and hails from Abba, Anambra state in Nigeria, the veteran writer has received numerous awards both home and abroad.

    Her novels include Purple Hibiscus, Half of A Yellow Sun, Americanah, etc. To celebrate one of Nigeria’s finest writers, below are 10 awesome and inspiring quotes from Chimamanda!

    1. If you don’t understand, ask questions. If you’re uncomfortable about asking questions, say you are uncomfortable about asking questions and then ask anyway.

    2. We have to smash and dismantle the way we have constructed masculinity. I think it’s toxic. What if we taught boys to be ashamed of not being able to communicate, or be in touch with their emotions? What if vulnerability was something to be proud of? The idea of controlling women’s bodies because men need to be protected from something they can’t control – what we are really saying is that men are sub-human. Masculinity as we have constructed it is terrible for men and women.

    3. I’ve always been uninterested in the question of whether a woman can really have it all. Because it is a question about domestic work – domestic work is the woman’s domain, and we’re asking can she do it and then have a job? I was speaking at a school in DC a while ago and a young man asked me “How do you manage married life, home life and your work?” And I said to him “If I answer your question, I want you to promise me that the next time a man comes here to speak you will ask him the same thing. Societies are not structured to support women so we give them this burden and then say can a woman have it all? It’s really fucked up.

    4. The best novels are those that are important without being like medicine; they have something to say, are expansive and intelligent but never forget to be entertaining and to have character and emotion at their centre.

    5. I write from real life. I am an unrepentant eavesdropper and a collector of stories. I record bits of overheard dialogue.

    6. Culture does not make people. People make culture. If it is true that the full humanity of women is not our culture, then we can and must make it our culture.   – We should all be feminists.

    7. There are some things that are so unforgivable that they make other things easily forgivable.       – Half of a Yellow Sun

    8. There are people who think that we cannot rule ourselves because the few times we tried, we failed, as if all the others who rule themselves today got it right the first time. It is like telling a crawling baby who tries to walk, and then falls back on his buttocks, to stay there. As if the adults walking past him did not all crawl, once.                                      – Purple Hibiscus

    9. “Show a people as one thing, only one thing, over and over again, and that is what they become.”                          – TeDex

    10. Racism should never have happened and so you don’t get a cookie for reducing it

    • Americanah

    Happy Birthday chimamanda Ngozi Adichie!!!

  • Chimamanda’s “Americanah” wins New York book contest

    Chimamanda’s “Americanah” wins New York book contest

    Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie’s novel “Americanah” has won the “One Book, One New York” campaign by the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment and BuzzFeed.

    The office said on Monday that New Yorkers cast their ballots for the book throughout February and said they wanted millions of residents to read it  simultaneously.

    It stated that the voting which took place in February, were both online and at interactive digital kiosks on subway platforms.

    The office added that “finally, Americanah was the book most New Yorkers wanted to read, as 50,000 voters who participated in the #OneBookNY campaign voted for it.”

    It explained that New Yorkers were encouraged to form their own book clubs and discussions around the book, which detailed the story of a Nigerian couple that left military-ruled Nigeria.

    The office said Americanah centred around two young Nigerian lovers who departed for different cities in the Western world and later reunited in a democratic Nigeria.

    Ifemelu, the protagonist, headed for America, where her life as an immigrant changed her perspective on race and identity.

    Before being reunited in their homeland, the female protagonist, Ifemelu, was forced to confront new issues of race and class in the United States, and her lover, Obinze, blocked from joining her due to post-9/11 travel restrictions, struggled for dignity as an undocumented immigrant in London.

    Published in 2013, Ngozi-Adichie’s novel won a National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and was named one of The New York Times “Ten Best Books of the Year.”

    The office said New Yorkers could access the full audio-book version for 90 days through a city partnership with the digital reading subscription company, Scribd.

    It noted that they could also borrow one of the thousands of additional copies donated by publishers and other organisations to New York City’s public library systems.

    It stated that “in partnership with the digital library and subscription service, Scribd, the Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment will provide free 90-day access to full ‘Americanah’ audiobook through June.”

    It announced that the office would host events like film screenings and panel discussions to drum up excitement about the book and get New Yorkers talking about it in the upcoming months.

    Other books voted on included “Between the World and Me” by Ta-Nehisi Coates, “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao” by Junot Diaz, “The Sellout” by Paul Beatty and “A Tree Grows in Brooklyn” by Betty Smith. (NAN)

  • Chimamanda’s ‘Americanah’ for reading in New York

    Chimamanda’s ‘Americanah’ for reading in New York

    Chimamanda Ngozi-Adichie’s bestseller novel ‘Americanah’ has been selected as one of the five award-winning books to be chosen for the ‘One Book One New York’ programme.

    The concept of ‘One Book One New York’ is an initiative to bring together bookworms in the U.S. largest city to read the same book at the same time.

    New York City Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment said a committee made up of “the heads of the New York Public Library, the deans of the major academic institutions, and leaders of the book publishing industry,” all helped to select the five books among hundreds.

    The Mayor’s office said the programme aims to get all of New York City on the same page literally adding, the idea is essentially a giant book club, or a “one book read campaign”.

    The office has planned at least six community-based reading events, some of which will be with the authors.

    “New York City is proud to be the creative capital of the world.

    “The ‘One Book, One New York’ initiative provides the perfect opportunity to bring city residents from all five boroughs together through reading,” Mayor Bill de Blasio, said.

    According to Julie Menin, Commissioner, Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment, once the book is chosen, the city will host an author event at the New York Public Library, as well as a number of ancillary events at bookstores throughout the city.

    “We’re thrilled to celebrate our enduring literary capital with the ‘One Book, One New York’ program.

    “All five of the nominated titles are fantastic, and we invite New Yorkers from all five boroughs for the chance to vote for your favorite NYC read.

    “One Book, One New York” will help readers connect with one another while rediscovering their libraries and their independent neighbourhood bookstores.

    “Something that makes it incredibly timely in this moment our country is in is that all five of these books deal with themes of immigration, of race, oftentimes of being an outsider.

    “These books are incredibly timely. These are really thought-provoking books that really speak to the age that we’re in,” Menin said.

    The programme also features celebrity advocates who have all taped on-camera segments touting the importance of each book and urging New Yorkers to vote online.

    The book to be read will be chosen by city residents, who have been voting for their favourites online at nyc.gov/onebook and at subway platform kiosks, which will end on Feb. 28.

    The final book selection will be announced in early March, with events taking place around the city to follow through early June when the culminating event will take place.

    The culminating event, in June, will be something of a big book club meeting, with fans of the book coming to the New York Public Library to take part in a conversation between its author and the senior book editor at BuzzFeed.

    The publishers of the five nominated books have provided at least 800 copies of those books to New York City’s more than 200 library branches.

    According to chimamanda.com, Americanah is a powerful tender story of race and identity.

    Chimamanda’s works’ have been translated into over 30 languages and have won several prizes including the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize, the Hurston/Wright Legacy Award, the Orange Prize.

    Others are, the National Book Critics Circle Award for Fiction and The Chicago Tribune Heartland Prize for Fiction as well as one of The New York Times Ten Best Books of the Year.

    Those works include, Purple Hibiscus, Half of a Yellow Sun which was also adapted into a movie.

    A recipient of a MacArthur Foundation Fellowship, her works have also made a National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist, a New York Times Notable Book, and a People and Black Issues Book Review Best Book of the Year.

  • Buhari, Ezekwesili, Chimamanda on Time’s influential list

    Buhari, Ezekwesili, Chimamanda on Time’s influential list

    Nigeria’s President-elect, Muhammadu Buhari, former Minister of Education, Oby Ezekwesili and bestselling author, Chimamanda Adichie are on the TIME magazine’s world’s 100 most influential peoples list.

    Excerpts from their profile on TIME’s website:

    Muhammadu Buhari  – A new choice for Nigeria (by Aryn Baker)

    Muhammadu Buhari made history in March by becoming the first candidate to oust a sitting Nigerian President through the ballot box. Now he has to live up to voters’ expectations.

    From battling the Boko Haram insurgency to tackling endemic corruption, Buhari has many challenges ahead. The greatest may be overcoming his past as a military ruler who seized power in 1983. Already the born-again democrat is demonstrating the inclusivity necessary to lead a nation driven by ethnic and religious tensions.

    “We must begin to heal the wounds and work toward a better future,” he said in his April 1 victory speech. “We do this first by extending a hand of friendship and conciliation across the political divide.” It’s a promising start for a President-to-be who wants to leave a legacy to match the historic conditions of his election.

    Oby Ezekwesili (by Sister Rosemary Nyirumbe)

    Like northern Uganda, where I live, northern Nigeria is very isolated. For many years, the women who were abducted from our region remained invisible.

    So although I have not met Obiageli Ezekwesili, I know the #BringBackOurGirls campaign that she championed is very important. It would have taken a long time to raise awareness about the girls taken by Boko Haram without her using her platform as a former Minister of Education.

    We need to remember that these girls are undergoing psychological and maybe physical torture. So I love that the campaign says, “Bring back our girls,” and not “Bring back my child.” Everybody is in unison with the parents and the relatives. Everyone is feeling their pain. Everyone will be ready to embrace the girls and offer them care and compassion if they are rescued or manage to escape.

    It has been a year, and the girls haven’t been rescued, but she has made a difference by speaking about it. Not just speaking but shouting. I know some people will say she is too loudmouthed. The loud mouth is needed. People hear it.

    Chimamanda Adichie  – Conjurer of character (by Radhika Jones)

    It’s the rare novelist who in the space of a year finds her words sampled by Beyoncé, optioned by Lupita Nyong’o and honored with the National Book Critics Circle Award for fiction. But the Nigerian writer Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie is just that sort of novelist.

    A MacArthur “genius” grant recipient, Adichie writes of the complex aftermath of Nigeria’s colonial history and her nation’s rise to prominence in an era when immigration to the West no longer means a one-way ticket. With her viral TEDxEuston talk, “We Should All Be Feminists,” she found her voice as cultural critic. (You can hear it rising midway through Beyoncé’s woman-power anthem “Flawless.”)

    She sets her love stories amid civil war (Half of a Yellow Sun) and against a backdrop of racism and migration (Americanah). But her greatest power is as a creator of characters who struggle profoundly to understand their place in the world.

     

     

  • Chimamanda’s ever-rising literary profile

    Chimamanda’s ever-rising literary profile

    Edozie Udeze writes on Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, Nigeria’s literary sensation whose novel Americanah, has just been named by the New York Times as one of the Top Best Books of 2013.The book is also number one on the BBC’s list of the Top 10 Books of 2013.

    IT was the late Professor Chinua Achebe, Africa`s foremost storyteller who first endorsed her immense talent, he described her “as a storyteller who came almost fully made.” With these words, Achebe immediately drew world attention to Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, as one of the best future literary giant the world was yet to witness. To him, she is a writer who tells her story with clear distinction, crisp description and power.

    In the past ten years or so, Adichie`s literary works have garnered more attention, taking the world by surprise. In Americanah, she succeeded in forcing the world to think along with her to three continents of Africa, Europe and America, where she reflected on the ever-turbulent issue of migration, racial relationship across continents and among peoples of different backgrounds.

    This was why indeed the book has just been named one of the Top 10 Best Books of 2013 by the New York Times. In England also, Americanah was voted number one on the BBC`s list of the top 10 Books of 2013. The recognition caught the attention of the world not only because New York Times is noted as the most prestigious newspaper in the world, but because it has a team of seasoned literary eggheads whose primary responsibility is to brainstorm on topical issues of this nature. Thus, the list selected from thousands of books published worldwide each year, is usually eagerly awaited by the world and most keen watchers of events in the literary sector.

     

    Dealing with race relations

    In handing down its verdict, the New York Times described Americanah as ‘tender and trenchant’, a novel with deep and profound feelings that takes on the “comedy and tragedy of American race relations.” In one breath, she was described as a fearless writer who is not afraid to tread dangerous paths. The book Americanah equally proves that the world is not merely a globalised village, but also that the stories of its peoples should be told at all times.

    And because these stories must be told for the purpose of creating the desired awareness, Adichie has proved that “there`s nothing too humble or daunting or discouraging for this fearless writer.” In other words, as a writer, she is promptly and precisely “attuned to the various worlds and shifting selves in which we inhabit, in life and online, as agent and victims of history and the heroes of our own stories”

    In its own assessment, the BBC observed that “Chimamanda Adichie is supremely smart.” With Americanah, which crisscrosses borders, she proves she is also “supremely funny.” This is an accolade that is not just brilliantly acknowledged but which has also lent credence to the story telling acumen and prowess often exhibited by Adichie.

    She is unsparing in her usage of words as potent literary weapon to tear at issues. What`s the difference between an African American and an American- African? This is one theme the book has brought to the fore and Adichie is not shying away from the fact that that story is also talking to her, exploring her own experience as an African-American.

    Ifemelu, the heroine of the book stands out as a bridge between what peoples of African descent experience once they leave the shores of Africa. Indeed, Adichie once admitted that the story of Ifemelu is partly her story in her quest to make it in a world polarized along racism and inequality. From that experience therefore sprang a deep-seated discussion of race in which living both in Nigeria and in the United States of America helps to make her self-aware, imbuing in her the zeal to be a great thinker and writer

    For her as a writer, there shouldn`t be any sacred cows. A story has to be told in such a way as to permeate souls, no matter whose ox is gored. In more ways than one, Americanah is a criticism of social issues. It is not only broad-based in its appeal, it takes a cursory look at and examines blackness in America, Nigeria and Britain, focusing more exclusively on the universality of human experience, human foibles and the like. This is where Ifemelu comes in to prove to the world how smart she is by surviving this racially- charged atmosphere and showing that even when all odds stare one in the face one can still make it.

    According to Dr. Austine Amanze Akpuda, a literature teacher at the Abia State University, Uturu, Abia State, the tendency for Adichie to find her focus is partly caused by her closeness to the two worlds – Nigeria and America. And a good storyteller should never lose touch with her people, the people who provide her with primary source of materials. He said “Every writer has his/her season. There was a time between 1958 and 1962 when the two dominant names were Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka. However, in terms of consistent, overwhelming and infectious global reach and appeal, it wouldn`t be exaggeration to state that we are in the age of Chimamanda.”

    In his own tribute, Chijoke Uwasomba, another literature teacher at OAU, Ile-Ife, Osun State, stated that this is a well deserved award. It puts Adichie in world reckoning as one of the best of her time. Said he “It is an acknowledgement of the power of her enviable place in the pantheon of African letters. Her contribution has added more vibrancy and deserved attention in the struggle to give voices to the otherwise neglected groups in our society. It is also another recognition and acknowledgment of Achebe for Adichie by every necessary implication by deservedly one of Achebe`s literary children from her ouvre. For Adichie therefore it is morning yet on profound creation”

     

    Her trajectories

    Born on September 15, 1977 in Enugu, Adichie got married four years ago to a medical doctor named Ivara Alistair Esege. Esege is of mixed parentage. While his father is from Cross River State, his mother is British. Not many people are aware that Adichie who once described matrimony as ‘very dangerous’ is happily married. During one of her outings in Lagos in company of her hubby, Adichie described him as “Nigerian, American and British.” The couple often makes their time between Nigeria, Britain and America and this forms the bulk of the story replicated in Americanah. Like most writers, she often puts herself into her works. Today she is considered the best thing that has happened to Nigerian literature.

    In one of her comments recently, she said, “This may sound slightly mystical. But I sometimes feel as if my writing is something bigger than I am. I am always thinking about death and love, for both go hand in hand.”

    Every year, Adichie returns home to her village Abba in Anambra State, where she communes with her folks. She attends festivals and events with them gathering more information for her new works. At this period she doesn`t want to be distracted. The comparison of Christmas period in Americanah where winter and harmattan haze are used symbolically serves the purpose here. “Are they teaching children that a Christmas is not real unless snow falls like it does abroad?”

    In 2003, That Harmattan Morning, was selected as joint winner of BBC short story award. Decisions a collection of poems was written in 1997, followed by For love of Biafra in 1998. In 2002 she was shortlisted for the Caine Prize for her short story-You in America. Her first novel Purple Hibiscus won the Commonwealth Writers Prize in 2007 while her second novel Half of a Yellow Sun won the Orange prize, among other numerous awards. She is no doubt destined to climb higher in the world literary firmament.

  • CHIWETEL EJIOFOR- ‘I’m happy as actor and man’

    CHIWETEL EJIOFOR- ‘I’m happy as actor and man’

    This year’s Toronto International Film Festival welcomed many actors with more than one film to promote. Chiwetel Ejiofor, who, thanks to his commanding performances in Biyi Bandele’s Half of a Yellow Sun and Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave, attracted more attention, among audiences and critics alike, than Benedict Cumberbatch, Jesse Eisenberg, and Colin Firth combined. In Bandele’s adaptation of Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s novel, set in Nigeria during the Biafra War, the actor appears as a politically motivated professor who flees his home with his family as tensions intensify between the Hausa and Igbo people. And in McQueen’s hotly anticipated drama, he stars as the real-life Solomon Northup, an African-American freeman who was kidnapped and spent 12 years in slavery. Ejiofor, born in Britain and of Nigerian descent, mostly works in the States, and he brings his profound sense of worldliness to these two parts. I met with him in Toronto to talk about how he transitions between roles, the allure of Los Angeles, and how it feels to be the center of so much Oscar buzz.

    DO you remember the moment when you thought to yourself, “It’s decided. I’m going to be an actor”?

    I did my first play when I was maybe 15. I didn’t make a decision to become an actor. Actually, I still haven’t officially. I just keep on doing it and then people ended up calling me that. The point was when somebody offered to pay me for it! [Laughs] I thought, “Okay, so I can do something that I love and get paid for it. I guess that makes me a professional.” My father was a doctor, but also a musician, so we had that creative element in the family. If I’m connected to the work and experience I find it a very rewarding and enriching way to spend my life.

    Was it difficult for a Londoner like yourself to adjust to the Los Angeles lifestyle?

    I [still] live both in London and L.A. Because I did Amistad when I was 19, I’ve already been [in Hollywood] for quite a long time. And I have people [around me] that I’ve known for a very long time there. It always seemed to me like Hollywood is a sort of alter-ego of Los Angeles. L.A. in itself is actually this beautiful place where there’s lots of places to hike, surf, swim. I like getting out there. I like swimming, love sailing, so I really enjoy the outdoorsy nature of L.A. I also like the people. Californians have this chilled-out vibe. It’s a very interesting place to be.

    What drew you to Half of a Yellow Sun?

    I’ve known Biyi Bandele [the film’s director] for many years. We’ve talked about a possibility of going back to Nigeria and making a film for a long time. Then this beautiful book came out, so it was a perfect mixture of events. It was a deeply personal experience. Because not only are my parents Nigerian, but also Igbo [an ethnic group from southeastern Nigeria] and from the exact region then that all the events of the film take place. I feel [African], but also distinctly Igbo. The south is a very specific place in Nigeria. I love being there. So the events [civil war-related] in the film happened to my own family. This part of our history is very defining. The Biafran War was the first one covered by media, and the first images of the starving children later associated with Africa now were taken then. It was the first time people saw Africa in terms of a humanitarian crisis. This war was also the reason why my family left and went first to Paris and then to London. This is the reason why now I speak like this.

    You were born in London. Have you been to Nigeria before?

    Many times. I used to spend my summers there when I was a kid. As an adult, every couple of years. I recorded interviews with my grandfather, 10-hour long conversations, before he died. I’ve always had a long and fruitful relationship [with Nigeria].

    What was the time span in between this film and 12 Years a Slave?

    I shot Half of a Yellow Sun immediately before 12 Years a Slave. In fact, I flew from Calabar to Louisiana. I was excited about doing both films. It was an interesting transition: The last place I visited in Calabar was the slave museum. Hundreds of thousands of Igbo, every decade for about 200 years, were taken out of this region and transported to America, a lot of them ending specifically in Louisiana. So in a strange way, even though obviously I flew there, I was following the route of those people…and then telling this other story of slavery. It felt very connected.

    You’ve already portrayed a slave in Amistad. How was the experience different this time?

    It was completely different. Amistad was a court case. This is talking to and about the specifics of [Solomon Northup’s] life. When I was making 12 Years a Slave, I didn’t reach back to that experience. It didn’t feel connected.

    Watching a story like this one, one keeps wondering how humans can be so savage.

    We carry on doing that, just in different ways and in different places. We use violence as a way of making money, sadly. That’s what we do and have been doing for a very long time. If that’s the premise of any given society then you’re going to have situations like that. Wars, slavery of some form or another.

    How do you feel about the Oscar talk surrounding the film?

    I think it’s great when people respond to the film in a positive way. But I’d say I’m always a bit suspicious of words like “buzz” or “hype.” The film, and Northup’s story, deserve sort of a little reflection. I’m worried of all those things being put onto the film before it’s even out, before anybody’s had a chance to sort of breathe with it a little bit. Northup’s autobiography is one of the most devastating, inspiring, beautiful, and haunting things that I’ve ever read or been involved in. I’m glad that people are excited, but they should watch it with their own eyes, without any expectations. Just see his story, the story we’re trying to tell.

    12 Years a Slave has been tipped as the Schindler’s List of black experience. How do you feel about such comparisons?

    You could look at it as a specific history lesson if you like, because it speaks to that as well. It’s a very detailed, brilliant, firsthand account of what was happening at that time. And it’s Northup’s gift to the modern day, that we can have a day-in-day-out access to what occurred in that period of time. I feel it should be in every school in the world; it’s an extraordinary piece of literature. But also it speaks to human respect. And I feel like this is what people take away from it, a story about human respect, and that’s a great thing for young people or anybody to reflect on.

    You said Half of a Yellow Sun and 12 Years a Slave were shot one right after another, but you look very different in them.

    I always find that if you put your mind in a different place, you end up sort of physically changing. I probably weighed exactly the same in both of the movies, but the characters’ attitude, worldview, the way they hold themselves was so different, that when watching those two films one might think my weight has changed. But it’s just because I’m carrying myself differently. I always find that the way into a character is physicalthat you’re body changes as your outlook changes in terms of the character.

    How was working with Sean Bobbit, Steve McQueen’s cinematographer?

    Sean is extraordinary in his detail and what he’s able to capture and the beautiful way he works and shoots with the light is purely amazing. And actually the two of them, Steve and Sean are this amazing combination in the first place.

    Steve McQueen claims, “There are actors and there are artists.” Which one are you?

    I don’t necessarily think of myself in those terms. I suppose I like his idea [laughs]. Obviously, what we’re involved in is an art form, and for me it’s always been a very fascinating one, because it’s about self-expression and using yourself as a conduit to express other things. Your body, your mind, your voice, what you’re giving. I’ve always thought it was very interesting, ever since I started acting.

    Happy actor, happy man?

    I don’t know if these two are connected. I think they are separate, maybe. You can be happy in your acting life and miserable at home, or happy in both places, or miserable in both. I am happy in both, luckily.

  • Nigerians discuss Nollywood in Canada

    Nigerians discuss Nollywood in Canada

    Emotions heightened Sunday afternoon during a panel discussion on the Nigeria’s emerging film industry which took place at the makeshift filmmaker’s lounge in Hyatt Regency, in the ongoing Toronto International Film Festival, Canada.

    The festival witnessed one of the largest gathering of filmmakers, government officials and Nigerians in the Diaspora in recent times, who seized the opportunity of the official selection of Half of a Yellow Sun, a screen adaptation of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Orange Prize-winning novel of the same title to be a part of focus discussion set by the festival organizers.

    Tagged: ‘Nigeria beyond Nollywood’, the one hour panel, anchored by a professor of Film Studies at the Canada’s Capital Varsity; the Carleton University’s Mr.  Aboubakar Sanogo, had filmmaker, Mahmood Ali- Balogun and the team of Half of a Yellow Sun, delivering on their experiences on the movie project.

    The discussion, which was meant to explore the possibility of institutional support, high technology and new business approach to enhance Nollywood’s better global acceptability, soon, turned to an argument on whether or not the model employed by the producers of Half of a Yellow Sun was necessary for Nollywood.

    Ali-Balogun differed with the subject of discussion when he noted that Nollywood remains the generic name for the Nigerian film industry, and that government’s orientation concerning support for the industry has changed; citing examples of the $200 million loan and N3 billion grant by the Federal Government for the entertainment industry in Nigeria.

    But Yewande Sadiku, an investment banker with 17 years experience who raised the funds for Half of a Yellow Sun maintained that there are greater opportunities to be enjoyed by filmmakers if they are willing to get out of their comfort zones of producing mainly for the local market.

    She argued that the business of filmmaking will be respected if Nollywood filmmakers learn to leave the aspect of financing to experts. “Half of a Yellow Sun project chose me because I have the skills that are relevant to get it going,” she said, noting however, that it was tough getting investors to fund the movies, but for her goodwill, popularity of the author and success of the book, which she said has sold more than a million copies and have been translated into 30 languages. “If a book has to be written about the sourcing of finance for this movie, it would be titled ‘ How not to fund a film,’” she joked.

    Sadiku’s position was supported by co-panelists;  Biyi Bandele, the movie director;  Andrea Calderwood, the producer and Kisha Cameron-Dingle, a producer at Completion Films, a body known for funding of short films in Africa.

    While some filmmakers praised the effort of Bank of Industry for supporting the movie and other projects brought to them by filmmakers, they feel that other government agencies need to do more by supporting the intervention policy of the feral government.

    Veteran filmmaker, Igwe Gabosky, did not mince words in attacking some agencies of government that he thinks do not have business being at the festival.

    He thinks the BoI has done well, by approving his loan of N300 million to setup distribution facilities for Nollywood.

    He noted that without a proper distribution and exhibition structure, it would be foolhardy for any agency to invest in movies which have Nigeria as the major distribution window.

    Gabosky is in Toronto as member of a new organisation called Nigerian Entertainment Business Group (NEBG). Other members of that group at the festival include retired banker and Nollywood enthusiast, Charles Igwe and President Association of Nollywood Core Producers, Alex Enyengao

    Other attendees include the Bank of Industry with Uche Nwuka and Promise George as the two delegates, National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) with about 10 delegates, led by the Acting Director General, Ms Patricia Bala and the team from Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), comprising four delegates, led by founder of the festival, Chioma Udeh.

    Others are; Ugenyin Kalu, from Nigerian Export-Import (NEXIM) Bank, a staff of Unity Bank, filmmaker Lancelot Imasuen, journalists and some Canada-based Nigerian filmmakers.

    Half of a Yellow Sun is Bamdele’s first feature film. The filmmaker who lives in the UK said he is motivated by the desire for Nigerians to tell their stories rather than have foreigners tell them from their perspective.

    Set in 1960s Nigeria, the story follows the inter-twining lives of several characters before and during the Biafran War between 1967-1970: Ugwu, a thirteen-year-old village boy who was a houseboy for a university professor full of revolutionary zeal; Olanna, the warm, progressive and beautiful daughter of well-to-do city-dwellers; and Richard, a white English ex-patriot who falls in love with Olanna’s twin sister.

    British Hollywood actors Thandie Newton and Chiwetel Ejiofor take on the lead roles of Olanna and the revolutionary Professor Odenigbo, with Anika Noni Rose as Olanna’s sister, Kainene and John Boyega as houseboy Ugwu.

    Joseph Mawle plays the English writer Richard while other notable actors in the cast include Genevieve Nnaji, Gloria Young, Zach Orji, Tina Mba and veteran Nigerian singer/actress, Onyeka Onwenu. The original sound track for the movie was produced by Cobhams Asuquo and singer-songwriter Keziah Jones.

    Half of a Yellow Sun was shot at the Tinapa Film Studios in Calabar, Nigeria and in the United Kingdom.