Slavery was a long-standing practice in Africa, with systems of servitude and slavery existing in many regions before the transatlantic slave trade emerged in the 16th century.
In the same vein, colonial rule and influx of Europeans in Africa heightened demand for enslaved labor, hence, fueling the transatlantic trade, and leading to the capture and forced migration of millions of Africans.
These stories are not new on the screens across the world. As a matter of fact, dozens of films with the same theme have been produced globally.
However, Nigerian born filmmaker Gbolahan Peter Macjob has embarked on a mission to retell the story with the same theme but with a twist in his upcoming flick, ‘Ireke.’
‘Ireke,’ a full feature film by Macjob sets out to tell the local African story to a global audience while bridging the gap with blacks scattered across the world and who have their ancestry rooted deeply in African countries like Nigeria, and Ghana.
In a recent chat, Macjob, who is an Emmy nominee, senior journalist and producer with the British Broadcasting Corporation, explained the resolve to tell a slave story that many believe has been told over and over again.
“In the course of making one of my documentaries in 2024, I came across a story of how African slaves rebelled against British colonial authorities in the Caribbean and how Britain was forced to agree to a treaty with these slaves known as the Maroons from Jamaica,” he began. “I realised that these Jamaican Maroons had some Yoruba, Ghanian and Igbo ancestry and decided to tell their story by weaving it into a Nollywood feature and thereby bridging the gap with our relatives in Jamaica, Brazil, Colombia etcetera and the Caribbean Islands where the slave rebellion had an impact.”
Admitting that the African slave trade theme isn’t a new one, Macjob stressed the need for Africans to tell African stories to a global audience.
“The slave theme is not new, but every single slave movie we have watched was made in Hollywood,” he revealed. “The time has come for us to be the one telling our stories and the fact that this particular story is about the heroics of our ancestors is the reason I, as a journalist and a storyteller, want to tell it.”
Continuing, Macjob said, “It opens up old conversations between us and our Caribbean cousins, between us and our Ghanaian brothers and sisters, because these were the slaves who collaborated and found success, so our history shows that we are better off together than apart.
“I believe the release of the movie Ireke is both timely and impactful, with the potential to significantly influence the global discourse around African history and identity. For far too long, many people in African countries have had limited knowledge of the destinations of their ancestors who were forcibly taken during the transatlantic slave trade—commonly referred to as the Middle Passage—and of the present-day nationalities of their descendants. This gap in awareness is partly due to the fact that American history, particularly the history of slavery and the African diaspora in the Americas, has never been an integral part of school curricula in most African nations. Consequently, an essential chapter of Black history remains unknown to many in the homelands.
“Furthermore, it seems evident that European colonial powers, particularly Britain and France, made deliberate choices in shaping the historical narratives taught in African colonies. These narratives often omitted the brutal realities of European involvement in the slave trade and their colonial exploits in the Americas. For example, many African students are never taught that Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte of France was compelled to recognize the independence of Haiti in 1804 after the Haitian Revolution (1791–1804), a monumental uprising in which formerly enslaved Africans—many of them from what is now Nigeria, Benin, and other West African nations—defeated the French army. The revolution, led by heroic figures like Toussaint Louverture and Jean-Jacques Dessalines, marked the first successful slave revolt in modern history and resulted in the establishment of the first Black republic in the world. Yet, in African classrooms, the narrative of Napoleon Bonaparte is often reduced to his role in the French Revolution, omitting the humiliating defeat of the French empire by an African-led army in the Caribbean.
“The film Ireke is therefore a powerful cultural intervention. It promises to spark renewed interest in the forgotten and hidden histories of Africans who were transported to the Americas, particularly in the Caribbean islands, and will help forge stronger cultural and historical ties between the African continent and its diaspora.
Though ‘Ireke,’ tells a wide range of different accounts by Africans of how Africans were sold to work on Sugarcane plantations due to the boom in Sugar sales as well as the rebellion that ensued when the slaves could no longer take the maltreatment in the Carribeans and Jamaica.
According to Macjob, the historical feature was entirely filmed in Nigeria and has a wide cast that depicts characters of the era in which the story is being told.
Giving it a Nollywood slant and tone, Macjob features a stellar cast that include Tobi Bakre, Kolawole Ajeyemi, Bolanle Ninalowo, Fathia Balogun, Yemi Sodimu, Peter Fatomilola, Mofe Duncan, and Antar Laniyan amongst many others, in ‘Ireke.’ The film also features professional British actors, Demeteri Turin, and Alex Franklyn, who were flown to Nigeria for filming. The trailer is set for an early April release in 2025.
With a planned premiere for summer in London, UK, Europe, the Caribbean, North America, Lagos, Nigeria, and West Africa, Macjob is focusing on traveling with the feature with the sole aim of preaching local to a global audience while bridging the gap with Africans in diaspora – especially in the Carribeans, and Jamaica.
“We want to spread the word and give the global north a taste of Nollywood cinema experience after which we would be open to streaming,” Macjob said.
The filmmaker also noted that the film was shot entirely in Abeokuta, Nigeria, where he hails from and is keen on developing the creative sector in the community.
As a fresh filmmaker, Macjob’s aspirations for Nollywood is one of the reasons he has decided to put his money where his mouth is by making a historical film locally for a global audience.
“My aspirations for Nollywood is for the industry to go mainstream – just like Afrobeats has managed to do but to achieve that, we would have to push the envelope. We would have to not make films just for ourselves but for a global audience because we are very interesting people and a lot is happening around us that offers good storytelling so I have come into Nollywood to contribute my bit to an already amazing industry.”
