he Daughters of the Niger Delta is a soul moving, thought provoking and controversial gendered film. The film, which is sponsored by the Embassy of the Federal Republic of Germany, Abuja, is produced by nine amateur film makers, all females from the Niger Delta, who were trained by Media Informative Narrative Development (MIND), under the directorship of the maverick and dynamic lady film maker per excellence Ilse van Lamoen, as part of MIND’s capacity building programme entitled FEMSCRIPT. Through the film, the producers have as never before brought to public attention, the stark realities on ground in respect of the human rights of women and children as well as development issues facing the core Niger Delta states of Bayelsa, Delta and Rivers.
The film in a subtle way draws the viewer’s attention to the fact that the 2009 amnesty deal by the Federal Government with armed groups may have stopped the incidences of violence, destruction and kidnappings in the Niger Delta region for now. It has, however, failed to address the key developmental issues which would make for lasting and sustainable peace in the region.
The film begins with footage of the nine producers before beaming the caption of the film and presenting a vivid montage of the waterways of the Niger Delta, showing the daily activities of grassroots communities, for whom the canoe is the major form of transportation connecting the communities. Then the producers’ camera lenses zoom on the struggling women folk who are the pivot of the family units, because of their roles as bread winners of the families of the region and the challenges they face in their day to day activities. These are the central focus of the film.
Our inner most emotions are stirred up when we are confronted with the extent of devastation of the oil spillage and gas flaring in the Niger Delta, which have made it increasingly difficult for the women to make ends meet, as they struggle to eke a living for their families’ up keep against all odds.
The film portrays the story of courage and resilience of three women: Hannah Tende, Naomi Alaere Ofoni and Rebecca Churchill from Rivers, Bayelsa and Delta states as they struggle against poverty in the face of customs and traditions that reduce women to second class status position.
Our first heroine, Hannah is a fisherwoman and farmer, who is unable to fish anymore in the rivers and creeks because of years of neglect caused by serious environmental pollution/degradation posed by oil spillage which has destroyed aquatic life in the area. A poor widow with young children, she scavenges the devastated river and creek banks in search of the occasional periwinkles amidst thick black oil sludge, while doubling on the side as a farm labourer to fend for her family. She became widowed in 2005 after her husband died due to a prolonged battle with ill health brought about by environmental pollution and the lack of viable health care delivery system in the region. Her life mirrors the abject poverty in a region that produces the national wealth and the human right abuses widows are subjected to as a result of continued societal adherence to customs and traditions that deprive women of the rights of inheritance and basic human privileges.
Our apprehension is heightened when we come face to face with Hannah and her family living in a dilapidated one room shack bereft of even the most basic furniture and amenities! Her seeming lack of economic empowerment is all too evident in her malnourished children, who are beneficiaries of the Universal Basic Education(UBE) programme of the Federal Government without books. Her use of firewood for cooking amidst the continuous gas flaring by the oil companies elicits anger as she and the children are exposed to health hazards from the smoke and soot.
Just like her mother before her, she was married off at a tender age and when she became widowed; her in-laws inherited everything and threw her and the children out with nothing. Hannah is enmeshed in a vicious circle of poverty and bondage. The audience is made to share her anguish that her daughter’s future is in jeopardy too. Then comes Hannah’s moments of self evaluation, holding the audience spell bond! She questions the moral of poverty and the traditions that have limited her horizon and denied her basic human rights such as the right to remarry! She is fired with determination that her daughter’s life should be better and the customs which have placed her in the peculiar circumstances must be changed!
Our second heroine, Noami like her mother also suffered rejection as a child by her father on account of her societal ascribed second class status. Brought up single handed by her divorced mother, Ruth, who married her father at age 14, her childhood is a tale of intolerable hardships as she supported her mother in the endless toil of preparing and making snacks which they sold by the road side. The turning point in their lives came, when her mother learnt about a health school and enrolled for training as a community health worker and then bagged a government job! With Ruth’s pay as a community health worker, she was able to send Naomi, her only daughter to school and pay for her education up to the university level without any support from her father.
Just as one heaves a sigh of relief that this is a story that ends well, the audience is hit with a bombshell! Naomi was a victim of sexual harassment by her course advisor while in the university. The film’s account of the way lecturers take advantage of their students and toy with the future of those entrusted into their tutelage draws the ire of the viewer. Sexual harassment exists in the universities and deserves condemnation but the impact of this malaise is blown out of proportion as presented in the film when the integrity of all public universities as citadels of learning is brought to question. Most institutions have institutionalised procedures for awarding degrees and handling grievances. The film sadly illustrates that a girl like Naomi may lack the awareness and networks to effectively appeal to these mechanisms. It makes the viewer wonder what can be done to make students like Naomi more aware of their rights, and strengthen their confidence in the system. Naomi shockingly admitted that she condescended to offering bribes to the lecturer to enable her to pass her exams to avoid sleeping with him as he requested. Could she not have found other ways to nullify his indecent proposals, rather than bribing her way out? Given that the ivory towers have quality assurance mechanisms in place, it is very unlikely that a single lecturer can award a student a degree. Naomi states that she went to a public university, but her story is so incredible that one wonders whether she didn’t go to one of the many illegal university study centres which hitherto operate in the region and offered various degrees (which have since been closed down by the National Universities’ Commission) or a real public university. There are several reasons which may make one end up with a third class degree and Naomi’s claims are highly controversial particularly since having benefited from a university education, she is discouraging other girls from getting degrees. The negative and sweeping assertions in the film appear to be a deliberate act by the producers to trigger public discourse on the issue of sexual harassment in public universities and break the silence. Generally, people shy away from discussing sensitive issues such as this in public and in this direction; the producers have been very effective.
Also, the stark reality of rising graduate unemployment is brought to focus when Naomi is unable to secure a job after graduation. Our heroine undeterred, struggled to surmount the problem when she opted for self employment and began a soap making business. Her education in the university proved an asset in her business. The film makers greatest contribution to fighting poverty is in their subtle message to Nigerian youths to embrace self employment and be job creators rather than job seekers and contribute their quota to economic development of the nation.
Our third heroine is a heavily pregnant young woman, Rebecca, who has never attended an antenatal clinic before! A victim of early marriage, Rebecca’s father collected dowry from a man she has never met and gave her out in marriage without her consent! Her mother who was greatly displeased at the turn of events was powerless to do anything due to the customs that demand absolute obedience to her husband’s wish. The poor woman finds herself enmeshed in a polygamous marriage as one of three wives where the women are the major breadwinners of the family, while their husband indulges in the exclusive male preserve of drinking local gin to while away time. Despite his seeming laxity in contributing to the family’s upkeep and using his wives as slave labours, he has no qualms about siring more children with them and leaving them with the responsibility of the children’s up keeping. Rebecca has given birth to babies a record of ten times with this pregnancy being her eleventh. She has six living children and has had five stillbirths which included a set of twins. Despite being heavily pregnant, she still goes to farm, processes food using crude methodologies (like time old technique of processing cassava into garri-the major staple food) and engages in endless household chores such as fetching water that she is energy sapped.
Our apprehension heightens and turns to outrage when faced with the statistics of the high incidence of maternal mortality which is the second highest in the world and the high incidence of child mortality. One in every five children born in the region dies in infancy. The death toll is higher than death from kidnapping but no one gets to hear about it. The constant drudgery which the women undergo in order to feed their children fills one with a sense of righteous indignation. Furthermore, one is appalled by the devastation and environmental pollution caused by oil exploration, drilling and gas flaring which has reached endemic proportions with no attempt to clean up the landscape (which may take years) nor even stop the gas flaring which is the highest in the world. One’s emotions are heightened at the all too obvious seeming lack of government presence in the area; such that even the most basic amenities like portable drinking water, sanitation, viable transport system, and power supply are nonexistent. furthermore, the viewer is filled with a sense of imminent doom when confronted with the stark reality that people like Hannah resort to self medication with disastrous consequences because of the poor primary health care delivery in the Niger Delta area.
Respite comes when the viewer gets an emotional lift, from the bottom pits of despair as the heroines begin to question their existence in the context of development issues confronting the region and the traditions which weigh them down in the vicious cycle of poverty and bondage.
Our attention is drawn to the fact that the developmental needs of men and women are different in the region. On one hand, the men focus on infrastructures and the like, while on the other hand, the women are more interested in economic activities, health care, water, food, healthy environment and change in the traditions that deny them basic human rights and privileges. Sadly, the women who are the pivot of the family unit and who are more affected by the years of the neglect of the region are not part of the decision making in the local communities of the Niger Delta. This fills one with a sense of forlornness. However, our emotions are uplifted when our heroines take the crucial steps that make a difference to their existence.
On the whole, the film has a subtle message that if the women of the Niger Delta come together and speak with one voice on issues (such as the serious environmental challenges that have made life difficult in the region, the abject poverty, lack of viable health care delivery service, non existence of basic infrastructure, lack of access to economic means, government inaction, sexual harassment in the tertiary institutions and harmful traditional practices that are gender biased and hold women in bondage), they would be able to bring about the desired change that would make the men see reason to involve them in decision making as partners in progress. The film leaves no one in doubt that the women folk are the catalysts for achieving sustainable development, peace and stability in the Niger Delta area for the benefit of all; however, they must brace themselves up for the challenges ahead.
On a technical standpoint, the film could have been better scripted to streamline the developmental issues of the Niger Delta rather than the bits and pieces of information juxtaposed by the film makers in a haphazard manner. This problem made articulating the key points of the story a bit cumbersome. Also, some elements of dramatization by actors/actresses to highlight some of the issues of the Niger Delta discussed would have made the film more interesting rather than the monologues which characterized a sizeable part of the film. These minor flaws notwithstanding, the dedication and overall efforts of the producers of the film despite being amateurs, must be appreciated. They were able to effectively capture the Niger Delta dilemma and provoke viewers’ emotions and conscience as well as stimulate debates. On the whole the film gets a rating of three stars out of five. I have absolutely no reservations in recommending the film as a MUST WATCH and I say bravo to the girls for a job well done!!!
•Hauwa is the Director of the Centre for Gender Security Studies & Youth Advancement, University of Abuja.
