Voice Of Akhue

I had the good fortune to have met Chioma "Blue" Ogwuegbu in Lagos. She connected me with various people in media, getting me some coverage in newspapers in the hope of making some leads on an indigenous game.

Whilst it was fun to hang out with Chioma, friends and family, I needed to move on if I was to reach the border with Cameroon before my visa expired.

Along the way I stopped in Benin City on the advice that there were plenty of traditions being upheld in this area. Visiting the cultural centre I soon made an acquaintance with Brown Atiemwen who was a well-known actor in Nollywood.

Brown and his colleagues inspired me to follow the story of Eweka and the game of Akhue. I very quickly learned the story and put it to paper as a screenplay in a similar way I had approached the Awale Kings video in Mali.

Once I had the script, I started foraging for actors, location and music. Brown assured me he had all this in-hand.

After collecting his lighting fuel from a local petrol station that had been set upon by 50+ people clamouring for a cheap deal, Brown realised there was a musician nearby who could help fulfill one of my requirements. Brown took me to the house of Ozin Oziegbe, who accompanied by Erhitio Socee Socee, played a historical song for me to record on the spot. That's how it is in Nigeria, you say what you want and people are ready to perform immediately, no better time like the present.

Brown asked actors, who would play Oba Oromiyan (Oranmiyan) and the 3 chiefs, to meet at the cultural centre where I would also obtain costumes.

There were just a few parts left to fill, but Brown was certain we could rope in a few local villagers to fill those parts.

However, the village to be was the slightly elusive part of the equation. Brown and I drove around intermittently over a couple of days, visiting places we hoped would look like a traditional place that you might find in a story of 800 hundred years ago. Most villages we visited had corrugated tin roofs, which would have killed the suspension of disbelieve.

We finally located a village and found suitably aged people to play the missing characters, such as Erhinmwinde and her baby:

grown up Eweka:

and a player opponent:

I could complain to my hearts content about Nigerian soap opera, especially when you see the excellent quality of productions from poorer countries like Burkina Faso, but at least there IS an industry here, which is growing and ever looking forward. Unfortunately Nollywood's representation of Nigerian culture has not evolved much beyond the typical screaming match observed in so many episodes.

Up until now I had quite a lot of bad things to say about the Nollywood film industry, but here I was making one of my own. The production values were very similar if not less, given my budget paled to that of a Nollywood production. My video included typical Nollywood features; It was shot in a day, some actors were not actors, costumes were hand-me-downs, people were paid less than I would have liked, but hey it got made and that's what counts most in Nollywood.

There were some finishing touches such as my intro made with red-capped mangabey monkeys and the supply of traditional masquerade footage from Pamela Braide, another of Chioma's contacts.

But it all got done just before my 1 month visa expired when I needed to cross into Cameroon.

None of this would have been possible without the continued encouragement and support of Brown Atiemwen may he rest in peace.