Funmilayo Ransome-kuti – Far More Than The Pictures

I watched the movie with Debby and the kids last weekend. We believe it offered us an opportunity to have the kids see, on screen, one of the larger-than-life figures that inspire female triumph and changed the course of history as far as activism in Nigeria is concerned.

My key takeaways:

1. The Producer- Bolanle Austen Peters does not do mediocrity. When we worked in Lagos, I took Deborah to see one of her stage productions and the memory hasn’t left her till date. Bolanle plans to the minutest details and if it is not ultra quality, she won’t get into it. The average viewer is immersed in every scene as the action wore on.

2. The Language- I love that code-mixing was deployed to show the sophistication of the elite Egbas represented by the Kutis and semi-literacy of characters like the chiefs and head of the palace guards.

I love the deployment of proverbs, witty sayings and anecdotes. What is Yoruba language without proverbs. In one of the protest scenes, the women sing:

“Okó l’Aláké fi n s’oko Ègbá. Awa náà yoo f’òbò s’oko ò re” (Alake rules Egba with his p£n1s. Now, we shall subdue him with our vag1na). This is classic Yoruba where the woman reminds the man that regardless of how powerful he is, he was born by a woman and will always be influenced by her.

My only issue is that I did not hear enough of the Egba dialect in the movie. It took some color and flavour away from it. The producer would have done better getting actors who are comfortable speaking the language into the palace especially, and the industry is spoilt with choices in that wise. That the Alake played by Oga Bello could not speak a full sentence in Egba was poor.

3. Didactism- you could literally hold the heroic spirit of the protagonist in your hands. FRK was more than a woman. Her character is feisty, daring, and resilient. Her father deliberately raised a man in the body of a woman. It is a lesson to parents who think the girl-child is limited by her gender.

Hubris, as it always is with seemingly powerful men, comes to the fore too. The Alake repeatedly undermines the influence of women and disparages their profile. He insists they can do nothing until he is forced to abdicate the throne. The women eventually lived up to their thr£at that they would suppress him with their privates.

4. Costume- You can’t beat the sartorial elegance of the Yorubas. I was teary at some point as I became overwhelmed by the beauty of the women in a scene where they wore damask. I said to myself- “we have lost so much beauty to modernism.” The production team did an excellent job curating the costumes. They did the Yorubas a great service here.

5. Spirituality and the State- The Alake, in order to quash the protest, unleashes the Ògbóni and Orò- two very powerful male cults, the latter of which a woman must not see. It is reminiscent of how the State unleashes its agents of terr0r and suppression against citizens who dare challenge their draconian policies.

The women stand their ground, however. In a dramatic twist, the older women counter the Alake’s stunt with a chess move of their own. An exclusive women’s cult emerges from the shadows, backing FRK and her team up, and daring the men to a face-off. You know what wise men do in this wise.

Just before his abdication, the Alake tries to deploy the Ogboni and Oro cult again but this time, they turn their back on him. He knows from that point that the game is over.

The Church and Muslim Ummah in Nigeria must know when enough is enough. Enough of providing covering for rogues in government.

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Generally, the movie is an excellent work. I was deeply impressed.

I love the creative dialogue. The characterisation was great, though could be better considering the linguistic limitation of some of the key characters as I stated earlier.

There was the small error of FRK driving a left-wheel car on her way to the white man’s residence in a period when Nigeria used right-wheel but it does not diminish the outstanding work.

You cannot but love the cinematography. Superb!

I look forward to the industry giving us more historical works (epics) like this. I’ll be excited to watch the lives of the Zik of Africa, the Oracle-Awolowo, the Sardauna of Sokoto, Tafawa Balewa and Ladoke Akintola on screen. It will be enriching to have productions around the Aba Women Riot, Agbekoya, Ekiti Parapo, June 12 etc.

These are events and people in our shared history. And our children deserve to know about them.

Rating- 8/10

Recommendation- Don’t dull. Watch it 😊.
Peoplesmind