Indigenous African Filmmakers as Social Critics: A Study of Fẹ́mi Adébáyọ̀'s Jagunjagun

Abstract

Africa had been integrated into international cinema circuits since the beginning of cinema in Europe in the late 19th century while film screenings debuted in Lagos in 1903. Cinema was a one-way street: Africans watched films but could not thrive because of lack of capital to fund production due to the complex and expensive training, infrastructure and technical apparatus that celluloid cinema requires. The fundamental message on the continent has been to reawaken the consciousness of the younger generation of Africans with indigenous African filmmakers producing quality works by portraying historical tales in an African context. This study, therefore, focuses on the creativity and artistic aura behind the Nollywood film, Jagunjagun produced by one of Africa’s thespians, Femi Adebayo. Jagunjagun brings to bear, the thematic analysis of characters, settings, acting, language, costumes and other acts of theatrics within the film to project the new toga of social criticism being displayed by filmmakers in Africa. This study, adopting exploratory research methodology, investigates the role films play as social critics in preserving and promoting the Nigerian culture locally and globally. Data was gathered through the thematic analysis of characters in the film while also using secondary sources. Post-colonial theory of film was adopted as a theoretical framework of the study.