Connect with us

Uncategorized

Iké Udé’s Africa Magic and the Idealization of Nollywood – Toni Kan

Published

on



Every age has its chronicles, every era its historians. Sometimes, what they capture is history told in a hurry, with events and defining moments captured in the gush.

Sometimes it is introspection, with the passage of time, providing both perspective and clarity.

No medium has the capacity to capture epochal moments and preserve them for posterity as much as photography does. It is both witness and participant, and this is exactly what artist and portraitist Iké Udé achieves with his body of work; an idealized portrayal of Nollywood icons—from established actors like Genevieve Nnaji and Stephanie Okereke to newbies like Kehinde Bankole and Linda Ejiofor and from Kunle Afolayan to Dame Taiwo Ajayi-Lycett; this is Nollywood history told powerfully in pictures with a generation defined by pretty faces, crow’s feet, varicose veins, pouts and piercing gazes.

In capturing these stars and star-makers who oil the engines of the second largest movie industry in the world, Iké Udé is establishing for posterity the pioneers and icons of Nollywood at a moment of transition but by the very act of documentation, Iké Udé is inserting himself into the frame as participant in this filmic universe called Nollywood.

In his portraits, you will find Nollywood in all its glory from crown princes to princelings, debutantes to doyennes, power brokers to power players—many of them captured at the dawn of their careers and some at the very apogee and twilight of theirs.

These are iconic portraits drawn at moments of superb clarity when these stars of Nollywood are making the transition from legend into immortality.

What is Nollywood? The history of Nollywood is as fantastic and hydra headed as the stories that propel its plots. Did it begin with Living in Bondage or is its provenance in another epoch?

The story that many love to tell is of a businessman who finding himself stuck with a stack of slow moving VHS video cassettes decided to record something in them and sell them as home videos.

That man is Ken Nnebue and his era and genre defining movie, Living in Bondage, opened a new vista in Nigerian entertainment, created an industry now ranked as second largest in the world and introduced Nigeria to celebrity culture as movie stars began to inhabit a rarefied firmament hitherto unknown in these climes.

Lagos, city of dreams and phantasmagoria, is the home of Nollywood. But Lagos is not really a city. Lagos is, in many ways, a garden, a fabulous tableau where we go to harvest dreams, sometimes plentiful, oftentimes lean.

This is the Lagos into which smart young men and women streamed in the early 1990s seeking fame and fortune and Nollywood provided answers to their quests turning nascent actors and actresses like Richard Mofe Damijo, Ramsey Noah, Segun Arinze, Omotola Jolade Ekeinde, Genevieve Nnaji and Rita Dominic into household names. Where the National Television Authority (NTA) had provided some measure of fame for actresses like Barbara Soky and Mildred Iweka, who both found success as soap opera stars, Nollywood expanded the scope and reach taking the emergent stars from regimented time-belts to video players in private homes stretching from Lagos to Lusaka.

 It is therefore fitting that Iké Udé would choose Lagos as the locale for his Nollywood portraits; a project that saw the artist, universally acknowledged as a master of the self-portrait, producing over 60 studies of Nollywood actors, actresses and power brokers who sat for the artist over two visits to the city.

What do photographic portraits do? They capture a moment in time and in capturing moments, they assume a cryogenic effect by freezing time for posterity. Iké’s genius lies in achieving that freezing of time.

There is a sharp shift in portraits by Iké Udé that are, as earlier mentioned, usually full length and defined by a quirky dandification, an almost coloring in of the subject into his background—something Iké Udé has explained as coming from his past as a painter. “I was formerly a painter, hence, my photographs employ a painterly language and longer-time process in the making of the pictures.” The “making-ness” of the picture is the definitive word because the portraits that emerge are no longer just pictures showing a moment of time captured by exposed film; they become works of art realized over periods of time.

Iké’s subjects and the portraits that emerge are unique. Even though shot in Lagos, the environment is all his, a seemingly otherworldly tableau that evokes the phantasmagoria that is Lagos.

There is in Iké Udé’s portraits a unique synergy, an alchemy almost, in which image and background become one with the subject subsumed in the tableau while the tableau becomes a part of the subject. There is only one word for that—magic.

But then there is more; something quaint and quirky, expressed in his dandification of his subjects and the almost dreamlike background that accompanies his portraits.

The portraits produced by Iké Udé are studies in form and color compelling your gaze to linger and forcing you always to experience them as conversation pieces.

Nollywood has captured the African imagination not just on account of the vast DVD sales—often pirated—but largely on account of the dedicated Africa Magic channels on the panAfrican cable network, DSTV.

The term Africa Magic has come to embody the unique narratives that drive the movies and the directors’ constant resort to the deus ex machina of the fetish and fantastic in their resolution of the plots.

That term is uniquely suited to Iké Udé’s portraits with their exuberant colors, their other-worldly essence, the quirky poses and frequent insertion of a bottle or cat or dog into the tableau. All these add to the otherworldly-Africa-Magic feel of the portraits.

While Iké Udé’s wide-ranging and comprehensive work must be singled out for the singularity of its purpose, breath of vision and comprehensive girth, one must point out that he is not the first to document eras and epoch using the cyclopic eye of the lens.

The ultimate reference would be to a sixteenth century Renaissance artist, Raphael, whose famous large composition, The School of Athens, painted between 1509 and 1511, is the template for Iké Udé’s Nollywood masterpiece. Udé’s masterly 26 x 16 feet mural, The School of Nollywood— executed between 2014 and 2016—is the culmination of his Nollywood portraits.

Udé’s masterpiece is a historical document, a definitive snapshot of an era, a larger-than-life representation of an industry, a portrait that will provide bragging rights for those captured within its frame.

Nollywood sweetheart, Genevieve Nnaji is the centrepiece of the large composition, reclining on a royal-blue chaise longue and looking regal as befits the queen of Nollywood. She has taken the place of Plato and Aristotle, the main figures of the Athenian school of philosophy in Raphael’s fresco.

But it is Iké Udé’s cameo that will excite the keen observer because in keeping with the earlier observed role as observer and participant. Udé, like many artists of antiquity such as Raphael as well as Rembrandt and many contemporary cinema auteurs such as Alfred Hitchcock, Woody Allen, Spike Lee—has managed to insinuate his visage into The School of Nollywood frame in a beguiling case of peek-a-boo

Continue Reading
Advertisement

Uncategorized

Police kill abductors of former AIG Hakeem Odumosu’s wife, recover ransom

Published

on

By

Operatives of the Nigeria Police Force have killed the abductors of Folashade Odumosu, the wife of former Assistant Inspector General of Police, Hakeem Odumosu.

The Force Public Relations Officer, Olumuyiwa Adejobi, who disclosed this to Channels TV on Thursday morning, said the victim also regained her freedom on Wednesday.

The retired AIG’s wife was kidnapped last Thursday at the entrance of her residence in Arepo, Owode Local Government Area of Ogun State.

Society Reporters learned that the Ogun State Commissioner of Police, Lanre Ogunlowo, led the operation that rescued the retired AIG’s wife.

The kidnappers whisked the victim through a swampy area to an unknown destination after dragging her out of her SUV.

Giving an update on the matter, Adejobi said the operatives also recovered the ransom paid to the kidnappers as bait.

However, he refused to disclose the amount paid to the kidnappers or where exactly the victim was rescued.

 

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

ENHANCING PUBLIC SAFETY AND SECURITY: THE HALO TRUST AND US GOVERNMENT PARTNER TO PROVIDE AMMUNITION HANDLING AND ACCOUNTING TRAINING AT IKEJA LAGOS.

Published

on

By

 

The Nigeria Police Force Explosive Ordnance Disposal – Chemical Biological Radiological and Nuclear (NPF EOD-CBRN) has successfully completed the first batch of training for 19 personnel on Ammunition Handling and Accounting Course. The training, held in Ikeja, Lagos, from December 3-20, 2024, was organized by The HALO Trust and sponsored by the United States Department of State’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs.

According to The HALO Trust’s Country Director for Nigeria, Prince Ganiyu Otunba, this training is part of aholistic NPF-HALO developed project aimed at supporting personnel capacity building, addressing equipment needs, and enhancing the operational readiness of the NPF EOD-CBRN Command to mitigate explosive ordnance threats in Nigeria. A second batch of 22 personnel is scheduled to undergo the same training in January.

The Inspector General of Police, IGP Kayode Adeolu Egbetokun PhD, NPM, through the CP EOD–CBRN CP Patrick Atayeroexpressed gratitude to the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs andThe Trust HALO for their support.

The training aimed to equip NPF EOD-CBRN personnel with the knowledge, skills, and best practices necessary to handle and account for ammunition and explosives safely and securely. The course also focused on ensuring proper accounting and record-keeping, preventing theft and diversion, reducing the risk of unplanned explosions at munitions sites, and promoting international best practices.

The NPF appreciates the support provided by the United States government, which will have a profoundly positive impact on the society.

CP Patrick Atayero emphasized the importance of responsible ammunition management in preventing the proliferation of illicit weapons and reducing the risk of unplanned explosions at munitions sites. He urged all stakeholders to collaborate with the Police in efforts to prevent the diversion, misuse, and unauthorized handling of explosive and other hazardous materials.

About HALO

The HALO Trust is the world’s largest humanitarian organization engaged in the field of Mine Action and weapons and ammunition management. With over 35 years’ experience, The HALO Trust is the most experienced organization in the field of Weapons and Ammunition Management, rehabilitating and constructing armouries and ammunition stores to international standards, disposing of unsafe and unserviceable weapons and ammunition, and building national capacity to allow for the safe, accountable and secure management and control of weapons and ammunition.

The HALO Trust presently implements Mine Action and weapons and ammunition management projects in 30 countries and territories. In 2024, HALO trained a total of 106 Nigeria security forces personnel in weapons and ammunition management.

Continue Reading

Uncategorized

Aliu Gafar delivers stellar performance as Esusu in Femi Adebayo’s Seven Doors

Published

on

By

 

By Rtn. Victor Ojelabi

The much-anticipated movie series Seven Doors by Femi Adebayo has finally premiered, currently showing on Netflix, captivating audiences with its intricate storytelling and compelling characters.

The movie begins with a haunting scene of seven women under a mysterious spell leaping to their deaths from a waterfall, setting the tone for a gripping tale that unravels in Ilara Kingdom.

The series explores various societal issues, including corruption, greed, gluttony, family values, malicious conspiracies, and the delicate balance of law and order.

Central to its plot is the calamitous fate of Oba Adedunjoye, the Onilara of Ilara, whose failure to perform traditional rites—symbolised by knocking on seven doors—unleashes devastating consequences on his kingdom.

At the heart of this chaos is Esusu, a malevolent and exiled villain whose return wreaks havoc.

Esusu, a ni ohun t’Eledumare o ni.
Eledumare o ni ika, ika ni Esusu

The character of Esusu, pivotal to the story’s depth, is masterfully brought to life by Aliu Gafar.

Gafar’s first appearance, late in Episode 2, immediately shifts the narrative, introducing a chilling force that spares no one, not even the royal family. His commanding portrayal encapsulates the essence of Esusu, a man whose wickedness defies comprehension.

The backstory reveals Esusu’s sinister pact with Ọba Adejuwọn, an ancestor of Adedunjoye.

Desperation led Adejuwon to seek Esusu’s help to evade death—a move that came at an unthinkable cost, forgetting that bi alọ ba lọ, abọ nbọ (a pendulum that swings to is still coming to swing fro).

Esusu’s return demanded not only royal treatment but the freedom to live as he pleased, challenging the very fabric of the kingdom.

Gafar embodies this complex character with remarkable precision, delivering a performance that is both chilling and unforgettable.

With almost two decades in Nollywood, Aliu Gafar has solidified his reputation as a versatile and dedicated actor.

His extensive filmography includes acclaimed productions such as Jagun Jagun, Anikulapo, Iyalode, Eefin, and Omo Ajele.

His role in Seven Doors further cements his legacy as a master of his craft, showcasing his ability to seamlessly portray multifaceted characters.

The Yoruba actor has also garnered accolades for his work, including the Best Actor award at the Dallas International Yoruba Movies Awards for his role in Peregun.

His commitment to the industry and his talent for captivating performances continue to make him a force to be reckoned with in Nollywood.

In Seven Doors, Gafar’s nuanced performance as Esusu elevates the series, demonstrating his ability to command attention and bring depth to a complex narrative.

His contribution to the Nigerian film industry remains invaluable, and his portrayal of Esusu is a testament to his enduring excellence.

Continue Reading

Trending