We raised equity funds for Ake:  The Years of Childhood—–Adeniyi

Dapo Adeniyi is a literary critic and was once a book editor for Daily Independent. He spoke with Adeola Ogunrinde on Piracy and reason for his dramatic production of Wole Soyinka’s memoir,’’ Ake: The years of Childhood’ among other issues
What is your take on piracy in your field?
It is a disincentive to that sector because if someone puts investment in a business and loses the investment, if he manages to recover from it , he or she will never go back there, if you are thinking of world- class films you are not likely to do it with a single source of finance, usually it is a conglomeration of efforts , in terms of many companies , many investments sources coming together to form a film so the loss is always tragic , something which Nigerians can’t afford.

The Nigerian movie industry is just trying to establish itself, it started on a strong footing in the 1960’s that is not to say that during colonial era there were no films but many were propaganda films. Apart from the things we saw in the 60’s and 70’s maybe right up to the early 80’s we had Hebert Ogunde, the travelling theatre tradition transmuting into films. it was the Nollywood,  as a found object which  grew on its own without any motivation without any support, I call them home videos not films but they are worthy of their category, they are things you can do too quickly and take to the market, the risk is very low , the incentive to pirating  is very low because if you pirate it how much can you make. Now that the Industry is trying to reinvent itself, something has to be done to stem the tide, because if it is not done, it is going to wipe out the industry.
What inspired the adaptation and production of Wole Soyinka’s Ake ‘The Years of Childhood’?
The adaptation was originally not my idea but my idea at the same time. When Soyinka got the Nobel Prize in 1986 Nigerian Television Authority NTA, the board felt they should celebrate Soyinka for that award. They decided to adapt one of his books for films, they were thinking of television film which will be in series, that had so many episodes. They had done one on Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart before then. NTA contacted Soyinka and told him the idea of doing one of his books for films and told him to choose which of his books to be filmed and decide who was going to write the adaptation for film. Soyinka chose his post- Nigeria Civil war novel, Season of Anomy which is a very political book and very great for the cinema.

It is very political because  of what Wole Soyinka wanted to say in The Man Died he used that opportunity under the veil of fiction in Season of Anomy to say it. Fear came over NTA that filming such Political novel would cause them a lot of trouble , they now suggested that changes should be made to the story and Soyinka wouldn’t hear of that. I know this because I attended the meeting and I told them if changes were made you will end up with what is not Season of Anomy.

The meeting broke up and that was the end of the project, that was 1988. When we now got back to the hotel the representative of NTA Kalu Okpi who is now late was weeping in his room when I went to visit him. I asked him why he was weeping and he said it was because of the meeting we just had with Soyinka. I told him he was a staff of NTA , he should go back and tell them that the project has been scrapped. The late Okpi told me that it was deeper than that , he lost four members of his immediate family in River Benue during the Northern massacres before Biafra and it was his story Soyinka was talking about in the book. I never realized Art could mirror someone’s life like that.I now told him why  I chose
Season of Anomy , choosing another of Soyinka’s work which is less Political since it is Soyinka you want to celebrate. That was how I brought the idea of AKE and Soyinka agreed, within two weeks I had turned the whole into a script adaptation. I gave it to Soyinka which he read and approved and I gave it to Peter Igho, two weeks after that the Board of the NTA was changed and the new Board no longer believed in the Project.

In 1992 I approached Soyinka, telling him why can’t we do this thing , he was reluctant and I understood because I was much younger then and he thought it was so big that it could overwhelm me. He then look at me and smiled ‘ go ahead’. Immediately we set up a team, wrote many corporate organisations, in 1992 out of all the people we wrote AGIP petroleum said they were interested, It was a trap I set for them but unfortunately they were very slow. Today somebody is coming from Milan, tomorrow is another story , that was how June 12 caught up with us and nobody could mention Soyinka openly in the society during the Abacha years. I had to wait until the restoration of the Society that brought us to 2001.

By that time the way we were looking at the project had to change because of digital production had advanced.We then approached corporate organisations and response was not forth coming , my team and I decided to do a documentary on Soyinka which was shot all day where he read from his books. Now when his 80th birthday came, we thought of how to bring this back, we raised equity funds that was how we were able to make the film Ake ‘The years of childhood’
Why did you come up with the thriller first?
The thriller is the foretaste of the film, it is a marketing gimmick, and you can see the seriousness and the production value.
When will the film be out?
The film is ready for release but Ake is a global project, we are receiving calls from several parts of the world but again we have to be careful so that it won’t be pirated
Who is the man Soyinka to you?
I have been fortunate to be acquitted with Soyinka for close to 35 years, it started when I translated a Yoruba novel into English by D.O fagunwa Ireke rin do ninu igbo elegbe jo which is Expedition to the Mouth of thoughts published by Ife University in 1994, Soyinka translated Fagunwa’s first novel Ogboju Ode ninu Igbo Eredumare , Forest of a thousand Diamonds.He was very open to me that is how we built a relationship over the years.