Here is why Kunle Afolayan’s movie, Anikulapo, is the talk of the town
By Ademola Adegbamigbe
Kunle Afolayan’s new movie, Anikulapo (death in the pouch) descended on Netflix and cinema halls on 30 September with a bang. Since then, it has been generating reactions on social media, and commercial vehicles. And when two or three Nigerians are gathered in their watering holes, discussion of the movie results in the opening of bottles, enthusiastic sharing and chewing of goro and a flurry of lit cigarettes…
The movie kicks off in the middle- a style that literary people call media res- showing Saro brought to life by Akala, a mythical bird believed to raise people from the dead. This, however, has a caveat. According to the narrator (Ifayemi Elebuibon), when an individual dies, the Akala bird brings him or her back to life, but if the person’s time is due, the bird allows him passage to the other side of eternity. Saro’s narrative to the bird about how he died is the story in the movie.
Saro (Kunle Remi), an aso ofi weaver who trained in Isheyin (a town with a comparative advantage in the trade) was doing his business in Gbogan but decides to seek a better place for success. With his wares slung in a cloth on his shoulder, he leaves Gbogan for Ode Oyo. At the gate of the city, he is stopped by guards who ask whether he comes for the masquerade festival. “You seem to come from a far place, given the way you look unkempt…” He says he is not in Oyo for any festival but to ply his trade of aso oke weaving.
The guards allow him in and Saro makes a beeline for a potter’s shed to rest his head for the night. As he is snoring, the owner, Awarun (Sola Sobowale), sees the stranger and she displays the hospitality of the Oyo, takes him in, feeds him, and provides job and accommodation for him. However, the relationship between Saro and Awarun, as Blessing Chinwendu Nwankwo, put it in her review published in afrocritik, “comes off as proof of the existence of cougars and gigolos in pre-colonial Yoruba society.” A cougar is an older woman who seeks sexual relationships with much younger men. She is the one who seduced Saro. Here, Akanji, Adebowale Adedayo (Mr Macaroni) warns Saro of the dangers of going to bed with Awarun. Saro turns deaf ears!
A horse-riding rich Oyo man, Akano (Kunle Afolayan), appears in the night to share Saro’s sugar mommy and he peeps through the window and becomes jealous. With a bold face, Awarun tells Saro off when he challenges her about the intruder or strange man. The cougar in Awarun is not satisfied yet; she seduces Saro again with a business connection of aso oke supplies to the household of Alaafin of Oyo. It is here that a daughter of the Oba and Arolake, a barren olori given to the Oba at a tender age, fall in love with Saro. She forces herself on Saro and “rapes” him. A daughter of the Alaafin who also loves Saro traces Arolake to her under-the-moon rendezvous with Saro. She spills on them.
Saro is killed over his affairs with Arolake. In the forest where his body is dumped, eye akala lands to revive him. In the process, an ado (a small gourd) drops from the bird, picked up by Arolake (she picks up a big stick to shoo it off) who has been hiding nearby after escaping from the palace. As Nwankwo writes: “The fact is, the film starts where the preamble ends. The subplot tries to make sense of the quote in the movie that says, ‘In a verse of the Ifa’s oracle divination called the Idin’osun, a courageous child dressed in form of Akala, consults the oracle for the King of Oyo and tells him to make a sacrifice so his palace would not be razed by fire. A disobedient child hears the flutter of the wings of the dove in flight. The oracle is consulted for Saro, a friend of Elemele. Eventually, the protector becomes the sacrificial lamb.’ And while it may make no literal sense, the viewer can see how the prophecy comes alive.
As fugitives, Saro and Arolake run into a hunter (Yinka Quadri) in the bush who, after warning them about the danger of falling victim to slave raiders, takes them in for the night in his hideout. At daybreak, the hunter, with the deer he kills slung on his shoulder, leads them to his home. Alas, tragedy strikes by the time he gets home. Akin, the hunter’s son is dead. This forms a positive watershed for Saro. Arolake who has been hiding the gourd she picks from the bird hands it over to Saro. She persuades him to use it to resurrect Akin. Still nervous, he approaches the corpse and shouts: “Didee” (wake up)! The household and sympathizers go wild in appreciation.
The news gets to the dumb Oba Aderoju (Hakeem Kae-Kazim) of Ojumo town. He sends his Asohun Oba (Ropo Ewenla) to fetch Saro from the hunter’s home. At the Oba’s palace, he is made to explain his power. When Elebuibon (Olori Awo or Priest) asks him to surrender his gourd for spiritual examination, he refuses. Here and there, Saro’s fame grows. He becomes a man who can resurrect. He becomes rich. He is named Anikulapo.
However, Saro allows his fame and wealth to enter his head. He rapes his housemaid who becomes pregnant. Arolake still takes all with stoic equanimity. He takes in more wives who daily make life hell for Arolake his destiny helper. The maid, at a point, becomes saucy and lets out a secret that Saro told her about Arolake being a “panda” or a barren former Olori of Alaafin. When Arolake confronts Saro, he responds with a dirty slap that reset the poor woman’s brain and vision! She knows what to do. In her solitude, she empties the powder in the gourd and replaces it empty in Saro’s pocket without his knowledge. You need to watch the contortion of her face, the determined stiffening of her lips and her gaze which seemed to be perceiving a distant landscape, visible to her alone as she empties the powder from the miniature container…
Then something happens. The Oba’s heir apparent dies and Saro is asked to come and revive him. He arrogantly gives a condition that he must marry the Oba’s daughter. When the argument becomes hot, he saunters out of the palace back home. Later, the Oba agrees to his terms and invites him. Unfortunately, the gourd is now empty. Saro cannot perform his miracle. The Oba’s son does not wake. The graph of Saro’s life begins a downward move.
Factors that Make the Movie ‘Tick’
The Cast
*Saro, the weaver (Oyekunle Opeyemi Oluwaremi). He is a Nigerian actor, who is best known for his roles in Falling, Family Forever and Tinsel. He came to prominence after winning the 7th edition of Gulder Ultimate Search in 2010. He is a graduate of the New York Film Academy
*Bimbo Ademoye as Arolake. She is a Nigerian actress who was nominated for Best Actress in a Comedy/TV series at the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards in 2018, for her role in the film Backup Wife
Sola Sobowale as Awarun
*Taiwo Hassan (Ogogo) is Alaafin Ademuyiwa of Oyo. His white beard and facial marks make him look like a past Alaafin.
*Eyiyemi Afolayan is Princess Omowunmi; *Adebowale Adedayo (Mr Macaroni), Akanji.
*Adebayo Salami (Oga Bello) – Oyo Chief
*Hakeem Kae-Kazim- Oba Aderoju
*Ropo Ewenla – Asohun Oba
*Faithia Balogun – Ojumo Queen
*Kareem Adepoju – Ojumo Chief
*Moji Olayiwola
*Aisha Lawal
*Dele Odule
*Yinka Quadri as Hunter
That the king of Ojumo cannot talk is a device to hide the actor’s inability to speak the Oyo dialect perfectly. Hakeem Kae-Kazim is a British-Nigerian actor best known for his work in the Starz television series Black Sails and his portrayal of Georges Rutaganda in the 2004 drama film Hotel Rwanda.
Originality in the Portrayal of Culture
According to Afolayan, the producer, “I want to tell stories that capture values, cultural values, family values and all of that without necessarily neglecting the essence of why we do content which is entertainment. Rather than taking themes from the books of major religions in Nigeria, he thought of bringing some “lessons out of a parable in Odu Ifa which is an embodiment of the Yoruba divination system.”
The costume is typically Yoruba. For example, the pair of kembe of Yinka Quadri, the hunter, is picturesque as he moves about his compound, even as his wife prepares food for Saro and Arolake. The architecture of mud and grass houses, presence of the Oyomesi and others, facial marks, cowries as legal tender, beads, carpets of mats and the use of aso oke are of the 17th century Oyo society.
Also, Oluyiinka Olujimi, a journalist and lawyer wrote that he has no patience for most Nollywood films– the plots are often cheap and predictable. He cites Paula Gomes, the Portuguese cultural ambassador to the late Alaafin, Oba Lamidi Adeyemi, who once regaled a team he (Olujimi) led to Oyo town with her strong belief that Nollywood is the biggest enemy of the Yoruba culture. In the words of Gomes: “The stories they tell are mostly and embarrassingly out to denigrate your rich Yoruba culture, tradition and religion: A jealous wife goes to a Babalawo, an evil man, gets a juju to make her rival’s child go mad. After several scenes of the display of madness by the child, a Pastor or an Imam comes in, sprinkles holy water on the child, or chants some verses in the Holy Quran, and voila, the child is healed. The jealous wife then confesses and dies. To God be the glory. The film has ended. The message in the story is simple and clear: African religion is evil, and the imported religions are good.”
The Portuguese scholar, as Olujimi put it, then warned, eerily: “Continue to denigrate your beautiful and rich religion, language and culture. Continue to use your films to deny your children access to the rich culture of your forebears. We, Europeans and Americans, have realised how rich the ways of our forefathers are and we are teaching them to our children. Soon, very soon, our children will be the ones to teach your children the good things that you are wilfully throwing away.”
According to Olujimi, Kunle Afolayan’s “Anikulapo” is, “for me, a remarkable and welcome departure from the cheap storylines of most Nollywood films. Another great exception to the class of tasteless films is “Ayinla”, a retelling of the story of Eegunmogaji Omowura, I must add. In Anikulapo, Afolayan went to great lengths to make the settings look real.”
Theme
Afolayan wrote about the movie: “While this [movie] is being celebrated by Nigerians home and abroad, the acceptability of it from people around the world with different cultural backgrounds and beliefs proves beyond words that Anikulapo tells a universal story that every human across the world can relate to. It is also noteworthy to state that the movie in a great way creates inclusiveness of both male and female character traits, bringing to light the fine thin line between lust and love, hate and resentment, illusion etc.”
In her Saro review, The Danger of Assumptions, Yinka Ogunde took the theme from a business perspective. Saro was in the business of raising the dead. The whole enterprise was great whilst the going was good. Saro fell into the trap a lot of us sometimes fall into. We make assumptions about the market without asking the right questions and putting processes in place. Saro made costly assumptions. He assumed the old woman will want to rise again. He assumed that his little pouch with powder will always have the powder. He did not put in place a process which will allow him to check and make sure all is intact.
In business and life, we sometimes make costly assumptions. Just because something worked last year does not mean it would work today. Every business must build a system that promotes constant evaluation. Saro fell into the trap of Costly assumptions. What are the assumptions you are making about your business that can bring about a loss? Time to evaluate.”
Dr Omoniyi Ibietan submitted: “William Congreve in the tragedy, THE MORNING BRIDE (1697) talked about the consequences of making a woman to feel scorned. ‘Heaven has no rage like love to hatred turned, nor hell a fury like a woman scorned.’ Shakespeare perhaps popularized the scenario Congreve perceptively depicted when he noted in an adaptation: ‘Hell hath no fury, like a woman scorned’. This means, there’s no anger so damaging in its consequences like a woman whose love has been rejected, especially if the woman chooses to express the anger. Bimbo Ademoye, who acted ‘Arolake’ in ANIKULAPO, serves as the metaphor of the optics of scorn and fury. This act of hers in this photo, marked the end of Anikulapo’s greatness and set him on a tragic plain. When an Alaafin’s wife falls in love with a commoner, rescued him from death, and eloped with him, the man has only one choice, LOVE HER FOREVER, otherwise, there will tragic consequences. Saro didn’t do that but provoked her fury. Hence…”
