#FILMFRIDAYS: SAWOROIDE

Year: 1999

Director: Tunde Kelani.

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There has been a recent cultural focus on Old Nollywood, the golden era of Nigerian Video-On-Demand (VOD) films released during the 90s and early 00s. Young artists, curators and filmmakers are archiving, discussing and distorting themes, tropes and aesthetics from these films for contemporary relevance. Caught in a crisis of identity and strained by the socio-economic demands of adulting in an increasingly socially immobile hellscape, it is not surprising to see many young Nigerians returning to art associated with an era devoid of personal responsibility and generational anxiety.

Beyond nostalgic motivations, scholarly revisions of popular art are important because they show how elements of a society change, or in Nigeria’s case — don’t. Due to the seemingly unending stagnation in the Nigerian condition, socially conscious art has always had the peculiar quality of being equally timely and timeless while making the artists involved messengers of the present and unintentional prophets of the future. So which is one of the reasons I think Saworoide, Tunde Kelani’s seminal classic, is worth revisiting.

Saworoide is an anti-capitalist, pro-environmentalist political parable made at the end of the 20th century and the beginning of Nigerian democracy. In a tale of chaos and power, Lapite murders and schemes his way to the kingship of Jogbo traditionally tied to the rituals of the Saworoide — talking drum with brass bells. Lapite rejects tradition for trade, a bloodied decision with terrifying consequences.

Rich in cultural symbolism and social commentary, much of the allegorical value is inherent in the plot but it is Kelani’s deft use of film language and Orlando Julius’ energetic music that truly elevate the film. Their near-peerless dance of motion, color and sound culminates in the death of Lagata scene, an eerie surrealist audiovisual sequence that ranks among the best moments of Nigerian cinema.

Like most political dramas, Saworoide attempts to reflect and proclaim, to act as both a mirror and a lens, at which it succeeds in the former and falls short at the later. Although Saworoide ends in triumph for the common man, the current state of Nigeria’s political system makes the victory feel like a tragedy of optimism.

As kids we watched these films for shallow entertainment. Intrigued by the narrative twists and turns and satisfied with a simplifying moral conclusion, we ignored and even ridiculed most of the more heady themes explored in these movies. But now more than ever, I think we need to go back to discover these timely truths and maybe we can, in the process, find ourselves.

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