Nollywood Needs More of “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos”

Far it be for me to be prescriptive or to dictate story ideas for filmmakers. But (this is a big but), seeing that God, fate, or the universe has conspired to suffocate millions of Nigerians living in or outside of Nigeria and ‘bless’ them with humongous amounts of metaphorical lemons, more than they need, perhaps the cliche saying “when life gives you lemons, turn these lemons to lemonade” becomes an essential dictum at this juncture.

In the case of Nigeria, the lemons represent the many real and imposed struggles the people must grapple with daily. Now, life is hard. From the high cost of living-foodstuff, fuel, electricity (expensive when available), inadequate housing, insecurity and, to killed, it all, many of those who fought, killed and stole their way to leadership positions do not appear to have any real solutions beyond scheming to remain in power.

Ideally, in this scenario, filmmakers cannot just be like the rest of us, wring their hands or go mute. To state the obvious, this means that when life throws, more like hurls, lemons at Nigerian filmmakers, their own lemonade would be in the form of films. Yes? Now here comes the tricky part, these films do not have to be dull, boring, or preachy just because they are dealing with serious issues. The challenge is to talk about these serious issues in ways many can enjoy and relate to without missing the point.

One of the most memorable Nigerian films I have watched is an Opa Williams film on HIV/AIDS featuring Bovi Ugboma as lead actor. I saw this film almost 20 years ago, and it has never been released as I have not seen it ever since, but I still remember how good it was. It took a seriously frightening issue like HIV/AIDS, added humour but still managed to pass the message. The audience in the screening that day at the defunct BOBTV (Best of the Best) African Film and Television Programmes Market in Abuja laughed and teared up at the same time. The fact that I still remember this never released film shows how impactful it was.

Long intro over, this is where “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos” comes in. It is a film where advocacy and activism meet creativity. “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos” premiered on September 7, 2024, at the Toronto International Film Festival, TIFF, and is directed by the Agbajowo Collective (Mathew Cerf, James Tayler, Bisola Akinmuyiwa, Samuel Okechuklwu, Temitope Ogungbamila, Tina Edukpo, and Elijah Atikpo). The film follows the story of Jawu (Temiloluwa Ami-Williams-she was also in Eyimofe), a single parent to a young son Daniel (Kachi Okechukwu) and street food seller. Mother and son struggle to make ends meet in the waterfront community of Agbojedo which is under threat of forced evictions and demolition from the state government.

Many things stand out in “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos.” There’s drama, mystery, suspense, and some action, but its biggest strength lies more in its ability to bring real life to the screens than it telling an out of the world fictional story. The film’s fictional settlement Agbojedo is tailored after the real community of Otodo Gbame, a fishing settlement in the Lekki area of Lagos Island which was destroyed in 2017, partly by a fire and partly by government.

In the report “Nigeria: The human cost of a megacity: Forced evictions of the urban poor in Lagos,” put together by Amnesty International, the Otodo Gbame forced evictions and attacks which began in 2016 through 2017 left 11 dead and more than 30, 000 people homeless. The demolition of Otodo Gbame and similar evictions and demolitions are inserted in the film. We see and hear the threatening words of various government officials, all of which add to the film’s intensity and its ability to humanize victims of these evictions. It helps that some of the film’s crew have experienced forced evictions firsthand in Otodo Gbame.

“The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos” is important in the pantheon of Nollywood films because it focuses on the victims, and it forces the audience to see the victims as real people, illegal occupants or not. In an era in which forced evictions and demolitions have intensified and are unrelenting from Lagos to Abuja, the FCT minister, Nyesom Wike, will continue.

Unfortunately, in a bitter twist of fate, as the Toronto International Film Festival was wrapping up on September 14, 2024, a day after the last screening of “The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos” at TIFF, news came that some of its cast would be affected by impending demolitions in Lagos. This was made known in a joint statement from various NGOs including two of the film’s producers: Justice & Empowerment Initiatives and the Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation.

I think the fact that Nollywood needs more films that tackle real life issues in Nigeria cannot be overemphasised. Lemons and lemonade aside, producing more issue-based films would be one-way Nigerian filmmakers print their names in world history.