« Splendid black & white » This is an expression that we are willing to use wrongly and through to qualify the films a little stylized without color. Yet, at the viewing of Mami Wata C.J. « Fiery » Obasi, the qualifier does not seem demeritful, on the contrary! But before talking about its aesthetics, let us first mention the narrative frame of this Nigerian feature film presented at the NIFFF.
Shock of beliefs
Referring to a female divinity present in several African cultures, but also in the Caribbean or the American continent, "Mami Wata" is sometimes represented as a siren or a woman-snake. The Nigerian film that interests us places its intrigue in the small village of Iyi, where it follows a community centered on Mama Efe, the intermediary between the villagers and this famous Mami Wata. If one of her daughters, Zinwe or Prisca, will soon have to replace her, the hierarchy well in place for decades is suddenly challenged by the illness of a young boy...
A disorder that will only blow up the tensions that were already troubling the community while fuelling the hatred of the rebels. A volcanic situation that will not fail to exploit the white seller of local weapons to refurbish its expensive arsenal to troublemakers. A scenario that focuses on colonial and generational tensions, while questioning the schism between traditions and modernity.
From zombie to voodoo
Questions that C.J. « Fiery » Obasi had already raised through his Ojuju (2014) – the rereading of the zombie movie, which identifies as an ultimate fan of Romero – or the thriller O-Town A year later. An eclectic filmography for the flamboyant director, the flagship figure of Nollywood, scouring the voodoo myths to trace the modern history of his country. A parable that lurks on the side of ancient myths while remaining resolutely modern, which largely deserves its reward at Sundance.
Aesthetically, we evoked the black and white and the color that happens only by touches at the very end of the feature. An exciting visual work since through black and white sequences already transparated the color that will eventually bloom before the film's conclusion, drawing the previously existing connection between Zinwe and Mami Wata.
Crapped by the crazy expressiveness of the pidgin – a creole from an English-speaking base – mixed with the constant stridulations of insects or with the rolling of the sea, its bewitching sound tables thus created immediately transport the spectator within the history.
Hypnosis in the room
An amazing hypnotizing film that allows the neophyte audience to set foot in the yet so rich African cinema. The film has just been released in France and it already has a distributor in Switzerland where it will be released in the dark rooms at the end of September. It is only to be hoped that other distributors will offer the film internationally. Mami Wata It will certainly bring its audience between the richness of its themes and its undeniable plastic beauty.
K7's opinion - The old woman and the sea
With its modest staging that prefers to capture the spectator by the power of a look rather than by artificial injunctions to emotion, Mami Wata immediately poses its narrative challenges. If History contrasts without naivety traditions and modernity, C.J. « Fiery » Obasi does not fail to confront the mirror with its double: a matriarchal society faced with a patriarchal revolution.
A bitter criticism of the violence carried out by rebels who know only the animal worship of the law of the strongest is emerging. It is the figure embodied by Jabi, virile archetype and fomentor of the revolt. The Nigerian director also spares the West by exposing in the background the ravages of (neo)colonialism yesterday and today. It is also the figure of the gun salesman, the only white man in the film.
Feminist plea on (post-)colonial canvas
From this perspective, C.J. « Fiery » Obasi poetically represents the scourge of fragile states that are plagued by incessant civil wars. The metaphor of the water, a symbol of life (as much as that of potential changes of states) goes through all the work, through the reassuring figure of the goddess Mami Wata as by the omnipresence of the ocean that carries hope, if not torment. Didn't Jabi fail on the beach? What the ocean gives, it can take it back immediately. A precarious hope, today once again squashed by the waves of history.
While coup d'état suddenly strikes Niger (near Nigeria) and that the junta threatens to destabilize all West Africa, this should ask us about the French foreign policy presented as intended to contain Daesh in the Sahel (policy elsewhere) opportunistic and who ignores the traces left on bodies and spirits). The same applies to the practices of other old Empires with their former colonies.
New equilibriums are emerging in Africa, where great rival powers are eager to contain their enemies and extend their area of influence beyond their borders (as in the case of the softpower of Russia in Central African Republic, of Wagner Group's growing interest in Niger or Chinese roots painted behind a new Bandung spirit).
An echo of reality
Without ever uttering the word colonialism, these subjects are well sketched in watermark, with their disastrous consequences, starting with the irruption of the weapons brought by the White Man. Because the war wherever it is always remains a lucrative market like any other, from the arms salesman way Lord Of War to Industrial supporting the war effort.
Through this elegant feminist tale that is Mami Wata, The film finds a burning resonance in recent days. The first victims will remain whatever happens – and as usual – the local populations. A wave of post-colonial shock that continues to generate replicas on a continent bleeded by coups d'état. Mami Wata Yet cultivates a glimmer of hope in the face of the sinister reality, a space of light that only art can still offer.
Trailer of Mami Wata
A viewing seems to be necessary. Thanks for your article, guys!
Moreover, I urge you to consult the many hyperlinks I have mentioned in the article on the part resonating with the events in Niger, a neighbouring country of Nigeria. West Africa and the history of colonization and its new contemporary forms are largely unknown and deserve collective attention.