Let’s begin at the beginning, shall we? Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie wrote a book called Half of a Yellow Sun which looks at the Biafran war (or the Nigerian civil war as some people like to call it) through the perspectives of three different people who are directly affected by the war. It’s an intriguing book and a gripping story and I think I cried a bit while reading it. Yes, it was that good.
Now, said book is about to be made into a movie. Rights have apparently been sold to a Hollywood studio and the likes of Chiwetel Ejiofor and Thandie Newton (and a host of other Americans) have been cast. And all hell has broken loose. Okay, not really but a lot of people have been up in arms about the casting for the movie. Their argument? With all the Nigerian actors and actresses running around on screen these days, why couldn’t one of them be cast? And why should a story about the suffering of Igbo people be told by people whose parents and grandparents might not have even known it happened? How can they truly portray the characters if they use false accents and don’t speak the language? After all, you wouldn’t find a story about Martin Luther King Jr. adapted by a Nollywood director. It is an American story and they have told it how they want to. Shouldn’t we, as Nigerians, as Igbos, have that same kind of right?
On the other side of the coin are those in the “it’s only business” camp. There are benefits to Adichie if her story gets made into a movie and it only makes sense for her to go where she feels her story will be done justice. Also, it is her intellectual work; therefore, it is her prerogative. Half of a Yellow Sun is, after all, fiction, regardless of how based in fact it is.
Personally, I’m hovering somewhere in the middle of both these camps and in my mind I’ve reached a compromise. While I want to instinctively jump on the ‘let us tell our own stories’ bandwagon, I honestly cannot ignore the benefits having this movie produced in Hollywood will have for both Adichie and her story. Regardless of the fact that Nollywood releases hundreds of movies a year and is the second or third largest movie producer in the world, the reality is the Hollywood means more exposure for her. Can a Nollywood director do the film justice? Possibly, in fact probably; but will the film get the same kind of publicity? Maybe, maybe not. Nigerians know Adichie and we love her (as do a lot of non-Nigerians but now she has a chance to reach an even wider audience. My biggest concern here is that the story is not changed to make for pretty TV – the novel captures some grim realities that need to be seen and I hope that Adichie remains a big part of this adaptation. I’m not saying this movie will be an instant success because it is being produced in Hollywood, but I do feel it has better chances of doing well there than in Nigeria.
As for the casting, I don’t think it’s possible to have this production as it has been planned without any American actors. I am happy with the casting of Chiwetel Ejiofor. I don’t mind Thandie Newton and I trust she will do a good job but I do feel that there should be more Nigerian names on that cast list. I always saw Genevieve Nnaji as Ola and I have faith in her abilities – she’s always been an actress who I feel does a good job in almost every role. Or even Kate Henshaw-Nuttal whom I adore and have been missing in movies. I agree with the first camp on some aspects – it irks me to hear people trying to speak a language and delivering it poorly when there are people who can do the job just as well and get the delivery right. The movie will be incomplete if there is no Igbo and no Pidgin. So, my compromise in this case is to mix and match actors. I would say have all the leads be Nigerian if possible (with the obvious exception of Richard) but that might be wishing for too much. Half and half is not bad, se?
For those who keep mentioning J.K. Rowling and her insistence that only British actors be used when filming Harry Potter, please don’t forget that one man’s meat is another man’s poison. Harry Potter was already a highly successful series when this happened and if Warner Bros. didn’t make the movie, another company probably would have. Are these opportunities falling into Adichie’s lap? I don’t know. But I want to believe that she is doing what is best for her and that she took everything into consideration before making the decision.
As for filming, I don’t know where this movie will be filmed but I have a strong feeling that it will not be in Nigeria what with all the Boko Haram killings and protests against the government. At the center of this movie is a political conflict whose details may not sit well with those who want to continue to ignore or try to forget the truth. This could also affect the production and release of the movie in Nigeria. When I was in secondary school, a film maker I know made a movie about the Biafran war. This was in the early 2000s and though the movie was completely filmed and edited and posters made, he wasn’t able to sell him movie because of all the political hoops he had to jump through. According to what I heard, he didn’t get the final okay from the government or screening board or whatever organization handles these things and therefore he couldn’t legally market the film. I saw the movie – it was more human interest from the perspective of the Igbos than anything else. I’m not saying this will happen with Half of a Yellow Sun, but it could.
So, to summarize this long story, making a Hollywood production of Half of a Yellow Sun is not necessarily a bad thing as long as the people the story is written about are adequately represented. I don’t know how much say Adichie has at this point in the casting, especially if she has already signed a contract, but I hope that she will try to make this happen to some degree, or at least that the casting director sees the importance of accuracy. I want the story to be good and the film to be a success but I don’t want to have to watch it with the nagging feeling that something is missing because no matter how good an accent Newton can fake or how much Igbo any of them can pretend to speak, it won’t be the same as watching an indigenous Igbo person tell the same story. I want to know that the people are represented.
