UP Film: Super Heroes and African Sci-Fi

For the longest time, people have flocked cinema halls to catch the latest action-packed sci-fi releases. From the Terminator series to Marvel’s Thor to Spiderman, super heroes have matched up to that title and have long fascinated us. We have bought tickets that sometimes we could barely afford, and when sequels were produced, we went to the movies again, and again. We raved about how great this world of make-believe was. We fussed and talked amongst friends, and sometimes we disagreed and fought. Yet, in spite of all these fascinations, we have never had african super hero themed movie.

Documentation of super powers in an African context has in the past leaned too much to the negative, or cliche. And while villains make a good story, as evidenced by the love people across the world have for Loki (From Thor), in the African film context, the same cannot be said. Our sci-fi movie production is almost non-existent, the Nigerian film scene floods us with ‘witchcraft stories’ but they are written with questionable quality foundations, the output of both the visual and audio is often under par, and repetitive plotlines induce a certain nausea. The saddest thing about the African sci-fi is that our (oral) literature is packed with folklore, fodder for the making of superhero movies and feature films, yet we still fail.
The sci-fi scene in Africa has faced the risk of child mortality, but not anymore. Let us look to another innovator,
one bringing hope to this derelict landscape of Afro science fiction.

Cue Oya: Rise of the Orishas, our own film superhero, poised to save us with a glimmer of hope for African sci-fi after all. Built around West African folkloric deities, ‘Oya: Rise Of the Orishas’ sees these deities, the Orishas, band up to fight evil.

The spotlight shines Oya the goddess of change, storms, lightning and wind. And throughout the thirteen minutes of the short film, we see her blossom into a true superhero. Thirteen minutes feels like a pretty short time to exhibit this folklore interpretation, and it is. The idea was to shoot a feature film, but as is often the case, funding limitations posed a major setback in the feature film production.

Consequently, Nigerian Director/Writer Nosa Igbinedion and his team opted to shoot a short film first and go on to use the product to seek funding. An ingenious move that points to the problems faced by the sci-fi world in an African context. The short film was released online (YouTube and Vimeo) in early 2015. And yet, money is not the only restriction that this sector faces. After Nosa Igbinedion’s film was released online in early 2015, criticism followed. There was talk among the audience that the quality was lacking. Nosa found himself pitted against multi million dollar productions from major westerns studios and he was found wanting.
In almost every sci-fi work available for public viewing, martial arts features heavily. The same is true for Nosa’s work. However, his execution was a bit towards the faulty side. There was no surprise to it, no adrenaline, nothing but a lot of hesitation. When it is a good versus evil situation, good tends to win and you could see that evil in Nosa’s film did not stand a chance. Consequently, his delivery of these fight scenes ought to have kicked more ass. But, here’s that glimmer. The costumes were amazing, as was the story in ‘Oya: Rise Of The Oyishas’, should he get the funding for his feature film, Nosa will know what direction to take, and what needs to be improved upon. We’re rooting for Nosa, and hoping he will join the likes of Kenya’s Wanuri Kahiu and South Africa’s Neil Blomkamp in proving that sci-fi is a genre that can make sense in an African context.