Eyin'juOdu

1) JAHMAN ANIKULAPO, AFTER HAVING BEEN CHIEF EDITOR OF THE CULTURE PART OF THE GUARDIAN, YOU ARE NOW CHIEF EDITOR OF "LIFE", THE GUARDIAN MAGAZINE DELIVERED FREE WITH THE NEWSPAPER ON THE WEEK-END AS IT IS OFTEN THE CASE IN THE ANGLOPHONE COUNTRIES. DOES THIS EVOLUTION OPEN YOUR FIELD AND YOUR POSSIBILITIES OF PUBLISHING CONTENTS YOU LIKE ? JAHMAN: Thanks Olivier. You are indeed right. I was Arts, Culture and Media reporter for The Guardian (Daily) for 15 years (12 years as Editor); and in that period my area of influence was concentrated on matters relating to the arts in all its ramifications - Literature, Visual Arts, Music, Film, Theatre, Media, as well as culture-related subjects including the museum, language etc. In 2003, I moved over to edit the Sunday edition of The Guardian, and one of the innovations we brought in to increase the reach of the paper was the idea of a weekly magazine that would be devoted to creating a new class of readership - aside from the conser...

That the dancer may be fulfilled *Being a talk delivered by Jahman Anikulapo at the World Dance Day 2005 on the theme Dance: A Hobby or Profession, organised by the Guild of Nigerian Dancers, GOND INTRODUCTION: Documentation I SHOULD like to begin this talk by paying tribute to our senior colleagues in the various disciplines of the arts, who have devoted aspects of their career to documentation of our artistic and cultural productions and experiences. This for me is as important as the performance or production of the creative work itself. Without their work we will be like a ship without an anchor. We will know neither where we are coming from nor where we should head. Documentation is one vital venture in our profession, which we artists have neglected; and this has affected the quality of our production as well as discourse on our artistic and cultural experiences. The Nigerian artists, no doubt, have been very productive, perhaps sometimes hyper-productive. But we have not sp...

Aduaka… And the Rage was born By Jahman Anikulapo (First published 2003) AFTER much trumpeting last year about his imminent visit to the country, the rising moviemaking star didn't show up. He was to have come in to screen his award winning film, Rage on his homeland but logistics messed things up. Even his parents who amid warming up for the coming of their illustrious son that had just shot to global film pedestal with his winning for the second time the best Young Film Director award at the 17th edition of the once-in-every-two- years FESPACO 2001, spoke to The Guardian, were disappointed at the turn of event. Wale Ojo, the Nigerian actor in London (remember Soyinka's Beatification of an area boy) who starred in the film and had come in ahead to promote the film, was saddened by the absence of the much-expected moviemaker. Well, from tomorrow, Newton Aduaka will be in the country courtesy of the British Council, which last year had sent out frantic apologies to expla...

Burden of a legendary King By Jahman Anikulapo (A review of teh film Sango by Obafemi Lasode, 2003) To send off his troublesome wives, Alaafin Sango is so worked up that he emits fire from his mouth. And when he is to destroy his enemies at the war front, he belches fire. The rhythm of his fury has no limitation. But this is just a cut away. Sango: The Legendary African King, the "epic film" in the African Heritage Video/Film series of Afrika N'Vogue (Even Ezra Studios) is a film about effects and spectacles, rich and flamboyant display of the wealth of the Yoruba and African material and immaterial resources. And of course, there is a good attempt at technical inventiveness, especially in the deployment of computerised machine effects. Spectacle is indeed the bite of the effects, which lifts the actions beyond ordinary dramatic effects. The appropriateness of such effects at moments and action frame of the film is something else, though. Substantially however, Sa...