Lagos-based Back Page Productions begins the process of adapting Wole Soyinka’s childhood memoir, Ake: The Years of Childhood, into a film, AKEEM LASISI reports
Nobel laureate Prof. Wole Soyinka’s childhood memoir, Ake: The Years of Childhood, is on its way to becoming a feature film. Behind the project is Lagos-based outfit, Back Page Productions, which has assembled actors and actresses suitable for the adaptation.
In what reinforces Soyinka’s endorsement of the project, he met with the crew and cast on Friday, with the Chief Executive Officer of Back Page Productions, Mr. Dapo Adeniyi, saying the meeting was hilarious, thought-provoking and inspiring. He said Soyinka and the lead cast and crew exchanged views and pleasantries.
In attendance were celebrated entertainers and culture/art promoters such as Taiwo Ajai-Lycest, Akin Lewis, Tina Mba, Ben Tomoloju, Yinka Davies, Tony Umole, Yeni Kuti, Jimi Solanke, Jahman Anikulapo and afro folk singer, Segun Akinlolu, popularly known as Beautiful Nubia. Also present were the film’s crew that include Yemi Akintokun (the director) as well as Ayodele Ayobolu and Kemi Obadina, heads of marketing and communications respectively at Back Page Productions.
Interestingly, Soyinka and Adeniyi, who is also the publisher of Position magazine and executive producer of the film, have something in common. They are the two writers that have separately dared to translate two of D. O. Fagunwa’s acclaimed novels into English. While Soyinka translated Ogboju Ode Ninu Igbo Irunmole to Forest of a Thousand Daemons, Adeniyi translated Irinkerindo Ninu Igbo Elegbeje – Expedition to the Mount of Thought.
The executive producer says the film is set in the 1930s and 1940s and “is poised to recreate that period through restored locations and period automobiles.” He adds that one of the leading characters, Mrs. Olufunmilayo Ransome Kuti, the late mother of afro beat legend, Fela Anikulapo-Kuti, is reputed to be the first woman to drive a car in Nigeria.
“Nigeria’s history is also at the fore in the Ake film, especially the Egba Women’s Riots of 1945 led by Prof. Soyinka’s aunt and mother of the late musician Fela Kuti, as well as Soyinka’s own mother, Eniola Soyinka. The riot climaxed with the famed deposition of the Alake of Egbaland, the abolition of the poll tax on Nigerian women and the institution of the universal adult suffrage,” Adeniyi notes.
The film is expected to be shot over the next six months in Abeokuta and Ibadan, with some select scenes in Lagos. The producer adds that it will be premiered in 2014 to mark two major events: the 100th anniversary of the Nigerian amalgamation and Soyinka’s 80th birthday celebration.