Bafana Bafana

Originally uploaded by NollywoodForever

Bafana Bafana ~ 2007
Story – Simi Opeoluwa, Shola Fregene
Screenplay – Afrisi Oyetoro, Oluwaseun Oyetunji
Director – Shola Fregene

Starring:
Grace Amah – Kike
Nonso Diobi – Uche
John Okafor – Mazie
Kayode Mosu – Baba Kike
Dozie Mendoza- Bank Manager
Scot Robert – Kola
Uduak Akrah – Tessy
Sam Uche Anyamele – Hammed
Shola Fregene – Baba Kola
Ifeanyi Callis – Secretary
Ajunwa Uchennaka – Ozor
Mary Agbasi – Apolonia
Nneka Ozondu – Gertrude

Themes Explored:
Tribalism in Nigeria

My Rating – 86%

Kike is a Yoruba girl and Uche is an Igbo Boy. A chance meeting in a Lagos supermarket brings them together and they quickly fall in love whilst undertaking their Youth Service. It is the perfect romance until they decide to get married and try to introduce the other to their in laws. Both sets of parents are ardent tribalists and against the union much to both Kiki and Uche’s despair. Africa

*************SPOILERS************

This is a really cute feel good love story that brings up the very real and relevant issue of tribalism in Nigeria infused with some serious comedy.

One scene that made me laugh out loud was where Uche spends the night at Kike’s house. They both set up to sleep on the living room floor but Baba Kike is scared that his daughter is being “swallowed” by Omo Igbo and so after tossing and turning in his bed proceeds to the living room. They are both fast asleep but sleeping to close for his liking. He reports back to his wife, in Africa

“Mama Kike come and see your daughter in a multicoloured movie.”

He then plonks himself on a sofa and puts on the TV at full volume. This causes them to rouse and he comments at their obvious annoyance,

“Is my TV stopping the lizard from swallowing the cockroach?”

Another very funny scene is at the end of the movie where the two fathers get into a food fight. Baba Uche is eating pounded yam and all of a sudden throws a pieces at Baba Kike who then scrapes up his own, moulds it in his palms and throws it back yelling, in Africa

“Return to sender!”
_____________

The movie ended nicely. Baba Kike and Baba Uche put their differences aside after discovering that they had previously met before after being robbed on a bus on the way to Lagos. It was dark so they had not seen each other while hiding in the bushes but had shared money and food with each other. They are amazed that the other had been so kind considering tribal affiliations and it is this epiphany that they both had had the same needs and fears in the bush that makes them realise how stupidly they had been behaving for discrimination against each other on the basis of tribe.

I would definitely recommend this movie. It was nice to see Grace Amah, she fit the role perfectly and she has been missed much by me. I see her in very few films these days.Everything is forgiven and forgotten in the end and the movie sends out a strong message about how fear of other groups is often based in fear of the unknown and imagination rather than reality.