Nneoma, of Pyoo Wata, reviews the reactions of Nigerian bloggers to the recent sci-fi fim, District 9, and also cautions against the use of the rebranding mantra for the purposes of censorship.
Ever since the Dora Akunyili was charged with the task of cleaning up the national image, the nation, including its bloggers, has been even more keenly aware of Nigeria’s face to the world. While some argue that Nigeria is its own worst enemy, others have come to the conclusion that the actions of but a few Nigerians mars the reputation of millions of others. Therefore the need to rebrand Nigeria is needed. We have previously described, here at NigeriansTalk.org, the Nigerian blogosphere’s response to the rebranding project (Good People, Great Nation). Seems like the Nigerian blogosphere has also taken it upon themselves to challenge prevailing negative stereotypes about Nigerians, particularly by Sony. Nigerian bloggers have teamed up with Akunyili (whether advertently or inadvertently) to condemn recent negative depictions of Nigerians propagated by Sony and its subsidiaries.
Earlier this month, I expressed my dismay at the portrayal of Nigerians in what is to be dubbed as Africa’s first major science fiction film, District 9. While this Sony and Tristar Pictures’ film aims to satirize apartheid and tackle xenophobic sentiments that exist in South Africa, it fails to hide the directors’ prejudices against Nigerians living in South Africa. In an interview with the Huffington Post, Neill Blomkamp states that the small population of Nigerians in South Africa is indeed responsible for the majority of crime in his country. In keeping with his bias against Nigerians, District 9 features prominently, a Nigerian criminal gang that engages in dubious business deals and pimps out its women to this largely male alien species. Nigerians are also the center of the films occultic elements, unrelated to Nigerian traditional religion and medicine (despite ill-informed documentaries citing otherwise). In purporting District 9 to be a social commentary against xenophobic hatred and then opening the movie with lurid Nigerian characters, “…contradict[s] himself as soon as he started writing the script,” according to blogger MellowYel of Stuff Nigerians Love/Hate. Nigerian American science fiction author, Nnedi, also vents her frustration with the film on her blog and makes the point that beyond this, black South Africans served as a “mere setting,” for the film. Sugabelly, known for her biting frankness, goes on to suggest that “…if you squinted your eyes just a little bit you might not even notice the movie was set in Africa.” District 9 was hardly a triumph for African film industry and definitely was not worth disparaging Nigerians in South Africa.
Other Nigerians also blogged about their dissatisfaction with the film. Of note is that of SolomonSydelle on the blog NigerianCuriosity. In her post, she relates this film to the recent Sony Playstation 3 ads which makes reference to Nigerian scams. At the time, Akunyili had already demanded an apology from Sony – an apology which can be found on their website. Amongst bloggers and lovers of Nigerian blogs everywhere remained the question, what of District 9, which probably commanded a wider audience than the gaming ads. As of Saturday, we learnt that Akunyili had also demanded an apology from Sony in regards to the District 9 film. Audio of the request by Akunyili can be found here. Additionally, Akunyili requested a ban against the film in Nigeria. While I applaud her efforts to challenge such stereotypes of Nigerians abroad, I find the latter move, unnecessary. If we continue to censor such images, how can we, as bloggers and as a nation, counter such offensive portrayals. It is largely through our ability to access such information that ordinary Nigerian citizens can assist in Akunyili’s rebranding project. The Nigerian government’s willingness to take on District 9, should also be seen as a victory to the many Nigerian bloggers who took offense to this film. One would hope that Akunyili’s mission is not one of censorship which gives birth to misinformation and impedes upon the progress Nigerians have made and continue to make in the blogosphere. Such would be counter-intuitive to the goals of promoting Good People and creating a Great Nation.
Ok, here it is.
Due to work and family travel, I have lived in 56 countries. I spent 8 years of my youth and teen years living in Lagos. That time, coupled with much time spent in other African countries, Angola, Cote d’ Ivoir, Namibia, Outh Africa, ect gave me, I am afriad to say, a very negative image of Nigeria and Nigerians. I have some absolutely excellent friends from my Lagos days, from all walks of life, religions and parts of the country. I am, however, a little shocked at the outrage I am reading about. Perhaps your energies would be better spent trying to fix the RAMPANT corruption, violence, poverty, dishonestly and crime that absolutely plauges Nigeria. To make my point, an local employee of the company I was dealing with in Angola was kidnapped for ransome. He was returned unharmed, and was very excited to tell us about what had happened and how nice his Nigerian captors were to him. In our area, the Nigerian transplants accounted for almost all of the organized crime, weapons sales and drugs. Hmm, now that I thinik about it, that sounds familiar… Please, you are a wonderful people, truly, but I believe you are misplacing your anger. As I always say to my friends in Islam, please, look inward first… Thank you for your time, I wish you all the very best…
That’s a true portrayal of what Nigerians are up to in South Africa.I know this ‘cos I live there.They are drug dealers and are involved in all sorts of other criminal activities.My friend,who is a policeman in Joburg,showed me case files so I’m not pulling this out of my thumb.They should all f*#@ off back to their country as they are just corrupting our society.
IT IS A MOVIE! It is also a work of fiction. I’m sure that the real Nigeria is much more scary with all the corruption, killings and the such. Africa is a scary dangerous place to foreigners and natives a like. The setting of the movie looked like a cleared out slum. What really went on there before the movie was shot? That HAD to be real. I wish that that country would realize its full potential in the world. No one can do that but themselves.
After seeing this movie, I DEFINATELY walked away think less of Nigerians. I mean, who has sex with aliens? That is just disgusting.
I have not watched District 9 and neither am I going to. Enuf has been said about the movie. Im not ready to spend my hard earned money watching yet another case of ‘Naija-bashing’. But I do have one thing to say about South Africa; this is a country that is incredibly beautiful but reasons of apartheid has been largely isolated from the rest of the world. This has resulted in them not being uncomfortable having foreigners, tourists, guest-workers etc’invade’ their country…esp. from other African countries. They feel they are there to ‘steal’ their jobs and take their women. Even if you are there to spend your hard earned money. I know becoz I have been there. Recently they were cases of them(South Africans) burning, killing and lynching foreigners (again other Black Africans living there) because of these unfounded feelings. ‘District 9′ merely exercebates these feelings among the general populace. For those of you that justify this kind of behaviour towards Nigerians, be careful because it could be your nationality next. We shd all rise to condemn this kind of film. South africa is supposed to host the next World Cup in 2010. I shudder to think of all the ‘foreigners’ going there to have ‘fun’.
I have said it before in so many places, this movie does not bother me, what bothers me is the Nigerian who thinks it is right. It is recorded that America is way ahead of Nigeria in cybercrime yet Nigeria is the one known for it. People, companies, nations will bash Nigeria simply because they can. In due course, they too will face bashings and will cry out as Nigerians have done.
South Africa believes that the few Nigerians there are the reason for all their sorrows, that’s the biggest joke I have heard. I wish all Nigerians could leave SA and we’ll see how the country will fare.
The use of the name Obasanjo was just plain cheap and irresponsible, perhaps I’ll make a movie and name the king of xenophic attacks; Thambo Mbeki and see how they pat me on the back.
What is sad about South Africa’s behaviour and treatment towards Nigeria is the fact that Nigeria was one of the countries that played a major part in ending apartheid in that country. I still remember vividly several young black South Africans who were being educated FREE OF CHARGE in Universities around the country courtsey of the Nigerian government, to prepare that nation’s black majority for eventually leadership. And how Nigerian school children were told to contribute financially to support the drive ‘to free Nelson Mandela’. I do not think their people were told the contributions other Africans made to get them where they are today. Its not just US or the Western World that helped them. It started first among Africans before other Western powers joined in. They should read up on their history.
To add to Bola’s comment, the US and the Western world actually DID fraternize with the Apartheid government for a good while. Indeed, Nelson Mandela was officially labelled a terrorist by the British Government before Apartheid became unpopular and unprofitable…
It’s indeed a ludicrous joke that Nigerians in South Africa are the ones responsible for whatever may be wrong there. All I can say to people expressing xenophobic tendencies in SA is…‘remember where you’re coming from’.
It’ll be fun to see their reaction to a similar movie, with South Africa substituted for Nigeria, and Thabo Mbeki, or indeed the great Madiba used as the name of the leader of a gang of alien-eating thieves. Go on bashing Nigeria just because you can. It won’t be that way forever…
Nigerians need to understand that even though they might be saying that those fraudsters, drug dealers, etc. that happen to be Nigerians might be in a minority interms of their population demographics ( 150 Million people or so). however it should be noted that even 1% of such a populace is large numbers
[…] more on the debate at Nigerianstalk.org or google “district 9 […]
[…] more on the debate at Nigerianstalk.org or google “district 9 […]
We still lack adequate supply of good water
we still lack adequate supply of decent shelter
We still lack good roads, i lost a lot to this section
we still lack power supply / electricity to manage SMEs
We still lack good governance system that cares about us
we still believe its our votes that gets the leaders to their seats
Here comes District 9 from another country and WOW, BOO, NAH, ODD, flies everywhere
me too, WOW, but mine is a response to me realizing that Nigerians actually exist
But how come we not picking on any of those 5 homemade points mentioned above and attack it raw as well, u know, demand an apology from the government, band corruption, use our money wisely on amenities.
oh! i forgot, we were sleeping, then District 9 woke us up, but Distract 9ja, instead of us to face the lion in the cage with us we are demanding an apology from a bird that shit on us, we’re still in the cage, guys!
COME BACK GREEN WHITE GREEN, i got nothing for u but love, reroute your aggression.
if we are good and someone says we are bad, many will rise to fight for us and we shall hold our peace.
if we are bad and someone says we are bad, ha ha ha, well, moderator, say something here.
[…] kusoma zaidi mjadala huu kwenye tovuti ya Nigerianstalk.org au tafuta kwenye google kwa kutumia maneno haya “district 9 […]
good points discussed above, for all you stupid unpatriotic Nigerians i say go to hell and burn. saint tosin or first fool, you should really be ashamed of your self for saying some crap about your country, may be i should abuse your family then you will go clap for me. for all south Africans out there that supported this rubbish by a white foreigner, i say to you that you fuckers are still under apartheid and need to free your selves. i will surely act a movie one day and make nelson mandela the star thug in the movie. i hate you bastards south africans. i sure you are jealose of nigerians population because you are all dieing of HIV AIDS including Mbeki monkey