Lionheart and the Limitations of the Third World
The news making the rounds is that Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart has been disqualified from the Oscars after its selection by NOSC last month. Nnaji confirmed the news in a quoted reply to Ava D’Uvernay’s tweet.
Check out the tweet below:
1/1 1/2 Thank you so much @ava❤️.
— Genevieve Nnaji MFR (@GenevieveNnaji1) November 4, 2019
I am the director of Lionheart. This movie represents the way we speak as Nigerians. This includes English which acts as a bridge between the 500+ languages spoken in our country; thereby making us #OneNigeria. @TheAcademy https://t.co/LMfWDDNV3e
2/2 It’s no different to how French connects communities in former French colonies. We did not choose who colonized us. As ever, this film and many like it, is proudly Nigerian. @TheAcademy https://t.co/LMfWDDNV3e
— Genevieve Nnaji MFR (@GenevieveNnaji1) November 4, 2019
The reason the Oscar Committee gave for the disqualification was that Lionheart did not qualify as a foreign film because it was acted almost entirely in English. Aside from the 11 minutes of Igbo and a speck of Hausa, English is the most spoken language in the movie.
But was that a good enough reason?
As Genevieve said in the tweet, what did they expect from a country whose major language is English? Like America, Nigeria is a former colony of Britain. But because they do not share the same racial identity, Americans would rather remain aloof about the nature of language in Nigeria.
When they say “foreign”, they expect to see something completely other. African media should be tribal and performative for the white audience. They should be intrigued by how much lesser we are than them.
The white people should shake their heads and retort, “Oh the poor Africans, they don’t even have {insert basic amenity here}”. They should see something to look down on and shower with white pity and curiosity. Then, they can pride themselves on being open-minded and humanist.
But when they play a Nigerian movie and see a woman maneuvering a situation that they can understand, speaking the same language they do, it displeases them. The white disappointment is palpable.
Centuries ago, as an empire, the British came with their mission of destruction and exploitation. They robbed the indigenous people of their wealth and sold the British culture as superior.
They switch up and expect Nigerians to don their cultures again solely for their entertainment and validation? The irony and double standards are unbelievable.
Genevieve Nnaji need not care about the validation of the white media heads. She should instead continue on this path she is on to creating quality films for Nigerians.
Regardless of what the West thinks, Lionheart is a win for Genevieve and for Nigeria and we are proud of the melting pot that is the Nigerian identity.
