IS A WAY” And The Question Unanswer
By Hashim Abdallah
Film is Literature if it is creativity, if it is imaginative, if it entertains, if it mirrors the real life, if it is written (it has to do with scripts), if it can be an adaptation, if it reveals culture, if it is fictious, if it is (has to do with) performance, if it is aesthetic and artistic that has artistry. Film has all these and more, suffice it to say, it conveys more reality and realism than other Realist fiction genres. It is a text to be studied literarily.
That is why, as a literary student, I am proud of There’s a Way from my dear North as the second English movie in this generation ( *Wasila* was the first) and a (more) well-dialogued ever produced by a Hausa movie Industry, the Kannywood (there were earlier English films in a category that I consider in the previous generation like *Magana Jari Ce* before the advent of Kannywood and the coinage itself.
As a text, There is a Way if seen from the perspectives of the most modern literary theory proponents particularly, the Deconstructionists’ views, has many conflicts though, the Deconstructionists’ complex views on any human narrative and utterance as text do not spare any meaning or, more clearly, they do not arrive at any meaning when they want understand a narrative.
My stories usually coincide with people’s real-life stories – Fauziyya D Suleiman
Despite, I, however, do not mean to deny There’s a Way any meaning it meant to broadcast but, I will, subtly use these views to find out whether it has achieved its messages amidst meaning and didacticism oriented conservative northern Nigerian society. It could be sufficient for me to look at the film in accordance with the motive and claims of the executive producer, Kabiru Musa Jammaje, as I observed on a satellite Hausa popular television station, the Arewa24 during an interview, he rendered.
As claimed, Kabiru Musa Jammaje joins the movie industry (Kannywood) to clear the bad images the English film as media has been disseminating against Nigerian society as seen internationally. As according to him, international community discovers witchcraft, unchecked quest for riches and other immoralities as dominant issues and themes that are always being addressed in the Nigerian movies so, they interpret them as the only problems bedeviling a whole Nigerian diverse society, which he sees as misrepresentation of many by a few and by, indeed, a part as mostly those movies are southern Nigerian based. For example, as among other countries he visited being English speaking or dominated countries, as in South Africa, could not reach Hausa movies to discover other societies as long as the movies are made in Hausa, he hence decided to produce northern Nigerian English movie by moving both Hausa culture and Kannywood up beyond Hausa speaking societies.
It has been a good decision and indeed a good attempt as the film, There’s a Way appears. It has a good composition of dialogue spoken in plain English almost, a standard pronunciation known as Received Pronunciation (RP). Always RP is expected in anything to be international, no doubt. The shots, sound, locations and acting(s) of the movie are adequately displayed, utilized and performed so also, commendable. Ironies are well created in the narrative of the film, as in universal thought, ironies make (good) stories so, in There’s a Way ironies made it especially, when the poor is hated hence, a spoke is put in Isham’s wheel who symbolizes the poor, yet Isham still rises to defend the poorer, more ironically, out of the rich’s wealth, just as the Moses rose under the care of Pharaoh or, what the Hausa people proverbially may consider, Zakaran da Allah ya nufa da cara… or Ana zaton wuta a makera…
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Notwithstanding, as according to how the meaning is made out of human mind, there are many silences, chasms, aporia(s), gaps, impasses of meanings that are unanswered and I will raise as questions, those that should have been answered in that attempt of culture display movie:
1) It would have been better if the protagonist, Isham’s study be to another part of the North lest it provokes interpretations that southern varsities are less corrupt or are of better products. It is an irony if the film is meant to suggest southern universities are the escape and/or option because, those southern movies, according to the producer, do not represent Nigerian people let alone the high morality oriented northern Nigeria.
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It would even be better if he triumphs over wicked lecturers and people and studied successfully despite all the odds in that northern university. The main way (out) as the title of the movie There is a Way is suggesting, and as shown in is the southern Nigeria. Southern university symbolizes ‘Escapism’. The film favours the south and clears their notoriety and mess in the university settings.
2) When Isham is framed committing examination malpractice so unfairly withdrawn as a result, even though his well-bred girlfriend from well-to-do family promises to sponsor him and she says he should sit afresh another JAMB, there must be some preparations especially, since the JAMB is annually conducted examination. It is not continuous.
Moreover, the degree in Law takes 5 years duration if there is no any strike which is not possible in the (real) Nigeria. Another issue is, for any Law degree holder to be a qualified lawyer, he/she should attend a bar school which lasts to a year or 2; then the issue of awaiting results, the NYSC programme, etc. in 6 years as in the film, seem not possible.
Isham’s study must take 8 or more years in the southern university, at least. The gap of his study is also too simple. There is need of, at least, a montage of the study (a multiple pictures show that sums up a whole issue or occurrence) perhaps, in this case, his departure, school life, school of law and a shot of a vehicle he boards to return. As he comes back, there is need of more jubilation (little dance) at least by his sister at home (since we culturally do not hug even if it is legal between brother and sister).
3) Since, we don’t know Alhaji Mahdi’s (the main antagonist) nature of business which is the common error in the movies of the industry, his financial crime would have better be known to the audience. It should be told to him or his family who ask inquisitively severally when he is arrested. It seems like the EFCC detectives have mistaken their target.
4) The whole idea of the movie is in the opening scene, during a case hearing in a court when it occurred to the protagonist, Isham, that he should be a lawyer to defend the poor. It was an unconcluded case meaning, it was never a ruled out case whence, injustice meted out but it is a simple allegation and denial followed by an adjournment throughout the hearing.
Then, if that is the case, why should Isham want revive the case after all these years, without any injustice provoked him in the first place?
5) Religion of Islam manifests appropriately but culture subtly or none, apart from the dressings which I also see are more of religious than cultural. We heard Salaams, Isham goes to prayer on time, the court looked like Sharia court when the judge wears turban, begging beggar in the name of Islam is discouraged, etc.
The actors try to their best if not because of my realization that they do not behave at home meaning, they do not behave as they normally do in the Hausa movies (perhaps, because I know the nature of their acting in the mentioned version of movies). Although There is a Way, is a fiction but, it is indeed a realist fiction that should be true to the observed facts of life, true to the nature, and true to experience.
This, as a critique that concerns gaps, is a call on the story writers, known as script/screenwriters, producers and directors to put more effort to improve.
Hashim Abdallah.
