Cash Daddy goes to Germany

A German television crew was in Lagos recently for an interview with Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani, for a programme, 'Kulturzeit' on 3SAT, which we understand is shown in Germany, Austria and Switzerland.

The documentary should familiarise the programme's audience with the author, as the German edition of her novel 'I Do Not Come To You By Chance', to be titled 'Die Meerblauen Schuen Meines Onkels Cash Daddy', to be released next month.

Photo by MW

Adichie reviews 'Blood and Oil'

For once we don't have to rely on foreign reviews of Blood and Oil, BBC 2's two-part film about militancy in the Niger Delta.

Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie reviews the film in the Arts & Culture section of today's NEXT on Sunday.

Excerpt
Blood and Oil' is a film that names names - MEND, Joint Task Force - and a film that is clear about its contemporary Port Harcourt setting. There are scenes whose sole aim is to provide location authenticity, such as the Nigerian official slipping bribe money into his socks, the rowdy Nigerians in the economy cabin of an international flight, the excessive cell phone yakking, and these are all convincing. So, why are the accents so wrong? ("Where are these people from?" A Nigerian friend I watched the film with in Lagos asked). Sam Dede plays the Nigerian bad guy with dignified grace, and he is a relief to listen to because he alone sounds credibly Nigerian. It is lazy at best and patronising at worst to use characters who mostly speak a kind of generic Africanised-English; they become caricatures. Details matter because they lend authenticity and, for a knowledgeable viewer, can make the entire film believable or not.

• Read the full review.

Talk With Funmi

TV personality Funmi Iyanda photographed being photographed, today in Ikeja, Lagos. Photo: MW.

After years of mutual friends and some shared concerns, I finally got to jaw-jaw with talk show host Funmi Iyanda when we met for an interview this afternoon in Lagos. Talking of shared concerns, someone told me in 2005 Funmi Iyanda said she was "trying to make books cool" - which is kind of what Wordsbody's about.

Formerly of the long-running New Dawn on NTA, she is out with a new show, Talk With Funmi, which is something of a departure, since it eschews the talk show format. Instead, Iyanda takes to the road, catching up with people across 5 states. The first of the series was shown last Sunday, and focused on the 'action gov' of Lagos, Babatunde Raji Fashola. Filmed when the governor was at the height of his popularity, the show aired at a somewhat uncertain time for Fashola, with swirling allegations of corruption and probes and what not.

The second episode of Talk With Funmi, Naija Hip-Hopping featuring 9ice and Wande Coal, is on tomorrow.

• Catch Talk With Funmi every Sunday on DSTV's Africa Magic Channel @ 6pm.

What a disappointment

Love or loathe the Harry Potter series of books (and movies), one can hardly ignore the phenomenon that dreamed it all up, JK Rowling. A documentary on ITV the other night, A Year in the Life of JK Rowling - allowed an insight into the author's life. She was asked everything from her love of forests, to childhood and relationship with her parents (and how these fed into her creation of the boy wizard), to whether her fabulous wealth comes between her and friends, and whether people write her asking for money (naturally, they do) to whether she likes the book run. Interestingly, JK Rowling knows the unwritten future of her characters, who married whom, the names of their children, who was OK, who wasn't. The author goes back at some point to the lowly Edinburgh flat where as a struggling single parent she wrote the first book. "This is where I turned my life around," she says, and proceeds to weep.

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Perhaps the most touching scene, for me, is at the beginning of the documentary, where JK and her sister Di look over old family photographs. Their parents had wanted a boy, to be named 'Simon John' when a girl, Joanne (JK), came instead.

"She was a massive disappointment," says Di, sweetly.

What a disappointment...

Funmi Desalu on Ugly Betty

It was a classic blast from the past three weeks ago, when during an episode of Ugly Betty, a friend I'd not seen for 9 years or so came swanning past on the screen. I was on a phone call at the time and screamed into the mouthpiece, "Ahhh!!! Funmi Desalu's on Ugly Betty!!!"

Blink and you'll miss her, but a few seconds was enough. When the hour-plus repeat came on shortly after, I took this blurry shot of a screen in constant motion. Ever had a friend you were very fond of but had lost touch with, and wondered now and then where they were? What they were up to and if they were okay? I've wondered the same concerning Funmi Desalu since she left London for the US in search of bigger modelling dreams circa 1996. She, myself and a number of mutual friends were once part of what I've called "an impossibly glamorous pack of young Nigerians living in London known as the North West Set."

Born in Moscow to a Gambian mother and a Nigerian father, Funmi Desalu was/is tall, sophisticated and witty. She inspired a character in a short story of mine. I remember Funmi always used to laugh at the way I called an irritant male "a cretin". I've scanned the odd fashion magazine for some sighting of her over the years - and saw nothing. Until now. I guess I'm glad to learn my old friend is walking on the right side of fame.

In this episode of Ugly Betty (starring producer Salma Hayek and Vanessa Williams, who is astonishing as Wilhemina Slater), Funmi is credited for a non-speaking role, playing an assistant in a conference scene with Ugly Betty star America Ferrara. And in the following week's episode, it was a game of 'Spot Funmi' as she could be seen as one of the extras in the elaborate choreography of background office workers walking back and forth behind the main players. My curiousity piqued, I googled Funmi only to find that she's credited for a string of small roles as "Fumi Desalu" (somebody please put the 'n' back into that name! At least Ugly Betty got the spelling right). As a result, I'm now paying better attention to episodes of 'How I Met Your Mother' in case my old friend turns up one day as a 'bar waitress'.

Funmi's biggest turn to date would appear to be in Eddie Murphy's latest film, Norbit.

Unfortunately, it is the kind of film I absolutely detest, for the lavatorial humour that reaches only for the lowest common denominator. But most importantly, for the perpetuation of the disgusting stereotype of the 'dark' black woman who is so fat and undesirable no one in their right minds would want her. She is so ugly, even a man could play her convincingly on film.

Eddie Murphy (and Martin Lawrence - with his 'Big Momma's House' movies) has a made a career of raking millions out of this uneducated stereotype (I'll never forgive his twisted-mouthed African woman's: "Eddieee, what have you done for me latelyyy?" joke) which is harmful to black females. Murphy does this, while (1) his ex-wife and mother of his five children; (2) his contentiously pregnant ex-girlfriend Mel B; and (3) his current, joined-at-the-hip squeeze Tracey B Edmonds (Babyface's ex-wife) - are all very obviously mixed race - light-skinned black women; the opposite of the 'dark' black woman he lampoons mercilessly onscreen. And in this new film, the 'disgusting'-fat-mistake-of-a-black-woman is juxtaposed with the 'fragrant' female that Norbit-the-geek desires - and she's played by the obviously mixed race Thandie Newton. Need I say more?

It was really good seeing Eddie Murphy challenge the viewer's expectation in Dreamgirls, a film in which he is really, really good. But any goodwill he garnered for that role is destroyed by Norbit. I'm glad he didn't get that Oscar.

But look at me! Talking about my delight at seeing a long lost friend on an international hit show and getting bogged down with the colour politics of a movie! After all, it's only a movie, isn't it? No, it's never really only a movie. But I respect the fact that Norbit was good payday and another notch in Funmi Desalu's resume. Writers have to work strategically sometimes too - some you do for love of the art and some you do for god-knows-what. And for this reason, I shall put myself through 2 hours of excruciating 'humour' - and pay for a ticket to see Norbit - just to see Funmi Desalu for a few minutes on that big screen. That's what old friends are for, I guess.

And I look forward to the day I see Funmi in the flesh, again.

• Update 9th April: Read a new interview with Funmi Desalu.
• Check her out on MySpace.

Chimamanda on Richard & Judy

Apologies, gentle blog readers, for my having been away. I've startled myself awake to catch Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on Channel 4's Richard & Judy earlier today - the author made me watch the show for the first time in eons - and the feature was a sumptuous affair. To compensate for my having been away, here's a pictorial of the impossibly photo/telegenic author of Half of a Yellow Sun.

- Wordsbody.

Chimamanda on Richard & Judy 2

Read an excerpt of Half of a Yellow Sun

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Richard & Judy called Half of a Yellow Sun "a Nigerian Gone With The Wind". Adichie herself discussed the historical background to her second novel and briefly introduced her characters. Rageh Omaar (Author and former BBC correspondent lately with Al Jazeera) and actor Brian Cox (Braveheart, Troy) came on to discuss Half of a Yellow Sun, which they praised to the high heavens.

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As this week's book in the Richard & Judy bookclub, Half of a Yellow Sun is one of 8 books so honoured this year. All the books are in the running for Richard & Judy's Best Read of 2007. The winner will be announced at the Galaxy Books Awards, to be shown on Channel 4 on Saturday 31st March. Adichie (seen in one of these pictures with her parents) will be flying into the UK for the awards.

Love Half of a Yellow Sun? Vote Now.

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• Update 18 March - Rageh Omaar's documentary, This World: Slave Children, will be shown on BBC2 @ 9pm on 26 March.
• Related posts - I, II
• Update 19 March - Half of a Yellow Sun is on the longlist for the 2007 Orange Prize, as is last year's Booker winning novel by Kiran Desai, The Inheritance of Loss. It is Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie's second Orange showing. The shortlist will be unveiled at the London Book Fair on 17 April, and winner announced on 6 June.

Chimamanda on Richard & Judy 3

Members of the Walsall Library Black Reading Group got in on the action, telling viewers about the impact made on them by Half of a Yellow Sun. This man below, said he came from the Biafra region; this woman chose Ugwu as her favourite character in the book.

Lost in Hawaii

Here's a newspaper clip, through which I first learned of the arrest of actor Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje, who plays Mr Eko in the television series, Lost. It's the latest in a string of arrests involving cast members of the show, which is filmed in Hawaii. Still, it could have been worse. The actor will bounce back bigger and better, I expect.

Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje in brief...

"...London-born Adewale Akinnuoye-Agbaje who was asked in a media interview last week if there was pressure to make his name more Westernised to fit into Hollywood. His response was: “I’m of Nigerian descent, from the Yoruba tribe. Names are very significant in that culture. It basically states your purpose in life. Ade is ‘the crown’, Wale means ‘to arrive’, so that means ‘the crown has arrived’. Akin is ‘warrior’ and Agbaje is ‘prosperity and wealth’. Every day when someone calls my name, they remind me of that purpose and for me to renounce that would be sacrilege. The name caused a lot of scrapes growing up. And having come this far, I wasn’t going to abandon it for Hollywood. People are getting used to it. They abbreviate it to triple A.” - Culled from The Punch newspaper, Lagos, Nigeria.