MOVIE REVIEW: Anikulapo – A headless Cockerell, By Bukola Oyeniyi

I watched the new movie, Anikulapo on Netflix the other day and read a couple of reviews that have greeted the movie since it’s release.

While to many, the movie is a masterpiece, especially the likes of its maker, Afolayan. For me, it has no merit and the accolade so far poured on it, is distant from the reality of the movie.

Arts, in whatever forms, mirror life itself. Artists, in general, have the right to either exaggerate reality or underlay it for effect.

The story line is simple and straight forward: a young man from Gbongan left home for Oyo Ile where fortunes smiled on him. On account of an amorous relationship with a wealthy woman, he was elevated to clothe the king’s household. His elevation led him into the arms of one of the queens with whom he committed a sacrilege and both were banished.

Left for death, his spirit was however revived by the mythical Akala bird and with the power of the bird, the young man made it in another town. His new found wealth and fame turned him into an ungrateful man who finally met his albatross in the armsof many other woman and buoyed by pride, he priced himself out of favor.

The lessons are clear, but not so the plots. The costumes were great and the scenes were equally well made.

Mentions were made of the slave trade and we saw cowrie shells being used as money. We saw horses and donkeys, among many props with which Afolayan brought the story to light.

Historically, Oyo participated in the slave trade and thus references to the trade was apt. However, the context of Oyo’s involvement in the slave trade vis-a-vis other things in the movie reveal how ahistorical the movie is.

The 19th Century Yoruba war was fueled by the slave trade. Hence, Oyo was too engrossed in warfare that its horses, few as they were, were fully involved in the war efforts. No one gets the impression of the numerous wars that engulfed Oyo at this time in the movie.

The great Oyo-Ile was also poorly represented and the same with its king. As an expert in dress in Yorubaland, I was completely let down with the way the king and his chiefs were dressed. Did Afolayan and Co even know that velvet was an exclusive preserve of the king? Were they aware that, by law, no one was allowed to wear it?

One would expect the Alaafin to be well dressed and his presence attended with the dundun drums, sekere and agogo. Sadly, not once did the traditional dundun and the exclusive drum of the Alaafin featured anywhere in the movie.

The grandeur of Oyo – from its prosperity that became a lore during the time of Alaafin Abiodun to the extent of its powers that cowered the Dahomeyans, etc. were absent.

Gbongan was not a major town, hence, it is strange and curious that a major cloth-maker could come from there. Cloth making, as at the beginning of the 19th to the middle of the 20th centuries was a major and professional occupation that had guilds in the 4 major centers of production: Abeokuta, Osogbo, Iseyin and Oyo. Ilorin did not emerge until the dispersal from Oyo-Ile.

Gbongan was a mere market town and could not possibly be a home to any master ofi-maker. Sadly, the so-called Ofi maker was poor on the loom. He was so poor that he handled the ‘motor’ and ‘aja’ on wrong hands.

Afolayan’s gaffe are too many and glaring that one cannot but wonder what explains the accolades the movie is garnering. Aafin, in Afolayan’s rendition must be close to the bush and bereft of security that a wayward queen can slip away unnoticed to be laid on a nearby bush by a commoner that she met in less than 5 minutes.

Afolayan did a diservice to Yoruba history and tradition in this movie.

The movie, in addition to the above, showed the dearth of actors in Yorubaland today. He needed to recycle old hands and superimpose a computer-generated voice on them rather than allowing these characters to give us their voice.

How sad.

Like Tunde Kelani’s Ayinla, this is another one that’s loud in cinematography and low in substance.

The Woman King is a far better movie that Anikulapo. For me, this can only be rated 4 out of 10.

-Oyeniyi is an Associate Professor of History in United States