Retro Nolly: "Abuja Connection" Shows Cinema is a Time Capsule.
Seyi Lasisi takes a look at the beloved Abuja Connections.
Retro Nolly is a weekly series of retrospective reviews of classic Nollywood films by Seyi Lasisi. We will be looking at these films with modern eyes, dissecting what made them unique and how they speak to today’s filmmaking, culture and society.
Art, unmindful of its medium and creator’s intent, is a capsule of an era and time. Though time is transient and human memory is a wily editor, cinema securely encapsulates a moment in human history that we might, in years to come, come to remember with reverence or deep-seated trauma. To catch glimpse of the traumatic slave trade, cinephiles can return to Steve McQueen’s 12 Years a Slave. Sembene Ousmane’s Borom Street and Mandabi capture the plights of the common man in Senegal around 1963 to 1968. In Nigeria, Tunde Kelani’s metaphorical political drama Saworoide summons back the dictatorial military era. Tade Ogidan’s Diamond Ring, though layered round the story of an unguided young boy, shows the structural and societal decay that is affixed to Nigerian society.
Oblivious of unearthing trauma or recalling peace, cinema points us towards a time in human history and watching Old Nollywood films made during late 90s and early 2000s recalls variant aspects of Nigerian reality. These films invite viewers, in fragments and entirely, into the politics, culture, religion, economics, and societal convention of Nigeria during this era. Beyond entertainment, cinema informs. And watching Adim Williams’ Abuja Connection, a trilogy made in 2003, reminded me of this generational and everlasting importance of cinema as a visual archive.
Abuja Connection is a three-part film that focuses on two elite ladies, Jennifer (Clarion Chukwurah) and Sofia (Eucharia Anunobi Ekwu), with pronounced opposition and hatred for each other. Belonging to the Amazon, a network of exclusive contractors (interpret as sex workers) headed by a certain Princess (Ngozi Ezeonu), who readily provide politicians and affluent men seeking not just sexual rendezvous but also unconventional requests. The competition and shared hatred between Jennifer and Sofia, who are the stars of this group, divide the group much to Princess’s passive disapproval. (On Jennifer’s side is Carolina (Oby Edozieh), who has a propensity to use charm on men. Kate (Miracle Bob-Ekechukwu), quite an inconsequential character, is an ardent believer in Sofia’s deed.)
When Jennifer isn’t getting Sofia’s thugs arrested, she is inspiring her Abuja connections to distrust Sofia. The Amazon is meant to be a sort of feminist organisation of ladies that embraces sisterhood and independent womanhood. But when jealousy invites itself to their midst, the group becomes torn apart by the fiercely competed battle between Sofia and Jennifer.
It will be reductive not to acknowledge the political undertone of the film. The actions of Senator Benjamin (Late Enebeli Elebuwa), a friend of Sofia, exposes how governmental positions are awarded to undeserving people without qualification. The senator’s relationship with Sofia shows how state-related decisions are made during sexual tryst. Sofia and Jennifer’s brazen confidence to use government officials — policemen and politicians — to prove their supremacy speaks largely to how hitherto, in Nigeria, one’s kinship with wealth or access to politicians, can make them inflict suffering on others.
Deposited in the Abuja Connection is how, in 2003 and till date, access to certain political office holders makes you immune to justice and how you can use high-level government organisation to score cheap points.
Well directed and characterised, it’s pleasing to see Chukwura and Anunobi Ekwu seep into their distinct roles. While their dialogue is mostly wrapped in scornful words, Chukwura, who plays Jennifer, is directed to be more coordinated and gentle. This coordinated appearance extends to how she carefully plans against Sofia. Knowledgeable about Sofia’s drug dealings, Jennifer uses this obscure information to frighten Sofia into silence. Anunobi Ekwu, who plays Sofia, is more inclined towards physical outburst. Though capable of causing menace, her inability to be meticulous with her schemes make them impotent against Jennifer. Until she hurts Jennifer by getting her secret lover of many years, Maxwell (Chidi Mokeme), married to Doris (Alex Lopez), one of her friends, all her attacks are ineffective.
There used to be a time in Nigerian films when profound reverence is given to charms and Abuja Connection is an embodiment of that. Caroline carved out a business niche for herself by tapping into the metaphysical. While Jennifer and Sofia are being awarded juicy government contracts, Caroline uses charm to win men to herself. Upon diminishing the men’s logic through charm, she launches a coordinated effort towards diminishing their wealth by transferring them to her. Whilst recent Nollywood productions like Surreal 16’s Juju Stories recalls Nollywood’s relationship with juju, their usage doesn't inspire the fear of before. There is a subtle diminishing in the use of charm in modern society and in Nollywood productions. Evolving with time, rather than use fetish power, female characters rely on their wits.
A precise way of ending this review is to quote an excerpt from Maya Cade’s profound essay about the role of the artist in cinema. “In this lens, cinema can be understood as a tool of not only spectacle or entertainment but a marking of time, possibility, change and transformation bearing witness to the common person. A tool — if deployed with intention — of endless discussion and intervention; a testimony to the change of social order and an unbinding of the ties of colonial, capitalistic, and racist fantasies”.