Ofem Ubi and Prince Uhuoma Charles’ “What Do You Remember?”: Nigerian Films as Site of Protest and Remembrance

When the massacred EndSARS protesters stepped out on October 20, 2020, they weren’t aware that five years later a Goethe-Institute-funded film would be made in their memory. They didn’t know the late President Muhammadu Buhari, other government executives and military officials would deny their internationally-broadcast murders. They also weren’t  aware that Nigerian musicians, filmmakers, artists and activists would create art in reverence of their memory and patriotic deeds. Although the Nigerian government had previously killed Nigerians during the June 12 protests almost 3 decades ago, it was impossible to conceive another state-sanctioned and public killing of protesting Nigerians, especially within a democracy. There was no premonition. Thus, when the deceased protesters left home, their demands were simple: EndSars and police brutality. They weren’t expecting bullets to be logged into their bodies by Nigerian Police or Army. And five years later, there is still troubling uncertainty around justice for their deceased dreams, voices and bodies. What now exists is the state-approved active erasure of the traumatic EndSars massacre from public memory. 

This personal and national erasure is what multidisciplinary artists Ofem Ubi and Prince Uhuoma Charles’ What Do You Remember? made in collaboration with Nwa Ala Collective seeks to address. The film is part of the artist-led exhibition that invites Nigerian artists to collectively remember and reflect on the #EndSARS Massacre of October 20, 2020. Titled d Soro Soke: What Do You Remember and presented by Goethe-Institut Nigeria in partnership with Art Bridge Project, under the Art & Country initiative, What Do You Remember? ponders on the #EndSars Massacre. Thus, Ubi and Charles’ film, is a collage of visual arts, images, performance, archival footage, dance, poetry that studies and responds to Nigerians’ processing of the collective trauma associated with the massacre. The film also traces how that violent experience has seeped into and shaped everyday Nigerian life since then. What Do You Remember?, co-written by the directors and produced by Oluwadamilare Kolawole, is a protest against the state-sanctioned attempt to erase memory of the EndSars Massacre. 

The short film traces how the Lekki Toll Gate transformed into a site of  state-sanctioned violence against Nigerians. Five years later, there are state attempts to dissuade and frustrate Nigerians from honouring the memory of massacred Nigerians. Panels have been created and reports presented yet they aren’t indicative of an attempt to resolve the EndSars Protest demands. Also, police brutality and killings still get reported frequently. There’s still national disillusionment about the country’s destiny. Nigerians are migrating enmasse. What Do You Remember?  And the conversation it hopes to inspire contemplate on these systemic and political issues. But, this isn’t the first Nigerian film that addressed police brutality or a systemic issue.  

Nigerian film history shows that Nollywood films and filmmakers have always been at the scene of protest and agitation for better society. Akinola Davies’ My Father Shadow, The Agbajowo Collective’s The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of  Lagos, Tunde Kelani’s Saworoide, Ema Edosio-Deelen’s When Nigeria Happens, Tade Ogidan’s Owoblow: The Genesis, Afolabi Olalekan’s Freedom Way, Chukwu Martin’s Mr Gbenga’s Hard Drive, Walter Banger’s Jolly Roger, Bolanle Austen-Peters’ Collision Course and others are previous cinematic engagement with national and political issues. The films, though of varying artistic strength and intellectual depth, are unified in the filmmakers’ direct critique of Nigerian social and political realities. In an agitation-repose tone and framing, these films show the functionality of Nigerian cinema as a protest medium capable of motivating social and political conversation and change. Thus, Ubi and Charles’s What Do You Remember? Is an addition to the growing library of creative works that uses cinema to directly engage and challenge systemic and political issues. 

However, the political issue with these films, excluding few, is the filmmakers’ inability to offer progressive, insightful and revolutionary commentary on the systemic and political issues they engage with. Admittedly, the films’ existence indicates a conscious artistic responsibility towards talking about social, economic and, in this case, political issues. But, beyond this artistic duty, should one demand more from the artistic filmmaker. Should these filmmakers be challenged to move beyond reiterating and exhibiting collective trauma and lamentation? What additional insight, beyond documenting systemic issues, can these films and filmmakers be challenged to propose or hold? 

Social and political commentary films are sites of ideological contests and reflection. They document grime realities, ask questions and critique social and political issues. Thus, if anything, a politically-driven film should challenge the audience to ask questions. But, despite the good intentions of these Nigerian films and filmmakers, they don’t go beyond documenting and reiterating what everyday Nigerians are aware of. For instance, Freedom Way, despite its critique of police brutality, doesn’t push the audience to question the futility of asking for a doctor’s report before a gunshot victim gets treated or the need for better good Samaritan laws within the country. There are subtle but big questions the film could have asked beyond the showing/telling us of how grime Nigeria police is. This is the same ideological issue that plagues What Do You Remember?

With What Do You Remember, there is that appreciated display of DJ Switch’s video, a summarised history of SARS s creation, footage of police brutality, an interview with the brother of a victim, poetry rendition and the state denial of the massacre. All these are documented facts. The internet and Nigerian and international media is populated with these images, videos and archival footage. But, what’s significantly missing is the filmmakers’ independent thoughts on these issues.  What do Ubi and Chrales, as Nigerians and artists, think of these images and footage? The film’s narrator, who  metaphorically represents the directors’ voice, doesn’t articulate the filmmakers’ critical mediation on the EndSars Massacre and ongoing police brutality. It’s not enough that the film’s existence resists collective forgetting. It isn’t good that the film becomes an ongoing history lesson. There is a missed chance at the filmmakers’ articulating their critique of the traumatic incidents surrounding the EndSars protest and massacre and the conscious erasure of its memory. 

There are Nigerian films and filmmakers that have added insightful thoughts towards social and political issues they contend with. Ifeoma Nkiruka Chukwuogo’s Bariga Sugar interrogated the realities of Nigerian sex workers and  sex work. The film presented an empathetic approach towards the subject matter. The film’s decision to show viewers the grime realities of sex work and sex workers isn’t for showing/telling sake but, a conscious attempt to reframe audiences thinking around the issue. Kelani’s Saworoide exhibited that tense transition from civilian to military rule and portrayed the negative result of that political transition. But, the film doesn’t stop there. The film has a character, an elderly wise man, who poetically interrogates the corrupt practices of the king and his subjects. Again, the film isn’t just showing and telling us about the king and his subjects’ corrupt practices(we are aware) but nudging viewers to ask politically-conscious questions. 

What Do You Remember?, like others before it, had  the rare opportunity of extending conversation around the use of art for civic duty and protest but couldn’t achieve that. And this isn’t because the film or the filmmakers couldn’t. It’s also a question of what ideological and intellectual conversation and depth they can bring to the discussion.