“Onye Egwu” Review: Nollywood’s Unlikely Genre Sports A Bold But Short-Lived Traction

Nollywood is known for its array of drama, comedy and romantic productions, which often include elements of the supernatural, thriller and adventure. It’s no wonder that the top three most successful films in the Nigerian box office are a mixture of drama and comedy. With the continued eclectic posture and push for global relevance of Nollywood, her filmmakers have started to try their hands on genres such as sci-fi (e.g. Day of Destiny)  and sports (Yemi Morafa’s Funke! and Aburo) which have previously been downplayed or overlooked in the domestic cinema. Tunde Kelani’s nostalgia-rousing drama, Maami (2011), also scratches the surface of the sports genre, identifying the game of football as a pivotal point in the narrative.

In Nigeria, football is the most popular sport, with the country producing one of the highest numbers of football players in Africa who ply their trade in the top five leagues in Europe, only outranked by Senegal, Ivory Coast and Morocco. The love for and popularity of the game is what Uche Jombo spotlights in her Prime Video sports drama, Onye Egwu. For many Nigerians from impoverished homes, football is beyond mere passion and isn’t just a pastime. It is the individuals’ gateway to global recognition and prosperity. This is mirrored in Kelani’s Maami where the protagonist who is a professional footballer, Kashimawo, remembers growing up with a poor mother who made sacrifices for him. Uche Jombo’s Onye Egwu, too, is based on the sentiment about the hope of a better life offered through football, documenting the experiences of football hopeful, Nedu (Kayode Ojuolape), whose aspirations and talent secure him the mentorship of a declining football star, Alex Mbanefo (Zubby Michael), and puts him in pole position to carry on the legacy of the veteran. 

The sports film focuses on a specific sport, capturing the struggles of a team or an individual against some opposition and revealing motifs such as redemption and the underdog. While the underdog theme of sports films (such as seen in Hollywood films like The Karate Kid and A League of Their Own) revolves around an individual or a team who, against the odds, emerges victorious in a competition, the redemption theme (as seen in Hollywood’s Million Dollar Baby) is about an individual or team who has fallen from the top and must now reinvent themselves. Onye Egwu adapts these basic elements of the sports film genre in a nuanced way, juxtaposing the declining career of Alex with the rising star of Nedu. The motivations and struggles of these two characters differ: Alex, steeped in superstition, contends with a career-threatening injury; Nedu, steeped in unyielding faith, contends with the environmental antagonism posed by his mother (Uche Jombo) and a friend.

Onye Egwu leans more towards the redemption motif due to the centrality of the character of Alex. Upon the discovery of a protege, the initial frustrations and disillusionment of the protagonist are swapped for a novel sense of purpose in the resolution. So, while it may seem that the protagonist’s career goes on a downward spiral, the film attempts a revival through his eventual reconciliation with reality and a re-prioritization agenda. But then, this is not your regular kind of phoenix-like redemption story that underpins the romanticization of sporting experiences and sports documentaries. 

An impression, as seen in many Nollywood films, which this film maintains, is the belief and influence of fate and superstition in the affairs of people. The belief in superstition and witchcraft is strong in African societies and has been exposed in real-life sports involving people of African descent. In 2014, Europe-based Togolese professional footballer Emmanuel Adebayor reportedly accused his family of performing black magic to stall his performance on the pitch. French footballer of Guinean origin Paul Pogba once claimed to have paid a spiritual guide to protect him from injury whereas his brother alleged he practiced witchcraft for malevolent reasons.

Onye Egwu, co-directed by Uche Jombo and Jerome Weber, takes a bold yet realistic and relatable shape with its revelation of Alex’s quest for a spiritual solution to a medical quagmire. The blend of contemporary influences, such as an obsession with football, the world of social media, western education,  a modern setting, and age-old values, such as the belief in magic and search for succor through mediums, bridges the gap between the worldviews of Africans and global perspectives. The film also explores other themes such as the importance of self-belief, persistence, motherhood, optimism and the needlessness of envy, which contributes to its quasi-didactic and inspirational aura—but these messages are conveyed in a tone that is often  melodramatic and playful. Through the acts of Bucci (Williams Uchemba), Kabiru (Broda Shaggi), and Segun (Lateef Adedimeji), humor often fuels the narrative, dousing any tensions or pensiveness caused by the predicament of Alex.

While the film spotlights another grass-to-grace story through the experience of a youngster Nedu, the narrative feels half-hearted, fast-paced and unaccomplished. We really do not witness the success of Nedu as it only appears that his career is about to commence on a professional level. Nedu’s rise to the “onye egwu” status on a global level would have made an ideal happy-ending story for his mentor. There are characters, such as Kabiru and Segun, who serve as a distraction to the main plot, leaving to the screen redundant moments such as the conversation between the two friends about Segun’s emasculation. The romantic relationship between Alex and Tina is a subplot that could have been made intriguing with more insights into the nature of their relationship before the estrangement that necessitated suspicions about black magic. 

Onye Egwu pushes Nollywood’s genre boundary, joining films like Yemi Morafa’s Aburo in the industry’s evolving catalog of sports drama. Its sleek blend of comedy and drama offers relaxation and visual satisfaction to the audience. It’s the kind of film you see before bedtime. But this satisfaction is too mundane to stamp a memorable impression or trigger a riveting audience experience. So, while the film delivers its messages of family values and optimism with pinpoint precision, it fails to utilize a captivating kaleidoscope of storytelling.