by Eniola Fawehinmi

It was reported this week that the Academy Award nominated filmmaker, Spike Lee (Malcolm X, Do The Right Thing) has been approached by the Osun government to direct a film about the life of arguably one of the greatest Yoruba men that ever lived, Obafemi Awolowo.

We’ll get to the surprising nature of this announcement in a bit, as one would typically have thought that the Osun government would be more likely to approach the decaying corpse of Hubert Ogunde to do the job.

Having an American tell a story that will most likely divide opinion among a great deal of Nigerians is intriguing to say the least. But should his nationality really matter? Baz Luhrmann, probably Australia’s most famous filmmaker, set out to tell a sweeping tale about his homeland in 2008 with a film imaginatively titled Australia. He failed miserably. Perhaps a more objective filmmaker would have been more suitable to the job.

Spike Lee certainly has no issues with objection, the real concern here is whether or not he is passionate about Awolowo’s story (who wouldn’t) or if he is just a gun for hire, doing the bidding of the state government.

Somehow one doubts that the latter is the case judging by Mr Lee’s filmography. It is said filmography that should really be considered when judging his likely performance.

Mr Lee’s filmography has been hit and miss at most times but few would argue against the fact that when he is on form he is one of the best filmmakers around. Perhaps someone within the Osun State Government had seen his 1992 biopic of Malcolm X with Denzel Washington in the lead. Malcolm X is Spike Lee at his best and it is a wonder that he manages to cram as much information about the great man’s life into the film’s 200 minute running time. Having a brilliant biopic about one great black man on your CV certainly helps when you are applying for the job to make a biopic about another great black man.

Interestingly the original director of Malcolm X, Norman Jewison (who is white) had graciously stepped aside so that Mr Lee could direct the film instead, in part due to protestations led in no small part by Mr Lee himself. Mr Lee can expect some similar protestations by ‘Tunde Kelani perhaps at some point about his hiring for this job.

One suspects that Mr Lee’s real challenge would be to tell an objective story about Awolowo that at least stands up to critical scrutiny, when looked at purely as a piece of art. Awolowo was not perfect despite what most Yoruba people would like to believe but then again who is? There is certainly a lot of rich material that the eventual writer(s) of this film can reference when constructing a story about his life.

Unlike Malcolm X, I’m not sure I want to see a sweeping biopic about Awolowo’s life covering his birth to his death, stories like that have generally proved to be problematic to do convincingly, but instead I would prefer to see a story that borrows a page from Steven Spielberg’s approach on Lincoln by zeroing in on a time in Awolowo’s life that captures his essence as a man.

His role in Nigeria’s formative years after independence and his power struggle with Chief Ladoke Akintola for the leadership of the AG is particularly interesting. It might also be worth looking at Nigeria’s history from his perspective while he was imprisoned from 1963 to 1966 considering how many important things happened in the country during that period.

Ultimately Mr Lee does not need to take advice from me on how to do his job. He has proved to be more than capable numerous times.

And yes, the Osun government must be commended for making this bold left-field choice and not approaching one of the many filmmakers currently working in the Nigerian film industry, but how much freedom is Mr Lee going to be given to tell this story in a way he sees fit?