Washington, DC — Conflict related to Boko Haram in northeastern Nigeria captures headlines, but another region of Africa's most populous nation also grapples with unrest. Since the 1990s, violence has plagued the Niger River Delta, which includes nine southern states, including the three leading oil producers - Rivers, Delta and Baylesa. A widely acclaimed 2012 film, Black November - Struggle for the Niger Delta , documented the region's economic inequality and grinding poverty alongside the vast wealth produced by oil operations. The film's director and producer, Jeta Amata, now is producing Dawn in the Creeks , a television series that follows teams of young people from the Delta as they make films in the style of the fast-growing Nigerian film industry, 'Nollywood'. During a recent visit to Washington, Amata talked about the series, as well as his career and his family's film-making history. He was joined in the conversation by Jeffrey Hawkins, the U.S. Consul General in Lagos, whose office is funding the series.
Why did you decide to make this television series?
Jeta Amata: . I've said this has been the most important thing I've done. Forget all the films that I've done. This involves collaborating with the right people and sending the right messages. It's been amazing. The possibility of mass violence is very, very high in Nigeria. No doubt about that. So how do we send out a message for peace and use the media? Why use the media? The Nigerian film industry, Nollywood, is the third largest in the world [editor's note: in terms of title produced, Nollywood ranks second only to India's 'Bollywood' and surpassing Hollywood.] What better way to send the message than that!
Dawn in the Creeks follows me going into three different Niger Delta communities and picking seven people from each of these communities and training them on how to make films. Support comes from the U.S. Department of State. They're identifying the fact that there is a possibility of mass violence coming into the Niger Delta and they're thinking of ways to prevent this.
The U.S. government helped set up a board of distinguished members of different industries called the Niger Delta Legacy Engagement Board, who come together to identify where the message should be sent - and they came up with the three communities. We went there, picked seven people, took them to Lagos, trained them on how to make films, gave them equipment and money and sent them back to make their films.
After they made their films, we took them to the communities, and that sparked a town hall session where people started talking about issues addressed in the film, in a very peaceful way. People who never had a chance to talk about something now had a chance to talk.
The most interesting part of the town hall session was watching people leave in threes and fours, still talking about the issues they saw in the film. That was an eye opener for me. If you give people a chance to say what's on their mind, they will say it - not with fighting, but they would express themselves. I wouldn't call it reality TV. I call it 'real TV' because we record things as they happen without staging them. What you see is real. It's not just following the journey of people; it's understanding people and situations. The response has been great. It's been really overwhelming.
What is the U.S. Government role in the project?
Jeff Hawkins: You can think of us as executive producers. We started with the basic premise that Nigeria is important - the biggest country in Africa, the biggest economy. The city I live in, Lagos, has a bigger economy than Kenya.
This is a place that matters. This is also a place that has challenges. The focus now is on unrest in the northeast, where there is open conflict. But in the Niger River Delta, where conflict has been tamped down, it has every possibility of coming back again. Our thinking was we would work with talented Nigerians that care deeply about the Niger Delta to stave off potential conflict. We assembled a board, as Jetta mentioned. Dawn on the Creeks is the centerpiece of engagement, but not the only part of it. There's a community part to this, there's radio and social media. There's a diplomatic part with the United States government providing support to the activities. We're reaching out to religious figures. We're looking to youth leaders who can help us use this film to make messages about positive change.
We've already had a great deal of success. I do hope that your viewers will get a chance to see the show. It is magnificent television, airing across Nigeria on eight channels. If you're watching television in Nigeria on a Saturday or Sunday, you're bound to come across it.
What is it like working with the U.S. government on this project?
Amata: It's easy to be wary of any government, so I didn't know what the experience was going to be like. I've come to understand the U.S. government a bit more. The people who work for the U.S. government are normal guys who want to do their jobs. They understand that, to get it done, they have to bring in the people who live in that place, the people who have a stake. They've been supportive in a very good way - asking 'how can we help you?', rather than 'we need you to do this'. I would do it again.
Does the show have implications beyond the delta in terms of Nigerian society?
Hawkins: I think so. The show is airing across Nigeria, not just in the Delta. When you see these young Deltans talking about their concerns or problems, these are Nigerian problems. They're often discussed with humor, with emotion, with passion. I think that translates, not just across Nigeria, but worldwide. I certainly can relate to the people in this show, even though I myself am not Nigerian. I like to think that this model someday can go beyond just the Niger Delta. There are lots of issues that could be addressed constructively with the Dawn on the Creeks model.
One of the first Nigerians to raise the visibility of the Delta was Ken Saro Wiwa, the writer, television producer and environmental activist who was one of nine activists executed by Sani Abacha's military regime in 1995. What was his impact?
Amata: The struggle in the Delta started before Ken Saro Wiwa, but he made it known and it became global with his death. I was lucky to meet him, however brief it was. His death was a huge blow. I thought that there was no way he was going to be killed, because the UN and everyone had said to the regime, 'Do not kill him', but they did. It broke my heart.
Your widely acclaimed drama, Black September, introduced the Niger Delta to a wider worldwide audience. Has the international Hollywood star power - Mickey Rourke, Kim Basinger, Vivica Foxx, Michael Madsen and Tom Sizemore, along with musicians Akon and Wyclef Jean - helped attract attention to what is happening there?
Amata: It definitely has helped. One of the screenings I did was in New York, and Mickey Rourke and Kim Basinger were there. That brought the press. It made it more relevant to people who didn't know about it. It is a very difficult thing getting A-list talent to do a film for a director that they don't know. No matter how good you are in Africa, when you come to the U.S. and you haven't done anything big, you're considered a first-time director. If you communicate the message, then it works.
The first challenging film I did with international celebrities was called "The Amazing Grace" in 2004 with Nick Moran, who was the star of Lock Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Getting him to come to Nigeria and film was quite difficult. I told him, "You know the song 'Amazing Grace' comes from Nigeria. He said, "What are you talking about?" That opened the door. That's definitely a strategy that Nollywood needs. If you want to go global, if you want the world to get more of our stories, you have you give the world the kind of people that they know. No matter how good the film is, if it doesn't have the kind of pull that people are used to, they wouldn't go and support it. They wouldn't go to any theaters. It has to have some level of star power. That's the thing that works in this business.
What do you want people outside the country to understand about the Delta?
Amata: I don't like to focus only on the oil spills. Yes, we've had the worst spills in the Niger Delta ever in the world. I told people when I was screening Black November we've had an Exxon Valdez-type [spill] every year for the past 52 years. Every year - the same as Exxon Valdez, the largest in the U.S. before the BP oil spill. So you can imagine how bad the land is. Whose fault is it? Is it just the oil companies? Is it government? Is it the people? It has to be someone's fault, we know that. But it has happened. What can we do to make it better?
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The U.S. thrives in holding people accountable for what they have done wrong and thereby making sure it doesn't happen in the future. Nigerian society is different. That cannot be effective right now. First thing we have to do is to make the people [in the region] more confident - give them a voice. We need to open people's minds to be more creative, not just in the arts, but in every aspect and to invest in ourselves. If we can do that, we wouldn't have to rely on oil or complain about what oil is doing to us.
Let's talk about your family legacy in the film industry - your grandfather, father, uncle and others. How has this influenced your career choices?
Amata: My grandfather, bless his soul, was a co-writer and the lead character in Africa's first feature-length color film, Freedom. It opened at the Berlin film festival, and it went to festivals all over the world. He did the San Francisco Film Festival and got the key to San Francisco for that in 1956. It was the first time the world saw Africa in color. I grew up watching that film almost every day. It was on 35mm, and we had this projector that he would use to screen the film for people. My father grew up with that film also, and he went on to study theater arts like my grandfather and decided to go into the same business.
And he became famous as the villain in the popular soap opera Behind the Clouds. How did you feel about that when you were growing up?
Amata: I'll be honest - I hated it. My father would come visit me when I was in high school and he would shut the school down. Teachers and students would all run out [to see him]. I'd be in some corner waiting patiently to get two minutes of his time. I didn't like walking down the streets and people coming up to us. I wanted privacy, and I guess that's the reason that I didn't want to be an actor. I just didn't like the attention. I wanted to do science. I wanted to be a pilot. When I was going to university, I changed to literature. I did it, it worked out.
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Dawn in the Creeks
Black November Trailer: The Struggle For The Niger Delta
