Monday, December 23, 2013

Brother Cries Uncle in Mother of George

 
Nigerian photographer/director Andrew Dosunmu has explored the immersion of Nigerian customs in modern Brooklyn.  Numerous views of the Nostrand subway stop are a giveaway that the location for this immigrant's tale is Bedford-Stuyvesant, with much of the action taking place at Joloff, a real Senegalese restaurant in the area.  The film begins with a tribal (Yoruba) wedding between Ayo (Ivory Coast actor Isaach de Bankolé) and his wife Adenike or "Ike" (Zimbabwe actress Danai Gurira, a zombie killer in The Walking Dead).  Ayo and younger brother Biyi (Tony Okungbowa) run the restaurant.  In short, trouble brews when Ike can't get pregnant, and Ayo's mother (nollywood veteran Bukky Ajayi) demands a son.  The film's title refers to Ike.  The mother-in-law proposes a bluntly practical solution, and though at first refusing, Biyi "cries uncle" and impregnates Ike after quite a few attempts.
 
John Anderson points out in The New York Times (9.1.2013) what casual observers will miss, that in Nigerian culture, uncles are held in high regard.  In fact, this impregnation solution is not uncommon in Yoruba culture.
 
Photos from his soccer documentary "The African Game" were published as a book.


 

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