If you have read the history of Black American slavery, the civil rights, the African-american experience, among other ugly experiences of Black people across the world in generations past, you would get different perspectives that keep throwing up many unanswered questions.
Many filmmakers have attempted to answer the questions by revealing and drawing global attention to Africa’s ugly past in foreign lands with award-wining movies such as Kunta Kinte. Yet, there are many stories that need to be told.
Until recently, very little is known about the Black British Struggle, an ugly experience of Black people in the United Kingdom in the past. The struggle is one of the stories that need to be told and a filmmaker who experienced the wrath is now telling the tale to a generation that seems to be in a hurry to forget history.
Adewale Akinnuoye-agbaje, a British-Nigerian actor, is revealing the British struggle from his own perspective in the movie he entitled ‘Farming’. The title refers to a social practice in which Nigerian immigrants to Britain would temporarily give their children to white foster families, sending money for the child’s upkeep while they studied to make a better life for themselves.
The movie, which is his directional debut, is based on Akinnuoye-agbaje’s unbelievable story as a troubled youth, and as a black member of a white skinhead gang in 1980s Essex.
It tells a story of a young Nigerian boy, ‘farmed out’ by his parents to a white British family in the hope of a better future. Instead, he becomes the feared leader of a white skinhead gang. The compelling film sees Akinnuoye-agbaje turn his traumatic early life into a drama, yet telling the one of the many untold stories.
Akinnuoye-agbaje’s parents were among a generation of Nigerians to come to Britain, the colonial “mother country” to get a university education, which they could take home and use to build democracy in their newly independent nation, then beset by civil war.
The filmmaker was among the many Nigerian children taken in by his foster parents and mostly raised by his new mother, Ingrid (played in the film with abrasive spirit by Kate Beckinsale) while her husband was away working as a lorry driver.
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Explaining the rationale for making the movie, Akinnuoye-agbaje’s said, “Here in Britain, we know a lot about the history of Black American slavery, civil rights, and the African American experience. But very little is known about the black British struggle. This is just one of our stories.”
As well, the filmmaker traced the origin of farming to an age-old habit in Africa, particularly Nigeria where parents usually send their children from the village to stay with an extended family member(s) in the townships for better opportunities, especially education and not necessarily for better upbringing.
But in the UK then and other foreign lands, the filmmaker noted that Africans like his parents saw farming as a status thing as “they wanted us to get an education and learn to speak good English”.
However, the practice remained popular until in 2000 when the laws became strict following the abuse and murder of Victoria Climbié.
But while there were no official data on how many African children were farmed in the UK for several decades, Akinnuoye-agbaje said that most Nigerian British children experienced at least a few years away from their birth families, while the white foster parents and homes then grew.
Probably due to the untold story it revealed, the movie scooped the Michael Powell Award for Best British Feature Film at the Edinburgh International Film Festival (EIFF) this year.
For the EIFF jury members, which included; Antonia Campbell- Hughes, David Hayman and Philip John, “The unanimous decision of the Michael Powell Jury goes to an important, powerful and disturbing film from Adewale Akinnuoye- Agbaje. This story forces us to confront an unfamiliar, uncomfortable reality. Farming keeps you invested in its brutal world. Culturally adrenalising. Visceral. Inspirational.”
Aslo, the same j ur y awarded the Best Performance in a British Feature Film accolade to Damson Idris for his role in Farming.
Speaking on the film and its feats so far, Moses Babatope, managing director, Filmone, Lagos, Nigeria, said that the movie is an important one for the region. “We have so many stories that need to be told. Many, like Farming, have relevance beyond Africa and affect the history and culture of other countries where there is a Nigerian diaspora. We want to ensure that audiences in West Africa get to watch movies that shift the conversation around our impact on the world.”
Meanwhile, with starry names like Genevieve Nnaji, Kate Beckinsale, Gugu Mbatha-raw among others in its ensemble, Farming is a must-watch because of its chilling story about combative need to face down the past, before embracing a future of hope.
Farming will be released from October 25, 2019 in cinemas in Nigeria, Ghana and across West Africa.
