The Role of a Filmmaker in Sustaining Cultural Development in Contemporary Nigerian Society: Tunde Kilani's Arugba
Author: Sesan Omotosho
Format: Video Essay
Duration: 26'38"
Published: April 2026
Embedded Files
Practice
Practice
Research Statement
Research Statement
Research Questions
Research Questions
This audiovisual essay addresses a central research question: in what ways does Tunde Kelani's filmmaking practice function as cultural stewardship in contemporary Nigeria, and what does the audiovisual essay form reveal about this practice that written film analysis alone cannot? More specifically, the work examines how Arugba (Kelani, 2008) deploys mise-en-scene, narrative structure, and the auteur's biographical relationship to Yoruba culture to preserve indigenous knowledge and critique social deterioration. A second methodological question runs alongside this: how can an audiovisual essay, through the juxtaposition of scene analysis, interview material, and editorial voice, produce a distinct and original research argument rather than simply illustrating claims that could be made in written form?
These questions sit at the intersection of two fields: the scholarly study of Nollywood and Yoruba cinema, and the emerging discourse on the audiovisual essay as a practice-based research methodology. While Kelani's cultural significance has been acknowledged by scholars (Onikoyi, 2016; Giwa-Isekeije, 2013; Olayiwola, 2018), the implications of the audiovisual form for generating new analytical insight into his practice remain underexplored. This project seeks to address that gap directly.
Context
Context
Tunde Kelani occupies a distinctive position within Nigerian cinema. Unlike many practitioners working within Nollywood's commercial structures, Kelani's practice is rooted in sustained, biographical immersion in Yoruba cultural life. Having relocated to Abeokuta at the age of five, he was shaped over several decades by the festivals, oral traditions, political structures, and social rhythms of that environment. This lived relationship to Yoruba culture permeates his filmmaking, evident in costume, location, language, ritual performance, and narrative construction. Existing scholarship has approached his work from several directions: Onikoyi (2016) situates his films within Auteur Theory, arguing that an irreducible Africanness defines Kelani's creative vision; Giwa-Isekeije (2013) examines female agency and representation across his filmography; Fasan (2016) offers a focused feminist reading of Arugba; and Olayiwola (2018) analyses his films as sites of negotiation between cultural identity and political critique.
The question of which contemporary filmmakers carry this cultural filmmaking tradition forward is more complex than a simple matter of succession. Kunle Afolayan and Femi Adebayo are significant figures in contemporary Yoruba-language cinema. Afolayan is the son of pioneering filmmaker Ade Afolayan, and Adebayo is the son of celebrated actor and filmmaker Adebayo Salami. Both inherit Yoruba filmmaking through direct family lineage and have made meaningful contributions to the visibility of Yoruba cultural production. Kelani's relationship to the tradition, however, is shaped differently: it derives from decades of personal, lived immersion rather than an inherited professional position. These are distinct but equally legitimate pathways into the tradition, and an adequate understanding of Yoruba cinema requires holding both in view rather than collapsing them into a single narrative of succession.
A further contextual concern addressed by this project is the relationship between Nollywood's global reach and the preservation of local cultural specificity. Kelani himself has spoken about the pressures that globalisation and cultural imperialism place on indigenous languages and traditions, and his interview for this essay elaborates on that concern. The Nigerian government's historical withdrawal of indigenous language instruction from formal schooling, alongside the increasing dominance of English-language media, has created conditions in which Yoruba cultural expression faces structural marginalisation. The essay approaches the question of whether Nigerian youth are abandoning cultural identity or simply renegotiating it under new social conditions without nostalgia, acknowledging the complexity of living within a globalised cultural environment.
This project builds on existing scholarship in two specific ways. First, it incorporates a direct, extended interview with Kelani, enabling first-person reflection on the cultural intentions behind Arugba that written scholarship has not yet foregrounded in this way. Second, it deploys the audiovisual essay form to make an analytical argument through the logic of cinema itself, using editing, juxtaposition, and the interplay of image and voice as research instruments. López and Martin (2014) describe the audiovisual essay as a form poised between criticism and cinema. Baptista (2016) argues that it generates knowledge that written text cannot fully replicate. Vick (2021) frames it as a self-contained performative act. Building on this body of work, this project treats the audiovisual essay not as an illustration of pre-formed arguments, but as a method for generating and testing them, what Visosevic and Myers (2017) call a multimodal transmedia artefact that makes an original research contribution.
Within the author's research trajectory, this project emerges from a sustained practice as a film editor and cinematographer, combined with a scholarly interest in African cinema's capacity to negotiate local cultural specificity and global circulation. It represents a first-person intervention in debates about cultural preservation, the methodological potential of Nollywood, and the epistemic possibilities of practice-based screen research.
Methods
Methods
The project draws on methods from Fine Art, Screen Studies, and Cultural and Media Studies, combining close textual analysis, practice-based filmmaking, and qualitative interviewing. The central methodological claim is that the audiovisual essay can make its argument in the same medium it analyses, thereby making visible the formal choices, including cinematography, editing rhythm, and the expressive register of the director's voice, that written description can only approximate. This is not a claim about accessibility or presentation; it is a claim about the form's epistemology.
A close analysis of Arugba was conducted through sustained, repeated viewings, identifying sequences in which Kelani's authorial signature is most legible: his use of the Yoruba language in dialogue and proverbs, the mise-en-scene of the Osun-Osogbo festival, the costuming of the protagonist Adetutu, and the staging of the corrupt political council. These sequences were selected not as illustrations of a pre-existing argument, but as the primary material through which the theoretical frameworks were tested and developed.
The in-depth online interview with Kelani constituted primary qualitative research. Questions were designed to elicit reflection on specific scenes and cultural intentions rather than biographical narrative alone. This enabled Kelani's interpretive voice to enter into dialogue with the essay's analytical argument. Roberts (2020) describes the in-depth interview as a focused qualitative method capable of eliciting detailed responses directly relevant to the topic of interest; this framing guided the interview design throughout. Questions were sent in advance of the interview, and relevant scenes from Arugba were used as anchoring examples to focus the conversation.
In post-production, editorial decisions were analytical acts. The juxtaposition of Kelani's interview responses with specific scenes from the film was not illustrative but argumentative: placing his account of cultural intention directly against the visual evidence of how that intention is realised in the frame produces a meaning that neither element alone could generate. Colour grading, narration pacing, and the integration of graphical text for theoretical citation were used to sustain the essay's research argument throughout its full runtime. The production methodology, therefore, draws on the traditions of the essay film as developed across European and African screen practice (Eriksson and Sorensen, 2012; Baptista, 2016).
Outcomes
Outcomes
The audiovisual essay yields findings that written analysis alone cannot fully capture. By applying Auteur Theory directly to named sequences, the work shows how Kelani's biography translates into visual grammar. The opening festival procession in Arugba, with its layered use of Yoruba drumming, ritual costume, and its setting at the Osun-Osogbo grove, bears the imprint of Kelani's formative years in Abeokuta and his intimate knowledge of south-western Nigerian cultural life. His subsequent training at the London International Film School gave him the technical language to render that knowledge cinematically. Watching these sequences alongside Kelani's own commentary in the interview makes the convergence between biography and formal choice analytically visible in a way that written paraphrase cannot replicate. Onikoyi (2016) has argued for the centrality of Auteur Theory to understanding Kelani's politically committed films; this project extends that argument by grounding it in scene-specific evidence rather than general assertion.
The application of Entertainment-Education Theory to Arugba reveals how the film functions simultaneously as a cultural archive, a political critique, and a pedagogical instrument. Wang and Singhal (2021) define entertainment-education as a communication strategy that uses tailored entertainment to address social issues and produce change at the individual, community, and societal levels. In Arugba, this operates through the film's treatment of corrupt governance, religious tolerance, communal cohesion, and gendered social expectations. Kelani's disclosure in an interview that the film was screened at over fifty secondary schools after its release demonstrates that the entertainment-education function extends beyond theatrical exhibition into active pedagogical practice. The audiovisual essay captures this dimension by showing the film addressing its audience, making the theory's claims operational rather than descriptive.
The essay also addresses the complexity of female representation in Arugba. Adetutu's characterisation cannot be read as straightforwardly progressive. Her valorisation within the film is bound up with a politics of chastity that reflects the patriarchal values of the society the film depicts. Fasan (2016) has offered a nuanced feminist reading of the film, and this essay engages directly with that complexity, presenting Adetutu as a site of ideological negotiation between Yoruba cultural tradition and questions of female bodily autonomy, rather than as an uncomplicated model of female agency. The audiovisual form is well suited to articulating this tension, by holding the film's visual pleasures and its ideological contradictions in view at the same time.
The essay also extends the conversation initiated in the interview about Yoruba-language cinema and its relationship to global film culture. Kelani's reflections on how his films engage with global cinema while remaining grounded in local cultural specificity open a line of analysis into what distinguishes Yoruba-language film as a category, and what Kelani's practice contributes to that tradition that is not reducible to the contributions of his contemporaries. Scholars, researchers, and practitioners working in African cinema studies, Nollywood studies, and practice-research methodology will find in this work a model for how the audiovisual essay form can function as rigorous research within the specific context of non-Western cinemas.
Impact
Impact
The work has potential impact across several domains. Culturally, it contributes to the global visibility of Yoruba cinema and the Osun-Osogbo festival traditions depicted in Arugba, which UNESCO recognises as Intangible Cultural Heritage. By making these practices legible to international academic and festival audiences, the essay participates in the wider project of cultural preservation that it analyses.
In terms of policy relevance, Kelani's argument, articulated in the interview and substantiated by the research, that the government should establish dedicated funding mechanisms for Nigerian cultural films speaks directly to ongoing debates in African cultural policy and the creative economy. His call for deliberate government intervention through grants and policy instruments to support culturally oriented filmmakers is given scholarly grounding by this project and made audible to audiences beyond academic publication.
References
References
Adebayo, T.A. and Adeseye, B. (2018) Nollywood as a Preserver of Nigerian Culture; A Case Study of Tunde Kelani's Arugba. Doctoral Dissertation, Federal University Oye Ekiti.
Akinmameji, O.O. (2016) 'Lexis and mood as markers of feminist ideology in Tunde Kelani's Arugba and Ma'ami'. International Letters of Social and Humanistic Sciences, 71, pp.71-82.
Baptista, T. (2016) Lessons in Looking: The Digital Audiovisual Essay. [Unpublished thesis].
Bryman, A. (2016) Social Research Methods. 5th ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Emwinromwankhoe, O. (2021) 'Portrayal of women in contemporary Nollywood films'. CINEJ Cinema Journal, pp.118-145.
Eriksson, T. and Sorensen, I.E. (2012) Reflections on Academic Video. Seminar.net.
Fasan, R. (2016) 'Arugba: Superwoman, power and agency'. Journal of African Cultural Studies, 28(3), pp.283-291.
Film Rats Club (2022) 'Ayinla: Tunde Kelani has five films on the way'. Film Rats Club [online]. Available from: https://www.filmratsclub.com [accessed 01 June 2022].
Giwa-Isekeije, J. (2013) 'Peeking through the Opomulero lens: Tunde Kelani's women on center stage'. The Global South, 7(1), pp.98-121.
Guanah, J.S., Leader, S. and Onochie, B.C. (2023) 'Film and security challenges in society: Sam Dede's phenomenal lead role in Issakaba in focus'. Advanced Journal of Theatre and Film Studies, 1(1), pp.14-20.
Kamer, L. (2023) Africa: Leading film producing countries 2021. Statista [online]. Available from: https://www.statista.com [accessed 2023].
Kelani, T. and Ugochukwu, F. (2017) 'Interview with Tunde Kelani (TK) - 20/02/17'. African Renaissance, 14(3), pp.25-29.
Knott, E., Rao, A.H., Summers, K. and Teeger, C. (2022) 'Interviews in the social sciences'. Nature Reviews Methods Primers, 2, 73.
Kuhn, A. and Westwell, G. (2020) A Dictionary of Film Studies. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
Lopez, C.A. and Martin, A. (2014) 'Introduction to the audiovisual essay: A child of two mothers'. NECSUS [online]. Available from: https://necsus-ejms.org [accessed 2023].
Njoku, J.C. (2019) Nollywood and African Culture. Abingdon: Routledge.
Ogunbiyi, O.O. (2016) 'African traditional religion and representation: An examination of selected Yoruba movies'. In: Theory, Knowledge, Development and Politics: What Role for the Academy in the Sustainability of Africa? p.231.
Ola-Koyi, S.J.B. (n.d.) Film Appreciation: A Formalist Approach to Film Analysis and Evaluation.
Olayiwola, A. (2018) 'Between culture and politics in Nigeria: Power, identity and democratic reflections in Tunde Kelani's films'. International Review of Humanities Studies, 3(1), pp.57-71.
Olayiwola, E. (2021) 'Tunde Kelani and the woman's film genre'. In: Onikoyi, T. and Afolabi, T., eds. The Cinema of Tunde Kelani: Aesthetics, Theatricalities and Visual Performance. Cambridge Scholars Publishing. p.156.
Omoera, O.S., Edemode, J.O. and Aihevba, P. (2017) 'Impact of Nollywood films on children's behaviour in Ekpoma, Nigeria'. Asian and African Studies, 26(2).
Onikoyi, B.O. (2016) 'Irreducible Africanness and Auteur Theory: Situating Tunde Kelani's politically committed movies'. Africology: The Journal of Pan African Studies, 9(10), pp.239-256.
Onikoyi, B. (2017) Introduction to filmmaker Tunde Kelani and review of his film Pyrolysis or Paralysis. Africa in Words [online]. Available from: https://africainwords.com [accessed 2023].
Onikoyi, T. (2021) 'Interview with Tunde Kelani'. African Studies Review, 64(1), pp.E1-E25.
Onuzulike, U. (2009) 'Nollywood: Nigerian videofilms as a cultural and technological hybridity'. Intercultural Communication Studies, 18(1), p.176.
Onuzulike, U. (2014) 'Nollywood video film's impact on Nigerian and other African environments and cultures'. Explorations in Media Ecology, 13(3-4), pp.285-298.
Oyeyemi, D.B. (2021) 'Emergence of Nigerian women filmmakers and their contributions to Nollywood'. NTATVC Journal of Communication, 5(2), pp.53-59.
Roberts, R.E. (2020) 'Qualitative interview questions: Guidance for novice researchers'. The Qualitative Report, 25(9), pp.3185-3203.
Seyi, E., Ajayi, M.P. and Ola, G.T. (2014) 'Waning cultural values and adolescent chastity: A study of Arugba in Nigeria'.
Sood, S., Riley, A.H. and Alarcon, K.C. (2017) 'Entertainment-education and health and risk messaging'. In: Oxford Research Encyclopedia of Communication.
The Economist (2006) 'Nollywood dreams'. The Economist [online]. Available from: http://www.economist.com/node/7226009 [accessed 2023].
UNESCO Press (2009) 'Nollywood rivals Bollywood in film/video production'. UNESCO [online]. Available from: http://portal.unesco.org [accessed 2023].
Vick, N. (2021) 'The video essay'. Honors in Practice, 17, pp.252-255.
Visosevic, T. and Myers, A. (2017) Video Essay: The Multimodal Assignment of Now.
Wang, H. and Singhal, A. (2021) 'Mind the gap! Confronting the challenges of translational communication research in entertainment-education'. In: Frank, L.B. and Falzone, P., eds. Entertainment-Education Behind the Scenes. Palgrave Macmillan.
Filmography
Filmography
Agogo Eewo (Tunde Kelani, 2002, Nigeria)
Arugba [The Votary Maiden] (Tunde Kelani, 2008, Nigeria)
Ayinla (Tunde Kelani, 2021, Nigeria)
Dazzling Mirage (Tunde Kelani, 2014, Nigeria)
Living in Bondage (Chris Obi Rapu, 1992, Nigeria)
Maami (Tunde Kelani, 2011, Nigeria)
Saworoide (Tunde Kelani, 1999, Nigeria)
The Narrow Path (Tunde Kelani, 2006, Nigeria)
Thunderbolt: Magun (Tunde Kelani, 2001, Nigeria)
Peer Reviews
Peer Reviews
All reviews refer to the original research statement which has been edited in response to what follows
Review 1: Accept submission subject to minor revisions of written statement
Sesan Omotosho's The Role of a Filmmaker in Sustaining Cultural Development in Contemporary Nigerian Society,' explores the vital intersection between cinema and preservation of indigenous values in contemporary Nigeria. By analyzing Tunde Kelani's Arugba, the author argues that filmmakers function as essential cultural workers and producers who integrate and interact with cultural identity in a society where such is diminishing.
The paper addresses a timely and significant subject within Nollywood studies, offering insights into how cinema can serve as a custodian of national identity. Though thematic analysis and contextual reference are strong, the paper's core ideas and arguments could have been better argued.
In Omotosho’s interview with TK, there was a short-lived conversation about global cinema which could have better established the paper's original ideas around the functionality of TK and Nigerian cinema in preserving cultural values. This would have allowed for a reflection on how global cinema, which TK pratice, reflect local identities while addressing contemporary topical issues.
In dialogue with TK, the essay film argued about the decline in Nigerian cultural integrity, protection, promotion and preservation of Yoruba language and ultural imperialism as the harbinger of the degradation of cultural values.
What the paper failed to contextualize is how, over the years, the Nigerian government has made it impossible for teaching of indigenous languages in Nigerian schools. TK alluded to this. But, colonialism is quickly branded as the sole culprit. Additionally, the world is a global village and Nigerians interact with foreign cultures. Thus, it isn’t out of place if Nigerian youths are shedding off their cultural identity. Criticizing them for it is a nostalgia-ridden exercise that doesn’t contextualize their lived experience.
Kunle Afolayan and Femi Adebayo are pitched TK’s predecessors. The essay didn’t interrogate what makes them heirs. Their films have been critiqued for not having a grounded understanding of the Yoruba cultural and metaphysical worldview. Understandably, their recent films are performed and set in Yoruba settings. But, contrary to TK who lives and breathe the Yoruba culture, Adebayo’s interest in Yoruba-language films is driven by commercial interest not cultural preservation. So, staging them as TK's successor is only fragmentarily not entirely correct.
The paper argued that “TK contributes to changing the negative representation of women in Nollywood movies and the narratives around feminist stereotypes in African cinema by positively portraying females as protagonists, as evidenced in Arugba (Ola-Koyi, n.d.).” This argument crumbles when one attempt a feminist reading of the film and Adetutu's characterization.
Adetutu is a patriarchal representation of a woman whom a patriarchal society accords, respects and protects because of her unbroken hymen. Throughout history, virginity is synonymous with innocent, naive, and delicate. This allows for the multiple fetishization of Adetutu by the King and jestful portrayals of other young girls who aren’t virgins. Virginity — as a social construct, rest heavily on societal intention to control women's bodily autonomy. Being chaste, as the film frames it, isn't indicative of being a studious follower of Yoruba culture and worldview. It's just the age-long controlling tactics wielded against women's body and choice.
In another argument, the paper argued that “One can imagine how the community would have suffered if Adetutu had been promiscuous.” This argument prompt an important question: how does Adetutu virginity or promiscuousity cause corruption, economic development, political stability and communal development? Economic growth and political change are driven by political ideas and economic labour not morals. Thus, linking communal development to women's bodies isn't flattering but a flawed understanding of how economic development happens.
The discussion on global cinema which TK alluded to could have been insightful but wasn't explored. This would have helped the paper in establishing what Yoruba-language cinema is. It would have explained what makes TK films different from his contemporaries. The paper occasionally strayed into original ideas and topics but didn't significantly explore them. This makes for a recurring limited argument. Lastly, the film-essay approach allowed for a collaborative and somewhat informed analysis of scenes, thematic and artistic intentions of the director. This pushed the paper's core ideas and arguments.
Review 2: Invite resubmission with major revisions of written statement.
Impact, Novelty, and Originality of the Practical Work
The audiovisual essay examines the role of the filmmaker in sustaining cultural development in Nigerian society through a case study of Arugba and the filmmaking practice of Tunde Kelani. The work argues that filmmakers can function as cultural custodians by incorporating indigenous traditions, language, ritual practices and social commentary into cinematic storytelling.
The practical work’s most valuable contribution is the incorporation of an interview with Kelani, which provides direct reflection from the filmmaker on the cultural intentions behind his work. This element potentially strengthens the audiovisual essay as a form of practice-based research.
However, the novelty of the work is limited by the fact that its central argument, “that Nigerian filmmakers contribute to cultural preservation through film,” is already well established in scholarship on Nollywood and Yoruba cinema. Yes, the audiovisual essay format makes the argument accessible, but the research statement does not sufficiently demonstrate how the audiovisual form itself generates new analytical insight.
To strengthen the originality of the practical work, the author should clarify how the audiovisual essay functions as a research method rather than primarily a presentation of existing ideas. The work would benefit from a clearer explanation of how the editing, narration, interview material, and scene analysis together produce a distinct research argument.
Quality of the Accompanying Statement
The statement is clearly structured and includes sections on context, methodology, production process, and theoretical framework. This structure provides a useful overview of the project’s development. However, the argument is not consistently sustained throughout the text. For instance, sections such as the ‘Overview’ devote substantial space to a general history of Nollywood and Nigerian cinema, which, while informative, could be condensed to focus more directly on the central research question and the analysis of the case study.
The theoretical framework identifies Auteur Theory and Entertainment-Education as the main analytical approaches. While both frameworks are relevant, their application remains quite general. The statement would benefit from a more precise explanation of how these theories help interpret specific aspects of Arugba or Kelani’s filmmaking approach.
The methodology section explains why the audiovisual essay format was chosen and outlines the production process. However, this section reads largely as a description of the filmmaking process rather than a discussion of the research methodology. The author should clarify how the practice itself contributes to knowledge or analysis.
All reviews refer to the original research statement which has been edited in response
Page updated
Google Sites
Report abuse