Dancing out a nation’s state of pity and amusement: Kelani’s retelling of Ogunde’s Yoruba Ronu

Abstract

This article dispenses with the continuing dialogue on Tunde Kelani, as a filmmaker with a conscience and one who strives at discussing the on-going political quagmires, which have instigated reactionary movements and forces to clamour for an ideal leadership suitable for the appropriate governing of Nigeria. Tunde Kelani’s major works are politically committed and illustrate contemporary issues and politics as well as critique the inevitable conundrum of corruption. In this paper there is an affirmation that with Kelani’s adaptation of Hubert Ogunde’s Yoruba Ronu, the imaginative communication in the context of dance has become a means for him to examine issues with the aid of the visual elements of film. Dance is employed in addressing a faulty political system in Tunde Kelani’s adaptation, Yoruba E Ronu. With music, song, drama, dialogue, mime and poetry and the artistry of dance on screen, Kelani’s postcolonial logic is further buttressed in his tenacity as an auteur filmmaker who is highly concerned about the very nature and consequences of Nigeria’s ossified political system.

Keywords: Tunde Kelani, Hubert Ogunde, Yoruba Ronu, Dance, Film, Yoruba E Ronu, Auteurism, Cinema of conscience