Critical intersection praxis linking artistry, music and ideology in filmic depictions of select Nigeria’s witchcraft worldviews and inclinations in Niyi Akinmolaya’s My Village People
Alphonsus Ugwu, Ikenna Onwuegbuna, Izuu Ewulu, Mary-Isabella A. Chidi-Igbokwe, Norbert O. Eze and Emeka Aniago
University of Nigeria, Nsukka, Enugu State, Nigeria
e-mail: norbertoyiboeze@gmail.com (corresponding author)
AGATHOS, Volume 15, Issue 2 (29): 345-366, DOI 10.5281/zenodo.13950151
© www.agathos-international-review.com CC BY NC 2024
Abstract: In many climes, witchcraft is designated a paranormal phenomenon because its manifestations lack empirical evidence, interpretation, and clarity. In Nigeria, the acknowledgment of the efficacy of witchcraft as an abiding and pervasive reality reflects a culture-specific worldview. Stories of witchcraft manifestations abound in Nigeria and in Nollywood films; however, the veracity of these narrations remains a continual subject of passionate argumentation because the supposed deeds by witches are not empirically verifiable. This paper represents another interpretive attempt, seeking a deeper elucidation of witchcraft phenomenon portrayals in a Nollywood film, which looks at the role of music and creative vision in narrative realization. In addition, this study interprets the application of choice authorial utilization of magical realism and relevant creative arts to generate visual metaphors in scenes of shape shifting in My Village People, a Nollywood film which until now, has not received a dedicated study, examining its portrayal of witchcraft and the utility of music in extending witchcraft narratives. Furthermore, this study highlights the film’s efficacy as a platform for worldview re-aggregation and in the end; the study concludes that the shape-shifting depictions with distinct creative vision represent a critical intersection of arts and ideology, and a narration-enhancing approach that motivates quality-screening experience.
Keywords: magical realism, social ecology, visual metaphor, witchcraft, worldview
Introduction
Filmic depictions of mystical realities such as witchcraft show that filmmakers’ authorial latitude subsumes differing utilization of relevant creative arts and artistry in their extension of narratives beyond the limits of rationality and empiricism (Cloete 2017; Aniago et al 2019; Aniago et al 2020). Films in this category depict paranormal actions such as shape-shifting, telepathy, clairvoyance, teleportation, and astral travel as typical realities to support claims of witchcraft, even though some reject such postulations. As Nollywood films continue to present witchcraft stories, a number of questions have continued to resonate and the following are a few examples: what are the valid actual physical manifestations of witches? What are witches preferred colour(s) at appearance? What are their preferred mission times? What are the kinds of music/sound ascribable to them at appearance? What are their specific operational approaches? In response to these questions, the depictions of witches in films indicate evident divergent suppositions and a lack of unanimity regarding interpretations of the phenomenon of witches and witchcraft. To this end, how do filmmakers come about their ideas of witchcraft and witches, which they communicate in their films and how can a film viewer ascertain when a film’s witchcraft story emanates from one or a combination of the following. A dependable research finding subsuming verifiable locale-specific worldviews; deliberate disinformation; an ignorant misinformation; an honest mistake, or a mere creative imagination? Scholarly foray and interpretations attempting to provide elucidations on witchcraft in disciplines such as religion, culture, sociology, geography, and philosophy abound (Evans-Pritchard 1937; Offiong 1983; Behringer 2004; Irwin 2009; Waters 2019; Kroesbergen-Kamps 2020). However, there is a paucity of studies dedicated at the analysis of music and other artistic elements’ utilization in creative depictions of witches’ shape-shifting and the interrogation of the veracity of information subsumed in such depictions in the Nollywood film My Village People directed by Niyi Akinmolaya. In response, we have assembled scholars in film studies, fine and applied arts, media, and music studies to combine their disciplinary perspectives to deepen the understanding of the embedded social ecology praxis subsumed in My Village People’s portrayal of witches and witchcraft. Hence, this study utilizes relevant conceptual ideas in magical realism theory, to provide a ‘thick description’ of some creative depictions of shape shifting in My Village People. The purpose is to elucidate on the application of select artistic elements such as music and sound as functional tools for the extension of locale-specific dominant worldview concerning witchcraft phenomenon in parts of southern Nigeria.
Literature Review: Witchcraft, Witches, and Shapeshifting as Paranormals Realities
Studies indicate that perspectives on witchcraft revolve around locale-specific worldviews and Nigerians widely classify witches as supernatural humans capable of paranormal actions such as shape-shifting, (a mystically induced total or partial reversible transformation of the physical form). Nigerians regard it as pejorative to call someone a witch, however, there are instances its application metaphorically denotes an expression of consternation at a person’s phenomenal cognitive propensity. Studies indicate that in Nigeria and several parts of Africa, regardless of individuals’ religious inclinations, gender, social status, and level of education “the fear of witchcraft and witches is very dominant, and many things are explained with the idiom of witchcraft” (Offiong 1983, iv). This deeply ingrained Nigerian worldview on witchcraft evokes a range of responses such as fear, stigma, and misunderstandings (Jayeola-Omoyeni et al 2015). Consequently, the widespread inclination and fascination in Nigeria is that witchcraft connotes mystical, diabolical, dangerous, and paranormal powers, which individuals appropriate to cause harm to other people. For instance, this abiding enthralment played out in 2022, when an interdisciplinary international conference, titled, 'Witchcraft: Meanings, Factors and Practices' organized by the Professor B. I. C. Ijomah Centre for Policy Studies and Research, University of Nigeria, Nsukka was announced, and several individuals within and outside the campus responded with fervent disapproval. Their opposition in many ways situate the conference as a disguised “gathering of practicing witches and wizards, and an attempt by the organizers to spiritually cede the university to witchcraft, pollute the land, attract God's wrath, initiate innocent people into witchcraft and aggravate the country's social problems” (Uchendu 2023, 11). Essentially, the disapprovals typify a dominant ideology in Nigeria that witches “possess supernatural powers, which enable them to travel physically and spiritually to torment their victims” (Ernest-Samuel 2015, 47), and Nollywood films variously represent suppositions and polemics that situate local specific worldviews as dominant variables.
The academic study of the portrayals of paranormal, mystical, or supernatural realities' such as witches and shape-shifting in literature and films falls within the conceptual frame known as magical realism, which Isabela Allende (1991, 54) describes as “a way of seeing in which there is a space for the invisible forces that move the world”. Magical realism “relies upon the presentation of real, imagined or magical elements as if they were real” thus “magical realism therefore relies upon realism but only so that it can stretch what is acceptable as real to its limits” (Bowers 2004, 210). Bowers’ expression, ‘the presentation of the imagined or magical elements as if they were real’ and Allende’s suggestion that people widely acknowledge the efficacy of ‘invisible forces’ highlight the praxis of the two contending worldviews: the believers' worldview and the skeptics' worldview. The believers unambiguously acknowledge that witchcraft, witches, and shape-shifting are prevalent paranormal, supernatural, or mystical realities in Nigeria. The skeptics dismiss witchcraft, witches, and shape-shifting as fantasies and figments of imagination by emphasizing the lack of empirical basis for verification of claims. Hence, a deeper understanding of the portrayal of witchcraft, witches, and shape-shifting in a film such as My Village People requires informed and dense assessment, to determine if the enactments are propelled by either one or both of the dominant worldviews on witchcraft in south-south and southeast regions of Nigeria.
In discussing the dominant worldview on paranormal and shape-shifting in southeast and south-south regions of Nigeria, this paper adopts Clifford Geertz’s ‘thick description’ concept, which relays that a researcher will be able to draw a better understanding of a people's social realities and inclinations, through a deliberate aligning of his analysis within a locale-specific context and worldview. Invariably, this supposition explains the core ideas in ‘social construction of reality theory’, which provide the basis for deeper contextualization of the dynamics of meaning-making convergences and divergences about all human realities from locale-specific point-of-views. The social construction of reality theory, according to Peter Berger and Thomas Luckmann conceptualizes that each culture or social group develops its understandings of the world, through creation, sustenance, and modification of definitions, meanings, and perspectives on things (Leeds-Hurwitz 2009, 892). Thus, to what extent do the narrative and portrayals in My Village People align with the dominant worldviews on shape-shifting in Southeast and South-south regions of Nigeria?
The social construction of reality concerning shape-shifting revolves around assumptions and suppositions propelled by locale-specific social realities and the following three sets of assumption dynamics (essential, affective, and evaluative) influence the construction of realities. The essential assumptions “provide a culture with the fundamental cognitive structures people use to explain reality, and affective assumptions underline notions of beauty and style, and influence the peoples’ taste in music, art, dress, food and architecture as well as the ways they feel about themselves and life in general” (Heibert 1983, 89). The evaluative assumptions “provide the standards people use to make judgments about right and wrong” (Ibid.). The notion is that social construction of reality leads to the generation and aggregation of a people’s worldview, which is their vision of life, or “a framework or set of fundamental beliefs” through which they view the world and their calling and their future in it (Olthuis 1985, 2). This vision of life, “may be so internalized that it goes largely unquestioned; it may be greatly refined through cultural-historical development; it may not be explicitly developed into a systematic conception of life; it may be theoretically deepened into a philosophy; and it may not even be codified into creedal form” (Ibid, 2–3). Essentially, “this vision is a channel for the ultimate belief which gives direction and meaning to life”, hence “it is the integrative and interpretative framework by which order and disorder are judged, the standard by which reality is managed and pursued” (Olthuis 1983, 3). Therefore, a worldview represents “how people perceive and explain their world, or the ways things are, or change in their environment” (Nwoye 2011, 306). The explanations of James Olthuis and Chinwe Nwoye indicate that worldview influences belief trajectories and assumptions, which determine people’s suppositions, behaviours, thought patterns, meaning-making dynamics, ways of responses to stories, claims, and suppositions about paranormal realities such as shape-shifting enacted in fictions and films.
Referring to a phenomenon such as shape-shifting as a supernatural reality denotes that it “surpasses the limit of our knowledge”, hence, “the supernatural is the world of mysterious, of the unknowable, of the un-understandable” (Durkheim [1965] 1912, 39). Lyle B. Steadman and Craig T. Palmer (2008, 4) describe the supernatural as that “beyond identification by the senses”, while Evans-Prtichard (1937, 108) describes it as that which “cannot be directly apprehended by the senses”. Benson Saler (1977, 34) describes the supernatural as “a broad cover term for a variety of postulated realities, forces, or ‘being’ that are usually denominated as ‘spiritual’ or ‘superhuman’ and whose effects surpass those possible of achievement by ordinary human capabilities”. According to Samuel Brainard (1996, 359-360), though “it has proven difficult to agree on what it means for an experience to be mystical”, scholars have continued to present ‘mystical experience’ as “a coherent category of experience”. He notes that “the experiences we call ‘mystical’ or translate from other languages as being ‘mystical’ all have two characteristics” – ‘non-ordinariness’ and ‘profundity’ (Ibid, 362). The non-ordinariness of mystical realities means they are inexplicable through empirical or conventional processes (Ibid, 373), and profundity, encapsulates experiences such as telepathy, clairvoyance, and astral travel, which may be considered naturalistically unexplainable (Ibid, 379). For example, mysticism, Hans Penner (1989, 11) notes, “covers a host of beliefs and experiences”, Sallie King (1988, 273) observes that mystical experience is “a form of awareness in which the experiential sense of a separate subject and object is not present”, but is ‘anomalous’ (Proudfoot 1985, 148). A reference or description of anything as supernatural indicates the trajectory of a worldview because as rational beings humans think and assume based on acquired knowledge, subsisting indoctrination, social contexts, and prevailing circumstances (Schaeffer 1972, 3). Therefore, a film supposedly embodies in its story locale-specific social contexts, history, culture, philosophy, and traditions, which expose viewers to ideas for assimilation, worldview formulation, and inclination re-aggregation.
Synopsis and select scenes of witchcraft, telepathy, and clairvoyance in My Village People
The story of the film My Village People revolves around two characters, Prince and Haggai, while the film's actions occur in two locales – Lagos (where Prince resides and works), and Okovi (where Haggai resides with her grandfather Ndio, a witch coven leader and a prominent Okovi elder). Prince is an orphan and a young man, with a younger sister Princess, who is his only surviving sibling. Prince is in his late thirties, he is a Nigerian, and his ancestral village Okovi is located in a coastal area in the south-south region of Nigeria. Prince resides and works as a marketing executive in a company in Lagos, south-west Nigeria. He has been away from Okovi for twenty years and he is in Okovi just to partake in his sister’s customary wedding ceremony, which by tradition must be in the bride’s village. Upon his arrival at the site of the traditional marriage ceremony, he sees his sister, her suitor, his relatives, and other well-wishers dancing and singing. He joyously joins and excitedly sprays them with crisp currency notes.
After the traditional wedding ceremony, Prince and his village-dwelling uncle Jakpa visit Ndio who had requested through Jakpa, a convivial visit by Prince. At the end of their conversation, Ndio instructs Haggai, his granddaughter, to take the gallon of palm wine and roasted meat he offered Prince as a gift, to his hotel room and keep him company. Earlier, while the celebrant and well-wishers were singing and dancing, Haggai stood at a significant distance from the merriment as she intently fixed a romantic gaze on Prince as he danced. Haggai is apparently in her mid-to-late twenties or early thirties.
In the hotel room, Haggai pleads with Prince to declare earnestly, romantically, and severally to her – I love you. She is convinced that appropriate utterances of the declaration would spiritually untie her from the covenant bond with her witch coven. Due to exuberance, Prince excitedly accedes and makes the declaration – I love you – twice to Haggai because he is keen on having an intimate and romantic moment immediately with her, which he decidedly began with fondling. Haggai halts his enthusiastic incursion, and demands that he continues the declaration. Haggai’s weird request spontaneously disenchants and dampens Prince’s momentum and desire. Recognizing the damage her unusual request has done, Haggai pleads with Prince to continue the declaration but Prince bluntly declines and opts to sleep, noting that he has lost his drive. Haggai gets sad and ends her plea. She lays agonizingly quiet on the bed beside Prince to spend the night with him. Throughout the night, there was no physical incident between them. Very early in the morning, Prince stealthily collects his clothes and sneaks out of the hotel room oblivious that Haggai saw every movement he made including his stealthy exit while she lay in bed pretending to be asleep. In the next scene, Prince is in a chatty mood in a cab at outskirts of his village, heading to the airport for his flight to Lagos.
Manifestations Portraying Haggai and the Old Women as Witches
There are actions and manifestations by Haggai and the three old women in the film that portray them as witches in line with Nigerian worldviews. Haggai’s first appearance in the film is the time Prince arrives at Okovi from the airport and joins his sister and others in the dancing. In this first scene, a local jazzy music without lyrics but drumbeats and metal-gongs rhythmically introduces the celebratory mode and locale specificity. Haggai stands at a distance and appears detached. Her countenance suggests intense concentration and emotional coldness. Her facial expression with distinctive features such as her tightly squeezed lips and penetrating cold glare relay an ominous aura that depicts passionate animosity. In this scene, Haggai’s demeanour is indistinctly suggestive; however, the hotel room scene where she delivers a bottle of palm wine and roasted meat her grandfather presented to Prince during his courtesy visit presents marginal archetypes ascribable to witches. First, her request to Prince to proclaim to her – I love you – many times is strange. Then her abrupt transition from responsive to detachment to the cuddling by Prince through stiffening of her body, transfixing of her gaze at the door, and appearing to sense and feel something invisible before hastily and stealthily running to hide behind the door is uncanny. Few second thereafter her spooky behaviour, a knock eerily resonant on the door. Perplexed Prince glances at Haggai before heading towards the door to open it. As Prince opens the door, standing outside are three middle-aged women. Politely he exchanges greetings with them. The leader of the women informs Prince that their mission is to give him their locally manufactured soap, which he will promote and sell in Lagos for them. Diplomatically, Prince tries to refuse but they persist thus, pretentiously he accepts to take the soap in the morning around 8 am before embarking on his journey to Lagos just to encourage them to let him be. Prince’s acceptance appears comfortable to them, however before bidding Prince Goodbye, deliriously they inform Prince that they are aware that Haggai is in the room with him. As Prince closes the door, he tells Haggai to relax that the women are not aware that she is with him. In response, Haggai counters.
This scenario projects possession of clairvoyance and telepathic abilities by Haggai and the three women. In line with predominate Nigerian witchcraft worldview, it is only mediums and witches that exhibit paranormal powers and abilities. Haggai’s action, which indicates that she possesses the paranormal ability to perceive and sense invisible presence situates as a witch. The supposition here is that Haggai possesses one or a combination of the following paranormal abilities. The ability to smell invisible presence of humans and paranormal beings from a significant distance or the ability to hear the inaudible movement-induced sound of various categories of entities, or the abnormal ability see distant things remotely regardless of the impediments that hinder normal human sight line such as non-transparent things like room walls. Her actions and manifestations suggest that she possesses elevated senses, particularly clairvoyant and telepathic.
According to Rosemary Ellen Guiley (1992, 95), clairvoyance is a “paranormal vision of objects, events, places, and people that are not visible through normal sight”. The idea here is that clairvoyance experience is when you see things that are real but without physical form, then you are experiencing clairvoyance, an ability to see the unseen (Nathaniel 2013, 8). Haggai in the opening scene through a clairvoyant ability was able to sense that Prince is spiritually elevated. Similarly, the request by Ndio for Prince to visit him suggests that Ndio is spiritually elevated which aids him in perceiving Prince’s spiritual elevation. Ndio sends Haggai to take the Palm wine and roasted meat to Prince's hotel room and stay with him, as bait to lure Prince nearer to him. The suggestion in the film is that eating or drinking anything from a witch is a risk because it aids the witch in bewitching the individual. Prince’s actions project him as reckless because despite his sister's warning, to avoid hugging, eating, and drinking anything offered to him by anyone suspicious, he abandons caution, to pursue a one-night non-commitment romance with a stranger Haggai. Prince’s inability to sense that Haggai is a witch places him as a spiritually dormant entity. An occurrence that situates the three middle-aged women as witches takes place on the road leading to the airport after Prince leaves Haggai behind in the hotel room. In the car, Prince calls his sister and gladly gloats, letting her know that he is heading to the airport because he departed from the village by 4 am. While he is conversing, suddenly in the foggy morning vision, the cab driver sees the three middle-aged women standing in the middle of the road. Perplexed, he frightfully applies the car brakes abruptly. The appearance of the three women is mysterious and in Nigeria, such an occurrence is attributable to a possession of paranormal powers, attributable to witches mostly. Therefore, the questions, which defy empirical elucidation, are how did the witches know that Prince had begun his journey to the airport and how did they appear suddenly in the middle of the road in front of a vehicle that is moving at a reasonable speed?
Analysis of Haggai’s shape-shifting as visual metaphors: Perspectives and theories
There is a substantial scholarship on perspectives and interpretations of witchcraft, witches, and their paranormal phenomena. Some of these studies present shape-shifting (a paranormal and reversible total or partial transformation of the physical form) as a mystical and universal phenomenon within locale-specific interpretations. A shape-shifter Katharine E. Mawford (2020, 10) explains that “must have the ability to effect self-transformation” and it is this ability that “sets them apart from mortals who are subjected to transformations at the hands of gods or other supernatural characters”. In a reaction to the prevalence of supernatural characters in Nollywood, Grace Kumwenda (2007, 109) notes that “whilst some scholars and filmmakers criticize the prevalence of themes of witchcraft, magic, and the supernatural, it is these very themes that draw local audience”. Rationalizing this preponderance and the viewers’ interest, Onuzulike (2009, 180) thinks that “Africans’ religiosity is one of the pillars on which the current knowledge of Africa is built” thus “it is difficult to separate African culture from African traditional religions because religion is embedded in the culture”. Onuzulike’s observation points at a social variable ‘religion’ as that which propels the social construction of reality in communities. According to Dauda Musa Enna et al (2015, 177), viewers of Nollywood films “form their opinions about Nigeria, her peoples and practices based on what they watch” and “the contents, some of which are latched with magical stunts, ritual and witchcraft scenes, and extreme belief in the supernatural, have the propensity to interpret Nigeria’s worldview externally”. Enna et al in their contribution elude the efficacy of the visual metaphor in films as that which propels the aggregation of perspectives and worldviews that situate instances of shape-shifting as either typical or actual realities which are alluded to variously by Nwaozuzu et al. (2021) and Chidi-Igbokwe et al. (2022).
In several scholarly interpretations of instances of shape-shifting, there are evidences of convergence and divergence of observations regarding why, when, and how shape-shifting occurs. An example of convergence in these studies is the wide acceptance that shape-shifting is a paranormal reality because does not yield to empirical elucidation. Therefore, each community defines shape-shifting according to their inclinations and worldviews, which accords with the view that “man is an animal suspended in webs of significance he has spun” (Geertz 1973, 5). This supposition by Clifford Geertz captures the definitive core idea of the concept of worldview and its utilization in social construction of reality – “the processes by which, people jointly construct their understandings of the world” (Leeds-Hurwitz 2009, 891). According to Peter Eastwell the supernatural as well as the metaphysical are widely viewed as:
That outside the observable universe, violating natural laws, and about god or a deity and is commonly associated with things like spirituality, occultism, spirits, the divine, the miraculous, fairies, vampires, ghosts, goblins, and other unearthly beings, including angels (2011, 18).
The contribution by Eastwell tacitly accepts the existence of human realm and supernatural realm. That intersection can occur between the two realms, hence, the ability of some humans to engage in paranormal actions, hence the supernatural essence of witchcraft “involves the use of supernatural forces for evil or harmful intent” (Petrus and Bogopa 2007, 3). A witch manifests in ambiguity as well as operates “both as a human being, with a natural, physical body, and, at the same time, also a ‘superhuman’ being, able to control both natural and supernatural forces for evil” (Ibid.) More so, Petrus and Bogopa observe that “humans are believed to possess the capacity to bring the natural and supernatural forces together, either for the benefit of their societies, as in the case of traditional healing, or for the detriment of society, as in the case of witchcraft or sorcery” (Ibid, 8). The rationalization here is that supernatural forces are in themselves neutral, however, humans acquire means of manipulating these forces either for good or evil purposes (Ibid.)
The snapshots below provide visual testimonies of the claims that witches can change their physical appearances as presented in the film My Village People. In snapshot, number 1 Haggai appeared at the venue where Prince is presenting a marketing proposal to clients. Haggai's apparition was only visible to Prince, and due to shock and freight, Prince appears absent-minded temporally leading him to pause his presentation involuntarily. The film indicates that Prince witnesses an apparition of Haggai, which situates apparition as a real occurrence, despite the inability of the others in the room with to acknowledge the appearance. The idea here is that Nigerians routinely categorize innumerable failures by many Nigerians to perform creditably and optimally as machinations of cruel witches.
In snapshot 1, Haggai appears at the venue where Prince is presenting a proposal to clients in Lagos
In snapshots 1 and 2, Prince sees Haggai’s apparition, which no one in the room sees. So our question is did Prince see an apparition of Haggai, is the apparition a fiction or a reality, and why is the apparition a testimony of a very few individuals among people? In our field study, the respondents overwhelmingly agreed that apparition is a reality and severally some of the respondents provided stories to support their conviction. We asked the respondents questions regarding the choice of Haggai’s dress and wig in her apparition. None of the respondents provided a reason behind the choice, thus, most of the respondents suggest that witches are at liberty to appear at will in any form and appearance. What this means is that there is no culture-specific knowledge that stipulates the dress design and colour code for witches during the apparition. Therefore, while all the respondents widely claim that witches appear and that they have heard stories suggesting the appearances of witches, none of the respondents indicated or claimed they know the specific dress design and colour witches must appear in. The respondents mostly suggested that witches could appear in any dress design and colour of their choice. As regards the plausibility of allowing only Prince to see the witch (Haggai) when she appeared at the venue of the proposal presentation, all the respondents observed that during the witches' apparition, the reality is that not everyone will see them. However, none of the respondents provided a plausible reason for this supposition.
In snapshot 2, Haggai appeared in Prince’s Living room at Lagos
In response to snapshot 2, most of the respondents suggest that the eyes of the witch (Haggai) are a film effect to drive the narrative further. The flashing eyes as a visual metaphor, suggest energy and power, which Haggai utilizes to achieve a purpose.
In snapshot 3, Haggai appeared at Prince’s compound in Lagos with other witches
In snapshot 3 where Haggai is standing in Prince’s compound in Lagos outside his window, she is dressed in the same cloth and wig as in snapshots 1 and 2. In frame 3, there are six girls wearing black coloured gown however, only Haggai is wearing a blonde wig, whereas the rest are wearing black wig. So what is the significance? None of the respondents was able to provide a plausible interpretation that links locale-specific witchcraft worldview from any part of Nigeria. Hence, we suppose that the blonde wig is aesthetical and a means of providing clear character identification. The dressing of Haggai in snapshots 1 and 2, and snapshot 3 with her accompanies suggest that witches can appear as they wish and not strictly in a locale-specific traditional attire.
In snapshot 4, Haggai who appeared at Prince’s compound in Lagos with other witches as presented in snapshot 3, shape shifted to birds
In snapshot 4, the blackbirds indicate that Haggai and her four co-witches have shape shifted to blackbirds. All the respondents suggest that witches can shape-shift to birds and other animals of their choice. However, there is no concordance as regards the kind of bird(s) or the colour the bird must appear in. Some of the respondents suggested that Ravens, Crows, and Awls are the most common bird witches in Nigeria shape-shift and assume their natural appearances.
On Ability of Witches to Mysteriously Interrupt of Human Actions and Affairs
We relied on a specific scene; where Prince and Ame, his girlfriend and co-worker are discussing to extract responses from the respondents. In the scene at a restaurant after Prince and Ame finished preparing the marketing proposal for the following day’s presentation and he was about to kiss her, his phone rings and interrupts them from kissing. Angrily, Prince picks his phone, and listens, and it is Haggai, he ends the call and asks Ame for a second opportunity to kiss her. Reluctantly, Ame accedes and as they are about to kiss, the phone rings again, disrupting them once more. Ame observes that she saw him switch off the phone, yet it rings. For the third time, Ame agrees to kiss Prince, again as they are about to touch lips, the phone rings. These three interruptive calls are all from Haggai, so the question we put to the respondents is can a witch achieve such a disruptive call as Haggai did, even though she did not collect the phone number? In addition, we asked the following questions to the respondents: do witches have the ability to disrupt any activity by people at any time, and can a witch mysteriously discover an individual’s phone number in a bid to utilize it to make calls just as Haggai did? In response to the questions, most of the respondents agreed that witches can interrupt the activities of people at will, while few indicated that they do not have an answer. In response to the possibility of a witch being able to remotely and mysteriously obtain a phone number just as Haggai did, again most respondents contend that witches can do it, even do they do not have a story to back it up. Other respondents indicate that they are finding it hard to accept that a witch can do that.
The Incident at Prince’s Office and Home
Even though Haggai called Prince and demanded his Lagos residence and office addresses, Prince declined, Haggai managed to teleport to the exact addresses. Even though Prince queried how she got his number and Haggai did not clarify, Prince waved the matter aside. In their phone conversation, Haggai intimates Prince that she will visit him in Lagos despite his refusal to give her his addresses. In response, Prince, derisively tells her that she will not locate his address because she does not have it and angrily he ends their conversation. Hours later Haggai mysteriously appears to Prince at his Lagos office during the proposal presentation and thereafter at his home. Snapshots 1, 2, and 3 capture these incidents. The theory the makers of My Village People present is that Haggai can locate Prince in Lagos because she collected his picture, which she used for appropriate incantations to help her locate Prince. Haggai after appearing at Prince’s office in the morning during his proposal presentation, in the evening she called Prince and informed him that she was at his house, specifically outside the window. As Prince relaxes on his couch, his phone rings and the following dialogue, ensues between him and Haggai, which poignantly indicates to Prince that he is not daydreaming.
Prince: Hello!
Haggai: Dear Prince, I told you I was coming. How good was the presentation? You do not want to answer. I am at your house.
Prince: Which house?
Haggai: The one in Lagos, you thought I was playing. Look through your window Prince.
Prince walks to the window, fearfully he shifts the curtain to have a look and he beholds Haggai standing mischievously outside the window with five girls all dressed in black gown as captured in snapshot 3. Prince screams impulsively and withdraws his gaze. Seconds after, he attempts a second look through the window and sees the transmogrification of Haggai and the girls into blackbirds as snapshot 4 shows. Very frightened by the occurrence Prince runs out of the house with his car key and drives straight to the residence of one of his former office mates. Unfortunately, this friend and office mate, refuses to have him for the night, because he intends to be alone with his bride who visited. Prince leaves the friend’s house dejected and drives off with his car. In his car, while driving he calls his younger sister Princess. In his conversation with Princess, Prince confesses to her that he hugged Haggai against her advice not to hug anyone. For mitigation, Princess advises him to discard the clothes he was wearing the time he had physical contact with Haggai and the night both slept in the same bed at the village hotel. In response to the above scenario, the respondents from our field study claim that the presentations in the film My Village People represent the worldview widely held in Nigeria. The supposition here is that a witch can trace a person with whom they have had physical contact because just as dogs can trace things and individuals through their ominous acute smell sense, witches can do likewise. Most of the respondents note that witches can utilize incantations and any personal item such as cloth, shoes, and socks to trace and locate an individual remotely because any items mentioned can store an individual's smell, hence, the advice by Princess that he had to incinerate the items immediately.
Meanwhile, while it is easier to incinerate cloth, shoes, and socks, it is difficult to clean the embedded smell in a room one has occupied, hence, Princess advised him to go to a hotel. However, in the hotel room, Prince begins to feel agitated and promptly he leaves the room to stay outside with security men. More so, the plea by Prince to the security men keep him awake revolves around the notion that witches operate prominently at night and not daytime. The supposition is that light obstructs and keeps them at bay.
Metaphors of Music, Sounds and Colours in Select Scenes Extending the Narratives of Witchcraft
The opening scene commenced with jazzy drum beats replicating the tom-tom drum sounds and metal gongs. This first scene captures Prince’s entry to the village as he alighted from a taxi, which brought him from the airport to attend his younger sister's traditional wedding ceremony. In the next scene, the Prince and Princess are at Uncle Gakpa’s for a discussion after the traditional wedding. Sequentially, in the background weird sounds of birds and local dialect rendition, rhythmically suggest an eerie atmosphere. In the third and fourth scenes, similar sounds of birds (from crows, ravens, and awl), dogs barking and crickets presented as background sounds filled the atmosphere. Sounds from these animals are commonly attributable to witchcraft in Nigeria variously. The sounds of the cricket suggest the time of the day, which is dusk as well as the locale of action, which is a hinterland in the creek environment. The barking from the dogs is attributable to the presence of spiritual beings, which African believes the dogs can either see or perceive. Thus, a dog barking at no physical being is ascribable to the presence of invincible powers, forces, or beings in the vicinity. In five and six, the sound emanating from the wooden gong provides cadence and rhythm, whereas the trumpet sound draws attention to the transition from action to action. The tolling sound of a large church bell is in itself not directly linked literarily to the extension witchcraft narration in the film; rather it creates the aura of a mystical atmosphere. The background faint ocean wave sound also adds to the allure of ominous potent, as it alludes to the locale’s nearness to the coast. There is hardly any convincing empirical explanation. Hence, their actions fall within the paranormal. While the cab halted on the road, intermittently the cries of Crows created a perfunctory rhythm enveloping the atmosphere and surrounding it with awe and gloom.
At the beginning of the film, the first scene commences with music that is jazzy in nature without lyrics. It contains a combination of drumbeats and metal-gong sound. The sound of goat, crow, and birds of different kinds continued at the background during the meeting between Prince and Uncle Jakpa, which is claimed to be at the sun setting, so the sounds are used to depict time of the day. Then when the Princess was about to depart, local sound with Ishan lyrics, metal gongs with villagers dancing and singing. Then as Haggai appears, the sound gradually drowns creating ominous atmosphere. When the witches appear at the window, the sound of crow sounded. As they entered Ndio’s house, the foreboding sound and the witches appear. Foreboding sound continues during the meeting with Ndio, with indiscrete sound of metal gong. As Haggai brings in the meat and palm-wine—the church bell dolls twice and stops. At the background is an ocean wave like sound moving up and down.
The Prince sings in the room as he moves in with Haggai. The song suggest ecstatic mood--- probably because he is with a beautiful girl and the visit to his village is going well and is exciting him. As Prince is asked to say I love you by Haggai, the background sound of a trumpet draws flowingly – long suggesting anticipation. When the witches arrive at the hotel room the sound of crow, cricket continued. In the early hours of the morning, sparrows and crickets sounds continues, in the car as they are driving out of the village, song going on is a gospel music by an Igbo gospel music group—the music is a plea and supplication for guidance and safety for the roads and travelling. Then suddenly the witches appeared, he applies the break, the gospel music stops, the witches’ appearance is followed by sounds of crows and crickets, and numerous indiscrete nocturnal insects, birds, frogs, and rodents, laced with the Ishan melody used at the beginning of the film.
As he arrives Lagos, contemporary blues sounds as the background and accompanying music—the lyrics is about, fame, quest, and the queen of the coast. In addition, the sounds of the office phones ringing suggest activities and business of the office. In the restaurant where Prince and his girl friend are seating, the music and sound is a cool tone with a feminine voice, which suggests romance and calmness otherwise required for romantic dinning. The sound reduces and increases for emphasis. After his chat with Haggai, locale sound and foreboding music and sounds continues. As he goes to the window to verify if Haggai is outside, and similarly when he goes gain for authenticate his first sighting and she turns to birds, he sees her and to register the level of shock, a trumpet sound indicates emphasis for his shock and thus his moment of shock coincides with sound. Then each time Haggai or Princes’ girl friend in their mood as witches, get angry, massive ocean wave-like wind sounds, followed by distinct animal sounds, while at the background he jazzy sound continues. The jazzy sound apparently replicates non-African typical instrumental sounds.
Conclusion
The study examined the portrayals of witches as paranormal humans who are capable of actions that are phenomenal and a subject of continual debate because the acclaimed actions are not explainable through empirical interpretation and deduction. The study highlights abiding and pervasive acknowledgment of witchcraft efficacy as part of the social ecology and worldview in Nigeria. Hence, the depictions of witches and witchcraft in the focused film My Village Peopleexhibit ideological inclinations, choice of authorial utilization of magical realism and relevant creative arts as a means of generating visual metaphors, which the viewers tend to decode from their perspectives as informed by their social ecology. The study utilizes content analysis in discussing selected scenes in the focused text My Village People. Our analytical judgment leans on magical realism theory, which revolves around the premise that the explanation and descriptions of paranormal or mystical realities such as shape-shifting and witchcraft are not empirically verifiable. Our first observation is that the film My Village People like other films is an efficacious medium of worldview re-aggregation and portrayal of didactic parameters concerning Nigeria's witchcraft worldview. Focusing on aspects of witchcraft manifestations portrayed in the film My Village People the study indicates that although an empirical basis does not exist for the explication of the occurrences, Nigerians are continuing in their exhibition of deep-seated acknowledgment of those occurrences' actual and typical realities. The study explained the versions of mystical occurrences ascribable to witchcraft in Nigeria, such as astral travel, clairvoyance, telepathy, and shape-shifting. The study highlighted the application of creative arts and creative vision as a means of realizing some mystical occurrences, which represent a critical intersection of artistic creativity and ideology in laying out visual metaphors as guided by locale-specific ecology and imaginative impressionism. In conclusion, the study affirms that film is a product of artistic creative vision exhibited through a conscious select addition and subtraction of realities describable as actual, typical, mystical, as well as imaginary ideas through meticulous camera shoots and editing to form a desired narrative. Consequently, it is vital to pursue more analysis of films to understand the veracity of the information they present because it is an efficacious medium of information dissemination. The study adds to existing knowledge on culture, tradition, and worldview circulation and aggregation through film. The study discusses shape-shifting as a product of witchcraft and as a paranormal phenomenon.
The second observation is that film infuses information into the consciousness of the viewer because the viewer assimilates and appreciates the information embedded in the film's story and locale, which instigates an aggregation of the viewer's subsisting inclinations, worldview, and ideology. The dynamics and reflexes of human meaning making in many ways are attributable to the mechanics of nature and nurture. As regards the efficacy of nurture concerning the dimensions of an individual's interpretation of his realities, theories of the social construction of reality indicate that the available knowledge to an individual determines his interpretation of his realities. Therefore, as man encounters information and assimilates knowledge continually, his worldview will continue to evolve because his meaning-making dynamics are evolving. Since worldview influences human actions partly, the sources of human information and knowledge such as films must remain continually a major focus of scholarly interest and study.
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