By Deborah Uzoma
Movie Review: A Tribe Called Judah
Name of the movie: A Tribe Called Judah
Year of Release: 2023
Directors: Funke Akindele, Adeoluwa Owu
Duration: 2 hours, 14 minutes, 8 Seconds.
Pain is a precursor of great movements especially in ‘one’s transformational journey. The motif of pain and motherhood are recurring themes in the movie “A Tribe called Judah”. From them birthed other themes like greed, brotherhood, love, Fanatics, etc.
Again, in almost all of Funke Akindele’s movies, you will agree with me that she incorporates the three Nigerian ethnic groups (Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba) as well as projects each group’s cultural heritage and values. For instance, the Character who takes the role of the Chairman of C& K Furniture, Mr Chigozie is an Igbo man. There is this belief that businesses that thrive in Lagos and other big cities of Nigeria are owned by the Igbos.
It could be deduced that Funke uses the movie ” A Tribe Called Judah”, to expose societal ills happening in society. You can imagine the money laundering Chiarman who uses his C& K Furniture business to cover up his game, and each time the Financial Crime Commission comes with a search warrant to search his house, they end up finding nothing.
Indeed, the Cinematography and the camera centered on the character’s image as some of the movie backgrounds are blurred while projecting the image of the character more. The screenwriter did justice to the movie but leaving us with an open-ended story is what am yet to decipher when the image of Judah’s brother was shown as wanted by the Police.
PAIN
The movie itself begins with a memory of pain as Jedidah wakes up from the tormenting voice of her father, the Reverend Simon Judah. The father being a respectful priest sees it as taboo to harbour a daughter who gets pregnant out of wedlock. In his final words, “Jedidah, I disown you “, that is a sad memory and it is equally a pain.
Jedidah leaves with this pain, she coins words that she often uses, words as “black don’t crack”, and “What will be will be”, a resolve to bear her cross.
This pain makes her tell her neighbor who is waiting for her boyfriend “Men are scum, I am still bearing the brunt”. The brunt of being with five different men and the one that even married her properly, the third husband, dies afterwards. That’s a big pain for a single mother.
This pain makes her delight in alcohol which later destroys her kidney. Even in the wake of her bad dream of hearing her father’s voice, she takes a sachet of the alcoholic drink to get over it.
While we pray her kidney transplant becomes successful, she will forever leave with the pain of losing her first son, Emeka whose death occurred in a bit to steal money to save her life.
Emeka’s Pain
It’s the pain of poverty and ill luck that made Emeka, Jedidah’s first son, the child of her teenage, (17 years) agree to join his brothers in robbing his Boss to sort out their mother’s health challenge. An intelligent graduate who could not afford the money for his scholarship travel. One who brings out business ideas but is discarded based on the position of the job he occupies. Who knows the amount he is being paid that he couldn’t afford a good deodorant and perfume for which he is being cajoled. This is pain.
Adamu’s Pain
He is the second son of Jedidah, born to a man in Kano who abandons her with the pregnancy. The family of the man comes up with the fact that their son has been betrothed to someone in childhood, and Adamu suffers his share of pain. At the first visit to his Fiancee’s house, he could not give a clear description of his origin to his proposed father in -law to be. His mother refuses to disclose the information of his father to him. As a young graduate, the only survival job he finds is a security guard at a mall. This shows the extent of the development of pain some persons suffer after obtaining a degree from a university.
It is pain that made him reveal to his brothers the dollar Emeka returned to his boss when Emeka informed them about his sack letter. “The one wey pain me most na that dollar you returned and the man did not give you anything “…
MOTHERHOOD
A maxim states that a good mother is one before she becomes one. This refers to Testimony, Ejiro’s girlfriend. Though, she is presented as a “street girl,” a deep look into what she offers to Ejiro is motherhood playing out: from joining Ejiro to make -belief begging business and helping Ejiro deliver his painting work, assisting them in a robbery with a car, and afterward making sure she leaves Lagos with them. After all, during or after Jedidah’s surgery, who will be the female taking care of Jedidah? Your guess is as good as mine.
A true mother never abandons her child. A father may, but having passed the pain of labour and nine months of pregnancy, a mother who truly cares will always look out for her child. This is the case of Jedidah’s mother. She trained Emeka, she cautions Pere and Shina for their misbehaviors, and she shouts at the deteriorating state of Jedidah’s health. She pleads with her Husband, Reverend Judah to forgive their daughter at the time of her pregnancy in her teenage. She is the one staying with her daughter Jedidah at the hospital and the one who calls Emeka to find ways to help their mother out of this deadly sickness. “You are the first son; you have to do something “.
Again, it could be said that one’s mother’s state can change the behavior and lifestyle of their children at least for some time. At the time, Jedidah returns from the hospital, his two stubborn sons, Pere and Shina confess to a new leave of repentance.
Madam Collete, in her mother’s dying bed at the hospital, confesses to turning a new leave to stop the robbery. But after years, greed takes over, and she breaks the promise she makes to her and joins the band gang to rob her boss.
It is also the love of motherhood, that made Emeka steal from his boss, the first time.
These two motifs, Pain and Motherhood keep recurring in the movie and are very relatable to real-life experiences.
At a close, one can ask, does it mean that the Chairman’s wife is not aware that her husband’s line of business is not genuine? Yet she belongs to a prayer chain where they cover everything with the blood of Jesus.
Does it mean, that the Chairman who identifies that Jedidah, the mother of King Josiah in the Bible hasn’t read from the same Bible that we should bear one another’s pain and help the poor?
Does the movie point out that most priest children /child lack homely virtues, in the case of Jedidah getting pregnant out of wedlock at the age of seventeen?
The Pain of disowning your child for a human mistake because of what people will say, the case of Jedidah’s father, Reverend Simon Judah. This is a puzzle we need to solve. Of course, an African woman never seizes to bear her maiden name except when she is properly married, hence the surname of Jedidah’s children, bearing Judah. Traditional values come up there.
The actors lived out their full character representation and they deserve to be celebrated. Pain and Motherhood, a significant bond in the transforming journey of an individual or group should not be disregarded. May we keep thriving without pain.
