Still no progress...

So I was watching TV yesterday, as I lay in bed. I typically tend to watch the cable TV shows, which are usually not Ghanaian. This time, I’d elected to watch something on one of the Ghanaian channels. I flipped through the channels (there are at least 6 these days! Quite a change from the days of the one Ghana Television station we’d all known for years!) I found a channel where they were showing a Nigerian movie, and I thought, oh great! Lets see what 'nollywood' is doing these days. The movie had already begun – but I didn’t think I’d missed too much. I recognized one of the actors, he seems to be in every nollywood movie! But there were also 2 beautiful women, so how could I turn away just yet…

…I soon came to find out that the movie was titled “Emotional Crack”. It was about a man who was having an affair with a woman named Camilla (played by Dakore Egbuson), who was starting to be very demanding on his time. Meanwhile, he was married to this other woman named Crystal (played by Stephanie Okereke), who was starting to realize that her husband may be having an affair. On his birthday, she made dinner and called him to come home to celebrate with her. At that time, we see him in his office, with his demanding girlfriend who was also saying that she’d made him something special and didn’t want him to go home to his wife. He pleaded with her that he’d go home tonight, but the next day, he promised to spend it all with her. She reluctantly agreed, but wanted a kiss first, which must have been one long kiss, because the scene cuts back to her wife, waiting, and waiting, and waiting for her cheating hubby to come home. And then we see her still waiting in the morning when he saunters in, looking disheveled and he nonchalantly says he’s sorry when he sees the table that she set for him. This apparently was more than she could bare, and she told him that she’d had enough, asking him what kind of husband has a meeting until the early hours of the morning. He responded to this by shouting at her, and warning her not to talk to him like that, at which point he starts beating her quite viciously! Woaah...

At this point, I’m thinking, ok, I’m already upset with this turn of events. I can deal with a cheating hubby in a story of fiction, but now he’s also physically and verbally abusive. I’m passionate about speaking up in these types of situations, and I wasn’t certain that this Nigerian movie would deliver on a message against physical abuse. I decided to give it a bit more time to explain itself, and so I kept watching. I was also very sleepy, and was not trying to fight it! But I did make it a bit further into the movie and saw the sorrowful apology from the asshole husband the next morning to his wife who was now crying and telling him that she was tired of his physical abuse, and he needed to get help, or she was out the door. This discussion was eventually followed by a hug and a kiss! Yes, those were my eyes rolling all around my head at this point, even in my sleepy state! But did I change the channel? Nooooooo?!?!?

Among these Mother Theresa-esque qualities that we’ve witnessed in the husband so far, he was apparently also very possessive of his wife, imagine, all these delightful qualities! Anyway, she decides she’ll continue to stay with her husband, even after all this disgustingly insane behavior that he was exhibiting. This is believable, I guess, from what I’ve heard about some abusive relationships, but I was still turned off by it. My brain must have decided that it couldn’t take it anymore, however, and I soon fell asleep.

But I woke up again at some point, and the movie was still on. This time, the little caption at the side showed that it was now “Emotional Crack 2”, I was about to switch the television of, when I saw 2 women sitting in a car, it was Crystal, the abused wife, and Camilla, the girlfriend. Camilla was telling Crystal that she couldn’t wait till the next time they could be together, and Crystal was also smiling back at Crystal, happy that she’d met her. I sat up – this was definitely an interesting development! A lesbian storyline in an African movie?!? What? This was definitely progress. The ladies were beautiful and sexy, they were looking like they were really having a relationship, I was thinking, what’s the catch? I know they were both with a certain man earlier, but it still seemed pretty ‘cutting edge’ to be showing this relationship in the Africa that I know!

We see them a few more times having this positive relationship, then Crystal decided o tell her twin sister, who of course went ballistic! She was disgusted, and told her it was unnatural, and the bible says its evil, how could her sister be a lesbian, and asked her sister to drop her off at the side of the road – I guess she couldn’t stand to be around her sisters disgusting lesbian self! So we see Crystal going to be with Camilla again, but as she starts getting dressed, Camilla tells her that she wants them to be together more often, and that she was really in love with Crystal. Crystal was being evasive, and said she’d come over again when she could. Camilla wasn’t having any of this, telling Crystal that they could move in together, and live happily ever after (once the dust from the speeding Uhaul settles, I guess!) Crystal however, questions the sanity of Camilla and wonders if she realizes that they’re living in Lagos, in Nigeria – where has she seen lesbians able to live together in harmony with the rest of the world? I wanted to shout to Camilla to take her show on the road, she was bound to find someone who shared her pioneering spirit, and with whom she could live happily ever after, Uhaul, or no Uhaul. However, Camilla was hell-bent on living with Crystal, but Crystal, finally noticing that Camilla didn’t quite have all her peas in her pod, and after her rejection by her sister when she told her about the relationship, was ready to end this one – she wasn’t quite ready to be herself just yet! It was going to be too hard, and she’d rather try her luck with a cheating, abusive husband, than to actually try her luck with a girlfriend!

Then we see scenes of Camilla trying to call Crystal, but Crystal rejects the call as soon as she sees who it is, then Camilla goes over to Crystal’s house, and when Crystal sees who it is from the window, she of course walks away and doesn’t answer. So what’s a lesbian to do when she has her sights set on her ‘target’? She decides to send a letter to Crystal through her cheating husband’s address. The cheating husband brings the letter to Crystal, not knowing what it was. In the letter, Camilla threatens Crystal, telling her that if she doesn’t come and see her, she’ll out their relationship. Of course, Crystal has no choice but to go see Camilla, and in the next scene, we see them on a bed together – Crystal doesn’t look like she’s being forced to be there, however. Then we see her cheating, abusive husband walk in on them, and Camilla sits back and starts to smoke a cigarette, of course, I remember that in Chapter 6 of the Lesbian handbook!

Crystal starts to plead with her cheating, abusive husband that it wasn’t the way it looked, and would he please forgive her. Her cheating, abusive husband walks out, and that’s when Camilla tells Crystal that she’d asked him to come there, and that she used to be his girlfriend, but dropped him as soon as she met Crystal. Crystal was now very certain that this woman was crazy, and asked her to get away from her, and never come near her. She then sobs her way back home where she finds that her cheating, abusive husband had packed her bags, and was throwing her out of the house. Because what she’d done was just so disgusting and terrible – he couldn’t possibly bare to look at her, or have her under the same roof. Crystal continues to beg and plead, but he’d have none of it. And she eventually has to leave, still bawling her eyes out.

At her Mum’s house, her Mum is having a fit – how could her daughter bring so much shame to the family, getting kicked out of her marriage house by her husband who caught her with another w…, she couldn’t get the word out. Her daughter, a lesbian? She started beating her daughter – nothing was worse than a daughter being a lesbian. How was she going to show her face anywhere? Interesting that she was getting this torn apart because her daughter had a lesbian affair. However, when her daughter was being beaten and cheated on, she was definitely able to move around and show her face!

So we continue to see Crystal begging her husband to take her back, and her husband waking all over her, insulting her, and then rejecting her. Crystal even challenged her husband, telling him that she knew about his affair with Camilla, so why was he judging her so badly when he’d done the same thing to her. Good question, Crystal! His asinine reply was that it was true that he’d cheated on her, and he shouldn’t have done that. But he was a man, and it was ok to do that, because they lived in a man’s world!! Isn’t he a true genius? What?!? Really?!?

She didn’t have a comeback to that, probably because the character was given terribly weak lines!

Anyway, let me cut to the chase because some of the additional details are even more ridiculous, but lets just say that Crystal’s twin went out to plead with the cheating, abusive husband to at least come and see Crystal, because she was in a really bad state. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, Camilla had found Crystal at her sisters place and had tricked her into opening the door so she could give Crystal her things, which she’d left at Camilla's during their delicious times together. When Crystal opened the door, Camilla charged in and pushed her to the floor, straddling her and pulling out a knife that she had. She tells Crystal that if she couldn’t have her, then no-one would, proceeding to start cutting Crystal’s dress open. At this point, Crystal’s twin sister had arrived at the house, with the cheating, abusive husband in tow, and heard the sounds of struggle. They both barged in and found Crystal on the ground with Camillas knife at her throat, but they’d surprised Camilla, so Crystal is able to break free and run to her cheating, abusive husband, clinging to his leg. The cheating, abusive husband now turns into a psychiatrist, trying to talk Camilla into putting the knife down, so no-one gets hurt.

Then comes the craziest, most insane lines of the story – I know, hard to believe at this point, but true! Camilla starts telling the cheating, abusive husband that she’d always loved him, and asking why he didn’t want her back. He tells her that he’s always wanted her, and would choose her over his wife, so she should put the knife down so they could be together. Of course, this movie had to run its tragic, ridiculously insane path, and she poked herself in the tummy with the knife. That was the end of the movie!

So in all honesty, I’d rather see no lesbian visibility, than to see it so negatively portrayed, and in such a crass, over-the-top, sensationalist fashion. Making being a lesbian worse than being a cheating, disrespectful, cowardly physical abuser! I mean, it is unbelievable!

This was the second time I’d seen a lesbian relationship depicted in a Nigerian movie. The first was a similar situation in which the same woman had an affair with the husband and the wife, and in the end, they confessed to each other that they’d both had an affair with her, and they stayed together. Obviously, according to these Nigerian film-makers, lesbians were all bisexual opportunists, preying on weak, dissatisfied, married women!

It didn’t take me long to decide that I have to write a screenplay for an African movie – I need to put some positive lesbian role-models out there, along with images of strong women and a society that stands up to cheaters, and abusers, and can tell the difference between right and wrong. A story that showed all the characters, even the ones making bad decisions, as humans and not over-the-to caricatures. I know the struggle for equal treatment, equal rights, and respect for women and the gay community is currently ongoing, all across the globe, but it’s obvious that in certain parts, there is more to be done than others!

What’s interesting is that I saw this article that showed me that at least I’m not the only one finding issue with Nigerian movies…