STEREOTYPIFICATION OR DEMONIZATION? WAR HEROES IN NIGERIAN WAR MOVIES AND THE EFFECTS ON CRAFTING OF FACTIONAL IDENTITIES

Kayode Animasaun Ph.d
General Studies Department
The Federal Polytechnic, Bida
Nigeria

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Abstract
Analyzing the manner of representation of wars in Nigerian movies, this paper discourses how actions or utterances of pre-colonial war heroes in traditional Nigerian society have tended to set an agenda for the perceptions and interpretations of the participation in governance in the post-colonial Nigerian political game-play especially by the Yorubas. Since war films contain powerful images not only about war, but about our society and ourselves, the paper content analyzed the movie Afonja on the interpretation of the roles of Afonja as a pre-colonial warlord among the Yorubas and in setting the post-colonial identity agenda for the Yorubas. The paper also attempts to verify the extent to which this Afonja hypothesis may have determined the media perceptions of the roles of Yoruba political figures as leaders who can be said to be evolving genuine Yoruba leadership identity in the post-colonial Nigeria. The paper tries to interpret perceived differences in the interpretations of the actions of some of these leaders among the Yoruba groups, and inquires if the diverse of opinions usually witnessed among some Yorubas can not be attributed to the Afonja declarations as replicated in the movie.