Following a successful tour to two memorial sites in Bristol UK – the Georgian House Museum; Greenbank Cemetery plus ‘the Bearpit’ in October for Black History month and contributing to the Journey to Justice Bristol programme between August and October, 2017 Daughters of Igbo Woman berths in Lagos Nigeria for the relish of film lovers in the country. The film now looks forward to another impressive outing in Lagos and is open for a possible tour of other cities in the country.
Three African writers- Ros Martin UK, Akachi Ezeigbo Nigeria and Vida Rawlins St Kitts are united in weaving this moving tale in memory of Fanny Coker (Fanny being shortened form of Fumnanya — 1767-1820) to mark her 250 birth anniversary & to commemorate International Slavery memorial day.
DAUGHTERS OF IGBO WOMAN is a literary film that recaptures and renders audible & visible the forgotten voices and lives of three generations of 18th century African women from one family permanently separated by the transatlantic slave trade in inhumanity. Utilising University of Bristol 18thPinney archive papers, the trilogy digital shorts that comprise DAUGHTERS are scheduled for screening at the Freedom Park on Monday November 13th by 6:30pm prompt as an extension of the Lagos Book & Arts Festival, LABAF 2017.
The Artistic Director- Ros Martin says “it is an absolute thrill and honor for DAUGHTERS to be launched on Nigeria soil where the narrative begins, linking our common ancestry for those of us in the diaspora. We African women writers have evoked ancestors’ voice into landscapes of our residence, in bringing together the three film shorts we symbolically reconnect to honor our common ancestral spirits who endured forced migration, separation and loss”.
The first part of the trilogy opens with Prof. Akachi Ezeigbo rendering Abu Akwa (dirge) in memory of Ojiugo’s in the wake of her daughter’s disappearance. Set in 1764 Uga in present day Anambra State, South Eastern Nigeria, the time is during the boom of slave trade when activities of headhunters were rampant with women and children often falling victims of wars and raids.
Similarly, while Adaeze ends up on a sugar plantation in the Caribbean, her daughter – Fumnanya is taken to Bristol, UK and her mother is emotionally forced to pen her an effusive letter.
