Kemi Adetiba did a wonderful story with to kill a monkey. In a long time, this was the first Nigerian work I had seen with actual lines, people saying words that mean something in the context they spoke about. The cinematography has to be one of the best from the Nigeria scene in recent memory. I hope this becomes the benchmark of a standard and the movie industry grows to rival the music industry. It is an excellent work.
To the story itself, the social discourse on Efemini’s betrayal had been very telling to me. The expectation of loyalty from within criminals is quite shocking – yes, it the the human condition- but you are thief and murderer ’brotherly”, please understand the betrayal. He who lives by the sword dies by the sword or so they say.
Efemini though unlucky in life and dealt a difficult hand was a coward. A very consistent coward. It would be surprising to have found loyalty from such a man. He had so many choices. Many not great choices but he had choices nonetheless. For such an educated man – I do not understand his life’s choices. A very unsavoury character with impeccable command of English and well-cut expensive suits-eh coat.
To be fair to him, there was no help offered to his life, everyone around him seemed to make things worse, his mother-in-law, his bosses at work and sometimes his wife at home.
The complexity of human shines so very clearly in the wives of both men. Not drawn to crime, particularly shutting ones eyes and emotions to the source of income that afforded such a life style – Nosa and Idia were woman who I found curious. Poverty changes you in the way money does too. They married deeply character flawed men and a man who was simply evil. Nosa was a hypocritical woman with a lot of redeeming qualities while Idia was just idia, consistent in chilling.
Oboz had no single redeeming character. You could not look at Oboz’s life and find something that was randomly nice. As a person he was despicable – to top it off – he murders kids. Very consistent of him. Of course within reason and with ample provocation. However that does not negate who he is. An uncouth, loud mouthed thug, who made money out of despicable means and had the technology to scale. And for the grand scale of things, Oboz was properly educated. To my mind if he tried to live rightly, he would have still made tremendous success. He has the exact kind of brashness and courage that births success.
Understanding murders and thieves who do not want to be killed or stolen from would take an eternity. The teacher was open to tossing a baby in a freezer but he’s family was meant to be untouchable? Please sir, be for real. All of us go do our own back.
The cruelty of humans, our moral failings and quite a glimpse of the darker Nigerian society truly played out here. The random cruelty with which we treat our romantic partners and poorer extended families the incessant demand of the African culture on frivolities. Pray tell why do you want a cow and goat from a wretchedly poor man to bury his mother. And the ridiculous crassness with which we treat sexual intimacies.
The language around it is almost as if to dehumanize. Words and manners of approach that would never be spoken in polite company or to one we respect was frequently employed in the case of sexual intimacy. And that is our society, everyone shys away from being referred to as a thug until the conversation is sexual intimacy and the most unhinged downright ghetto terms you ever heard begins to play.
I hold a personal opinion that society is greatly impacted by entertainment choices. Seeing our society bare in our eyes might incite the needs in our hearts to better ourselves.
