Comments on: WHEN DID NIGERIA BECOME A SLUM IN DISTRICT 9 AT JOHANNESBURG?

By: miss b

miss b — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 18:29:51 +0000

I totally disagree with you. how can you say that no matter what we do we no one is allowed to portray us in a bad light? are you kidding? we are humans and therefore all open to criticism.
Why do Nigerians aloways overreact when we get any form of bad pulicity. ALL COUNTRIES get bad publicity, and with us, what we are being portrayed as is TRUE. My cousin lives in S.A and everyday there is anoda drug bust of a Nigerian community spreading havoc there. Here in U.K, there is a special police squad to tackle internet fraud in Greenwich, a place 90% populated by Nigerians. But as soon as someone foreign points this out we start to cry.
Is it not the same people that recognised Chimamanda with an Orange prize before most Nigerians heared of her? Or Ngozi Iweala or Chinua Achebe? Is it it not them that awarded a Nigerian a scholarship at my uni for being the best chemistry student? But we never shout about this. Abeg let us look inward.
The whole rebranding thing is a joke. If you want people to view you in a paticular way then act that way and dont try and be portrayed that way.
I also believe in Nigeria, but I believe in honesty more.

By: TWayne

TWayne — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 14:09:22 +0000

Well I haven’t seen the movie but I agree with Reggie. Surely they could have come up with a fictitious race and still achieved the same effect. I also totally agree with Othello. Very well said.

For those who have said we’re to blame. I have this to say. I have no issues with you making money but please do not make money at my expense or at the expense of a whole nation. It’s the same way I see black, white, indian, irish and other such jokes as being disrespectful.

On the issue of Nollywood movies, I think their storylines are in poor taste. However, let me use the race card on this point. It’s not okay, but tolerable, for a black person to call a black person a nigger but I dare a white person to call a black person a nigger. I’m sorry no can do! And because of how touchy the subject is, a white person will definitely think twice before calling a black person a nigger.

I’m sorry but if he knew South Africans would be offended then why on earth did he think Nigerians would be okay with it? Call it art, fiction or whatever you will, but I totally disagree with slamming a whole nation simply because of a few bad experiences you’ve had or the general mindset towards a certain race. I dare him to portray Zulus or Xhosas in the same light. Furthermore, some people are too thick to distinguish between fact and fiction.

By all means, have an open mind but please accord me a little respect! As a Nigerian currently in SA, I am sick and tired of how Nigerians are portrayed and have resorted to sarcastic responses to stupid questions rather than laughing them off. I think the sooner we all have this mindset, the better for all of us. It’s okay for me as a Nigerian to diss Nigeria but not some foreigner who doesn’t know the first thing about us apart from what he’s heard in the news or movies like these . We definitely need to draw the line somewhere!

I still plan to watch the movie and if it was my nature, I’d go out of my way to find a bootleg version of it. But I guess 2 wrongs don’t make a right. So I just might wait for it to come out on dvd or watch it any Wednesday when it’s half price.

By: tabs

tabs — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 12:02:05 +0000

no matter what we do as Nigerians, no one has the right to portray us in a bad light. and the only way to do so is to boycott the showings of this movie.
we can protest in our own way. and as for nollywood, change is coming, slowly but surely. i mean the caliber of Nigerian movies now have reduced from the diabolic to more drama, comedies and romance.
most of the world power blocks took hundreds of years and several wars, revolution and apartheids to get to where they are and have no right to cast accusing fingers at us
Nigeria will get there. I believe in one Nigeria

By: Adebowale Eyitemi

Adebowale Eyitemi — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 10:43:29 +0000

I totally agree with you, Reg! like I have already said, ONLY A BASTARD DESCRIBES HIS FATHERS HOUSE WITH HIS LEFT HAND” I am not saying that Nigeria is without it’s challenges and issues screaming for our attention, it does not justify our names being defamed by the international community. Naija might not be there yet but YOU & I need to stand up for it less we fall for anything!

By: Orok

Orok — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 09:20:15 +0000

Reggie wat do u xpect,we are d architect of our misfortune.Pick a typical so called nollywood movie n watch wat do u c, rituals,scam,robbery n everyone is ok wit dat.It hurts really bt lets start d cleaning from home.

By: Curious Case

Curious Case — Sun, 20 Sep 2009 07:20:33 +0000

I can take everything about the movie but the use of the name Obasonjo for the lead ganster? That is absurd and disrespectful and I am no fan of Obasanjo but it’s time to call a spade a spade and not a garden tool!

Thye’ve stopped showingin in Nigeria now! The Minister for Information asked that it’d be sanctioned in movie theatres and has asked Sony for an apology.

By: taoajay

taoajay — Mon, 14 Sep 2009 06:36:39 +0000

watched that movie in the cinema some days back and thought in my heart not to be biased because I read this article before seeing the move, but as a crusader for hope for Nigerians, it touched me to the very depth of my soul, the level of degradation and humiliation of the Nigerian people; we were portrayed as nothing short of barbarians as you have rightly stated. The fact that a few in some nations around the world are considered in such light is not sufficient reason to give the world a wrong perspective of the Nigerian people; it is just one fact that these stuffs come in movies, my greatest concerns still remain that through these movies wrong ideas about the Nigerian people are sent round the world…and we seem helpless, asides for the few like Pa Reg. who won’t just sit and do nothing, we’ll give the best light of our rich content to the world and we keep doing this till we change the images painted in the minds of the people…

By: Reginald Bassey

Reginald Bassey — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 18:00:33 +0000

Grant we all know that fact, but the muti killings going on and the inflence of sangomas, is that also Nigerians? Are Nigerians the dominant prostitutes in South Africa? So while we appreciate the narratives of contained in the movie, we see as scathing the extent to which the producers went in painting Nigerians as barbarians, even calling the thugs leader by the name of our former president. Now that’s extreme

By: Grant Jones

Grant Jones — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 14:54:08 +0000

For what it matters I am South African and I think that some of the some of the suttleties of the social and political allegories contained in District 9 will be lost on those not familiar with life in South Africa.

Nigerians are in charge of the political underworld in Johannesburg – sad but true. This is why it makes sense for the gangsters to be Nigerian. Hillbrow (an inner city suburb) is plauged by violent Nigerian drug dealers and gangs.

If I was Nigerian I would also be offended by the film, however you need to understand and accept that it is set in a South African context.

“Muti killings” at the behest of Sangomas or Witch Doctors are unfortunately also common-place in South Africa.

By: 0thello

0thello — Tue, 01 Sep 2009 23:45:14 +0000

A lot of the arguments are fundamentally flawed and/or simply laughable.

“WE” haven’t distorted or destroyed “OUR” image. A “deviant minority” (such as crooks, murders, cannibals, illiterates etc.) do not represent us as a majority and I feel like slapping the taste out of anybody who makes this mistake every time I see it.

To say that “WE” have done this to ourselves as if we are ALL guilty of a statistical certainty in ANY population is absolutely ridiculous. Britain will never take the blame for its involvement in the atrocities of Uganda, neither will Jews take the blame for a lot of the murders that took place during the holocaust because they KNOW to control information and distance themselves from deviant minorities. But lo and behold these “Africans” have the sins of others hoisted upon their shoulders as if it is bound to them like an electric dog-collar making them feel the guilt of crimes they never committed.

Do we have a responsibility? Hell yes, however we should be very clear what that collective responsibility is: and if I could give it words it would be in the form of: We need to extricate this meme of deviant minority behaviour. And expose it for what it is instead of falsely giving it the title of “a cultural norm” and finally take true responsibility by protecting our image and rejecting false portrayals of the majority of our civilizations. The majority of us are not barbarians, criminals, murderers and thieves. We are individuals that form a super organism and it’s up to us to extricate and extradite those of us that are going against the grain and destroying us like a malignant cancer. Whether in the form of our image in foreign lands or our image in domestic affairs.

Wake up. Stop saying you are guilty of crimes you did not commit. If you have committed them take personal responsibility but do not drag me down with your sinking ship of pathetic apologetics for people you do not need to defend.