Nigerian Mythic Pidgin Film Could Make History as The First Pidgin English Movie to Be Nominated for an Oscar.

At once beautiful, protective, seductive, and dangerous, the water spirit Mami Wata (Mother Water) is celebrated throughout much of Africa and the African Atlantic. A rich array of arts surrounds her, as well as a host of other aquatic spirits--all honoring the essential, sacred nature of water. Mami Wata is often portrayed as a mermaid, a snake charmer, or a combination of both. She is widely believed to have "overseas "origins, and her depictions have been profoundly influenced by representations of ancient, indigenous African water spirits, European mermaids, Hindu gods and goddesses, and Christian and Muslim saints. She is not only sexy, jealous, and beguiling but also exists in the plural as the mami-watas who comprise part of the vast and uncountable "school" of African water spirits.

Mami Wata's presence is pervasive partly because she can bring good fortune in the form of money. As a "capitalist" deity par excellence, her persona developed between the fifteenth and twentieth centuries, the era of growing trade between Africa and the rest of the world. Her very name, which may be translated as "Mother Water," is pidgin English, a language developed to facilitate trade. Countless enslaved Africans forcibly brought to the Americas as part of this "trade" carried with them their beliefs, practices, and arts honoring water spirits such as Mami Wata. Re-established, revisualized, and revitalized in the African Atlantic, Mami Wata emerged in new communities and under different guises, among them Lasirèn, Yemanja, Santa Marta la Dominadora, and Oxum. African--based faiths honoring these manifestations of Mami-Wata continue to flourish in communities throughout the Americas, including Haiti, Brazil, and the Dominican Republic.

 This visually beautiful and charismatically acted film is a fierce expressionist reverie or parable of power, shot in a lustrous, high-contrast black-and-white by cinematographer Lílis Soares. It is the work of Nigerian director CJ “Fiery” Obasi, whose nickname makes an interesting elemental contrast to his movie’s watery theme.

The is set in a west African village called Iyi, which has ignored the modern world of science and technology in favor of worshipping the traditional water spirit Mami-Wata, through her intermediary and representative on Earth, faith-healer Mama Efe (Rita Edochie), to whom tributes of food and money must be paid. But Efe’s daughter Zinwe (Uzoamaka Aniunoh) is furious with her when she appears unwilling or unable to cure a local child, and there are rumblings of dissatisfaction with her power. Mama Efe’s other daughter Prisca (Evelyne IlyJuhen) is less critical; she is adopted and is grateful to Efe for saving her from penury and death.

The Nigerian filmmaker told ‘IndieWire’ he was searching for his place in the world when the deity appeared to him. Soon, he was making an Oscar contender centered on her rich mythos.

‍

It all started with an otherworldly encounter. One night, after his second feature “O-Town” had not been the hit he had hoped for, Nigerian director C.J. “Fiery” Obasi found himself on a beach, pondering the future of his career.

“I felt like I was cursed with the sophomore jinx that filmmakers suffer from sometimes,”

“I didn’t want to start doing things just because I think that’s what people want to see. I was trying to find my place in the world.”

‍

In that existentialist state, Obasi had a vivid black-and-white vision of the mermaid-like deity known across West Africa as Mami-Wata.  “She was standing in the ocean with locks of hair dripping all the way down to her knees covering her entire body,” here called. “Her eyes were pure red. It’s probably because of the red eyes that I know that everything else was a black and white.”

‍

Behind him, a young woman started walking towards Mami-wata. She walked right across the filmmaker. It was in that moment he decided to make a movie about the water spirit, but not precisely focused on her. “Instinctively, I knew the person I had to follow wasn’t Mami Wata, but the young woman,” he said. “I knew she would still lead me back to Mami-Wata.”

‍

The resulting project, simply titled “Mami Wata,” premiered at this year’s Sundance film Festival. The movie is Nigeria’s current Oscar submission for Best International Feature Film and is also the first Nigerian production ever nominated for an Independent Spirit Award in the International Film Category.

‍

“Mami Wata” observes the clash between ancient beliefs and the aggressive march of what the West would describe as “modernity” through the perspective of people living in Iyi, a seaside town devoted to the titular holy entity. The leader, Mama Efe (Rita Edochie), acts as the connection between the earthly and the divine. But when she can’t deliver on her promises of healing and prosperity, residents begin to lose their faith. Efe’s daughter and adopted mentee, Zinwe(Uzoamaka Aniunoh) and Prisca (Evelyne Ily Juhen), become entangled in the violence of escalating unrest.

‍

Priorto “Mami Wata,” Obasi wrote the screenplay for the drama “Lionheart,” which was set to become Nigeria’s first-ever Oscar entry in 2019. The Academy ultimately disqualified that film by director Genevieve Nnaji given that most of its dialogue is in English and only a faction in the local Igbo language, raising questions about how the rule on language presents a disadvantage for countries with a British colonial past.

‍

“The idea of language is a very political thing, and it affects a country like Nigeria in a very specific way,” said Obasi. “You have a country that speaks over 500 ethnic languages and dialects. So where do you even begin when you want to make a film?”

For "Mami Wata,” the director stuck with the most authentic tongue for the story, even if it could impact the movie’s economic viability or its chances at international recognition.