Kunle Afolayan’s Success Is Infectious – Onyeka Nwelue

Onyeka Nwelue, a Nigerian writer and filmmaker, has written an ode to his greatest inspiration in filmmaking, Kunle Afolayan.

Popular for “The House of Nwapa,” “The Abyssinian Boy,” and “Hip-Hop is Only for Children,” the research fellow at Center for International Studies at Ohio University writes about Afolayan’s influence in his career.

But, there is one person who remains my biggest inspiration in filmmaking, even as this new film has been compared to the works of Spike Lee (Toyin Akinosho), Luc Godard (Chigozie Obioma) and Ousmane Sembene (Sikhumbuzo Mngadi).

I am humbled by these comparisons, but the Nigerian film director, Kunle Afolayan, remains my greatest inspiration when it comes to filmmaking. And I will tell you why.

As a young man struggling with the dream of telling stories, I saw “Irapada,” but the film that stole my heart was “The Figurine.” I became slightly obsessed with Kunle Afolayan.

If he knew how obsessed I was with him and his work, he didn’t show it. He was very accommodating and charismatic with me because I began to find excuses to be around him. I reached out to him and he was what I thought he was: a great guy.

I attended the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) in Yenagoa where “The Figurine” won largely and the intensity of the obsession, admiration and respect grew. I began to see myself as Kunle Afolayan.

This made me stay on the set of “Phone Swap” for hours after being diagnosed of Ectopic Kidney – with swollen face and swollen legs, coupled with all the weaknesses, I kept following Kunle and his success. I wanted to be successful.
When Kunle’s success became infectious, I wanted to achieve a dream: make a film. I had the script for ‘The Distant Light.’ I was able to convince a benefactor who bought flight tickets for a film crew from The Netherlands who came to Nigeria to film with me.

I took them to pay a visit to Mr. Afolayan. He encouraged me and told me that nothing was impossible, but he was also realistic that there were better cinematographers in Nigeria I could have contracted.

“That money used in flying them could have been used to get things going”, he said.

I was young, it didn’t make sense to me. I thought the more White or more European, the better. I was a fool. I took my crew from Lagos to Oguta and the project failed. It didn’t happen. The folks went back to Europe and we severed our relationship. They needed to do storyboards and they drank a lot of beer and one of them ate kola nuts, and ended up in the hospital. We spent two weeks doing nothing. Money burnt and a dream waned. I slumped into depression for months.