10/09/2024 - The Agbajowo Collective signs a meaningful, grassroots-orientated debut film informed by the ongoing evictions of informal settlements in Africa’s largest city

As informal settlements around the world are being razed, gentrified and torn down, the seven-strong, Nigerian-based Agbajowo Collective (made up of AS Elijah, Akinmuyiwa Bisola, Edukpo Tina, James Tayler, Mathew Cerf, Okechukwu Samuel and Ogungbamila Temitope) aims to shed light on and combat government efforts to remove long-standing residents from their homes. With the collective’s debut film, The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos [+see also:
interview: Akinmuyiwa Bisola, Okechukw…
film profile], comes an immediate call for action and for the world to pay attention to an extraordinarily global issue made marginal by capitalist forces and a certain forgetfulness enforced by the socioeconomic elite. The film has had its world premiere in the Centrepiece strand of the Toronto International Film Festival.

Our eponymous protagonist is Jawu (Temi Ami-Williams), a mother with a toddler son, Daniel (Kachi Okechukwu), living in Agbojedo, a fictional informal settlement (colloquially known as a slum) based heavily on the real-life Otodo Gbame informal waterfront settlement in Lagos, where over 30,000 residents have been displaced over the last few years. Jawu makes a humble living selling swallows (doughy foods made from starchy flours, such as the more globally known Nigerian fufu) while bearing the birthmark of a warrior king on her back. After seeing a massive bag of blood money hidden on behalf of corrupt local politician Abisoro (Adebowale Adedayo), she goes to retrieve it, unravelling a greater series of incidents incriminating Abisoro and dragging her into the chaos.

Beautifully lensed by Leo Purman, the film very carefully depicts this waterfront community filled with precarity without bending to negative tropes around poverty. The Legend… takes aim at a series of complementary issues ranging from housing rights to the corruption of politicians who work with gangs and the local elite to extort those less fortunate. While heavily informed by local experience, the film sometimes fails to dive into the structural issues at hand beyond broad strokes depicting class greed. While Jawu traditionally comes from a long line of warriors, she seems to stumble into situations with limited agency, making her more of an accidental hero than one determined to fight for change, despite the title. The film’s opening moments as she’s promising a better life for her son are the ones that convince us to empathise with her: those that make her human.

The collective’s achievements lie in its ability to bring a very pertinent and topical story to life in a way that is true to the lived experiences of those from the area; several collective members were raised in Otodo Gbame and began pursuing opportunities to combine art with social mobilisation. This is made apparent even through its production credits, where advocacy groups have a major stake in the creation of this film. Complex crowd choreography in two scenes as the Agbojedo residents are being forced out of their homes make up the movie’s most powerful moments, where the combined power of local police and gangs is more than enough to scare people into submission.

The Legend of the Vagabond Queen of Lagos is a co-production by Slum Dwellers International (South Africa), Justice & Empowerment Initiatives (Nigeria), Nigerian Slum/Informal Settlement Federation (Nigeria), Die Gesellschaft DGS (Germany) and Raconteur Productions (Nigeria). Its international sales are handled by Rushlake Media.