The film October 1 by the Nigerian filmmaker Kunle Afolayan is an exceptional work of cinematographic expertise and creativity that is unlikely to be found among typical (conventional) Nollywood cineastes. With the successful productions of The Figurine (2009) and Phone Swap (2013), Afolayan is gradually registering his presence as one of the finest movie directors in Nigeria and indeed Africa. His recent films have inscribed a paradigmatic shift from the norm, gradually transforming the status quo into what Jonathan Haynes has authoritatively theorized as the “Neo-Nollywood,” that is, an emerging movement by Nigerian filmmakers who are determined to involve themselves in producing highly technical and professionally made films. With the release of October 1, Afolayan seems set to make his mark as an emerging filmmaker of lasting substance.
October 1 is set at the threshold of Nigerian independence. Inspector Danladi Waziri is summoned by the District Officer Robert Winterbottom and saddled with the task of unraveling the mystery behind the murder of two women in Akote Town in Ibadan, before Independence Day. The inspector and his assistant, Sergeant Sunday Afonja, reach a lot of dead ends. As the murder plague rises and five people turn up dead, it dawns on them that they are dealing with a hardened serial killer. In the course of the events that follow, other innocent lives are lost. A British-bound Corporal Omolodun is killed when faced with the killer. A Hausa traveler (a suspect) who finds himself in the middle of the quagmire is wrongly targeted. The murderer gives himself away, however, when unlikely clues point to an unsuspected person: Prince Aderopo, Oba Akote’s only son. In an attempt to rape and kill his last victim, Miss Bisi Tawa (a schoolteacher and former classmate), the killer leaves tracks that reveal his potential hideout. In the process of attempting to escape and trying to kill Koya (a farmer and childhood friend), he is finally shot by the inspector as he refuses to surrender.
The narrative takes the form of a flashback. Inspector Waziri submits his final report on the outcome of his investigations on Independence Day, and from there the story begins to unfold. The flashback technique is very rare among Nollywood filmmakers, who more typically employ a linear style, but it is crucial to Afolayan as it heightens the suspense leading to the eventual revelation of the killer’s identity and his motives.
We gather that as boys, Aderopo and Koya had been taken to Lagos to receive their high school education by a colonial clergyman named Reverend Dowling, who unashamedly molested them. Koya (who eventually murders Dowling) escaped after five months and returned to the village without any Western education; he became a farmer and raised a son to do the same. Aderopo’s traumatic experiences, by contrast, led him to a life of crime, raping and murdering innocent virgins and then lacerating their chests with an inscription of the crucifix—thus acting out his resentment of his abuser.
Aderopo’s evil acts partly bring back memories of an historical-political past. For instance, his views about persisting ethnic antipathy, and his dispassionate prediction of an imminent war “in seven years” despite the fast approaching political independence, anticipate the Biafran civil war of 1967. The scriptwriter deliberately puts the prediction in Aderopo’s speech, perhaps to implicate him. His act of murdering an Igbo girl implicates the Hausa Usman Dangari as the likeliest suspect. The fact that Inspector Waziri, who is Hausa, interrogates and detains Usman Dangiri (and is the same inspector who solved an earlier case in Enugu involving the execution of an Igbo man a few years back) is enough to elicit feelings of animosity among the Igbo settlers in Akote, who nurse the belief that the inspector might be protecting Usman Dangari based on ethnic sentiments.
While October 1 is not exclusively about the history of Nigeria, it conveys a sense that it aspires to comment on this larger subject. Scenes of historical significance include the independence ceremony, an encounter in which Inspector Waziri displays his anticolonial posture toward the D.O. about concealing the truth (which convincingly historicizes corruption in Nigeria today), and those of actual speeches made by Chief Obafemi Awolowo and Alhaji Tafawa Balewa, as well as references to other well-known figures. Other cultural and signifying tropes of Yoruba tradition also permeate the film. For instance, the king’s custodians are crucial to the story as they instruct the king and the entire community on how to tackle the mysteries behind the killings. Afolayan, who was greatly influenced by Tunde Kelani, an auteur of long standing whose major works are marked by the rich Yoruba heritage and cosmology, has created a masterpiece in the detective genre, a recent entry into mainstream Nollywood.
