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In Cotonou, Laha is cross-border champion
PORTRAIT
critique
rédigé par Steve Ayorinde
publié le 04/09/2007

A deep pocket, passion for cinema and fruitful collaboration with Tunde Kelani, raise Abdel Hakim Hamzat as Benin Republic's cinema lord, with deep love for his Yoruba roots

After years of collaboration with Ghana in video-film productions, Nigeria has discovered another partner in neighbouring Cotonou, capital of Benin Republic. The man at the heart of that partnership is one of the country's young and successful businessmen, Abdel Hakim Hamzat, whose fascination with the art of motion picture has made him the biggest private investor in the arts in Benin Republic.
Benin Republic might be a traditionally dependent on France and neighbouring countries for economic survival, but Amzat's desire is not just to produce popular video films for his country people, but also to borrow from the Nigerian model of home videos.
It is for this reason that his first film in 2006, Abeni, was used as the apt example of the Nigeria-Benin Republic collaboration that he had in mind.
In Abeni, which earned eight nominations at the 2007 edition of the African Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) which held in Nigeria in March, Amzat says the vision he has in mind for African cinema has successfully germinated. He got Nigeria's most celebrated cinematographer, Tunde Kelani, to shoot and direct the film as collaboration between Kelani's Mainframe Productions and his own company, Laha Productions.
He acted the lead role and got an array of Nigerian and Beninois actors to star in the cross-border love story between the two countries.
"We achieved a lot in Abeni in kick-starting our vision," he said. "But the story was important. Part of my life story was in it, and I think that many people would have seen themselves in the film," he said.
Though he had produced the stage version of Abeni in Cotonou before, the film version came into being after he met Kelani in Cotonou in 2005. "When we sat down in my house to discuss, I felt like I was speaking with an angel", he recalled his meeting with the Nigerian director. He said he was elated at the outcome of the meeting not just because of the high esteem in which he held Kelani but also because of the way in which he was encouraged by Kelani.
Meeting the hi, he said, compensated for not meeting in person the two great Nigerian thespians, Hubert Ogunde and Adeyemi Afolayan, who typified the progression of the Yoruba artistes from live theatre to the cinema.
"As a youth who was alaways involved in music at the Quranic schools and later on the stage in Cotonou, I will always owe my inspiration to Ogunde and Ade Love (Afolayan). With their unique combination of music and drama, they represented the greatest expression of art to me," he said.
That, perhaps, explains why Amzat, who had produced a number of the new generation music groups in Benin Republic, like the rap group - H20, has recorded his own version of Ogunde's soundtrack to the 1979 film Aiye.
And there is an additional reason - His Yoruba root, which does not only explain the themes in his films, but also his special interest in working with Kelani towards a big project that has the potential of uniting all Yoruba from all over the world.
"I see myself as a Nigerian, not as a Beninois, and this is because I am Yoruba. If we go into the real story, we will discover that all Yoruba in Ajase, in the Porto Norvo area of Benin Republic are Nigerians, but for the way the British divided the two countries. I am convinced that one day our children will claim their true nationality as Nigerians."
He has shared his idea of a Home-Coming Project for all Yoruba in the world to Kelani, who is impressed with. Amzat says he is planning an annual festival of the Yoruba that will hold in the traditional headquarters of the race - Oyo. "We are thinking of a single event that will incorporate a film festival of the Yoruba, drumming classes and award ceremony that carries a cash reward - all for the cause of the Yoruba."
For this Amzat is ready to commit his resources for the cause that he says means more to him than any other thing. With high-rise offices spread across Cotonou, fast cars and business interests, he is celebrated as already celebrated in Cotonou as a "big boy."

Steve Ayorinde

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