Penkelemes

Onyeka Igwe / Nigeria & United Kingdom / 2025 / International Premiere / 18 min

The University of Ibadan was created in 1948 in south western Nigeria to produce docile and compliant colonial subjects, there to serve the interests of the imperial core. Post national independence, it flourished – proffering a new image conjugated by Nigerian thought and culture for a brief and bright moment. But then war came, British funding was withdrawn, and Nigeria’s economic independence was funneled into Western mandated streams, draining the university of its promise. At the same time it is the protagonist in a real life fairytale of social mobility that provides many the opportunity to assert an identity in contradiction to a predestined path. Allowing for self possession, mobility, independence and new horizons.