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Black November : Interrogating The Niger Delta Question

The paper interrogates the thematic preoccupations of Jeta Amata’s Black November on the vexed issues of the Niger Delta in Nigeria. The issues bordering on the quest for emancipation from injustice, environmental degradation, deprivation, inhuman treatment, negligence, are at the nexus of the agitations and militancy in the region. It draws inferences from what the movie overlooked and what it portrayed such as the failure of dialogue births violence. The objective is to highlight the problems in the Niger Delta and give credence to the thematic concerns raised by the director. Based on Relative Deprivation Theory (RDT), which sees violence as a product of frustration borne out of depriving people of their rights, denial of justice; a sense of oppression sets in that then leads to reactions that may be violent. The method adopted is descriptive analysis. Findings reveal that the Niger Delta region is much misunderstood, abused and betrayed by its own people, the media, Nigerian government, oil multinationals and the world at large. It concludes that the misunderstanding is largely a product of media misinformation and that of ignorance on the part of stakeholders and that the filmmaker succeeded in getting his message across.


INTRODUCTION
The Niger Delta is the heart of Nigeria's oil-dependent economy. For over 50 years, wealth from the region has sustained the nation's economy and stabilized the political system. The systemic plunder of the region's resources has made it possible for resource-famished but politically dominant sections of Nigeria to have more roads, bridges, modern communication, educational institutions, industries, real estates and generations of billionaires than the Niger Delta states (Darah 2014). Top on the array of such conflicts are the prolonged Niger Deltamilitancy in the oil-rich Niger Delta region, the Boko Haram insurgencyin the North Eastern region, and the myriad of ethnic cum religious conflicts, prominently, the herders/farmers conflicts that have spread throughthe North Central/North Eastern regions, and increased in intensity overthere past few years (Lucas, Vakkai, and Targema 2020). Although Nigeria has since attained independence, the minds of the people appear to be wilfully subjugated to the control of the hitherto colonial power (Licata et al. 2017). Oviasuyi and Uwadea argue that prior to when oil was discovered in the Niger Delta area, agriculture was the mainstay of the people and the major source of revenue for both state and federal government (Jim and Uwadiae 2010). The film demonstrates this issue as one of the major causes of conflict in the region. Prior to the discovery of crude oil in the region, farming and fishing were the major occupations of inhabitants (Apuke 2017).
The film industry in every culture plays several roles in the life of the culture that owns it. Some of these roles are innate and given; some are products of conscious efforts of the filmmaker while some, through their themes/subject matters, are happenstances, which the filmmaker never thought of while creating but which nevertheless, become part of his or her message. Patrick Ebewo argues that the film industry in Nigeria, now popularly referred to as Nollywood, which received impetus in 1993 with the release of the blockbuster Living in Bondage as produced by Kenneth Nnebue, has quickly and continuously gathered momentum over the last two decades emerging today as a force to reckon with globally (Ebewo 2007). Such is the case with Jeta Amata, a filmmaker concerned with the violence, destruction, rape, man's inhumanity to man, environmental degradation, youth restiveness and emancipation, among other disconcerting and worrisome issues which have become synonymous with the Niger Delta region of Nigeria.
A n y a n w u : B l a c k N o v e m b e r : I n t e r r o g a t i n g T h e N i g e r D e l t a Q u e s t i o n | 153 Idebor claims that Amata uses Black November as a means to address the injustice in the Niger Delta because "the voices of those at the subaltern level have become suppressed and denied even on issues and affairs that directly affect them" (Idebe 2019).
Film's importance in human society has been underlined by critics.
However, the potential of the film has not been fully utilized for the advancement of the nation and human development. Many countries in the world with the United States (US) and India as the pioneers have used film media to provide a better life for their people. The film media continues to expand its spectrum and break down boundaries in new fields such as conflict management, social development, psycho-therapy, etc (Ebekue 2019).
But for its oil wells and the hardship, deprivation, death, and numerous tales of woe associated with the oil exploitation and exploration in this economic force and power house of the Nigerian nation, called the Niger Delta, many people would not have heard of it. Indeed, the Niger Delta region on account of the damage it has suffered in unquantifiable terms and measures in human, material, environmental, economic, social, political, spiritual, among other forms of atrocious experiences it has had to endure as a consequence of its natural resources, has become a-stop-action name in world affairs. The reason is quite simple: an enemy commands more attention than a friend. And the Niger Delta region of Nigeria has become through no fault of hers, or perhaps, because of her nature, the number one enemy of the world, epitomising in herself the quintessential example of the fate of the goose that lays the golden egg. In her case, however, the egg has become her albatross. Bazunu and Ekong noted that "crude oil is a natural resource like other resources. Its exploitation in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria has come with various environmental challenges that are common with such natural extractions" (Bazunu 2017). Oil exploitation, then, is the major problem that gave birth to virtually all the problems found in the region.
Despite the Niger Delta region, providing Nigeria's total proven reserves of oil standing close to 25 billion barrels, which is an estimated 1.8 percent of the proven global reserves (Chiluwa 2011).
The Niger Delta question has thus revolved around the desire of the Niger Delta states to free themselves and their people from the evil and oppressive clutches of bad governance in connivance with equally obnoxious corporate policies of the multinational oil companies that dot the region in a bid to live better lives and get the dividends of the natural resources, notably, crude oil, that nature blessed them with. The region, like Nigeria, can be said to be at once "a geographical location and a political contraption" (Chinweizu 2013;Darah 2014;Falola 2013). The political arm has made it a sort of unwritten law to call any place in the country where oil is discovered in commercial or non-commercial quantity, Niger Delta. and their countries of origin. The discovery of oil in the Niger Delta more than any other human or natural resource exposed "the leadership deficit, massive corruption, national security challenges, over dependence on oil, plummeting of oil prices in the global market, falling value of the naira in the forex market, etc," (Oju and Anyanwu 2018). The various governments, multinational oil companies and some individuals have reached the top in all manners of inhuman treatment, including murder, environmental degradation, and also of affluence.
Degradation, environmental pollution, underdevelopment, neglect and abuse of human rights are recurrent decimals and qualifiers when it comes to describing the Niger Delta. As Amata makes us understand through the heroine, Ebiere Perema, who is portrayed as the man through whose life and death the film came into being, Ken-Saro Wiwa had brought to the notice of the administrators of the Nigerian state and the international community the hazard and the systematic elimination of the people of Ogoni and by extension the people of the Nigeria-Delta through environmental degradation that is primarily due to the A n y a n w u : B l a c k N o v e m b e r : I n t e r r o g a t i n g T h e N i g e r D e l t a Q u e s t i o n | 155 activities of the oil companies in the region (Dede 2017 Another worrying dimension to the conflict in the Niger Delta region is the role of dubious community leaders. Often times, they are use as the whip with which oil companies chastise residents (Nwankwo 2015). decries this unfortunate trend when he notes, that: Ethnic nationalism in the Niger Delta has become one of the major problems in the region, as many people under the disguise of fighting for the economic emancipation of the Niger-Delta people exploit the oil companies and federal government by demanding money that never gets to the hands of the downtrodden citizens Ibagere further adds that "the progressive degradation of the area soon compelled the people of the region to start the agitation for the control of their resources" (Ibagere 2011). Corroborating this, Darah documents the atrocious occurrences of the 1990s, which shall be quoted at some length, to properly foreground the discourse. In his words: It is pertinent to recall the experience of the bloody decade of the 1990s that formed the background to the reforms under review. The first major use of the instruments of violence to handle an oil-related protest was at Umuechem in Ikwerre district of Rivers State in 1990. The community protested to Shell over neglect and demanded amenities such as roads, water and electricity supply. The police were invited; the royal ruler of the area and dozens were killed, besides numerous houses and property destroyed by the "kill-and-go-police". The Ogoni calamity was in the mid 1990s and eminent Ogoni citizens lost their lives. The police and the military were involved in the bloody suppression of the Ogoni revolt. After the hanging of the nine Ogoni activists in 1995, a special security squad spread terror and killing throughout the district. The number of innocent people that perished has not been ascertained and the government has not found it necessary to investigate allegations and charges of violation of human rights and atrocities committed by the death squads. To assuage the outrage of the international community, the Nigerian government set up the Niger Delta Environmental Study (NDES) outfit in 1995 which documented some of the horrors of oil spills and other ecological disasters. The NDES was headed by Gamaniel Onosode whose solid moral credentials raised public expectations. But the government did not even provide adequate funds for NDES to complete its data collation. The publication of findings was abandoned after a few volumes. (Pp.32-33).
It was shortly after this in October 1998 that a pipeline fire explosion occurred in Idjerhe (Jesse) area near Sapele in Delta State, leaving in its wake thousands of charred bodies burnt to death in the fire. The then military Head of State, General Abdulsalami Abubakar "visited the site; he was callous enough to say that the victims deserved to die because they were involved in illegal bunkering of petroleum products" (Darah 2014). The paper contributes to scholarship by expanding the knowledge space of literature on Amata's film in terms of its thematic engagements as well as drawing attention to the atrocities that have been committed in the Niger Delta. Some others works such as A n y a n w u : B l a c k N o v e m b e r : I n t e r r o g a t i n g T h e N i g e r D e l t a Q u e s t i o n | 157

METHOD
The film medium is not only universally known and accepted; experts say that it speaks a universal language. It has close affinity with the people and can be deployed to treat any subject. In Africa, film is used beyond entertainment to serve as a medium of education, a means to articulate and project values, to agitate for freedom, for self expression and to right the wrongs of misrepresentation (Omoera and Anyanwu 2020;Shehu 1995;Ukadike 1995). In Nigeria, film has served various purposes, interrogating the concerns and issues of relevance to both the people and the governments. The documentary genre necessarily serves as the voice of the government in power, documenting its achievements and upholding its policies. The feature/fiction on the other hand, has been the thematic pitch of independent filmmakers who use it to narrate and creatively document aspects of the Nigerian experience.
In as much as film has been used generously to tell the story of Nigeria and Africa, many of the film makers shy away from politics notwithstanding that politics cannot be effectively divorced from art (Anyanwu 2008;Omoera 2019   it gives scholarship to deserving children from its host community, leads a protest.
The relationship between Western Oil Company and its host community in the Niger Delta region cannot be said to cordial prior to Ebiere's birth and growing up some two decades earlier.
The events in the story peak and the pace of narration quickens with her birth. There have been oil spillages with their paraphernalia of casualties, A n y a n w u : B l a c k N o v e m b e r : I n t e r r o g a t i n g T h e N i g e r D e l t a Q u e s t i o n | 161 compensations and reaping off of the victims by both the local elites, Western Oil Company staff and corrupt government officials before her birth with no one to speak out on behalf of the community. The very day Ebiere returns home from her studies abroad there is oil spillage and her entire family goes to scoop oil to to eke out a living. As she alights from the bike conveying her amidst shouts of "Mama, mama," she is informed that her mother, Barbara Soky, has gone with the others to scoop oil because "there has been another oil spill." She pays off the bike man; hurriedly puts her luggage inside the house and walks off in the direction of the spill to see her mother. She is thus in time to see the fire explosion and barely escapes by the skin of her teeth.
The horror of the charred remains of members of her family, including her mother and scores of other relatives firms her resolve to see that justice is done.
Ebiere's involvement in social activism and becoming an environmental crusader cannot, therefore, be said to be an option. She is left with no choice as many militants are. While still trying to grapple with her loss she organises a protest to march to the capital city of Abuja and the headquarters of the oil company which are all greeted with violent resistance some leading to incarceration and death of some of the protesters. The last straw, however, is the paying of compensation arising from the oil spillage and the fire disaster there from by the oil company.
The Western Oil Company through its spokesman, Gideon White, played by (Fred Amata), negotiates the sum of five hundred thousand US dollars ($500,000.00) as compensation for the victims. The contention here becomes who to be paid the money between individual families and the community as a whole. The money is eventually paid and, of course, the representative elders 'cornered' it for themselves. The only dissenting voice against this injustice is poisoned and his death and subsequent discovery of fifty thousand US dollars ($50,000.00) exposed the deceit, betrayal and double standards of the elders to the youths who have formed themselves as the resistance group. The conflicts generally revolve around who gets what and at whose expense. At a point during the discussion for compensation, it appears as if the misunderstanding is going to derail into gender issues as the spokesman for the men challenges Ebiere's right to speak for her family, because, according to him, this is an all male affair. But Ebiere counters

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by saying that the men in her family have been killed in the fire and at any rate, the issue is not gender based.
The youths in their anger, at the betrayal by the elders, led by Ebiere and Peter (OC Ukeje) whose father is poisoned by the elders because he threatened to expose them go in search of the elders and all those involved in the sabotage.
Having rounded up the elders who are involved, they bundle them into a 504 Saloon car in which one of the elders was attempting to get away and set all of them ablaze. Ebiere takes responsibility for their deaths and she is arrested and sentenced to death by the government. In the bid to obtain her release, the youths led by Tamuno  With this piece of news that Ebiere has been unconditionally released, the United Peoples Force lay down their arms and freed the hostages in their custody.
Their sense of betrayal and disappointment in the hands of the American government, their own government and the executives of the Western Oil Company, can best be imagined when the news filters in moments after laying down their arms that Ebiere has been killed by hanging. Forlorn and hopeless, they allow themselves to be arrested by the American police. As they are bundled into police vehicles, the movie comes to an end. The scenario just described above is tantamount to the betrayal and cause of the violence which characterizes Niger Delta and which has been described as "pure criminality of the highest order, arising from total disregard for constituted authority" (Chinweizu 2013) and leading to the attraction of "a great deal of attention over the years" (Amodu, O. Lanre and Idowu 2011).
While citing Chief Eddie Ugboma, a filmmaker who gave up filmmaking at the inception of Nollywood, according to (Okoye 2007) argues the critic should The plot of the movie shows that the story began in medias res, that is, at an advanced stage having started twenty-one years before Ebiere's birth but the A n y a n w u : B l a c k N o v e m b e r : I n t e r r o g a t i n g T h e N i g e r D e l t a Q u e s t i o n | 165 pace peaked with her birth. We see her go through primary and secondary schools, winning scholarship from Western Oil to attend tertiary institution abroad. It seems her university education and her exposure to the whites while studying there made her the apt choice to be her family/community's spokesman, mediating between the people and the oil company. Moreover, the male members of her family were virtually wiped out in the pipeline fire explosion. Thus, the story is actually hers, told from her point of view. We first encounter her in her cell in Warri prisons and it is easy to know that the noose earlier seen dangling in the air is waiting for her as is the case at the end of the film. The irony of her death by hanging is not lost upon us as it reflects the relationship Nigeria and Nigerians have with multinationals and the international community. Had Ebiere remained abroad after her studies, not minding the fate of her people, she would have lived to a ripe old age, enjoying the privileges from her Western education which was a product of scholarship from the proceeds of her land. The scholarship was meant to be a sort of compensation on the one hand, and a bribe, on the other, to make her feel comfortable and neglect her people. When this did not work, she became a victim of her creators! This is may have informed (Brown 2018) position that "black consciousness in Western contexts is thoroughly embedded in, yet irreconcilable with, the ways that black consciousness is understood by the "other world that looks on in amused contempt and pity." The language of the film alternates between the Queen's English of elite culture and the Nigerian English/pidgin, depending on the character. However, in some places, we are uncertain of the educational attainment of the character and this throws one off balance at the quality of the character's speech. For example, Ebiere's mother (Barbara Soky) speaks good English and considering her background, one is left to guess that she is probably educated. Irrespective of the character speaking, however, the language is simple, uncomplicated and easy to comprehend. Indeed, it helps to project the story both thematically and aesthetically.
Characterization in the movie is quite good as the casting directors did a Company, do stand out. In as much as most characterizations are in place, some characters and the actions associated with them make the story seem contrived.
For example, at the scene of the pipeline explosion just as Ebiere is coming to see her mother and possibly pull her away from the spillage scene; it seems completely out of sequence that an oil company executive, who ought to know better, would be the one to light a match in such environment! It beats the imagination that he does not know enough to bridle his thirst for cigarette at that answer response call of Theatre Arts students of a particular university in Nigeria, "Catch Me" "Throw away" and the reverse, is completely out of place in the movie. Barring this and some other minor, if negligible blemishes like having the Western Oil Company executive light a cigarette at the scene of the crude oil spill thereby igniting the fire that caused the explosion; and the children holding balloons at such a tense scene, the film is a true reflection of the Niger Delta situation in Nigeria today. The question that readily comes to mind is: What in the world are the boys doing in such a place in the first instance. Generally, however, Amata's Black November is a good and commendable voice of protest designed to address the injustice and inhumanity meted out to the people of Niger Delta region of Nigeria by the international and local powers that be. This substantiates the submission that film serves as a means "for the uplifting of humanity" (Anyanwu 2017).

CONCLUSION
Amata's Black November, effectively captures the inhuman treatment, injustice, environmental degradation and Nigerian government's insensitivity to the plight of the people which is at the nexus of the incessant militancy and protest that characterize the region. It is a well researched effort taken from historical events in the region that is presented in the film in the form of filmic 'faction." The thematic concerns raised in the film justify the use of the relative deprivation theory deployed in the paper. Indeed, Amata has been able to raise the salient concerns of the Niger Delta region of Nigeria to global attention through the thematic preoccupations in the film. This is also in line with the main objective of the paper which is to find out to what extent the filmmaker was able to address the issues of concern in the Niger Delta region of Nigeria. It is an eloquent testimony of an artist alive to the pulse of his society.