On Wednesday, October 23, 2024, renowned Nigerian actress Faithia Williams took to X (formerly Twitter) to announce the upcoming release of her movie “Efunroye: The Unicorn.”
The tweet with the official movie poster attached was captioned, “Power. Trade. Legacy. She was more than a warrior, she was a ruler who rewrote history. ‘Efunroye: The Unicorn’ is coming to your screens soon! Are you ready?”
The post has since garnered over three million views and has sparked a lot of controversy. Let me tell you why:
Efunroye—The controversial heroine
The movie, “Efunroye”, is about Efunroye Osuntinubu, born in 1805, an influential Yoruba aristocrat, merchant, and slave trader in pre-colonial and colonial Nigeria.
Married to Oba Adele of Lagos, she is said to have used his connections to establish a successful trade network with European merchants in slaves, tobacco, salt, cotton, palm oil, coconut oil, and firearms and allegedly owned over 360 personal slaves.
As a wealthy woman, Madam Tinubu was able to influence economic and political decisions during her time. She had a massive security force composed of slaves, and she sometimes executed orders usually given by political leaders during the colonial era.
Her views on slave trade
In her biography titled “Madame Tinubu: Merchant and King-maker,” authored by Nigerian historian Oladipo Yemitan, he paints her views regarding slave trading. “On one occasion, during her final sojourn in Abeokuta, she was alleged to have sold a young boy into slavery and was accused of it. When arraigned before Ogundipe Alatise, the king, over the matter, she reportedly explained: ‘I have a large household and I must feed them well. I need money to do that, that’s why.”
Another section of Yemitan’s Tinubu biography, referred to as the “Amadie-Ojo Affair,” captures a slave trading deal gone sour in 1853 (notably after the 1852 Treaty abolishing slavery in Lagos) wherein Tinubu tells another slave trade, Domingo Martinez, that “she would rather drown about 20 slaves than sell them at a discount.”
However, it is alleged that through this very trade, she would come to understand the stark contrast between the domestic slavery she had known and the brutal treatment of slaves in Europe and America. This revelation marked a turning point in her life as she transitioned from being a participant in the slave trade to a staunch opponent of this abhorrent practice.
Efunroye Tinubu’s advocacy against slave trading did not go unnoticed by the British colonial government. As a result of her activism and defiance, she was eventually banished from Lagos and sent back to her hometown, Abeokuta.
Tinubu died in 1887 and is buried in Ojokodo Quarters in Abeokuta. Tinubu Square on Lagos Island, a place previously known as Independence Square, is named after her.
Efunroye Tinubu at the Tinubu Square in Lagos Island, via Facebook
Should Efunroye’s story be told?
It is crucial first to establish that every part of Nigerian history is important. Our history encompasses who we were, the foundation of who we are now, and who we should strive to be as a country. Also, in recent times, there has been an advocacy for stakeholders in the Nigerian film industry to tell more Nigerian stories, or else foreigners would rip us of our history and identity.
Here’s where the controversy lies: to tag Efunroye as “more than a warrior…a ruler who rewrote history,” may be perceived as a hard slap on the face of Queen Amina of Zaria, Mrs Olufumilayo Ransome-Kuti, Queen Anina Bakwa and many more women who had always stood for the good of their people and country.
Aside from her statue at Tinubu Square in Lagos, Efunroye was never remembered publicly until recently when her descendants, led by Chief Akinfolabi Akindele of Adamakin Investment Limited, who is also a great-grandson of Madam Tinubu, decided that the time had come to ‘celebrate’ her.
He called on the Ogun State government to immortalise this heroine for her remarkable legacy and service to the Egbas during the Dahomey war in the 19th century and create an annual celebration of the heroine’s legacy in Egbas history. This request has not officially been granted.
Although the movie has not been released and its plot is uncertain, the current controversy begs the question – is Faithia Williams’ celebratory tone the underlying theme for this movie, or is it simply a PR move to draw publicity? After all, they say, “All press is good press.”
