Aminata

Aminata

 Aminata is a pastoral story of a tyrant Chief, Adikali Momo who can marry any woman or underage girl for his taste in his chiefdom. This time, he wants Kelfala (Mohamed Bobson Kamara), the village drunk’s daughter, Aminata (Aissatou Bah) to be his nineteenth wife. Being a poor husband, Kelfala is easy to consent to the marriage, but his wife, Aminata’s mother couldn’t because her brother was once murdered by the same chief for dating a girl the chief wanted. However, the chief must have his way if not, Kelfala and his wife would be banished from the village. That is what the poyo drinking courtiers make us believe.

Chief Adikali Momo (Muctar Cole/screenwriter) must always have his way, even if it takes to rape the poor girl, Aminata, which he does, while his guards beat Philip, her youthful lover to the point of losing his mind. Aminata runs from the household and during her odyssey to nowhere, she’s rescued by a loving family, in whose home she delivers Chief Adikali’s baby boy and, she’s later put in school and goes on to become a lawyer, and comes back to prosecute her raper, Chief Momo and put him away for all the injustices. There’s a grand resolution to this flick, as Philip, once considered dead or insane arrives in a jeep, grown and successful, upon the crowning ceremony of Aminata’s son, and both have a long kiss as the movie fades out.

Aminata is a straightforward story that has the characteristics of the nursery recitation, “The house that Jack Built”, one reads in elementary. The plots are many here and are arranged by incident building on another incident. Any story that could not be summarized in one sentence has a plot defect, such as Aminata. Summarily one can claim Aminata to be the underdog versus the status quo, wherein the underdog becomes the top dog in the end.

The actors, Muctar Cole (Chief Adikali) and Mohamed Bobson Kamara (Kelfala) seem to be veteran actors for, their postures and deliveries aren’t forceful, and they both prove helpful in making other actors come alive. However, the younger Aminata and Philip do not have the same screen nuances and idiosyncrasies of the older ones which to a trained eye create unbelievable screen characters. One is easy to observe the unbelievable screen time from when Aminata disappears from the village, and the chief’s guards looking for her to the scene where she vomits, indicating pregnancy.

One characteristic trait of Aminata is that writers, producers, cinematographers, and actors produced a piece of art that uniquely fits Sierra Leone because imitating productions of neighboring Nigeria and Ghana would have killed the essence of the final product. The dawning of the day like cocks crowing, in this little village in the opening sequence of Aminata, ironically marks the dawning of a new age of cinema in this West African enclave once referred to as, Athens of West Africa. Soon, larger than life celebs in the likes of Genevieve Nnaji, Kanayo .O. Kanayo, Rita Dominic, John Okafor (Mr. Ibu) etc shall be cropping up all over the place. Kudos, mister producer!