A Pascal Atuma Film/Feva Tv, Wells Feva Production, Diamond Pictures presents Omoni Oboli (Nneka), Brian Hooks (Dr. Johnson), Stephanie Linus (Iola Chinyere), Malisa Determined (Gladys), Pascal Atuma (Chief Okereke), Darel Isaac (John), Naima Sundiata (Ada), Chealse Howell (Charlene), Dashawn Francis (Tony), Percy Anane-Dwumfour (Emeka), Wendy German (Donna). Director of Photography, Chris Moresby; Screenplay/ Director, Pascal Atuma; Producers, Ola George, Pascal Atuma. © 2019
Definition of ‘clash’ as a noun is violent confrontation, discord, etcetera. As a verb, it could mean a fight, skirmish, contention, war, etcetera—all according to Oxford Language. A clash occurred in Clash, even before the title card flashed on the screen. Nneka (Omoni Oboli) gathers her two ear-plugged kids. Ada (Naima Sundiata) and John (Darel Isaac) tell them about the impending arrival of their father from Nigeria to join them. She clashes with them over the fact that the listening gadgets in the kids’ ears couldn’t let them hear about the most critical family upcoming agenda. She had to bang on the table, enraged. Then the title card: “Clash” in Algerian font, flashed on the screen like a crying tear. That’s an intro one can’t miss in this family-oriented drama.
Clash has clashes everywhere in the entire film and to the end at the betrothal ceremony of John’s wedding to his White girl, Charlene (Chealse Howard). Not without conflicts, though. Not without clashes, I repeat. As authoritative African fathers could be, are not goaded into accepting less than a head of a household, Chief Okereke (Pascal Atuma) quickly assumes the reign of leadership. From the get-go, he clashes with his wife over the family house. Nneka tries to impress her husband with the Western luxury home she acquired while he was away. Yet, he blows his top on her instead for not sponsoring him to complete the family house in Nigeria.
It is not going to be easy. Chief Okereka’s nurse-wife, Nneka, acts as a buffer between him and his Canadian-raised children. His daughter derogatorily referred to him as the “Skype Daddy.” Chief Okereke, with a butcher’s knife lying on the dining table by him and his eyes closed, counts not quite to ten. He wants to see Tony (Dashawn Francis), her African American boyfriend, with his pants hanging at the torso, leaving his home. Even as Tony calls Chief, “weirdo!” Chief too dismisses him as an “idiot.” Seeing a man with trousers hanging on his butt was a sort of abomination. “What about if he gets you pregnant?”
The parents’ bedroom clash over having affairs wasn’t as severe because Chief’s nephew had got him pills that solved his bedroom problems. The central conflict in the story is the dream John had that got Chief suspicious that Nneka had told her son that Chief wasn’t his biological father. John’s discovery made him a menace to the parents and himself. But he gets over the situation by learning that his fiance, Charlene, too, is a child of rape. He compares his birth as legitimate to that of Charlene.
Clash as a movie clashes over cross-cultural factors. Four that stand out in the film. African fathers, especially Igbos in Nigeria, could not accept their daughters bringing home boyfriends that have not promised or asked for their hands in marriage. When Ada wants to hug Emeka, a friend of the family and maybe a future suitor of hers, the father says, “hey. No, no, no. He’s a family friend. There’s a difference between a brother and a family friend….Look at how you hugged him like you were trying to deliver a holy rosary to him. Hugging is reserved strictly for blood. Family. Blood. Because the more you do that, the more you reduce your bride price.”
Chief Okereke couldn’t shake either Hawa or Charlene’s hands or hug them. Instead, they bow before him and dab them with ado and blessings. And in another cross-cultural class (clash), Charlene brings a case of Guinness stout beer for Chief. He’s wide-eyed, considering a Nigerian for his beer taste, especially Guinness. We see how he loves swashing Guinness beer in his mouth. Charlene moves in further to shake hands with the Chief in goodwill. Chief, “You don’t shake hands with Chiefs.”
Charlene, “What do you do?”
Chief, “Okay, bend down, let me show you.”
Charlene bends down and prostrates herself before Chief, and he touches the nape of her neck in blessing.
Charlene, “I would like to perform a libation.”
Chief, “A woman cannot perform a libation in our culture…do you want to have children?”
“Well, yes, of course.”
“Don’t worry. I will teach you our tradition…if you want to have children, you cannot do it. If you perform it, the gods will get angry at you, and you cannot have children.”
Clash teaches us one typical African or Nigerian Igbo tradition. One is by traditional mores bound to inherit the wife and kids of a deceased brother. Chief inherited Nneka and John from his late brother. The cultural transaction may sound impossible to other African ethnicities but is primarily acceptable in Western Africa. That could even be why most West African children refer to their fathers’ brothers not as uncles but as fathers. I had one, and I knew him more as a father than an uncle. God only knows the numerous times I fussed with my non-Mandingo ex-wife for correcting me, “No, he’s not your father. He’s your uncle.” I hated that, for I knew this man as a father all my life just as John regarded Chief Okereke.
The film value of Clash is expressly recognizable. It shows so in the beautiful closeups, pictures, shots, and scenery of Ontario, Canada, at the height of the Winter season. Though the movie cannot measure up to a feature film, it thus passes as an evening entertainment piece for our children raised in the Western world. I must praise Atuma for teaching us the traditional mores and idiosyncrasies. Things got straightened up after he arrived in Canada and his family home.
The future of the Okereke household and family was on its way to becoming an excellent textbook sample of African families transplanted into the western hemisphere. I wish the Okereka family on my own. It had near collisions and incidents at the precipice of damnation, and Chief came and saved it before it crashed. Yes, Clash didn’t crash because as he sits in the middle, on the couch, and holds Ada and John’s hand and prays, calm and blessings come over the family.: “God will bless you, my beautiful…Jesus Christ, you’re the good Lord. The God of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego. The Lord of Moses, you are great!”