The Yorubas have a saying. “Bi o laya ko seka sugbon bi oba ranti iku Gaa ki o so oto” which translates to “If you are brave, venture into wickedness, but if you remember Gaa’s death, adhere to the truth.”
Four minutes into Bolanle Austen Peters‘ House of Ga’a, we understand why. Embodied by actor Femi Branch, the ruthless prime minister of 18th-century Old Oyo is immortalised. Branch is every bit Ga’a-like in his portrayal of the tyrant. He is a shrewd, cruel, bloodthirsty, and a power-hungry military genius.
BAP is the production entity behind some epic Yoruba biopics most recently Funmilayo Ransome Kuti. In her latest project, we are transported three centuries into the past to when Gaa had just been made Bashorun, the leader of the King Makers of Oyo. His brutish reign as Bashorun would go on to terrorize Alaafins for years to come. His unquenchable and uncontrollable thirst for power and control will stretch beyond the confines of cultural and religious propriety until it consumes him and his entire house.
House of Ga’a is a massively successful project, entering Netflix’s top 10 in multiple countries upon its release. From the setting to the storyline to the star-studded cast, it’s little wonder why. In an interview, consulting producer Femi Adebayo recounts how they had to scout around the city of Epe to find a place where they could create their set from scratch. It is the dedication to accurate storytelling like this that shines brightest throughout the movie. The visuals and sound quality are not lacking. The costumes in this project veer close to historical correctness. All these elements combine seamlessly with each other.
Despite the richness of the cast, there’s no chaos in the role portrayal. Femi Branch is a master of his craft. He embodies the character of Ga’a and truly produces a leader that one can’t help but despise from across their screens. His facial expressions, mannerisms, and even his thick Yoruba dialect show top-class acting from him. The highlight for me was learning that, with their wrappers wound tight around their chests, the women of Ga’a all knew how to wield the sword and fight!
It is important to have this kind of historical representation in our movie industry. However, beyond all the hype and reverence this film has received, there was a longing for things I couldn’t quite place on the first watch. For some reason, I found the performance a little underwhelming and couldn’t wrap my head around why. Then I went back to some movies with a similar premise, like Woman King and Jagun Jagun, and I figured out why. Because this movie falls under the genre of epic action movies, fights and gore are expected. But with limited modern technologies, stunts, and effects to work with, there’s only so much that can be executed to perfection. So as compensation, this movie comes out more like a live-action theatrical production than a film.
The opening battle could have looked less choreographed. One could see the intention and need for calculated and timed execution, but it ends up taking away from the believability of this scene. The weapons, shields, armour, and computer-generated images came out more like cosplay.
The make-up was “out-standing” in that it stood out and did not completely blend with the final production cut. In the scene where Gaa’s elder brother is being hit with a whip, we can see the bloodied broken skin on his back, but there are no whip strokes, blood stains, or bruising on his shoulder, as should be expected when using a whip with an uneven distribution. We see the writer flex creative liberty when Oye flees to the Emir of Ilorin, which is historically inaccurate, because during the time of Ga’a, Ilorin was firmly under the control of Oyo and had no Emir.
For too long, Africans have left the responsibility of recording and sustaining their rich history to foreigners. The result is inconsistent stories, watered down by half-truths and misinformation. Finally, with Bolanle Austen-Peters taking upon herself this divine mantle, these tantalizing and gripping African stories will be told correctly by Africans. She did it once before with Funmilayo Ransome Kuti and now again with House of Ga’a. This movie is woven around themes that are educative, entertaining, and timely, given the present state of political events in different countries across Africa.
The lesson at its core is that power is intoxicating both in the right and wrong hands. What lengths are leaders willing to go to have and keep this power?
