Kongi’s Harvest (1971) will today, 12 July screen to the audience in Nigeria and beyond as part of the line-up of the annual WSICE programming to celebrate Professor Wole Soyinka’s 88th birthday.
The film screening session, a new addition to the annual programme, is in partnership with the Black Film Center & Archive at the Indiana University Bloomington, which will also hold a screening.
Dotting on the theme, “Soyinka, Citizenship, and the Moving Image,” the session will hold July 12-14 featuring three films in all: Kongi’s Harvest, So Be It and Culture in Transition – each day will feature the screening of a film.
The organisers say that as is tradition since inception, this year’s edition, WS88, is to celebrate the 88th birthday anniversary (July 13) of Wole Soyinka, the “Global Humanist”, who through “his exemplary life choices and over six decades of illustrious careers of writings, activism and agency of numerous and varied interventions in global affairs, has helped to shape the cause and course of our collective humanity,” stated Kareem. Chief Executive of Zmirage Multimedia company, the main corporate promoter of the project.
The Nigerian audience can see the film at the Crown Art Factory (CAF) located on Awofodu Street, Somolu, Bariga, Lagos at 5 pm WAT. The CAF is the performance base of the popular performing company, Crown Troupe of Africa led by Segun Adefila.
Kongi’s Harvest is a play written by Wole Soyinka and adapted for the screen with Ossie Davis as director.
Fictional African country, Isma, is transitioning from governance by traditional ruler Oba Danlola to President Kongi. As the national harvest celebration approaches, these two leaders struggle with power, ego, a yam, and the good of their fellow citizens. Soyinka stars as Kongi in the 78-minute flick.
