Roy Madu: Nigeria remains hope of black race

May 5, 2024

US-based Nigerian Roy Madu also known by the alias Towncrier, is an all-rounder in the true sense of the word. He is a singer, entertainer, scriptwriter, actor, movie producer, comedian and an entrepreneur. The Abia state-born business mogul who started off as a banker would later have a career switch when he travelled abroad for the proverbial Golden Fleece. In this interview with OLAITAN GANIU, he shares interesting insights on how he turned his arts and crafts to a commercial success. Excerpts:

How did you come about the ideal and idea of Pan Afrikanism?

Pan Afrikanism is the idea of uniting all the blacks worldwide for liberation.” The Late Kwame Nkrumah may have popularised it, but it is a creed many Africans have believed in for decades. Pan-Afrikanism is a wake-up call packaged in melodies. Yes, Pan-Afrikanism is in itself an interesting concept because it addresses a layered problem. After resisting prejudice and misinformation by external forces, we now have to look inwards. How have we contributed to our problem? This is because Pan-Afrikanism is a joke without African unity. Hence in the chorus, I pleaded with Nigerians to wake up to the occasion, “This present generation and future generation has no other country than Nigeria; let’s salvage our country, let’s find a solution to our political and economic problems.”

That could make a good national pledge?

It sounds like one, yes? Those words are not mine. They are from a man who once held the Office of Head of State in Nigeria, twice. These are words you cannot hate, or ignore because they capture the essence of the unique citizenship that is being Nigerian. I call it unique citizenship because first you are Nigerian, an African and a Black man. Nigeria has a lot of upright, overachieving exports and yet, our reputation tilts more to the negative. Thus, we are discriminated against by our own African sister nations and intercontinentally, by the West. The only place where we can truly be is Nigeria. It is home. The country has to work.

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You have given those words a home in your songs…

Words mean nothing if there is no medium to pass them in. By putting those words in a song, it gives it a deeper meaning. It is no longer an ideal, it is a lifestyle, a creed, an emotion. In between the verses, I sing about the unification of Africa for the goal of emancipation. But how can that be possible when Nigeria, the hope and giant of Africa, cannot even organise its political, economic and societal affairs into one cohesive and smooth working system? I wrote about my wishes for a greater Nigeria in the song: “Pan Afrikanism: PAN, PAN is the answer.” Nigeria has to rise up, because Africa’s future depends on her.

That’s powerful and intentional of you. Where did you write the record Pan-Afrikanism?

Though I wrote the song earlier while in Africa, it found deeper expression when I found myself in the diaspora. The deep thought resonated with what I experienced firsthand in the intentional subjugation of the black race. So, I decided to create a sense of brotherhood and collaboration among all African descent living abroad. This song became a rallying cry among my contemporaries.

Was the location of production of the song important?

I don’t believe it is, but it is symbolic. A song written about the unification of Africa in the US is written against the backdrop of racism and all calls out to the diaspora. Written in Nigeria, it is against the backdrop of tribalism and division. But the song was released in Nigeria. And I collaborated with a lot of African artists who share the same views in creating different versions of the song. Here in the US, the song became an anthem of sorts for the diaspora community.

That’s beautiful. From your passionate advocacy for Pan-Africanism through your artistic endeavors, is it safe to assume that music is not the only medium you have used?

You are on the right track. Yes, you would be right to ask such a question. A true artist dedicated to a cause would make his art about it, no matter the number of creative outputs he is capable of producing. A chunk of my filmography is dedicated to the Pan-Afrikanist cause.

Was there any motivation for your films? When did you decide to go into films?

As we are having this conversation, in a minute, I can list ten Western movies portraying Africa in a light that would shake you. When I was still living in Nigeria, I watched a lot of those films. They played into every stereotype paraded in the West. Africans are always portrayed to be crude in need of a white savior. That irked my soul, and that became my motivation. Here is the issue, they know about us, they know it is false, but Africa is a project to them, a market, therefore the image of Africa and how citizens of the Western world see Africa, must be controlled. Can you imagine a black American asking me how I managed to fly to the US? A Black American! Did you know that a whopping 65% of Americans have never left America? When I moved to the US I found out that a lot of them are uneducated and depend heavily on the media for education. As if that’s not enough, I saw the rot and downsides of their society, homelessness, the debts. No, they don’t get to create a negative image about us. These are the people who have such opinions about Africans. I realised that there was a space to change the African narrative and write our own stories. Even in modern Western movies the so-called Nigerian characters don’t even sound like Nigerians. I saw an opportunity to create our own stories, take back our history and image.

Have you produced any movies?

I took the liberty to tell other stories that show Africans are not monoliths that exist to glorify whiteness. Like other humans, we are lovers, we hate, we are funny, we get bored, we are complex, we are simple, and we are smart. I produced the following movies, Cross my Hearts, Eclipse, My Moi-Moi, The towncrier and I Surrender. I also started in all except Eclipse. In addition, I co-produced Juju, Lagoon and Second Chance.

Have you noticed any obstacles to the goal of Pan-Afrikanism through film?

There are many. The chief is Funding. Too many times I’ve seen great ideas die on no-budget productions. Even the simplest of ideas are not spared because low quality gear and operators ruin it. The result is having films that are unable to compete with other films at the Oscars. Then we have Piracy. For filmmakers and investors, filmmaking is a never-ending process. You finance a film, market it, make profit and throw in a chunk of that into another film project. Piracy threatens this cycle. It eats at the profits meant for filmmakers. Back in the day, Piracy was done on Compact Discs and DVDs. Today, there are websites dedicated to giving out movies for free. You visit them, search for any movie and download. Easy. But this ruins the prospect of profit for filmmakers. This doesn’t seem like what will go away soon. Movies are not distributed well enough for impact. Some films are even censored. All of these problems frustrate the attempts of those who desperately want Africa to work.

But with distribution comes access. Some filmmakers have come up with plans to tackle the issue of piracy, poor funding and distribution.

 Many filmmakers produce low-budget films that are released on YouTube. This reduces the threat of piracy since YouTube is data-friendly. Creators on YouTube get paid on the basis of viewership. So filmmakers now look for ways to grow a faithful audience from different parts of the world. Nigeria is a hot commodity, so other African countries want to watch what we produce on YouTube. Now, YouTube is a different industry catering to a different market of its own. In fact, the movies are different there.

With other Africans making a part of the viewership, it makes them automatically open to our messages. We have similar cultures, similar political problems, music and even food. We still haven’t settled the feud on which country has the best jollof rice. Based on this foundation of similarity, we can disseminate information easily and without problems. YouTube movies are usually marketed on other platforms like Facebook, TikTok and Instagram where interesting clips of the films are shared to hundreds of millions of social media users across platforms. This trend impacts social norms and attitudes among Africans, at home and abroad. The most beautiful part about this is that the movies defy the Western expectations of African society. Our films portray us as funny, satisfied, living in skyscrapers, using elevators, technology, the things they have in their civilisation, we possess also. This makes me proud. The media is a powerful tool for agenda setting and framing, if we do not produce good, pro-African media content, Pan-Afrikanism is a lost cause.

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