Obioma the Slave Girl

I had my reservations. Of course, like any normal person I had my reservations. After seeing Dumebi the dirty girl and Veronica the native girl, as well as hearing of Somma the local champion and Onyinye the wine tapper – all starring Mercy Johnson – I had come to the conclusion that this has now become a fad. The rationale being it worked before so why not throw down a story – sensible or senseless – cast Mercy Johnson in a role with a memorable name, title the movie the said character’s name and whatever attribute of the character you think will sell and call it a movie.

Obioma the slave girl tells the story of a woman whose husband refuses to acknowledge her and is convinced that he was charmed into the marriage. For said reason, he maltreats his wife and all of his children believing that they are all offshoots of their mothers evil. It follows all the negative things that happens to this woman and her children especially her daughter as they try to live a normal life.

It is the quintessential nollywood formula. More than that it is the safe home video archetype – one or more villains, one or more victims and a series of unfortunate events. It wasn’t original. Even when it threw a twist at the end it was still not original but asides from being a very slow watch and having more than a few scenes that could have been shortened drastically, Obioma the slave girl is still a decent watch.

It’s not for everyone, that’s for sure. For the viewers who are looking for intellectual and mind-stimulating etc., this is definitely not for you. For those who like the regular village type nollywood movies with a morale – whether or not the same moral has been taught in 100 nollywood movies before or not – and some tears then this might be the movie for you.

The performances in this movie were neither phenomenal nor eye-gauging-worthy. Thankfully, Mercy Johnson abstained from her new found tendency to overact in this movie and Patience Ozokwor was the perfect balance of sorrow and compassion. Walter Anga had slowly become an actor for whom I go to extra ordinary lengths to avoid but for this movie his performance was metered and reasonable. Oma Nnadi owned her character and left no stone unturned in bringing conviction.

Now of course there were a couple performances in this movie that brought it down but not enough to render it unwatchable. I’d have to say that the most frustrating aspect of this movie especially for myself not having watched a regular home video in a while was watching such unnecessarily long scenes: watching someone drive in and out of houses, walking someone walk long distances for no apparent reason, etc.