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Fertility and Gender – Northern Nigeria, 2011
When DFID/UKAid’s PrOpCom first commissioned me for their three-part documentary series, I wasn’t totally convinced that fertiliser could be the most scintillating of subject matters. What sold me in the end was that each film was less than 5 minutes long, so hopefully too short for anyone, especially myself, to fall asleep. And once I started looking at it properly, I was quickly surprised by how fascinating the process became. As with most documentaries, what grabs you isn’t necessarily what the people do, but the people doing these things.
The project introduced me to an experienced Nigerian crew, many of whom had worked in Lagos for years, but were as unfamiliar with Northern Nigeria as myself. We began our adventures in Kaduna City, Kaduna State – less than a 4 hour drive from Nigeria’s capital city Abuja, but a world away from that metropolis. The next day we drove to Kano City, Kano State for the rest of the shoot. I say Kano, but most of our work was actually in Fadan Yaya and Karfi , a couple of tiny very rural settlements, just under a very bumpy hour’s drive from Tudun Wada, a hamlet about an hour from Kano.
The climate was an intense dry heat, but with a constant cool wind, and we didn’t notice ourselves over-heating. In fact, many of the crew were convinced they had malaria, but it turned out to be dehydration. We were often working so far out of town, there wasn’t anywhere to eat while we were shooting, and the highlight of one of our mornings was after a farmer we had interviewed in his field started plucking sun-ripened tomatoes from the vines surrounding us, and handing whole armfuls over. We weren’t proud and swallowed down most of them with relish.
That type of generosity wasn’t uncommon in the North and after interviewing various people, we were often invited to settle down and join them for their next meal, whether the person had only a bowl of food to share, or an entire banquet. Because our schedule was super-tight, we usually had to politely decline, and as a result we spent much of our time hungry and thirsty, devouring the customized ramen-style Indomie Noodles prepared by vendors just outside our hotel at the end of each day’s work.
Click on image to watch the "Fertile Alternative" films
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Click on image to watch the "Give Them Some Credit!" films
We were also clearly the most interesting thing to have happened to Tudun Wada in ages, and everywhere we paused with the camera, we were immediately surrounded by hoards of children. My producer and I were female, and you could see the confusion and delight the ladies around us felt when our crew of men would defer to us for guidance on where we wanted to work and what we wanted done there. Hopefully we managed to show a few of the girls that our country offers them a whole world of future prospects out there.
A few hours away from them in Adamawa State, where many Northern women have already found their economic independence. PrOpCom have been encouraging financial institutions to lend to female rice farmers, and those that took up the call have found it to be an excellent business decision, working out for both themselves and the female farmers. After the success of our fertiliser series in March, PrOpCom was eager to document their achievement in this field too.
Filming these female entrepreneurs for the two-part series this August was a different experience entirely. I worked with another excellent female producer and crew based predominantly in the North, so they were very familiar with the language and the terrain. Furthermore, one of the State’s first ladies, Dr Halima Nyako, is also a family friend and a wonderful hostess, so I felt very at home through out the shoot.
This time we shot mainly in and around the state capital city of Yola, and the more relaxed schedule gave us a better chance to enjoy this gorgeous city. The River Benue flows through the state, creating vast areas of lush greenery. As we were shooting at the ebb of the rainy season, days were dry and cool. Many of the female farmers and other participants we encountered were delightfully quick on the uptake and extremely cooperative. In fact, we were able to take our time with each shot, and still finish a day ahead of schedule.
I surprised myself with how much I enjoyed putting together and bringing to life these semi-corporate documentaries. It provided an opportunity for in-depth conversations with people I would never have met otherwise, and a better understanding of areas and aspects of my society of which I wasn’t even really aware. I reckon I'm a better-informed person for having done them. Hopefully you’ll watch the documentaries on PrOpCom’s YouTube page (or my arielnow one), and feel the same. Go on – they’re less than a wee 5 minutes each!
Adaora x
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