Kèlání and the Question of Sovereign Cinema

One of the great philosophical questions at the heart of Túndé Kèlání's oeuvre concerns the sovereignty of cinematic practice. Can cinema, particularly in postcolonial Nigeria, be free from undue outside influence? Can it exercise ultimate power over its internal constituencies? What does freedom from outside influence look like? What are cinema's internal constituencies? Are they purely aesthetic? Do they include the sphere of spectatorship? I pursue these questions by taking a renewed look at some of Kèlání's most celebrated films, including Saworoid? (1999) and Agogo Èèwò (2002), which I refer to here as his 'royal allegories'. By way of a conclusion, I then reflect briefly on the question of outside influence, noting that Kèlání has often worked with, and accepted funding from, various governmental and non-governmental bodies, sometimes with the effect of organizing a particular economy of attention. To what degree have such ventures contributed to or undermined the sovereign status of his cinema? That question does not yield simple answers. Sovereignty is fundamentally characterized by tension between internal and external forces, between its idealized and its practical forms. It may be more appropriately understood as a process, or a perpetual negotiation, than an achievement.