ABSTRACT

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 Saworoidẹ (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.

摘要

汤德·凯兰尼作品的核心是一个伟大的哲学问题，它涉及电影实践的主权。电影院，尤其是在后殖民时期的尼日利亚，是否可以免受不适当的外部影响？它可以对其内部选民行使最终权力吗？不受外界影响是什么样的？电影院内部有哪些选区？它们纯粹是美学吗？它们是否包括观看范围？我通过重新审视凯拉尼最著名的电影来解决这些问题，其中包括《索沃里多》（Saworoid1999，1999年）和《阿戈戈·瑟沃》（2002），在这里我称之为他的“皇家寓言”。作为结论，我然后简要地回顾一下外部影响的问题，并指出凯拉尼人经常与各种政府和非政府机构合作并接受其资助，有时还可以组织一种特殊的关注经济。这些冒险在多大程度上促进或破坏了他电影院的主权地位？这个问题不能给出简单的答案。主权的根本特征是内在力量与外在力量之间，其理想化与实践形式之间的张力。它可能比成就更恰当地理解为过程或永恒的谈判。