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wicked witch of the west: nollywood’s penchant for wicked women and woeful wives Ria Said BA (Hons) Film Production word count: 8303 introduction pg 1 the “first nollywood film” pg 2 archetype vs stereotype pg 4 - wicked stepmother - - the sapphire pg. 5 - the madonna pg. 7 - the whore - blood sisters (1&2) pg 9 - esther as a product of - her circumstance - the good wives pg. 20 - aw, man! pg. 22 conclusion pg. 24 bibliography pg. 25 list of illustrations pg. 29 introduction “The choice of a woman to play the “wicked” character appears to be deliberate and serves the purpose of illustrating the fate that awaits women who are not submissive to their husbands. A male character could not have achieved the same result. The male character could have been equally greedy, selfish, and obsessed with materialism but the dominant ideological message being spread required a “wicked” mother-in-law” (Dossoumon, 2013) What Dossoumon is talking about is Nollywood’s penchant for creating wicked women, women who function to remind female viewers that they must ‘stay in line’ if they do not want to face the same fate as the ones so often crucified in the movies. These women are ‘bad and no-good and rotten’ but don’t get more characterisation past that. There are, shockingly, some good women too, although their characterisation is just as misogynistic as that of the bad woman, they are good and nothing but. The male gaze is a concept put forward by feminist film theorist, Laura Mulvey, in her 1975 essay, Visual Pleasure and Narrative Cinema, it describes how films are made in a heteronormative, male, point of view. Female characters within the narrative function to mirror the fantasies and dreams of the men not only in the scene but also behind the camera and in the audience. This paper aims to study Nollywood films and their representation of women, namely through the dissection of the 2003 film Blood Sisters and to understand how these female archetypes became so prevalent in the industry to begin with. pg. 1 the “first nollywood film” It is hard, like with many parts of Nigeria’s history, to pin-point the origin of what we know today as Nollywood, due to the ruthless and unfeeling hand of the British colonists. ‘Palaver’ (1926) is argued to be the ‘first Nigerian film’ (Akande, 2019). Made by white, british filmmakers, the film portrays Nigerians as unruly cannibals. It comes as no surprise that the film was presented as a gift to Nigerians. We should note now that Nigeria, at the time of this movie's release, was still a British colony and would not gain independence for another 32 years. The reviews of the film at the time, written by more white folk, claimed it was “a welcome sight to see the Union Jack in a film of this type... the narrative is inspiring, showing, as it does, the heroic work of those young Englishmen, who seek danger and hardship in the outposts of the Empire” (Bioscope, 1926). Palaver (meaning problem in Nigerian Pidgin) opens with the witch doctor, Yilkuba, warning the King Dawiya that there is a war coming. After this, we are introduced to Mark Fernandez, a tin miner, who has just received a letter warning that if he doesn’t start picking up slack with his work, he will be dismissed and replaced. In the midst of this, a nurse, Jean Stuart, has discovered her car has broken down and is forced to spend the night at Captain Peter Allison’s hut-- also he’s the district officer. Mark, in need of more workers, goes to bribe the king with alcohol to see if he will give up some of his men. Later, at a social function, referred to as the ‘social event of the year’, King Dawiya is drunk of his rocker, and attempts to dance with Jean who was already dancing with Captain Allison—who is obviously not having this and decides to hold court where he fields complaints about Dawiya. Following this, he heads to the king's house and discovers ‘unlawful liquor’ and deduces that Mark must have something to do with this. He, of course, finds the same liquor in Mark’s home. Mark, already drunk, heads to work where he slaps one of his workers before collapsing flat on his face. Jean tends to him and begs him to change. At the same time, Captain Allison receives a letter stating that Mark was deported in 1920 and changed his name. Jean seeks out the Captain and asks him to help Mark, which he flat out refuses, knowing Mark’s true identity now. After this, Mark and Captain Allison end up in a physical altercation, which Allison wins. Mark, now hopeless, finds Dawiya as a last resort, he lies to him, claiming that Allison is about to arrest him, thus inciting a war. Dawiya gears up for a war by consuming even more ‘‘unlawful liquor’’. The battle begins and with relative ease, Captain Allison defeats the pg. 2 ‘pagans’. Dawiya then rushes to Mark’s house where he kills him, only to be caught by the Captain. The film ends with Allison proposing to Jean. This film, like many others, was a “colonial ploy to score a political point” (Ayakoroma, 2014:28). It is true this was the first feature film to be made in its entirety within Nigeria but that is where it’s ‘Nigerianness’ ends. I bring up Palaver because it perfectly complements a recurring point I aim to make with this paper: Film is the instrument of the oppressors, just as it is an instrument for the oppressed. Similar to how Nollywood films will demonise, sexualise and dehumanise it’s women, films made by British imperialists were made with the intent to do all of that and then some to Nigerians, and their other colonies. I present Palaver to you not because I believe it to be the true genesis of Nollywood, nor do I believe it directly to relate to the representation of Nigerian women per se, but it serves as a great example of how filmmakers often make films about what they know even when what they know revolves around their racist, misogynist and/or xenophobic ideals. It is almost hard to believe that the filmmakers had enough time to belittle Nigerians and were also able as fit in a romance plot. pg. 3 archetype vs stereotype David Pilgrim, Professor of Sociology at Ferris State University said “With people of color, in this case black women, there is a tendency for labels to become enduring stereotypes” (2012). The word archetype is derived from greek, meaning, original type, therefore, an archetype can be defined as a set of traits that anything thereafter is derived from (Eastern Arizona College, 2019). That is, any character created can be traced back to one archetype. Stereotypes on the other hand are widely accepted yet grossly oversimplified ideas surrounding a type of thing or a type of person (McLeod, 2017). In this case, the roles which the women of Nollywood films fit into are somewhat a combination of both. According to Zina Saro-Wiwa (2009:21), “Women are prominent in Nollywood but suffer from stereotyping. They are the wicked stepmother, the wealthy but predatory urban spinster, the saintly wife, the madonna or the whore”. Archetypes are assigned to fictional characters, while stereotypes are reserved for real people and concepts, but when stereotypes are portrayed so often in a medium, they can serve to become a common set of traits given to any one character. Nollywood films have a habit of presenting their woman as sex objects and nothing more (Ayokaroma, 2014: 101), these women are stripped of any real intelligence and bound to the stereotypes assigned to them (Okonoome, 2004: 7). The purpose of this section is to break down what I will be calling ‘arche-stereotypes’ prominent within Nigerian Cinema, these are: the wicked stepmother, the sapphire, the Madonna/the saintly wife and, the jezebel (or the whore). Of notable importance is that some of these stereotypes are synonymous with the representation of African-American women on screen, this is because, Nollywood films have taken cues from American cinema to determine how to present their women (Arachie, 2010: 1). the wicked stepmother The wicked stepmother has been a part of fairy-tale tradition since its inception, one of its most prolific villains; she might not have necessarily always been the stepmother but she was present nonetheless (Williams, 2010). As most things that were invented a time before, this arche-stereotype has evolved and changed over the course of its existence. Maria Warner argues that what makes the evil stepmother so evil is how she acts “against nature so pg. 4 profoundly that she exudes diabolical perversity” (2014:25), the nature here being what Doyle calls “the “natural” effortless quality of motherhood (Doyle, 2019). The wicked Stepmother, is exactly what the name implies, a woman who marries one’s father after the end of his previous marriage, be it due to divorce or death, only to begin a reign of terror. The wicked stepmother will often operate as a wolf in sheep’s clothing, presenting a faux image of kindness to the father while brutalising the children from his previous marriage(s) or relationship(s). The motivation for this character may be varied, whether it be because they simply do not like children, or they have children of their own that they wish their new husband (sometimes boyfriend) to provide for. It is important to note, however, that despite the name, mother-in-laws and co-wives also fit into this category. The wicked stepmother archetype is not only found in nollywood. It is common in Western popular culture too. We’ve seen the wicked stepmother in Cinderella (1950) and in The Powerpuff Girls 1998 episode, ‘Mommy Fearest’ (see Fig. 1 ). fig. 1 Ima Goodlady the sapphire The sapphire stereotype is named after a character of the same name, Sapphire Stevens (See Fig. 3), from “Amos ‘n Andy”, a radio and television sitcom from the 1940s. (West, 1995 cited in Jerald et al, 2015). Kretsedemas defines the sapphire as “both assertive and comical”, the sapphire browbeats her male love interests and is fixated on upward mobility (Kretsedemas, 2010:151). Amos ‘n’ Andy, started on the radio, with the characters voiced by white actors, as what can only be described as a minstrel show, the show aired from 1928 to 1960 (Pilgrim, 2012). In 1951, Amos ‘n’ Andy was adapted to the screen, with the first all-black cast on network television in the US. The show followed the three members of a black fraternal lodge, Mystic Knights Of The Sea as they got into all sorts of hijinks. Sapphire was the wife of one of these pg. 5 members, Kingfish, who also happened to be the leader of the lodge. Kingfish was the “chronically unemployed” (Pilgrim, 2012), lazy, lying and no good black man (Morgan and Bennett, 2006). Sapphire constantly chastised and critiqued her husband and even “berated him as a failure” (Pilgrim, 2012). The sapphire is hostile and overly-independent, hardly displaying any sort of emotional intelligence and, void of vulnerability (Harris-Perry, 2011:88). Michelle Obama, in 2008 was the target of racist propaganda at the time (Fig. 2), depicting her as unapproachable and emasculating, the opposite of what a first lady should be (Jerald et al, 2015). fig. 2 Michelle Obama as an 'angry fig. 3 Ernestine Wade as Sapphire black woman' Stevens Harris-Perry goes on to further talk about how the sapphire is just one name for the “myth” of the angry black woman, which comes in different shapes and shades, she names these variations as “the bad black woman, the black “bitch”, and the emasculating matriarch” all of which hold “relative scholarly invisibility” (2011: 88). She goes on to quote feminist scholars, Morgan and Bennett, who say that though the stereotype of the angry black woman is constantly disregarded, it is so dangerous because its lack of notoriety means that it is an accepted characteristic of black femininity, meaning that black women characters can then be assigned to other stereotypes while keeping the traits of the angry black woman (Morgan and Bennett, 2006 cited in Harris-Perry, 2011:88), and it is clear that this is what happens to Esther in Blood Sisters 1&2 (2003). Esther transforms from the jezebel to the wicked stepmother all while still being her angry black woman self, a sapphire. pg. 6 the madonna *or the saintly wife French (2001: 52) describes the Madonna as “the pacifist mother archetype”, she is kind and nurturing and attentive. The Madonna is often made in the image of Mary, mother of Christ (TV Tropes, s.d), she is pure, untainted and virtuous (Farah, 2020). In Nollywood, this Madonna character is transformed into the girl next door who will then become the dutiful housewife, who “exists only to support her husband and children (Ibbi 2017:63). Modern western examples of the Madonna/Saintly wife, and all its suggested embodiments include, Stephanie Smothers from A Simple Favour (2018) and Hippolyta Freeman in HBO’s Lovecraft Country (See Fig. 4) (although Hippolyta goes through her own fig. 4 Hippolyta Freeman in Lovecraft country’s season finale. character arc where she is able to break free from being defined as just a mother and wife). the whore *or the jezebel The Jezebel, otherwise known as the whore or the bad black girl, is an alluring, sexually arousing, worldly seductress (Jewell, 1993: 46). Jewell, in fact, describes the Jezebel as a tragic mulatto, a woman that possesses typical european features without the naivete of white women (1993:46). However, Dr David Pilgrim counters that Jewell’s definition is a “kernel of truth” (2012). According to him, this idea of the jezebel stems from the fact that most of the women sold into prostitution in the US during the slavery era were lightskin but “from the early 1630s to the present, black American women of all shades have fig. 5 Foxy Brown movie poster been portrayed as hypersexual ‘bad-black-girls’.” (2012). Pilgrim posits that the perception of black people as innately sexual, began before slavery, when Europeans came to Africa and found “scantily clad natives” (Pilgrim, 2012). Shemekka Epps (See Fig. 7) from Spike Lee’s Netflix series, She’s Gotta Have It is one example of the pg. 7 Jezebel in modern day entertainment but more notable examples are Foxy Brown from Foxy Brown (1974) (See Fig. 5) or the video vixens prevalent in 2000s music videos (See Fig. 6). fig. 6 video vicens in Nelly’s ‘Ride wit me’ music video fig. 7 Shemekka dancing in the strip club pg. 8 blood sisters (1&2) A woman reading a letter, she’s with her sister, they’re dressed in a way that we can only describe as ‘2000s’, a man (who we are told is her love interest) reads aloud to us, “Gloria, I am awfully sorry that this relationship has to end, but thankful to know the truth at last. I never knew you were a harlot. Don’t try to look for me, because if you do, I will disgrace you. Bye, and keep being the bad girl you are”. Blood Sisters (1&2) is a 2003 Film starring Patience Ozokwor, Omotola Ekeinde and Genevieve Nnaji. It tells the story of a single mother and her two daughters, Gloria and Esther, who seem to always be at odds with one another, we watch Esther do anything and everything to ruin her older sister’s life, ultimately ending in killing her and taking her husband before finally taking her own life. One of the things that makes this film stand out, is how blatantly it veers away from the typecasting of their main actors. In Nollywood, the top actors are often typecast and perpetually tied to the genres they helped build (Tsika, 2015:35). Patience Ozokwor is primarily known for playing wicked stepmothers, we’ve seen her in roles like this in films such as Madam Lufthansa, where she does not like the girl her son wishes to marry so so does whatever she can to break their union, in Twins in Sorrow, where her character hates her son so much she spends the entirety of the film trying to kill him. This makes it all the more dizzying when we see her character in this film, Ulumma, allow her daughter to be cast out by the elders, like the “pacifist mother archetype” described by French (2001, 52). esther as a product of her circumstance The movie opens with Esther walking home from school with a friend, Chioma, they are arguing because apparently, Esther was copying her answers again, they end up getting physical. This is the film’s first hint to us that Esther is not a good person. Gloria intervenes (See Fig. 8), much to Esther’s displeasure and takes Chioma’s side, the younger sibling, unhappy, rushes home ahead fig. 8 (from left to right) Chioma, Gloria and Esther of them both. In this instance, we see Esther as angry and defensive for no good reason, in fact, she reflects the characteristic of Kingfish here, who pg. 9 was a ‘prototypical coon’ (Pilgrim, 2012). Like, Kingfish, Esther is lazy and willing to take advantage of her relationships to get ahead (Pilgrim, 2012). Once home, Esther lies and tells their mother, Ulumma, that Gloria ‘branched’ off to some unknown place, but the audience knows this is not true. Once Gloria returns home, she gets a stern talking to and leaves the room in tears. Things go on like this for a few scenes, Esther continuously trying to lie on her sister before a three year time skip. Now, the girls are older but things are still relatively the same. Esther is still jealous of her sister, now, because she gets more male attention. Esther continues to get her sister in trouble with their mother. We see clearly now Esther is being painted as truly bitter and vindictive when she lies to Gloria’s boyfriend about her whereabouts, so he thinks she is cheating on him. In the scene before this though, Esther is complaining to her friend about how she is “the ugly daughter” and “the one no one wants” but when she says this, it’s not meant for the audience to sympathise with her and we know this because her friend tells her bluntly that it might have to do with her attitude. The problem with this though, is that the film does not really talk about how or why things ended up this way, they do not point out that Esther is the darker skinned sister and therefore may be seen as more undesirable. Bell Hooks discusses how the representation of black people in media regurgitates white supremacist ideals, even when the content is created for and/or by black people, and this is due to internalised racism (Hooks, 1992:11). Sherwood Thompson defines colourism as a type of prejudice that is targeted at those with darker skin within a society (Thompson, 2014:213). Therefore, we can gather that colourism is favouring those with lighter skin over those with darker skin, because of their perceived proximity to whiteness, and while Gloria may not be lightskin in the way that the examples of lightskins are (Beyonce, Rihanna, Zoe Seldana, etc), she is still relatively lighter in comparison. I want to point out, that even at the end of the film, after Gloria’s husband gets remarried, he does find a nice woman who is, again, lightskin. Tsaaior and Ugochukwu, in their book, Nigerian Film Culture and The Idea Of The Nation (2017: 64), talk about how rivalry between women validates the misogynistic idea that women are the cause of their own suffering because they simply cannot manage relationships with each other, especially when in competition “for the love and attention of men”. When they make this point they are actually talking about co-wives and go on to talk about how a lot of co-wife rivalry is based in self-preservation even though Nigerian filmmakers tend to gloss over this. I bring their point up because we see Esther’s terrible behaviour but do not understand where pg. 10 it stems from. Esther is upset because she does not get male attention, at one point in the film she even comments on how their father always preferred Gloria. So, why do the filmmakers seem to omit the reasoning behind Esther’s wrong doings? That she is at war with her sister because of the patriarchal nature of the society she lives in? When we watch Esther return home to find her ‘friend’ chatting with Gloria, only to pull him aside and remind him that he is here to see her and only her, it’s not necessarily the doings of an evil woman as much as it is the action of a woman that feels that her position in society is at stake. In ‘Women, Religion, and The Video Film in Nigeria’ Okome Onokoome takes a close look at Glamour Girls, a 1994 film that chronicles the lives of women in Lagos and their duplicitous lifestyles. He writes about how when Sandra hears of Doris’ non-interest in finding a husband, she is “perplexed”, because to Sandra, who has just come from the village, “the thought and every action of women are hemmed around the husband and the family” (2004:7). What Onokoome describes here is the traditional beliefs held by many women in Nigeria and the assumption of a woman’s purpose being tied to motherhood, suggested by Doyle (2019). Another year later, the village elders are gathered outside with Gloria and Esther’s mother. A young man, Kenneth, has come to ask for Gloria’s hand in marriage, everyone is overjoyed. Another time skip, puts us in the pair’s marital home, they now have two children (Adaobi and Junior). The two are discussing whether or not to let Esther live with them, Gloria pleads with her husband to permit it as she has been unemployed for five years now. On her first day of work, Adaobi and Junior ask their aunt to buy them things on her way back home, while she laughs and agrees to their faces, on her way to work she grumbles that this is the “beginning of the end” and that soon, they will “turn [her] to housegirl”. Looking at feminist theory and understanding that women are seen as child bearers first and foremost, of course the filmmakers highlight how Esther does not care for them. Women are meant to dream of motherhood, to live up to their purpose of childbearing (Doyle, 2019), so when a woman does not seem to take to children, or immediately fall into her maternal instincts, well, she must be bad. A few scenes later, and Esther is with her boyfriend, he’s trying to convince her to lie down with him, and she gets angry. Complaining that he can’t buy her a car like Kenneth did for his wife, much less give her “common, ordinary, five thousand naira” to go and do her hair. They start to shout at one another, and her boyfriend gets angry too, telling her that he is not her sister’s husband, he is not her husband, and that she needs to stop comparing him to other men. Esther ends up storming off. pg. 11 This scene is meant to show us that Esther is becoming more and more jealous of her sister’s relationship as time goes on, but if we focus on her boyfriend’s reaction to her complaints, we might see that everything that takes place in this scene between the two is a direct result of the patriarchy. If we look at functionalist theory, men and women both have set roles in the family based solely on their genders, though this looks at the husband/wife dynamic I believe that it is transferable to a boyfriend/girlfriend dynamic as well. Sociologist, Parsons, defines two roles: The Instrumental: This role is assigned to the man. His duty is to work and provide for the family. We can call him the breadwinner. The Expressive: As women are ‘natural caregivers’, this role falls to them. She takes care of the children and maintains the house; cooking, cleaning and tending to the members of the household on an emotional level. We can call her the homemaker. (Bell, 2015) The functionalist view of family is entirely heteronormative, mirroring the views of the general Nigerian population so looking at these two roles as inventions and tools of the patriarchy, one could argue then that perhaps Esther’s boyfriend was not upset at the fact that she was being unreasonable but that she was being completely reasonable and that he simply felt emasculated not being able to provide for her. Morgan and Bennet posit that the sapphire cannot exist without a man worthy of chastising: “Black men who participate in perpetuating the “Angry Black Woman” stereotype would do well to reflect on Sapphires role… Sapphire’s relentless harping on her husband, “Kingfish”, served a specific cultural purpose: to showcase, support, and justify the stereotype of the “lazy, lying, hustling, hounding, fast-talking, foolish, failing, no-good black man” (Morgan and Bennett, 2016) pg. 12 Looking back to Palaver (1926), we saw how the film was made by colonisers to hide their shortcomings and instead, demonise Nigerians. In the same vain, maybe, Blood Sisters (2003) functions to paint a negative image of women like Esther rather than critique why women like her exist in the first place (it’s because of the patriarchy and colonialism). Barbara Omolade presents the idea that “protecting black women was the most significant measure of black manhood” (1994: 13). Patricia Hill Collins takes a closer look at Omolade’s theory and postulates that perhaps, since black men’s worth was tied to how well they could protect their women, protecting the women, became controlling the women (2002: 157). Both of these women’s ideas, then, explain why Esther makes the perfect antagonist for the Nigerian audience, she is not easily controlled; and this also explains why her boyfriend has such an adverse reaction to her words. The most troubling thing about this then, is that Esther’s character is seen as evil, not just by the men watching this but by every black person watching, regardless of identity because these beliefs surrounding said identity distort how we think about ourselves (Giddings, 1992: 463 cited in Collins, 2002: 157). This very notion of what could be called a ‘self-fulfilling prophecy’ is dissected by Jerald, Ward, Moss, Thomas and Fletcher in “Subordinates, Sex Objects, or Sapphires? Investigating Contributions of Media Use to Black Students’ Femininity Ideologies and Stereotypes About Black Women”. The participants were 404 Black undergraduates at a Midwestern university and the aim of the study was to expand understanding of how media plays a role in shaping black students’ ideas of femininity specifically within their cultures. The study concludes that: “Several significant connections emerged, all in the positive direction, indicating that greater media use is associated with greater support of stereotypes about Black women. Most notably, among the full sample, more frequent consumption of music videos, movies, Black magazines, and women’s magazines, and attributing greater realism to media content was each associated with accepting notions of Black women as hypersexual Jezebels, sassy Sapphires (except for the women’s magazines), and Strong Black Women” (Jerald et al, 2016). pg. 13 This study shows that characters such as Esther, based around harmful stereotypes, do a lot of harm in black communities and they exist within a cycle whereby we ourselves create the same characters over and over again as a result of our own personal prejudices. This conclusion was reached as one of three of their hypotheses, and it tells us that characters within our media reflect real sentiments held by people within our society, just as those sentiments held within our society stem from characters within our media. Thus, these stereotypes become more than mere representations because they shape our reality (Morgan and Bennett cited in Harris-Perry, 2011:89). While watching how Genevieve’s character, Esther, is depicted throughout the entire duration of this film, it is not hard to see that she is the quintessential ‘angry black woman’. These women are characterised by their aggressive nature, hypersexuality and overt materialism (Kerwin, 2017). Erica Chito Childs writes about how the angry black woman stereotype became the standard response for black women towards interracial relationships- namely black man-white woman relationships in ‘Looking behind the Stereotypes of the "Angry Black Woman": An Exploration of Black Women's Responses to Interracial Relationships’ (2005:544). Childs writes about how for African-american women, who are rejected by men of their own race, as well as men of other races, perhaps their rejection of inter-racial relationships is not simply because they are bitter but because of the systemic devaluation of black women (Collins, 2000:165 cited in Childs, 2005: 545). In a racially homogenous country such as Nigeria, where the majority of the population is indeed black, perhaps this perceived ‘aggression’ is ‘committed’ by darkskin women towards lightskin women as they are successfully pitted against one another. To Esther, who is seen as unattractive because of her distance from whiteness, her rival then becomes her own sister, who is seen as more desirable simply because of the colour of her skin. The filmmakers count on the idea that the audience will not see Esther’s lashing out and other negative behaviour as a direct result of how she is treated in the world. While we as an audience cannot ignore the fact that Esther’s treatment of Gloria is truly condemnable, it is hard to ignore the fact that she is simply a caricature of women in the real world. Noteworthy, however, is Morgan and Bennett’s critique of Childs’s study, they argue that Childs never questions the “angry black woman” stereotype, rather she presumes it to be an accurate depiction of Black women’s response to interracial relationships (Morgan and Bennet, 2007). Following this argument then, Esther is not justified in her anger, neither is her reaction rational, rather, the pg. 14 filmmakers created Esther as an angry black woman to dehumanise her and perhaps, blame her for her negative experiences (Morgan and Bennet, 2007). So, when Esther shouts at her boyfriend because he is not providing for her how she deems fit, what we are actually watching is the filmmakers further emphasize Esther’s ‘Sapphireness’. After having a fight with her sister, Esther decides that ‘the end’ that she was worried about, is upon her. She returns home in the middle of the day, lying that she forgot some important files then hands her sister some oranges she says bought on her way back, she retrieves the documents and leaves. Gloria begins to lick the oranges and starts to feel that something isn’t right, she ignores the feeling anyway and continues to lick the oranges before she finally collapses. Kenneth returns home with the children and while he closes the gate, Adaobi and Junior go in, only to find their mother is unresponsive. After the funeral, Esther, her mother and Kenneth all gather in mourning and after some time passes, Kenneth says he is returning to the city with his children, however, Esther says that his idea is reckless, so her mother volunteers to take care of them instead, under the condition that Kenneth sends money for their care. Back in Lagos, Kenneth is struggling to keep it together after the death of his wife and Esther, like a good sister-in-law, comforts him and unlike a good sister-in-law, she encourages him to move on. One night, Esther pretends to have a nightmare to get Kenneth’s attention. Hearing her cries, he rushes in to help her and tries to leave after seeing she is okay but Esther pleads that he stay with her until she falls back asleep, she holds onto him so he cannot let go and the two end up having sex. Now, we see Esther as truly evil. The sapphire reinforces the idea that black women are “abrasive individuals who cannot be trusted by whites or black males” (Childs, 2005 cited in Kretsedemas, 2010:154), we see more modern iterations of the Sapphire in Bling Lagosians (2019), the wife, Mopelola, who is irrationally angry when she is told she will not be getting the birthday party that she wants (See Fig. 9), her family lie and sneak around, laughing behind her back at her dramatics; or Eniola Salami, in the 2018 Drama/political thriller, King of Boys (See Fig. 10), who doesn’t even have a husband anymore, he was on his deathbed as they got married. fig. 9 Mopelola about to slap her daughter pg. 15 Esther is fixated on upward mobility, she wants a better life for herself, we see it as she continues to seduce Kenneth. The sapphire, much like other stereotypes surrounding black women are oversimplified beliefs meant to strip black women of their femininity (Jerald, Ward, Moss, Thomas, Fletcher 2017), but Esther doesn’t just embody the Sapphire stereotypes, she also becomes the jezebel the moment we see her and Kenneth in bed together the next morning, clothes strewn aside. Esther’s character combines the “sexually aggressive” nature of the Jezebel (Collins, 2000 cited in Jerald et al, 2017) with the fig. 10 King Of Boys (2018) movie poster physically and verbally aggressive essence of the Sapphire (Collins, 2000 cited in Jerald et al, 2017). Kenneth and Esther begin a relationship, causing him to neglect his own children. Ulumma, who has been taking care of the children, decides to write a letter to Kenneth, urging him to come see his son and daughter and to also send the money he said he would for their care. When Kenneth tells Esther about this, saying he has to go immediately, she tells him to wait a while because she wants to come too. Life goes on for the pair but back in the village Junior is sick and not getting any better, Ada tends to him and asks their grandmother if their father has abandoned them, Ulumma, hearing this, decides she needs to go to Lagos and rectify the situation. Kenneth is talking to Esther, he says he feels as though something isn’t right with his children, that maybe he needs to go and see them, however, Esther tries to tell him not to worry and that he’s just worrying himself out for nothing and then adds, “besides, you’ll soon be a father again,”. Esther is pregnant. pg. 16 Some time passes and Ulumma has managed to get enough money to go to Lagos to see Kenneth but she instead, discovers her youngest daughter is pregnant and by none other than the husband of her late daughter. Ulumma rejects the news (See Fig. 11 and Fig. 12 ), saying that it is an abomination and that she refuses to be in such a house of sin for another moment, and leaves. fig. 11 Ulumma reacts to the news fig. 12 Ulumma expresses her disgust Back in the village, Ulumma sits once again with the village elders and this time, they are discussing what to do about this news, one of the brothers offers to go and says he will take Adaobi with him suggesting that although Esther has charmed him “the sight of Adaobi will destroy the charm and melt his heart towards his children again,”. One should note, that though we are dropped into the scene, we catch Ulumma narrating from the point where she enters the house, she declares that she cannot see abomination and sleep with it. Then, “Esther, has taken over her dead sister’s husband! And has abandoned his children! Her own sister’s children!”. The blame is instantly put on Esther. Yes, the audience is aware that it is in fact Esther’s doing but these characters, who have been in completely different locations, with no communication with the pair, automatically assume it must be Esther, the sacrificial jezebel’s doing. Going back to the point I brought up earlier by Sady Doyle, women’s worth is placed in their aptitude in motherhood (2019), therefore, Esther not looking after her sister’s children is therefore seen as a reflection of her character rather than a reflection of Kenneth’s. pg. 17 Now in Lagos, Adaobi sees her father alive and well and bursts into tears, upset that her father abandoned her when nothing was wrong with him in the first place. Distraught, she runs away. Kenneth and the village elder try to go after her but right at that moment, Esther enters the room and asks what all the hubbub is about, Kenneth can’t get his words out and the village elder, disgusted or maybe disappointed, leaves. Kenneth explains that Adaobi has run away and again, tries to go after her but Esther tells him to calm down as she’s going to go and look for Adaobi too. In the next scene, we are placed into a police station, an officer is on the phone with Esther as they have found Adaobi. When Esther and Kenneth arrive, Esther immediately starts to beat the little girl with the police officers struggling to separate them (See Fig. 11) and so begins Esther’s reign as the evil stepmother. fig. 11 The police struggle to separate Esther and Adaobi Adaobi and Junior are back in their father’s house now but sadly, it’s under a new regime. Esther shows she does not at all care about her niece and nephew, she makes them do all the cleaning and cooking. While the two children share a pack of biscuits, Gloria’s ghost appears for the first time, looking sadly at her children but unable to do anything. In the morning, Kenneth is getting ready to take the children to school, but Esther convinces him to let them walk alone. Adaobi and junior do end up walking, their mother’s ghost going with, but struggle to cross a busy road until one of their teachers finds them and helps, this woman becomes very important to the plot later. A lot of time passes like this, Esther being wicked to the children and punishing them unjustly with Kenneth neglecting his children too and Gloria’s ghost trying and failing to protect her kids, limited by her form. Eventually Gloria has enough and decides to visit their children’s teacher in a dream, which we will come back to later. Esther starts to feel Gloria’s presence and worried, or perhaps being gnawed at by the guilt, she tries to tell Kenneth, who isn’t really interested. When the teacher, Tricia, arrives at Kenneth’s house, it’s Esther who she encounters first, she tells her she’s here to see her husband and Esther is not having it until she hears that it is concerning Adaobi’s grades, Esther delights in the little girl getting in trouble before going to get her husband. Tricia tells pg. 18 Kenneth that his children are suffering mentally and emotionally from his wife’s abuse. When he comes back into the home he finds Esther and tries to tell her off for the treatment of his children but she starts to shout at him, Kenneth says he is going to see his children but Esther blocks the door, he can’t go anywhere when she’s carrying his baby. Onookome presents the idea that women in Nollywood are written in such a harsh manner simply because that’s what people believe to be true, it is the “popular sentiment” (2012). This same ‘sentiment’ is observed in studies of roman literature and history, even when a step- mother was not evidently wicked, people still believed she had ill-intent for her step-children (Gray-Fow, 1988:741). Characters such as Esther exist in a chasm, where their existence is disproven but still upheld. Esther is in labour for three days and has a stillbirth, the doctor bring Kenneth in to see as she’s sleeping. We see that Esther is dreaming about flogging Junior, chasing him around the house and then outside, where she sees her sister—who takes her sight away. Esther wakes up with a start to find that she is in fact blind now. She continues to feel Gloria’s presence once she returns home and after having enough she breaks down crying. The couple go to see Ulumma and Kenneth tells her of all the strange things that have been happening to them, while they are talking, Gloria appears once more and Esther is almost driven to tears again. We’re not aware how much time passes, but we are in a new living room with two village elders, Ulumma, Kenneth and, Esther, they are all sitting in silence and Esther, crying once again, confesses that she killed her sister. Esther is on trial in front of the village elders, they decide that she should be stripped and banished outside of the village. That night, Esther hangs herself, her sister’s ghost watching as her body sways and with that, the screen fades to black. Chris Abani describes nollywood films as concerts, they are “morality plays with very simple plot lines about the battle between good and evil” (2009:13). When Blood Sisters tells the story of Esther, it does so with little empathy or nuance, it tells a story of another bad black woman who is nothing but. Esther transitions between stereotypes many times throughout the film. She possesses the coon-like laziness of Kingfisher combined with the sapphire’s hunger for upward mobility and misandry, she is tempting and promiscuous like the Jezebel, using her feminine wiles to get her way and then she is the wicked step-mother, in all her child-hating, husband abusing glory. Esther is all of these things while also being the angry black woman, it is like Morgan pg. 19 and Bennet said, because the perceived anger and thirst for upward mobility are seen as inherent in black women (2016), Esther is able to embody multiple stereotypes at a time. When we think back to one of the village elders declaring “Human rights, or no human rights, tradition is tradition!”, in the world of Blood Sisters, it couldn’t ring more true. the good wives Gloria and Tricia could be mistaken as being the same character, as if perhaps the screenwriter forgot his character’s name halfway through and just went with it. Both women lack any real development, outside of their kind nature and general ‘wife material-ness’, we don’t learn much about either of them. Alola and Alola (2020) citing Wood (2014), discuss how women in Nollywood films are often seen in ‘various domesticated roles’ but never presented as anything more than mothers. Gloria and subsequently Tricia, suffer the fate that many characters relegated to the Madonna do, they are eclipsed by the love they have for their children (French, 2001: 52) and in Tricia’s case, they are not even hers. Gloria is shown to be good from the beginning of the film, she garners the attention of men but never actively seeks it, she is kind in a way that her sister could never be and allows her mother to scold her even when she does nothing wrong but that is all we know of her. Gloria is the girl next door, the “ideal marriage prospect” and “the dream of every man” (Ibbi, 2018: 62), like Maryam, played by Rahama Sadau in 2018’s Up North or Ireti in Chief Daddy (2018) played by Zainab Balogun . Logically, the only progression for a kind, sweet girl next door is to become fig. 12 The children confide in Tricia after she buys them snacks. a wife, a housewife, as Nigerian films would have it. Tricia’s situation mirrors that of Gloria’s but somehow, she is even less developed than her predecessor, at least Gloria is allowed to be a sister and a daughter, the audience gets to see her live her life with previous boyfriends and see her experience a spectrum of emotions. Tricia, on the other hand is relegated to almost be Gloria 2.0, her replacement, someone who is kind and will be a good wife. The filmmakers ignore that she is a teacher and has her own life outside of all the main characters of the film, instead she takes care of the children, spends her money on them and then is made to cook for them because their incompetent father pg. 20 cannot make his way around a kitchen, seemingly against her own self-interest and through it all, with a smile on her face (See Fig. 12). Noddings, in her book Women and Evil, asserts that brutality is not in women’s nature. She suggests that women, while wanting to protect their children, wish to not have to resort to violence, asking themselves the question “How can I, without using violence, protect my children from violence?” (1989:187), French critiques this view as being too binary, there are many models of fig. 13 Tricia’s dream motherhood (2001:57). At first, when Gloria materialises she in unable to much to protect her children, she simply stands by and watches, in sorrow as Esther continues her abuse, mirroring Noddings theory. When she is finally able to do something, she enters Tricia’s dream (See Fig. 13), urging her to go and talk to her husband on her behalf. It begs the question, why did she enter Tricia’s dream and not her husbands? When Gloria appears in her sister’s dream and makes her blind, she is not exactly the Madonna that French describes, instead she becomes something different also posited by French: a ‘protector, avenger and instigator’ (2001: 57). Gloria is not seen as a ‘bad woman’ for doing these things, oddly enough, the film simply frames her as a mother doing what she must to protect her child. What is more interesting though, is that this same sentiment is what co-wives are demonised for. This leads me to question what exactly makes Gloria a good wife and mother when other Nollywood mothers are vilified. What’s more, if Gloria is so good, then why is she punished with death? Cursed to watch her husband fall into the arms of her sister and then another woman (who she chooses for him?) In fact, Gloria’s actions clash with the ideas of motherhood presented by Nel Noddings, who suggests that women abhor cruelty as it clashes with their “maternal project” (1989: 203). This thinking is highly compatible with the patriarchal and christian ideologies rife in Nigerian culture and storytelling ( Ukata, 2010 cited in Alola and Alola, 2020). Perhaps then, we can conclude that the filmmakers intention was to have Gloria live outside the realm of being just a madonna, or a saintly housewife or the girl next door, perhaps she is not the dream of every man that Ibbi suggested, but something new. This is not to say that Gloria is not written to be these arche-stereotypes, I am merely suggesting that perhaps she is allowed a certain nuance that her other female counterparts are not, albeit solely because she is a mother. pg. 21 aw, man! Men in Nollywood are oftentimes written as heroes (Alola and Alola, 2020), even when they are not, even when they are written to not be good people, they are still forgiven. It is hard to understand what the writer’s intentions were when writing Kenneth, is he Esther’s victim or a terrible father and husband? Maybe my thinking is too binary and it is possible for Kenneth to be both, after all he is not a Nollywood woman, he is allowed to be complex. Kenneth is not a hero in the way that Alola and Alola described, but he is certainly not painted to be the antagonist. Throughout the events of the film, all the blame is automatically assigned to Esther; the elders assumed she had charmed him even though, prior to this, Esther had not given reason for them to suspect her (as the audience we know what she is truly like but in the world of Blood fig. 14 Kenneth's happy ending Sisters, the filmmakers make it a point to convey how she goes out of her way to paint herself as the good child); when Tricia discovers that Kenneth has been giving the children money to buy food elsewhere, he is not blamed for being a grown man with no cooking skills, nor is he seen as an inept father by the characters in the film; he is just another poor man that fell into the hands of a wicked woman. In the end, he is forgiven by his children and gets the girl (again) (See Fig. 14) Another example of this is Bling Lagosians (2019), where the husband, Akin Holloway, cheats on his wife several times (See Fig. 15) with the same woman while his business is failing, at the end of the movie he still gets to stay with his wife and start a new business which we’re supposed to understand will be successful. This man is not painted to be a good man by any stretch of the word, during a board meeting one of the members even condemns his overly excessive and lavish lifestyle by saying “you have homes in Fiji Island, Mauritius, Spain, all over the word and you're asking for time?", so why does he still receive such a happy ending, why do the filmmakers want us to be fig. 15 Akin Holloway having an affair happy to see him win? pg. 22 Dossoumon examines five Nollywood films in their study ‘Class and Gender Representation in Nollywood Movies’, they conclude their paper by pointing out that in Nollywood the men are often shown to be successful or simply “down on their luck [men] who have to contend with the vengeful wife…” (2013:82). This explains why Nollywood men are forgiven for their wrongdoings and given happy endings. “The overarching ideology is that power in the hands of women in a domestic household leads to abuse of men and ultimately ends in tragedy. The message is that women cannot handle power in a domestic household. Power goes to their head” Dossoumon, 2013 Nollywood films like Blood Sisters (2003), Bling Lagosians (2019), and The Wedding Party (2016) tell us that the power is with men, and that when women wield said power, they are wicked women bent on emasculating and punishing their male cohorts, no-good and rotten. pg. 23 conclusion Nollywood films have a long way to go with how they represent their women, from the one note saintly and dutiful wife to the devious jezebels, they are unjustly written and treated. Blood Sisters is a prime example of how Nollywood characterises its women. The devious and conniving jezebel, Esther, is punished for her evil doings though it is unclear who is punished more, her or her mother. Gloria, who is the good woman, kind, patient and a loving mother, is almost tortured. She dies, and then she comes back only to have to watch as her husband and children continue their lives without her, replacing her with Tricia. We see, in the treatment of these women that the male gaze is fine and good. Only in a heterosexual man’s mind could a first wife die and come back to not only defend and protect her family, but to handpick a new wife for him. Kenneth, who doesn’t do much aside pay the children’s school fees (and even that is a bit on and off), is rewarded with a new girl next door and the forgiveness of his children. When we see Esther’s body hanging from the tree in the final scene, Gloria’s ghost watching on as their mother leaves her room to find out she is now childless, we have to wonder, why do these filmmakers love to make their women suffer? pg. 24 bibliography Akande, S., 2019. You Should Know About "Palaver", The First Nigerian Movie Ever. At: https://www.zikoko.com/pop/palaver-first-nigerian-movie/ (Accessed 17/11/20). Arachie, A.O., 2010. Crossing over: The influence of black American female representation on Nigerian films and music videos. Research Papers 8, pp.1-30. AT: https://opensiuc.lib.siu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1025&context=gs_rp&sei-redir=1 (Accessed: 17/03/21) Alola, M.I. & Alola, U.V. 2020, "Gender stereotypes in Nigerian films as a portrayal of the African womanhood: A feminist perspective", Journal of labor and society, vol. 23;2020;, no. 2, pp. 221-243. At: https://onlinelibrary-wiley- com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.1111/wusa.12465 (Accessed: 18/03/21) Anderson, J.R., Holland, E., Heldreth, C. & Johnson, S.P. 2018, "Revisiting the Jezebel Stereotype: The Impact of Target Race on Sexual Objectification", Psychology of women quarterly, vol. 42, no. 4, pp. 461-476. At: https://journals-sagepub- com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/doi/10.1177/0361684318791543 (Accessed 09/02/21) Ayakoroma, F. 2014, Trends in Nollywood: A Study of Selected Genres, African Books Collective, Cape Town. At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative- ebooks/reader.action?docID=2009962&query=# (Accesses 09/02/21) Abani. C., (2009). ‘’ In: Hugo. P., Nollywood (2009). Munich: Prestel Publishing. pp. 7-14 Ayakoroma, F., (2014) Trends in Nollywood : A Study of Selected Genres. Ibadan: Kraft Books Limited. Bell, Kenton, ed. 2015. “expressive role.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. (https://sociologydictionary.org/expressive-role/). (Accessed: 26/01/21) Bell, Kenton, ed. 2015. “instrumental role.” In Open Education Sociology Dictionary. Retrieved January 26, 2021 (https://sociologydictionary.org/instrumental-role/). Blood Sisters (1 &2) (2003) Directed by Chikere. T. [Youtube] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL1l7wkQ3BI (Accessed 18/11/20) Childs, Erica Chito. “Looking behind the Stereotypes of the ‘Angry Black Woman’: An Exploration of Black Women's Responses to Interracial Relationships.” Gender and Society, pg. 25 vol. 19, no. 4, 2005, pp. 544–561. JSTOR, www.jstor.org/stable/30044616. (Accessed 27 Jan. 2021) Collins, Patricia. H., 2002. Black feminist thought: Knowledge, consciousness, and the politics of empowerment. Routledge. At: https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=icWTAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA156&lpg=PA156&dq=sens uous+sapphires:+a+study+of+the+social+construction&source=bl&ots=63_OB_z6Or&sig= ACfU3U0alg_XqXRVTJ5dOigq5tqLgPdORQ&hl=en&sa=X&ved=2ahUKEwiph8jjxr7uA hWSfMAKHdzjAJIQ6AEwBXoECAcQAg#v=onepage&q&f=false (Accessed: 28/01/21) Colonial Film. n.d. PALAVER: A ROMANCE OF NORTHERN NIGERIA | colonialfilm. [online] Available at: http://www.colonialfilm.org.uk/node/1342 (Accessed: 19/03/21]. Dossoumon, M. 2013, Class and Gender Representation in Nollywood Movies, ProQuest Dissertations Publishing. At: https://search-proquest- com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/docview/1491851968?pq-origsite=summon&accountid=14178 (Accessed: 19/03/2021) Doyle, S. 2019, Dead blondes and bad mothers: monstrosity, patriarchy, and the fear of female power, Melville House, Brooklyn. At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/reader.action?docID=6071028 Eastern Arizona College (2019) Film and Media Studies: Character archetypes. At: https:/www./literarydevices.net/archetype/ (Accessed 17/11/20) French, S.E., 2001. With Your Shield or on It: Challenging the Pacifist Mother Archetype. Public Affairs Quarterly, 15(1), pp.51-63. At: https://www-jstor- org.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/stable/40441275?seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents (Accessed: 18/03/21) Harris-Perry, Melissa, V. 2011. Sister Citizen : Shame, Stereotypes, and Black Women in America. Yale University Press. At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative- ebooks/reader.action?docID=3420728&ppg=1 Hooks, B 2014, Black Looks : Race and Representation, Taylor & Francis Group, London. At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1813137 . (Accessed: 26/01/21) pg. 26 Ibbi, A.A. 2018, "Stereotype Representation of Women in Nigerian Films", CINEJ cinema journal, vol. 6, no. 2, pp. 49-70. At: http://cinej.pitt.edu/ojs/index.php/cinej/article/view/166/474 (Accessed: 18/03/21) Jerald, Morgan C. L. Ward, Monique. Moss, Lolita. Thomas, Khia. Fletcher, Kyla D. 2017, "Subordinates, Sex Objects, or Sapphires? Investigating Contributions of Media Use to Black Students’ Femininity Ideologies and Stereotypes About Black Women", Journal of black psychology, vol. 43, no. 6, pp. 608-635. At: https://journals-sagepub- com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/doi/full/10.1177/0095798416665967 (Accessed 28/01/2021) Jewell, K. (1993). From Mammy to Miss America and beyond. New York, NY: Routledge. At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative- ebooks/detail.action?docID=179834&pq-origsite=summon (Accessed 09/02/21) Kerwin, Ann Marie. 2017, "THE 'ANGRY BLACK WOMAN' MAKES REAL WOMEN ANGRY; TV as a long way to go in presenting positive images of African-American women, but a consortium of female executives is now doing something about it", Advertising age, vol. 88, no. 18, pp. 64. available: https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A507018102/ITOF?u=ucca&sid=ITOF&xid=cf95b06b [accessed 27 Jan 2021]. Kretsedemas, Philip. 2010, ""But She's Not Black!": Viewer Interpretations of "Angry Black Women" on Prime Time TV", Journal of African American studies (New Brunswick, N.J.), vol. 14, no. 2, pp. 149-170. At: https://www-jstor- org.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/stable/41819243?pq- origsite=summon&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents (Accessed: 27/01/21) Maio, A., 2019. Nollywood — Nigeria's Thriving Film Industry. [online] StudioBinder. Available at: https://www.studiobinder.com/blog/what-is-nollywood/ (Accessed: 19/03/21) Mcleod, S. (2017). ‘Stereotypes’ In: Simply Psychology (24/10/15) At: https://www.simplypsychology.org/katz-braly.html (Accessed 17/11/20) Michael J. G. Gray-Fow 1988, "The wicked Stepmother in Roman Literature and History : an Evaluation", Latomus, vol. 47, no. 4, pp. 741-757. At: https://www-jstor- org.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/stable/41535193?pq- origsite=summon&seq=1#metadata_info_tab_contents (Accessed: 17/11/20) pg. 27 Morgan, M. and Bennett, D. (2006) “GETTING OFF OF BLACK WOMEN'S BACKS: Love Her or Leave Her Alone,” Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race. Cambridge University Press, 3(2), pp. 485–502. At: https://www-cambridge- org.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/core/journals/du-bois-review-social-science-research-on- race/article/getting-off-of-black-womens-backs-love-her-or-leave-her- alone/C7FC8E2205E25DB4C4EB8C21D6BD5D5F (11/02/21) Mulvey, L. 2009, Visual and other pleasures, 2nd edn, Palgrave Macmillan, New York;Houndmills, Basingstoke, Hampshire [England] Noddings, N. 1991, Women and Evil, 1st edn, University of California Press, Berkeley. At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative- ebooks/reader.action?docID=470966&query= (Accessed: 18/03/21) Okome, O. 2004, "Women, Religion and the Video Film in Nigeria", Film international (Göteborg, Sweden), vol. 2, no. 1, pp. 4-13. At: https://www-ingentaconnect- com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/content/intellect/fint/2004/00000002/00000001/art00002;jsess ionid=7sf5au8g3id9.x-ic-live-01# (Accessed 09/02/21) Okome, O. 2012, "Nollywood, Lagos, and the Good-Time Woman", Research in African literatures, vol. 43, no. 4, pp. 166-186. At: https://search-proquest- com.ucreative.idm.oclc.org/docview/1196253855?pq-origsite=summon (Accessed 11/02/21) Omolade, Barbara. 1994, The rising song of African American women. New York: Routledge. Pilgrim, David. (2012) “The Sapphire Caricature”. At: https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/antiblack/sapphire.htm (Accessed 08/02/21) Saro-Wiwa. Z., (2009). ‘No Going Back’ In: Hugo. P., Nollywood (2009). Munich: Prestel Publishing. pp. 17-26 Thompson, S 2014, Encyclopedia of Diversity and Social Justice, Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, Blue Ridge Summit. At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative- ebooks/detail.action?docID=1920943&pq-origsite=summon (26/01/21]. pg. 28 Tsaaoir, J. T., 2017, Nigerian Film Culture and the Idea of the Nation: Nollywood and National Narration. London: Adonis & Abbey Publishers. At: https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Nigerian_Film_Culture_and_the_Idea_of_th/VV dDDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=Nigerian+Film+Culture+and+the+Idea+of+the+Nat ion:+Nollywood+and+National+Narration.&printsec=frontcover (Accessed: 17/11/20) Tsika, N.A. 2015, Nollywood Stars: Media and Migration in West Africa and the Diaspora, Indiana University Press, Bloomington. At: https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/ucreative-ebooks/detail.action?docID=1992026&pq- origsite=summon (Accessed: 18/03/21) TV Tropes. n.d. Madonna Archetype - TV Tropes. [online] Available at: https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/MadonnaArchetype [Accessed 19 March 2021]. Warner, M. 2014, Once upon a time: a short history of fairy tale, First edition, Oxford University Press, Oxford, United Kingdom. Williams, C. 2010, "Who's Wicked Now? The Stepmother as Fairy-Tale Heroine", Marvels & tales, vol. 24, no. 2, pp. 255-271. At: https://www.jstor.org/stable/41388955?seq=1 (Accessed 11/02/21) list of illustrations Fig. 1 Ima Goodlady (2020) Powerpuff Girls: Mommy Fearest [screenshot] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQpUTfEixEg Fig. 2 Barry Blitt (2008) Fistbump: The Politics of Fear [Photograph] At: https://www.npr.org/2017/10/20/558777025/im-just-trying-to-make-myself-laugh-new- yorker-artist-shares-his-cover-stories?t=1611854084529 (Accessed 28/02/2021) Fig. 3 (2012) Sapphire Stevens [Film Still] At: https://www.ferris.edu/HTMLS/news/jimcrow/antiblack/sapphire.htm (Accessed 04/02/21) Fig. 4 HBO. (2020) Hippolyta Freeman. [Film still] At: https://tvline.com/2020/10/18/lovecraft-country-finale-recap-season-1-episode-10-atticus- dies/ (Accessed 24/03/21) pg. 29 Fig. 5 American International Pictures. (1974) Foxy Brown Movie Poster. [Poster] At: https://www.flickr.com/photos/blackheritage/3413717652/in/photostream/ (22/03/21) Fig. 6 Ride wit Me by Nelly Music Video (2009) [Youtube, screenshot] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RtSDWq6HsJE (Accessed 24/03/21) Fig. 7 Netflix. (2017) Shemekka Epps [Photograph] At: https://decider.com/2017/12/12/shes-gotta-have-it-episode-6-recap-she-assd-for-it/ (Accessed 24/03/21) Fig. 8 Blood Sisters, Esther, Gloria and Chioma (2017) [Youtube, screenshot] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL1l7wkQ3BI&t=6967s (Accessed 19/03/21) Fig. 9 Mopelola about to slap daughter (2017) [Netflix, screenshot] At: https://www.netflix.com/watch/81191666?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2Ca06cafcca 7f8c855977dd22375807248ed9ba521%3A3d3f693c6f256d5f4e3ed0c10b80df3159895c39%2 Ca06cafcca7f8c855977dd22375807248ed9ba521%3A3d3f693c6f256d5f4e3ed0c10b80df315 9895c39%2Cunknown%2C (Accessed 19/03/21) Fig. 10 (2018) King of Boys Movie Poster. [poster] At: https://catchoris.medium.com/kemi- adetibas-king-of-boys-is-a-flawed-but-ambitious-nollywood-epic-efb4a0d38bc9 (Accessed 19/03/21) Fig. 11 Ulumma reacts to the news (2017) [Youtube, screenshot] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL1l7wkQ3BI&t=6967s (Accessed 29/01/21) Fig. 12 Ulumma expresses disgust (2017) [Youtube, screenshot] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL1l7wkQ3BI&t=6967s (Accessed 19/03/21) Fig. 13 Police separating Esther and Adaobi (2017) [Youtube, screenshot] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL1l7wkQ3BI&t=6967s (Accessed 19/03/21) Fig. 14 The children confide in Tricia (2017) [Youtube, screenshot] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL1l7wkQ3BI&t=6967s (Accessed 29/01/21) Fig. 15 Tricia’s dream (2017) [Youtube, screenshot] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL1l7wkQ3BI&t=6967s (Accessed 29/01/21) Fig. 16 Kenneth’s happy ending (2017) [Youtube, screenshot] At: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mL1l7wkQ3BI&t=6967s (Accessed 19/03/21) pg. 30 Fig. 9 Akin Holloway having an affair (2017) [Netflix, screenshot] At: https://www.netflix.com/watch/81191666?trackId=13752289&tctx=0%2C0%2Ca06cafcca 7f8c855977dd22375807248ed9ba521%3A3d3f693c6f256d5f4e3ed0c10b80df3159895c39%2 Ca06cafcca7f8c855977dd22375807248ed9ba521%3A3d3f693c6f256d5f4e3ed0c10b80df315 9895c39%2Cunknown%2C (Accessed 19/03/21) pg. 31