Pulse List: 5 Nigerian books that should be made into movies

Which Nigerian books would you like to see adapted into movies? Here are five great books we think will translate well on screen.

Film adaptations of books are either a hit or a miss. And in Africa, the fear of a miss seems to be the reason why our numerous plot-driven books rarely mutate into a film.

In a 2016 interview with Pulse Nigeria, Ghanaian filmmaker and actress, Sika Osei, blamed fear and finance for the absence of book adaptations.

"I also think there is the fear, because these are stories we cherish so much that if we are not going to be able to do them as good, maybe we shouldn't do them at all," she said.

Pulse Movies has put together a short list of richly complex stories that would translate well into films.

1. Violence by Festus Iyayi

The book tells the story of Idemudia, a poor, jobless man in his late twenties who faces hardship and struggles to make a living and fend for his wife, Adisa, in the city of Benin.

This fictionalized account of a struggling, poverty-stricken husband and wife in 1970's Nigeria explores classism, capitalism, unemployment, poverty and marxism.

2. The Famished Road

 

In Ben  Okri's "The Famished Road," Azaro is an abiku (reincarnate) from the ghetto of an unknown city in Africa, who is constantly harassed by his sibling spirits from another world.

The spirit wants him to leave this mortal life and return to the world of spirits, sending many emissaries to bring him back.

3. The Secret Lives of Baba Segi's Wives

 

The struggles and rivalries that come with a polygamous union all come alive in Lola Shoneyin's "The Secret Lives of Babi Segi’s Wives."

This perceptive, entertaining, and eye-opening novel of polygamy in modern-day Nigeria will make a good comedy drama, and we can totally picture Jide Kosoko as Baba Segi, delivering his classic humorous faces.

4. The Joys of Motherhood by Buchi Emecheta

Exploring the life of a Nigerian woman, the basis of this Buchi Emecheta's book is the importance attached to a woman's fertility and her ability to give birth to sons.

It tells the story of Nnu-Ego, the daughter of Ona and Agbadi, who was abandoned by her first husband for not bearing a child.

She remarries to Nnaife, bearing children with him, but together they must defeat marital struggles such as patriarchy and polygamy.

With "The Joys of Motherhood," Emecheta created characters so easy to relate with that you swear you know them - a quality that makes this book fitting for adaptation.

As for who should play Nnu-Ego? We think Mercy Johnson would be too perfect.

5. The Concubine by Elechi Amadi

 

10 years ago, "The Concubine" was made into a film written by Elechi Amadi and directed by Andy Amenchi. However, it won't be too much to ask for a remake of this classic literature.

The novel is set in a remote village in Eastern Nigeria, an area yet to be affected by European values and where society is orderly.

"The Concubine" follows the story of a woman of great beauty and dignity, who unintentionally brings suffering and death to all her lovers.

The novel portrays a society still ruled by traditional gods.  It offers a glimpse into the relationships which exist in such society.