Researching the ‘Misbegotten’ Film:
A Voyage around the German-Nigerian TV Production Taiwo Shango (1965)


In this talk I will take you on a journey around the German-Nigerian television production Taiwo Shango oder: Der zweite Tag nach dem Tod [Taiwo Shango or: The Second Day after the Death] (1965), and the people involved. Written and directed by German journalist Klaus Stephan, then ARD “Resident Correspondent” in Nigeria, the film was credited as the “first full-length feature film produced in Nigeria” (Olusola 1965) and featured an illustrious array of Nigerian actors, musicians and television pioneers such as Segun and Elsie Olusola, Kola Ogunmola, Christopher Kolade, and Ralph Opara. Despite these early accolades, the film was barely shown and soon disappeared from public view. Or ‘was it disappeared’? For 18 months, a German-Nigerian research team tried to unravel the mystery around the forgotten ‘misbegotten’ film (Soyinka 1975) and delve deeper into its making and meaning making. The ‘mystery’ largely persists, but we were able to shed some light on the controversy around the film and to come to our first, often widely different readings.

There will be a full screening of Taiwo Shango at the Zeughauskino on December 8, 2023.

https://www.dhm.de/zeughauskino/vorfuehrung/taiwo-shango-oder-der-zweite-tag-nach-dem-tod-10675/