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I went to the screening of My Jebba Story expecting to report on a film and the conversation around it. I did not expect to spend much of the evening thinking about people I had never met, in a place I had never lived, and about a period of Lagos that I could only encounter through somebody else’s photographs. Yet that was one of the unusual things about Kagho Idhebor’s film: it made a personal history feel accessible to people who had no part in it.
Bishop, popularly known as Onikan, revisited photographs he had taken as a young filmmaker living on Jebba Street, Ebute-Metta. The photos were not exhibited as remote works of photography. They brought with them tales of individuals that he encountered, individuals who at first resisted his camera. Also, friendships he formed, children he watched grow, and a street that changed overtime. A director’s commentary and an open discussion were added to the screening, enabling the audience to switch between the visible in the photographs and the experiences behind them.
When Idhebor began taking the photographs, he did not have a clear idea in mind. He was just a young man with a camera, new to a strange place, seeking to comprehend the people and places around him. Over time the photographs took on more meaning than just an experiment with a new camera. They were a record of a time of his life and eventually the outcome of My Jebba Story. The film introduces the viewer into Jebba Street through Idhebor’s recollections and pictures. He speaks about the people who influenced his experience there, such as Yoboro, Iya Segun and Alabi etc. There are also images of children, families and everyday interactions that may appear mundane when seen individually but are meaningful when seen in the context of the street. This attention to the ordinary is a strength of the film. It does not require a dramatic event to make the community important. Rather, it lets the subject be a part of everyday life.
“The sound design of the film was a big part of the experience. Idhebor described how he used to arrange drummers to circulate from shop to shop, entertaining people. The sound of that experience was later used as background in the film. Another dimension was added to the visual material with the help of sound editing and animation by Yetunde Ogundipe. This was an important choice since the sounds were related to the environment, so the photographs were not completely isolated.”
The director’s commentary was fascinating enough to make me want to watch the film again. Idhebor said he was a first-time visitor to Jebba Street with a new camera, trying to capture photos to understand what was going on. He was already a trained filmmaker and cinematographer but photography provided him with another perspective of the environment. He slowly started to become aware of the stories in the pictures and started to write about his feelings when viewing them. This is a slow evolution from taking photographs to deliberately using them to convey a story which seems to have influenced the final shape of the film. Idhebor discussed how Tam Fiofori influenced him which contributed to the filming. Tam Fiofori was Idhebor’s mentor. He taught him documentary and filmmaking. Fiofori influenced Ighebor through his style of photography. According to him, this contributed to how he filmed My Jebba Story.
However, the photographer and his subjects didn’t get off to a great start. Idhebor shared his experiences of resistance he encountered when he started taking photographs of people on the street. A few residents had a suspicion of him and sometimes people took his camera and threatened to break it. He replied by trying to communicate with them and by revisiting to display the pictures he had taken. Eventually, the photos helped to shift their attitude towards him, and some of those who had been hesitant became his subjects. He also discussed the idea of buying drinks for people at certain times to make them more comfortable with getting their pictures taken.
This was especially interesting because it revealed that the photographs were not taken from afar. They were not just random. Idhebor’s presence on Jebba Street was a gradual one and his access to the community was shaped by his becoming a familiar presence. Perhaps his most significant experience was meeting Yoboro, one of the most fearless characters on the street, who helped him gain confidence and acceptance.
The film also approached photography as a means of memory, which added another layer to the its depth. The project was only completed after about twenty years of Idhebor’s photographs being in his hands. He had to spend a lot of money to get them back. Their return brought him a past that was not within his reach.
More, he learned that some people in those photos were dead. Yoboro was one of these. The images then were not just snapshots of the lives of people who had once lived on Jebba Street, but some of the few surviving visual records of their lives. Bishop also pointed a young boy who was part of the documentary. He had captured the boy when he was young. Years later when he encountered him, the boy had grown into a man. When he displayed the film to the boy, the boy was so happy and he thanked him for making him part of the filming. I must confess, I don’t know a great deal about photography. Prior to the programme, I would have probably looked at a picture primarily for what was immediately obvious in it. The evening turned that around for me.
Listening to Idhebor tell the story behind some of the photos made its startlingly clear that photo images could have a history that’s not visible on the first glance. A picture of a child, a trader, a street corner or a group of people can take on greater meaning when the viewer is told what happened to those people later. I started to view the pictures not just as photographs, but as remnants of lives and relationships that have been changed or lost over the years.
There was also an interesting tie-in between my role at the event and the story being presented. I was there as a reporter to record a programme and the programme was about a filmmaker who had been recording a community for years. His photographs captured moments from Jebba Street, the film made those moments visible to the public, the director’s commentary provided memories behind the photographs, and my own report provides memories behind the film. It was a reminder that journalism, photography and filmmaking have something in common: they are about capturing moments that could fade away.
The sound design of the film was a big part of the experience. Idhebor described how he used to arrange drummers to circulate from shop to shop, entertaining people. The sound of that experience was later used as background in the film. Another dimension was added to the visual material with the help of sound editing and animation by Yetunde Ogundipe. This was an important choice since the sounds were related to the environment, so the photographs were not completely isolated. The audience was not only being presented with a space, but with a feeling of its social energy.
My Jebba Story tells the story from the point of view of Idhebor, so the audience is led through Jebba Street mainly and expertly through his memory. Other residents are not given the same narrative space. It is not a complete history of Jebba Street nor is it trying to be. Its strength is its personal nature, but at the same time, it limits the range of perspectives the viewer can have. This does not necessarily mean that it is not a good thing to employ because the title of the event itself indicates that this is Idhebor’s story of the place and not an attempt to represent the entire community. He also chose not to create new scenes for a narrative set in the past, which further enhances the authenticity of the film. The images are part of the time being recalled and the passage of time is permitted to be seen. The outcome isn’t a recreation of Jebba Street but a meeting with what Idhebor was able to save from it. The discussion also highlighted how chance encounters and past experiences have influenced Idhebor’s journey as a storyteller. His childhood in Warri, his education, his experience of filmmaking and his experience of Tam Fiofori all helped to give him insight into the camera as an instrument that needs observation and courage. So his career in photography was not a direct career path. It evolved from a series of experiences that slowly led him to discover his interests. At the end of the programme, I didn’t so much wonder whether My Jebba Story was a film as much as I wondered what it had managed to preserve.
In the end, My Jebba Story is a testament that the ordinary can be of great value in the future. Jebba Street was a place where people lived their lives when Idhebor came across them. They were not always conscious of being added to an archive. But years later there is a different meaning to their faces. Some are gone, the street has changed, but these photographs are now a record of a world that can no longer be experienced in this manner. Not anymore. And that, to me, was the most memorable and relishing part of the event.
