LionHeart Disqualification: ‘Make Films In Your Mother Tongue’ – Leila Djansi Tells African Filmmakers

American and Ghanaian filmmaker, Leila Djansi, has urged African filmmakers to make films in their mother tongue instead of criticizing  Oscars Awards organizers for disqualifying Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart.

Djansi in her reaction believes it is a step in the right direction as filmmakers from Africa will now be compelled to start making movies in their local dialect.

Lionheart was disqualified from the Best International Feature because it is predominantly in English language, which is against the rule of the category.

Leila wrote:

Why are folks chastising the Academy? They have their rules. British films do not qualify for International film either because of English Language.
Oscars are American. Only their English films have that sole preserve. Deal with it.
Please goan create your own award, like the Brits did and include your films.

“I personally like that we’re being forced to embrace our local dialects. Make films in your mother tongue, not your colonial tongue. The worst films are the ones where the actors don’t understand the subtext cos English is not their first language and yet they’ll be struggling to speak with American accent!

“Even the teacher teaching the English is substituting He for she, or teaching your kids English vowels with vernacular pronunciation ????. Ah, eh, ee, oh, oooo instead of a e i o u. The citizen majority speak terrible English with no depth of understanding.

“The fabric of a story has to be honest. Africans speak English primarily in formal settings. When boys boys meet, they speak pidgin. I speak Ewe with my friends. We speak English when we all don’t have the same language. Even then, I speak Ewe to my American friends here and force them to speak few words. The world must know Ewe exists!

“You want to include Africa? start by making our local parlance acceptable.
God used language to divide people and he again used language to unify us.

“Too many African wars have been fought because we did not speak each others language. Kids in Ghana are learning Chinese but cannot speak the language or dialect spoken in a Ghanaian city 3 hours away from them! That’s a shame. Schools in Volta should be teaching Hausa, or Ga or Fante, not Ewe! Schools In Accra should be teaching Ewe, or Dagomba. This is how we build a united country.”