Ten Biopic African Films That Should Be Made.

Here's a carefully curated list of ten individuals that we think should have their own biopics.

Biographical films can be one of the best ways to tell a story. Regardless of whether the stories are completely accurate or not, they provide an insight into a person's choices, the events that defined them, and their pursuit of happiness. While it seems like biographical films or "biopics" are a recent trend in African cinema, this type of storytelling has been used for decades in Hollywood and Bollywood.

High production costs and lack of resources may have been the major obstacles preventing African filmmakers from telling Biopics. However, there seems to be a renewed interest recently as audiences and filmmakers alike are fascinated with recreations of the past that explore those who have come before us, whether they are vilified or admired. Watching these movies is primarily motivated by curiosity. The audience is interested in knowing what motivated them to live their lives the way they did.

While regular fiction or fantasy movies allow us to escape our reality, biopics allow us to face our (sometimes common) pasts. They allow us to celebrate and rediscover each other as human beings.

To further encourage the need for Biopics, we have made a list of ten Biopics films that should be made by African filmmakers.

Olabisi Ajala (Ajala The Traveler)

Every avid Nigerian traveller or globetrotter has been referred to as Ajala by their friends, families, or acquaintances at least once. Some even use the designation in their pseudonyms; for example, Ajalabug, Wondering Ajala, Ajalaman, The travelling Ajala. This vocabulary that has become so familiar and part of the Nigerian travel lingua still has little or less known about the origin of its name. a 26-year-old student of psychology, Mashood Olabisi Ajala embarked on a trip across 40 countries in Europe, Asia and Africa on his Vespa scooter wearing his full conspicuous agbada regalia with a cap to match. As a pre-medical student, Olabisi has previously undertaken a similar jaunt four years ago in the USA pedalling from Chicago to Los Angeles on a bicycle covering 3,800 miles in 35 days over ten cities. His journey which he nicknamed “This Safari” covered 30,000 miles across 40 countries in nine months and he returned to London afterwards.

He visited eighty-seven countries in his six-year globetrotting trip (ranging from North America to Eastern and Western Europe, through Africa and Asia and as far east as Korea, Indonesia and Australia). He documented all this in his book- “The African Abroad”.

Kanu Nwankwo (Papilo)