culled from Peace Ben Williams blog
Sometimes, I find some interesting topics on Facebook which sparks off a hot, intelligent debate. This post I’m about to share with you is one of them.
Last Thursday, a good Facebook friend of mine (name withheld) posted a video on her website.
This video was an interview Canadian talk show host, George Stroumboulopoulos had with Nollywood actress, Genevieve Nnaji when she attended the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2013. Genevieve had featured in the period film, Half Of A Yellow Sun which was being premiered at the film festival.
What caught my eye about her article was that she claimed Miss Nnaji did not give an intelligent answer to a question she was asked. My friend said Genny was either nervous or ill-prepared for the interview.
Stroumboulopoulos was talking about the the post-independence period (the 1960s) in Nigeria and asked Miss Nnaji if Nigeria went through a hard period during the time of the Biafran war. Miss Nnaji replied:
She also mentioned that Genevieve needed to “match her beauty with brains.” Ouch!
When she posted the link to her story on Facebook, her opinion sparked off a long debate on her wall. People argued if Miss Nnaji’s response was stupid or not, why the actress didn’t have a good knowledge of the history of the Biafran war…and this question came up…whether the history of the Biafran war should be part of the the Nigerian secondary school curriculum so that our youths could have more solid information of what happened back then.
I differed in opinion. I didn’t quite agree with the angle from which she reported her story.
Here’s what I said:
So you guys watch the videos and tell me who goofed. Was it George by the question he asked? Or was it Genny by not responding with a simple “yes”.
Sometimes, I find some interesting topics on Facebook which sparks off a hot, intelligent debate. This post I’m about to share with you is one of them.
Last Thursday, a good Facebook friend of mine (name withheld) posted a video on her website.
This video was an interview Canadian talk show host, George Stroumboulopoulos had with Nollywood actress, Genevieve Nnaji when she attended the Toronto International Film Festival in September 2013. Genevieve had featured in the period film, Half Of A Yellow Sun which was being premiered at the film festival.
What caught my eye about her article was that she claimed Miss Nnaji did not give an intelligent answer to a question she was asked. My friend said Genny was either nervous or ill-prepared for the interview.
Stroumboulopoulos was talking about the the post-independence period (the 1960s) in Nigeria and asked Miss Nnaji if Nigeria went through a hard period during the time of the Biafran war. Miss Nnaji replied:
“I’m young…I learned a lot about the past from this present movie that I did… I learned a lot about our struggles, especially as easterners. I’m from the east, we’re called the Igbo tribe and we were greatly involved in the war.My friend said her answer would have been a simple “yes” and not the ‘sermon’ she gave above.
You do realize there were a lot of restrictions that aren’t there now. And as children we weren’t told — and I think people, our parents, tried to shield us from the truth that they faced.
“But I think it’s a good thing if we knew a bit of our history. Hopefully that’ll be cultivated into the schools.”
She also mentioned that Genevieve needed to “match her beauty with brains.” Ouch!
When she posted the link to her story on Facebook, her opinion sparked off a long debate on her wall. People argued if Miss Nnaji’s response was stupid or not, why the actress didn’t have a good knowledge of the history of the Biafran war…and this question came up…whether the history of the Biafran war should be part of the the Nigerian secondary school curriculum so that our youths could have more solid information of what happened back then.
I differed in opinion. I didn’t quite agree with the angle from which she reported her story.
Here’s what I said:
“Hi (Name Withheld), Interesting topic.I’m posting two videos of Genevieve’s interview with George Stroumboulopoulos. The first video was the actual video my friend shared on her website. It was was posted on YouTube by Stroumboulopoulos on January 13. I have a feeling Stroumboulopoulos must have read my friend’s post because he then posted another YouTube video yesterday, January 20…which is a longer version of the same interview…perhaps for clarity.
I’ve been following this thread since yesterday but refrained from commenting. However, I’d like to chip this in because I fail to see what’s so embarrassing about Miss Nnaji’s response.
The Interviewer, George Stroumboulopoulos asked her if “Nigerians went through a tough time during the war.” I honestly thought that was a very stupid question. Is there any country in the world which hasn’t experienced a tough time during a war??? War unsettles economies, people relocate to safer places, there’s hunger; not to mention deaths and casualties.
I too, would have been thrown aback by such an ambiguous question; knowing that there was no reason to ask it in the first place since the obvious answer is a “Yes”. So I think Nnaji should be cut some slack on this one. Stroumboulopoulos should have rephrased his question.
Then on the part of Nnaji having a vague knowledge of what happened during the civil war, I blame her. You don’t feature in such a [period] movie without doing some research. Nobody sat me down to give me a blow by blow account of the war. I read books on my own. “Because I Am Involved” (Ojukwu’s account); The 5 Majors…and even down to the N150 pamphlets sold by street vendors.
It’s the duty of every patriotic Nigerian to find out what happened in the past to understand how we became such a mess today. Hopefully, we could use that knowledge to remedy the situation for a better future. (Sorry for the long post.)”
So you guys watch the videos and tell me who goofed. Was it George by the question he asked? Or was it Genny by not responding with a simple “yes”.