British Academy: The UK's National Academy for the Humanities and Social Sciences
Frank Speed and the Filming of Nigerian Cultures
The British Academy supports a one-day seminar hosted by
the School of Oriental and African Studies and the Royal Anthropological Institute
Chair: John Peel, FBA, School of Oriental and African Studies
Khalili Lecture Theatre, School of African and Oriental Studies
Thornhaugh Street, Russell Square, London WC1
(The Khalili Lecture Theatre is located on the Lower Ground Floor of the Main SOAS college building in Thornhaugh Street)
Saturday, 8 December, 9.30am-6.00pm
Francis E. Speed (1918-2006) was a pioneer of ethnographic film-making, producing a fine series of short films - mostly 20-30 minutes – on cultural themes in many parts of Nigeria in the 1960s and 1970s. Trained at the London School of Cinematography, Frank Speed first worked in the studio of the well-known fashion photographer Baron before becoming director of scientific photography at the Institute of Cancer Research in London. In 1956, he joined the staff of the new University College Hospital at Ibadan, in Western Nigeria, where he made a number of films for the purpose of medical training. Later, in association with several of the leading anthropologists then working on Nigerian societies, the main focus of his work shifted to the cultural themes on which today's Programme will concentrate. In 1968 he moved to the University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) as a Senior Fellow in the Institute of African Studies, where he worked closely with specialists in choreography and theatre studies. A spell at the University of Calabar (1980-83) brought him to retirement. During his 27 years in Nigeria, he contributed to two of the BBC's best-known anthropological series - Tony Isaacs's The World About Us and David Attenborough's Tribal Eye – and won nine international prizes.
These were years, in the run-up to Nigerian independence and for two decades thereafter, when it was felt that appreciation of the riches of Nigeria's indigenous cultures was an essential counterpart to the country's development and modernization. The new universities, such as Ibadan and Ife, were the crucibles which brought both aspects together. The aim of the seminar is to share a critical appreciation and evaluation of Speed's work by showing and discussing a good selection of his most important films. They will each be briefly introduced, and the discussion will be led, by scholars who either worked with Speed on the film in question or who are familiar with the culture it presents.
The Seminar is divided into four sessions:
- After a short Introduction, Session 1 is opened with one of Speed's early medical films, Sickle-Cell Anaemia in Nigeria, introduced by Ralph Hendrickse (then Professor of Paediatrics at Ibadan), who wrote its scientific script. The next film, Were Ni! He Is A Madman, a study of the Yoruba treatment of mental illness made about the same time with the Canadian psychiatrist, Raymond Prince, is already notable for its ethnographic approach.
- Session 2 is devoted to two classic films of the mid-1960s, made with social anthropologists particularly interested in belief and ritual: respectively R. E. Bradbury on Benin and Robin Horton on the Kalabari.
- Session 3 presents two films from the 1970s when Speed had moved to Ife, and his principal collaborator was the choreographer and dance specialist Peggy Harper. Dealing respectively with the Yoruba Gelede masquerade and the Tiv Kwagh-Hir puppet theatre, the themes of performance and entertainment now accompany or overshadow the ritual dimension.
- Session 4 moves to the Jos Plateau with a final film made at the end of the 1970s, dealing with the remarkable cosmological rites of the Ngas people. Speed made the film with Deirdre LaPin, who will introduce and discuss it. This will lead directly on to a concluding panel discussion chaired by Karin Barber.
Please note our registration and seating policy:
- Please register using the on-line booking form
- No tickets will be issued for this event.