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BIG NEWS! Global streaming giant Netflix just announced via Twitter that they have partnered with Nigerian producer and media mogul Mo Abudu to adapt Wole Soyinka and Lola Shoneyin’s literary works to series!
A major highlight of this partnership will be the on-screen adaptations of literary works by two critically-acclaimed Nigerian authors: a series based on contemporary author, Lola Shoneyin’s best-selling debut novel, The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives and a film adaptation of Death And The King’s Horseman, a play by 1986 Nobel Prize laureate in Literature, author, poet & playwright, Wole Soyinka.
Meanwhile, Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman is a play based on a real incident that took place in Nigeria during the British colonial rule, and centres on the horseman of a Yoruba king who was prevented from committing ritual suicide by the colonial authorities. The play premiered at the Vivian Beaumont Theatre in 1975.
The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives was Shoenyin’s fictional debut, which was released in 2010, and it centred on polygamy in African culture. The novel has been performed as plays on theatres, the first of which happened in 2013, and it earned Shoneyin two Assocation of Nigerian Authors awards, as well as an Orange Prize nomination, in 2011.
In addition to that, Netflix has enlisted Mo Abudu, through her TV station/ production company Ebony life to produce two new Nigerian Originals plus licensed films and a series for the streaming platform.
Check out the announcement below:
The prominent film personality will lead the production of that play and novel, in another development in Netflix’s growing relationship with Nigeria. In addition to the adaptation of the literary works, Mo Abudu and EbonyLife Television will produce two Nigerian Originals for Netflix, as well as a new series.
Mo Abudu is the CEO of EbonyLife Media, a subsidiary network of Media and Entertainment City (MEC) Africa. She is also the creator of Talkshow Moments with Mo, and her prominence has led to her been labelled ‘Africa’s Most Successful Woman’ by Forbes. She was listed, among the 25 most powerful women in global television by The Hollywood Reporter, in 2013.
It has been a great year for Netflix’s African expansion. Earlier this year, Netflix dropped its first African original, Queen Sono, a South African spy series starring Pearl Thusi.
The streaming giant followed that up with the South African teen drama Blood & Water; which quickly climbed the streamer’s top 10 daily rankings across the globe, including the U.S. and the U.K.
Abass Latifat
