meh! nigerian movie: UWA MGBEDE

First Thoughts

I have a special kind of issue with movies that show unimportant stuff while ignoring the important stuff. In this film, we saw Uwa Mgbede reminisce about roaming the bush paths of her village, scavenging for clothes and baskets. However when it was time to show her healing the entire village, she didn’t see shit. I want to know why.

The Cast and Crew

Darlington Chibuike as Iloputaife
Kenechukwu Eze as Udalaego
Peace Onuoha as Uwa Mgbede
Nkechi Nweje as Nne
Chukwuora Onugah as Okoli Mmeze
Esther Ogbu as Uwaezuroke
Merit Grace Mama as Nkasi
T.M.J Thomas Makolo Jnr as Obika
Tina Amuziam as Goddess

Written by Uchenna Nnorom
Produced by Ike Pascal
Directed by Nwosu Nnaemeka Samuel

Full Story

Udalaego is the daughter of the richest man in the village. She is also a brat who bullies the poorest girl in the village, Uwa Mgbede. Udalaego warned Uwa Mgbede never to fetch water from the stream in the daytime because Uwa Mgbede is too poor to be seen. She also threatened to kill Uwa Mgbede if she saw her at the stream again. 

In the village, there is a time that is reserved for the goddess to enjoy the stream by herself. Out of fear for Udalaego, Uwa Mgbede goes to the stream at that time and there she comes face-to-face with the goddess. 

The goddess asks Uwa Mgbede why she is at the stream by that time of the day and Uwa Mgbede explains herself. The goddess hearing her story, gives Uwa Mgbede a calabash. She tells Uwa Mgbede that people – rich and mighty would come to her for help. Those who she helps would be fine while those she rejects would be condemned for life and then the goddess disappears.

After seeing this scene, I smiled to myself because I thought I was about to see something similar to The Cap (I don’t know if I’m remembering the name correctly). I was expecting the Calabash given to Uwa Mgbede to be the main story.

But silly me…

That same day, Iloputaife visits the love of his life, Udalaego and from the moment she sees him approaching her compound from afar, that girl runs inside her hut. She asks her friends to tell Iloputaife she is not around. 

Two out of her three friends carry out her instructions. The third one, Nkasi doesn’t. Once Iloputaife reveals that he saw Udalaego run into her hut while he was advancing towards them, Nkasi gave up the act. She walks straight into Udalaego’s hut and tells her to go talk to Iloputaife. 

Udalaego does and she – to cut the long story short – breaks up with Iloputaife. According to her, she wants a rich man from a rich family. Iloputaife has done well for himself, no doubt. He is the richest young man in the village, well on his way to becoming as rich as her father but Udalego doesn’t want that. She wants generational wealth. Old money. That sort of thing.

Iloputaife tries to appeal to her but her mind is made up. 

So Iloputaife, with sadness in his heart, carries himself home. On his way home, he runs into Uwa Mgbede and picks an interest in her. He asks her why she isn’t adorned in beads or her hair made. Why are her wrappers old and worn out?

Uwa Mgbede explains that she is from the poorest family in the village and cannot afford to wear any of those things he speaks of. Iloputaife hears this and immediately gets her some nice wrappers to wear and some beads.

Uwa Mgbede is grateful. He also offers to help carry her calabash of water home. When they get to her hut, her mother, Nne, asks why she took so long and where she got the wrappers and beads she was wearing. She introduces Nne to Iloputaife and Nne accuses her of seeing a man without her consent. Uwa Mgbede refutes Nne’s claim, assuring Nne that she only met Iloputaife that day and he was kind enough to buy her new wrappers and beads to wear.

Nne then demands to speak to her alone. They both go to the back of the hut and Nne tells Uwa Mgbede to end all forms of communication with Iloputaife because the rich and the poor have nothing in common. Uwa Mgbede listens to Nne and goes back to tell Iloputaife to leave. Iloputaife makes a last-minute request for a hug and asks that she walk him to the road. When they get to the road, he inquires why Nne doesn’t like him and Uwa Mgbede says that Nne doesn’t trust him because he is rich. Rich people have not been kind to them. 

Iloputaife then drops a bomb. He tells Uwa Mgbede that he likes her.

See ehn, when this broda said that, I was like

Wasn’t it you who was heartbroken less than an hour ago? Didn’t Udalaego mean anything to you? I know she is trifling but come on dude, have some respect for your relationship.

Anyway, back to Udalaego. Nkasi tries to make her see that she has made a mistake ending things with Iloputaife but Udalaego gets angry and threatens to end their friendship. She even sidelines Nkasi in their friendship group. 

Udalaego moves on to Obika (more like her ass was cheating on Iloputaife with Obika). According to Udalaego, Obika is the son of a rich man and marrying him would mean she married well. Her father tried to make her go back to Iloputaife but Udalaego’s mind was made up. 

One day, Obika asks Udalaego for money. There is some investment he needs to make. When she asks him to meet his father for money, he refuses; stating that he wants to be his own man. He wants to make something of himself. Dumbass Udalaego goes into her hut and retrieves her bag of coins – all her savings from the pocket money her father gives to her. She carries that bag and hands it over to Obika. He thanks her and disappears.

After some days, she gets worried about not having heard from her “love”. So she goes to Obika’s “father’s hut” to find him. There she learns the said “father” doesn’t have a son named Obika. Udalaego, still in delulu land, doesn’t understand what happened and wonders if Obika is okay. Nkasi hears everything and just lays it out bare – Obika is a fraud. He is not the son of a wealthy man. He duped Udalaego.

I couldn’t stop laughing at this point. You mean to tell me that this girl never went to visit her rich boyfriend in his father’s house? She was just believing lies without proof like a daft?!

So she was bragging without evidence?

Iloputaife on the other hand makes his intentions known to Nne and she becomes nicer to him. Iloputaife also asks his sister to do Uwa Mgbede’s hair. He buys new clothes and beads for Nne and Uwa Mgbede – he basically changes their lives. 

On the same day, Udalaego finds out that her beloved Obika is a tinder swindler, she gets the terrible news that her father fell by the lake. When she rushes to see him, she finds him lying flat on his back unable to move. 

That same day, Iloputaife wakes up with a paralysed left arm and a lazy left leg. When he goes to welcome Uwa Mgbede, he struggles to walk. 

That same day again, Nne is paralysed. She can’t move. 

The goddess appears to Uwa Mgbede and says that it is time to use the calabash she gave her. But she has to believe when using it and the people she is using it on also have to have faith. 

Uwa Mgbede first heals her mother, and then Iloputaife. She also reveals to them that it was the goddess who gave her the calabash. Iloputaife asks her to help the other sick people in the village while Nne refuses saying that if they find out Uwa Mgbede has such power, they might harm her. 

Udalaego invites a medicine man to heal her father. The man rips her off by demanding huge sums of money without doing anything meaningful to save Udalaego’s father. When all the money her father kept at home is exhausted, Udalaego is beside herself, wondering what she can do to help her father. 

Then the village seer visits them and tells her about Uwa Mgbede. Udalaego has to go to Uwa Mgbede and beg her to save her father. Udalaego initially refuses but after her father begs her to, she does. She goes to Uwa Mgbede and pleads with Uwa Mgbede to save her father.

Uwa Mgbede does save Udalaego’s father and other people in the village (at the suggestion of Nkasi who was present). The thing is, we never see her do anything we just hear her say it. 

After saving Udalaego’s father, Udalaego returns with money; trying to buy Uwa Mgbede off. Because she wants Iloputaife back. Uwa Mgbede rejects her money and Iloputaife rejects her. Udalaego cries to her father and he consoles her. 

In the end, Uwa Mgbede accepts Iloputaife’s proposal.

Rating out of 10

I give it 🧉🧉🧉

This film had the tools to be an amazing movie but somehow the writer and director just ruined it. The way the goddess part of the story was sidelined was criminal. The storytelling was poor – why was there a fixation on Udalaego’s love life? That was not the story – the movie was supposed to be about how the calabash changed Uwa Mgbede’s life. That was the story that got lost in translation.