The University of Ibadan in Nigeria, presented by British colonial rule as a benevolent gift in 1948, was in truth another colonial tool designed to transform students into “civilised” and compliant subjects. The film is structured around a series of ‘commandments’ from the Ibadan Film Unit, a regional branch of the Colonial Film Unit, a British project created to produce colonial films throughout its territories. The ‘commandments’, likely fictionalised or scripted interpretations of actual film guides, lay out common filmmaking practices, such as clear, singular narration, linear storytelling, and the removal of unnecessary material.

Onyeka Igwe structures the film in sections around these commandments, which Igwe subsequently rebels against, opting for multiple forms of narration, non-linear storytelling, and the addition of ‘unnecessary’ material with artistic flair. This rebellious spirit embodies the film’s refusal to read the history of the university through a colonial lens and instead reinterprets its legacy. Using the university campus as a relic to be read, Igwe explores its contradictions, with its colonial foundations alongside its role as a site of social mobility and political upheaval. Penkelemes challenges the colonial narratives and reveals how spaces created to further colonial exploitations can also become sites for alternative knowledge production.

LA