illustration by @whatdamidid
Turn up Charlie premiered on Netflix on March 15 2019. I watched it like an hour after it dropped and finished it in that sitting. It has all the elements of shows I like; light, but emotional, funny and flawed characters with one or two redeeming qualities. I ignored the Ankara and ridiculous accents and enjoyed the whole thing.
For some people though, the opening Nigerian scene was too much and turned them more into turned off chale (haha I’m funny). They didn’t want to watch yet another parody. As Nigerians get even trendier, I don’t think we’re going to stop seeing ourselves parodied in books, and in tv shows. The thing that people are not acknowledging is that for all the things it got wrong about being Nigerian, there are a lot of things that it got right.
Let’s do a quick analysis of all the things it got wrong first.
The outfits
Can we actually just stop with Ankara, even our friends abroad that always manage to be at least 7 seasons behind local wedding trends have let it go. Even Stella Jean …the Haitan-Italian designer who used Ankara as her claim to fame has expanded.So has Lisa Folawiyo. The moment Stella Mccartney made a collection of house wear Ankara dresses and sold them for thousands of pounds, it should have been a signal to every vaguely African intern giving advice to tv studios about Nigeria to yell cut on Ankara.
Snail
In one of the episoes, Charlies ex-girlfriend comes to give him a package of snails that his parents sent her from Nigeria. First of all, no one is sending anyone live snails, like can we chill. The snails would have been cooked, peppered, frozen and THEN sent. Secondly, his auntie makes some French snails and serves that up for dinner. My heart actually stopped in my chest because “are you mad??” that is NOT how we eat snail. We don’t suck anything. They should have asked the intern that made the anecdote about eating snail expand on what they meant ffs.
Now, let’s go to a main thing- the accent.
For anyone that grew up in Nigeria and went to A levels or uni in England, hearing a number of amalgamated accents is nothing new. So, it’s surprising to me that this confusing mess of accents hasn’t been adequately represented yet on tv. There’s that confusing lilt at the end of every sentence, and the way that some words crowd together, and that’s just from people that are trying to force themselves into a British accent.
There were the people that were raised in England from young age but grew up speaking Yoruba in their homes. The way the h factor and other Yoruba factors made it into their language and how their accents are perfectly British except for vowels and h consonants.
There were also people (like me) whose minds mentally started to switch accents and whose mouths would stop halfway. So, you’re stuck in this accent that is still Nigerian, but also not at the same time. I had an uncle that used to make fun of my accent in private, I found him ridiculous, but for my own privacy, I won’t say why.
These characters in Turn up Charlie- the accent they speak is just untrue, considering the fact that so many Nigerians speak perfect British, American or just plain Nigerian accents. Your accent isn’t what makes you Nigerian and I don’t see why TV takes that (and Ankara) as the only way to express authenticity.
What they do get right is community.
Charlie is staying with his auntie who often pays his debts, takes him in rent free and feeds him. She supports him even when she doesn’t support his actions. But it also shows how community is extremely kind to Nigerian men. If we search our hearts, we all know a man that has survived abroad with community behind him, even when he hasn’t served that community in return. Unfortunately, from my observation, it’s not the case for women. I cannot imagine a woman in his position trying to do the same thing and being met with the same level of support. This guy was living in his auntie’s house and bringing women over…to…have…sex…with. Lol.
Respect
In the opening scene, Charlie calls his aunty by her name and she’s quick to correct him “who is Lydia, it is aunty Lydia, how many times must I repeat it”
Most family secrets are open secrets.
The auntie is gay and outed by Charlie to his parents in the middle of a tantrum. However, the family already knows. Because of course they do. All families have their share of people with behaviours that they openly condemn and what they do with those people is judge them, in the hope that the judgment drives the secret underground more than solves it in any way. It’s not that they even think about whether or not they care about your attraction to people of the same sex, they care that you don’t show it or act on it. It obviously drives a wedge between family members, but it’s also a wedge that people choose to ignore. It’s a reminder that Nigerian love, family or not, is often conditional.
Some other random things
Charlie pretended to be successful- to his friends, to his parents. He rejected his friend’s offer of payment for nannying even though he was completely broke at the time. Having an inflated ego isn’t unique to Nigerians, but it’s a definite constant in Nigerians.
The degrees of separation between Nigerians are usually very short. After Charlie brings a random babe home, and his auntie walks in, she leaves her with “greet your mother for me”.
In the beginning of episode 2, the shot pans out to some random African city and the parents have a sticker of the Nigerian flag on their laptop. Lol. The conversation confirms so many stereotypes- “who is right, your mother or your watch?” and then requesting more money, then comparing him to other family members “your cousin in Manchester has been promoted and is having two babies” and then a little insult “she doesn’t want to end up like my poor sister Lydia, childless and alone.”
I hope Nigerians on tv and in print on on the big screen is something that’s here to stay and I hope depictions get more accurate as we tell our own stories!
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