Happy Easter! It’s another time for movie review. Today, a review series of Abejoye will begin, Abejoye, is a Mount Zion Film Production’s movie. The first time I watched the movie, I was clouded with sentiments for Christain movies that I didn’t see the messages the movie was actually communicating. But now, I have watched the movie over and over that I have lost count. So, what changed?

Let’s just say I heard reviews and I got motivated to watch the movie from the beginning. It lighted in me to do Abejoye review. So, let’s do this.

The movie started with a young boy who fearfully jolts from his sleep and screamed Daddy! Mummy! Why didn’t he wake up shouting Jesus? As a child from a christain home, one would have expected that he would have spiritual stamina to have at least call the name of Jesus when he was tormented by evil instead he screamed for his parents who can do nothing to help him.

It is important for a christain to be spiritually strong enough to start fighting your battles with the name of Jesus. Even if you might be later helped in prayers to win, at least be strong enough to face the battles in the name of Jesus first. This is the least you can do.

And we were introduced to the dilemma of a wife, Laide who was scared of her family’s safety that might be threatened with the incoming of her father-inlaw to her family. If she had rightly discerned she would have known the right cause of her family’s problem but she wasn’t. Laide led her family to continous fasting and praying all out of fear which blinded them to see the real cause of their trouble, especially the wife. Even in their attempt to pray, the husband and wife have no spiritual agreement. This was evident in the scene of family altar when the husband was about to lead a prayer point but the wife interrupted with another prayer point. How can prayers made in discord be effective?

The scene that introduced us to the husband’s unfaithfulness was when he was with his side-chick Dedun and she requested that the man should stay and eat her food. A man who is supposed to be fasting, to have his break in a mistress’ house? He declined the food and while he tried to justify his decision, he described the wife, Laide as his wife and mother of his 3 children. And the woman now asked, ‘What am I?’ The man was deceitfully nice enough to say ‘friend’ but in truth she was just a side-chick. I wondered, what was she expecting the man to say? ‘Assistant wife or destiny destroyer’?

Ironically, the next scene showed the niceties of a side-chick to the husband’s family. Unknowingly to the wife, she was receiving gifts from her husband’s mistress and admiring her kindheartedess. If God opens your eyes to see the true sate of people’s heart, I bet you will hardly find anybody you can truly describe as being kind.

The comic relief of the movie is watching the natural display of a local African father upon his arrival to America. He feels so joyful and fulfilled that he rejoiced at the shaming of his imaginary enemy who didn’t believe he could ever step into America. The realness of his locality and personality was revealed when he was playing ‘Ayo’, African PS4 with an imaginary opponent. The old man was used to the routine of ‘Ayo’ me after evening meal in his Ajibogun village that he got to America and still continued with it.

Even when he was praying for his grandchildren he uses words that seem like incantations and curses. Of course, Laide got agitated because she didn’t reckon that the man’s way of life as a traditionalist impacts all he does. Baba’s incantations-like prayers are actually heartfelt prayers and not incantations or curses. One of the secrets of living in peace with people is to accept people as they are and allow them to evolve into the better version of themselves overtime. The wife, Laide failed to do this and it leads her to misbehave to Baba.

Typical of a high ranking traditionalist, he has his own spiritual battles that threatened to deal with him through his children. Unfortunately for him, his battle times usually coincides with the family time of oppression and they usually catch him doing his diabolic rituals which makes him to be accused as the cause of the family’s spiritual attacks.

The straw that broke the camel’s back was a night when the wife after she has been attacked in her dream decided to pray and less than 2 minutes into the prayer grandpa screamed from his sleep because he had just been slapped from his dream but the wife thought it was the effect of her prayer. By the time they got to Baba’s room, they met him doing diabolic recitations but it was not for Laide, it was for his own enemies. Of course, they didn’t buy into that logic and the wife insisted that Grandpa goes back to Nigeria that day after spending less than a week in America.

Grandpa reckons that his enemies have gotten him and sadly reflected on the disgrace that awaits him when he arrives in Ajibogun. This scene is a touching and sad one. Meanwhile, the husband instead of looking for better ways of pacifying his wife, he went ahead to slap the wife even in the presence of the pastor. And thay was it. Case closed, Baba leaves America. The Pastor was called to take Baba to the airport cause the son could not bear the ill-feeling of returning his father to Nigeria and expose him to ridicule and shame.

The more painful scene was the way Baba’s staggered and stuttered when he was outside the house and about to enter the car that will take him to the airport. One could pity him for the impending disgrace that awaits him at Ajibogun. Finally, he said ‘Ajibogun ya’ and he entered the car.

Abéjoyé season 1 part 1 ended, with lessons gleaned from the movie. The overall lesson to be gleaned in this particular movie is that the presence of sin in a life makes that life susceptible to the enemy’s attack.

Happy Easter once again, enjoy this season with joy, peace and cheer.