“It tells the love story between Idara, (Sophie Dijeh) a beauty queen based in Calabar Nigeria, and Eyo, (Gideon Okeke) a top notch journalist from the same area but based in Jamaica, trying to reconnect with his roots. The Queen becomes an essential resource person for this young man although they got off on the wrong footing from the beginning. History is unraveled through the twists and turns of their relationship and this leads to an amazing reconciliation in Jamaica, Eyo’s home base.”
According to Chigbo, the movie is directed by Grace Edwin Okon and Dipo Abdul. “Initially the screenplay written by Grace Edwin Okon had the city of Atlanta as the home base of the journalist and land of reconciliation, but I had to change that because I felt it best to sensitize people to places they wouldn’t ordinarily pay attention to. For me, Jamaica proved to be the ideal setting; Calabar and Jamaica have strong historical ties, however, this is hardly talked about.”
“There is a school called Calabar Boys High School in Jamaica’s capital city, Kingston. This school is 107 years old but before that, a Calabar Theological College existed sometime in the 18th century. This college birthed the high school which still stands today as one of the best in Jamaica. Part of the people who founded the college were slaves who came from off the coast of Calabar Nigeria. They gave it the name Calabar, because the scenic beauty of their new and unplanned abode, reminded them of the land from where they were uprooted.”
Cross River State, Chigbo says is named after the beautiful Cross River, this river also connects with Nigeria’s neighboring country Cameroon. It empties into the Calabar River, which for some, was a rite of passage into the unknown.
Though My Creek Town Adventure does not talk about the Calabar/Jamaica connection, viewers in Nigeria and in the Diaspora, especially the younger generation will get to see and appreciate the beauty of a land tucked away in the southern part of Nigeria, a land of great significance for many who are scattered abroad.
“Today, we have youths traversing these lands and beyond without an understanding of what transpired way before their time, and this is why this movie combines the ancient and the modern, the old and the young. Youths as we may well know are an integral component of the future of any nation. For me, it was important to not just incorporate the youths in this production but to give them a focal role.”