Sound, Story and Screen: The Role of Music in Enhancing Narrative Meaning in Nigerian Film Adaptation

Abstract

Music in Nigerian cinema is still discussed mainly as accompaniment, although African performance traditions treat sound, speech and movement as one storytelling system. This study examines how music produces narrative meaning in two Nigerian films that carry Yoruba oral, ritual and theatrical material onto the screen: Tunde Kelani’s Saworoide (1999) and Kunle Afolayan’s The Figurine (2009). Using a qualitative, interpretive design, it applies scene-based close viewing and listening, a structured cue log and a two-stage procedure that separates the description of sound events from their interpretation. The reading draws on film-music theory (Gorbman, Chion, Audissino), African musicology (Euba, Nzewi, Omojola) and adaptation theory (Hutcheon). In Saworoide, the talking drum and sung proverbs signal political authority, carry communal memory and pass moral judgement. In The Figurine, the placement of sound around the figurine’s appearances sustains suspense and holds the viewer between belief in fate and the possibility of coincidence. In both films, music shapes pacing and prepares the viewer’s response before image or dialogue confirms it. The study concludes that music in these films works as a co-author of meaning, and that scholarship and production practice should plan for music from the scripting stage.