In 2019, BBC aired its “Sex For Grades” documentary, an almost hour-long exposé on sexual misconduct in West African universities. The world watched in shock and horror as professors in universities used their authority and power to sexually harass students and threaten to destroy their futures if they did not comply. This “open secret”, as journalist Kiki Mordi noted, can be seen everywhere in our society, but without any consequences. It has been used as a plot device in Nollywood film after Nollywood film, referenced in songs from our childhood and has become so ubiquitous in our culture that it’s now kind of background noise.
The BBC documentary sounded the alarm, presenting the general public with hard evidence. Citation (2020) takes that hard truth and exposes the intricacies of sexual assault and the common denominator of power dynamics that come into play. In Citation, we see the slow build of trust that is established, the effect it can have on intimate relationships and how the process of pursuing justice can leave the survivor feeling like they have no real support.
Citation, directed by Kunle Afolayan, follows Moremi (Temi Otedola), a brilliant 20-year-old Master’s student who takes on the establishment after being sexually assaulted by her professor. Moremi is more of a stand-in, representing thousands of womxn who have faced the same challenges while seeking justice; the lack of support from friends and family should they choose to go public with their stories, a University system that is unable or unwilling to truly address the abuse of power taking within the institution.
That being said, it’s important to keep in mind that Citation is a fictionalized account of a real-life issue. It uses the tropes and structures of narrative fiction to tell its story, and that comes with some complications. For example, Moremi is the kind of movie heroine that is easy to root for. She’s brilliant, a Master’s student at the age of 20, a polyglot (she speaks English, Yoruba and French, which helps her bond with her Senegalese professor at the start of the film). She’s a little bit sassy but not mean-spirited, and unlike her friend Gloria, she is not overly-flirty. That’s an important point to keep in mind- in order for us to root for her, we have to know that she’s not the kind of girl that would actually sleep with her professor. To drive this point home, she has to say, plainly, that it is wrong to sleep with older men, with married men and with professors.
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I don’t think that is a point against Citation necessarily, that Moremi has to be this kind of character- a “good girl”, for us to identify with her. I have more of an issue with the trope in general because the truth is that all kinds of womxn are victims and survivors of sexual assault. Womxn who have never had sex, womxn who have lots of sex, womxn who have never left the country, womxn who dress “provocatively”. It’s not just “good womxn”, or middle-class womxn that matter, who are targeted in this way, and we have to advocate for all womxn.
It was only earlier this year that we saw Nigerian womxn sharing their experiences of sexual assault on social media, supporting and affirming each other, but still faced victim-blaming. When Seyitan Babatayo, who came out to share her story that she was assaulted by ex-pop star (and professional clown) D’banj, people were sharing photos of her dressed in ways that they considered inappropriate, calling into question her source of income. One tweet stated “I have not been able to find a visible income for her yet she jet sets around the world in different hotels and resorts” as if a womxn going on holiday is a crime.
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In terms of the filmmaking, Citation has a lot going for it. The choice to tell the story using flashbacks and flashforwards is really interesting. There’s a contrast between the light-heartedness from before the assault to the cold seriousness of the “after”; in the present, at the hearing for the case, we mostly hear from Professor Lucien, but in the past, we get to see what actually happened from Moremi’s perspective. We are literally presented with his words against hers, how much space he is given to lie against her, and how powerless Moremi is in that moment- because Lucien is a well-respected academic, that’s also an older man, he is placed in a position of power over her. He says that she was the one coming on to him, that she kissed him, that she flirted with him, and nobody challenges these claims, despite the fact that other students noticed the way he chased after her.
This split timeline also gives us an insight into how alone Moremi is. In the flashbacks, she is surrounded by friends, by laughter. She has Gloria, she has her boyfriend Koyejo, she is a respected academic. In the present, she has nobody. Gloria turns against her, Koyejo victim-blames her, telling her that he warned her and told her not to be alone with him.
Professor Lucien and Moremi
This is an experience that I think a lot of womxn can identify with- our friends and family will focus more on us- what we wear, where we go and who we choose to spend our time with- rather than on those who do us harm. I can speak to that too- I often have to walk home at night, usually when I get my hair done or go out to get groceries. I’ll relay my experience with cat-calling to my mother, how terrifying it is to be on my own in the dark surrounded by men who feel comfortable saying whatever to me, and she will ask me why I go out dressed the way I do. I know she doesn’t mean to minimize my experience, that she is truly worried for me. The issue is that sexual harassment is so common in our culture that for a lot of people, it’s just easier to police womxn than to hold men accountable for their actions.
Overall, Citation works as a work of fiction. These kinds of stories are really complex, and there are moments when a film just won’t be able to capture those complexities, but I think the goal is to allow general audiences to identify with womxn fighting against a system that is not kind to us. The BBC documentary is a necessary watch, but Citation is emotionally accessible in a way that is also necessary to the work of dismantling gendered violence in our culture.
