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Ghanaian-American producer Akosua Adoma Owusu is adapting critically acclaimed Nigerian author Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s “The Thing Around Your Neck” into a film. The short story follows Kamara, a Nigerian woman who is hired to take care of a couple’s young child and grows fascinated with the absent mother. Owusu has set up a Kickstarter campaign to get the movie off the ground.
The director shared what inspired her to take the story to the big screen on the fundraising website. Owusu said the idea came to her while she spent two years in Ghana and promoted her film, “Kwaku Ananse,” based on Africa and the African diaspora mythology.
“Traveling to festivals and museum institutions around the world, I was compelled to return to the States and create a new work by adapting literature from contemporary African writers,” Owusu said. “The themes of race, liberalism and sexuality in Adichie’s short story “On Monday of Last Week” resonated with my films on the “triple consciousness” of the African immigrant as I transition between experimental cinema, fine art and African tradition to complicate the nature of identity.”
The Obibini Pictures producer is looking to raise $30,000 on Kickstarter. She previously received support for the project from the John Simon Guggenheim Memorial Foundation in New York City. The organization offers fellowships to scholars and artists for their projects, according to the website.
Bella Naija reports Nigerian actress Chinasa Ogbuagu – who starred in the Off-Broadway play “Sojourners” – will play Kamara, the protagonist, and Ghanaian rapper M.anifest has signed on as the movie’s music supervisor.
The work is the third story by the writer to be optioned into a film. The first was “Half of a Yellow Sun” in 2014. It starred Thandie Newton and Anika Noni Rose. The next is the adaptation of “Americanah,” which is still in development. “Black Panther” actress Lupita Nyong’o will star in and produce the film. “Selma” actor David Oyelowo has also signed on to star with the Kenyan actress, according to Variety.
