Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin

Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin (aka Dudu; born 6 June 1953) is a Nigerian television and film producer, director and screenwriter. He is the founder/CEO of Dudu Productions, the television production company which produced the first commercial music video in Nigeria. He has since produced a number of Nigerian music acts, including Sir Shina Peters, Sonny Okosun, Majek Fashek, Onyeka Onwenu and K1 De Ultimate. He produced and directed box office hits like Iyawo Alhaji and Ami Orun, and Ireke Onibudo, which predates Nigeria's Nollywood. Quotes My name is Tunde Alabi-Hundeyin II. I had my first degree at the University of Ibadan where I studied Communication and Language Arts. I graduated in 2004 and after then I worked in Globacom for nine years before I resigned in 2015 to move to the UK for my Masters Degree in Media Practice for Development and Social Change. So, within the time that I was in Nigeria working at GLO by the side I was working as a freelance filmmaker and documentary photographer. So basically, the reason why I resigned from GLO was to transit to another career in media for development and that was why I resigned and moved to the UK to study. So, the plan was to finish studying after a year and then return to Nigeria to start a new career path, but then afterwards things changed. I got to the UK. I started studying Media Practice for Development and Social Change and I realized that the University of Sussex is the best in the whole world for Development Studies which is my wife’s area of expertise. She has been working in the development sector in Nigeria for several years. So, I just invited her to come to the UK to come study at Sussex as well for her Masters in Development Studies at IDS (Institute of Development Studies). It’s the best place in the whole world for Development Studies while Harvard ranks second. The differences between the educational systems in Nigeria and the UK are like the difference between the top of the mountain and the valley. So, first, the UK education focuses so much on reading for each module. When I say module what we call module here is what you call a course in Nigeria. For each module or elective that you do, you are required to read up to 15 or 20 articles. If you don’t read, you will be lost during intellectual discussions in class. So, the UK education system focuses a lot on personal study. The scholarly articles are uploaded on student portal. Now, in each classroom, you would have people of varying degrees of experience. For instance, when I was studying for my master’s, it was a class of 30 and we had people from 15 countries. I had in class people of varying degrees of experience from Mexico, India, Britain, Germany, Sudan, South Africa, Kenya, Philippines, etc. From that class, you have people sharing their experience from different corners of the world. So, in the end you have a kind of robust and round education where you are not just taught theoretical principles but you also share experience and practical scenarios with your class mates. You share your own experience from Nigeria, they share their own experiences from Germany, America etcetera. So, it is a lot of different experiences, knowledge, situations and scenarios that are shared. Also, my course was a practice-based, we had a lot to do with cameras. We were always taking out camera working on documentaries, photography and film, photo and sound editing. We have adequate editing workshop studios and facilities you would not see even in commercial studios in Nigeria. My PhD is in Creative and Critical Practice in the School of Media Arts and Humanities, University of Sussex. So, it’s a practice-based research which contests the normalized stereotypes in the media representation of children from the Global South. How African children are presented as victims of poverty, how the black body is regarded as a toxic sight by the international media. So, my research challenges that visual culture where African children are presented in bad light. So for my research, what I’m doing is working with children who are displaced by Boko Haram in Nigeria. For my work, I have taken trips to displacement camps in northern Nigeria where I captured the children ethically. I have been doing participatory photography with these children aged between 10-15 teaching them how to capture photographs that tell narratives about their realities which I have been presenting at exhibitions in Nigeria, in the UK and in America. so that’s what that project is all about. That project is actually a component part of my PhD methodology. It has not been easy raising children in a racialized environment because like I said earlier black bodies in the western world are seen to be toxic and problematic. So, usually a lot of people, well not all white people, see black people in a negative light so it has not been easy because quite a number of times we’ve experienced racism. A nurse at the University Health Centre once asked me infront of my children if we had chocolate in Nigeria! I was just so taken aback by that question because I wouldn’t have imagined that someone would think that chocolates were such a luxury that we wouldn’t have them in Nigeria. Sometimes, some white people will ask you how you got to the UK probably imagining that you probably came in dingy boats across the Atlantic Ocean. Or some would even ask you if it was true that you have lions as pets in Africa and things like that. So, some of them still have some perspectives that are questionable and it’s not really fair at all. Last year, my son wanted to play basketball with some boys on the school playground during the break time. One of them told him he couldn’t join them to play and he was like why can’t I join you? The boy replied him that because you are Black you can’t join us. So, the school had to punish that boy for a week or so. Every now and again, you get to hear some racist remarks from people.