Director: Niyi Akinmolayan
Lisabi: The Uprising is a 2024 Nigerian historical action drama directed by Niyi Akinmolayan. Set in the Yoruba country of pre-colonial West Africa, it dramatizes the legend of Lisabi, a farmer whose stand against a distant empire became part of Egba oral history.
What is Lisabi The Uprising about?
The film follows a community of Egba farmers living under the tribute demands of the Oyo Empire, whose officials collect levies and enforce imperial control across the region. As the burden grows heavier, a cultivator named Lisabi gathers his neighbors into a secret fellowship known as the Egbe Aro, turning an agricultural mutual-aid society into a coordinated resistance network. Tensions build between the outlying provinces and the imperial center, and the story tracks how a local grievance widens into open confrontation, and how ordinary farmers gradually begin to see themselves as a people with a claim to their own affairs.
Cast & crew
The ensemble is drawn from Nigeria's Nollywood industry. Lateef Adedimeji headlines the production, appearing alongside Boma Akpore, Gabriel Afolayan, Ibrahim Chatta and Adebowale Adedayo. The dialogue is delivered largely in Yoruba, in keeping with the setting; on K-Time the film is presented with a Persian dub so Farsi-speaking audiences can follow it directly.
Context & significance
Lisabi is a figure from the oral traditions of the Egba people, one of the Yoruba subgroups of what is today southwestern Nigeria. He is remembered for the eighteenth-century movement that loosened Egba ties to the Oyo Empire, then the dominant power in the region. Historians treat the specifics as a blend of documented events and folklore handed down across generations, and Lisabi is commemorated each year in the city of Abeokuta. Director Akinmolayan is known for large-scale Nigerian productions, and the story was released as a two-part project, with this instalment covering the origins of the uprising.
Where & how to watch
Lisabi: The Uprising streams on K-Time, where the page you are reading is free to browse and watching requires a K-Time account login. The platform is built for the Iranian diaspora, with a Farsi interface throughout, and this title is offered with a Persian dub so Farsi-speaking viewers can follow the story comfortably.