20/09/2025
It was a few months ago that I first heard about the movie âTo Kill a Monkey.â
Everyone around me seemed to be talking about it, so I promised myself I would watch it. But time never allowed me until last night.
I havenât watched a movie in a long while because of how packed my schedule usually is. Last night, however, I wanted to take a break â not to do anything serious, but to rest with something meaningful. Being a movie enthusiast, I opened my Moviebox app and started scrolling. Then âTo Kill a Monkeyâ popped up. Immediately, I remembered how I had long wanted to see it.
At first, it seemed like just another typical Nollywood film. It even felt like one of Funke Akindeleâs works. Honestly, I almost stopped watching. But all the things I had heard about it wouldnât let me stop not until the last scene of the first episode. That was when I paused and began reflecting on the life of Efe.
I imagined what must have been going through Efeâs mind at that restaurant table. A street boy he once helped with hospital bills was now the one clearing his debts and buying him a meal he hadnât tasted in years. A first-class graduate, now reduced to serving in a restaurant.
At that moment, I realized something: life truly comes in different shades. If I had to give the first episode a name, I would call it âShades of Life.â
The Four Classes of Living Standards
1. The Upper Class (Elite)
The wealthiest and most powerful.
Own businesses, properties, and often hold political influence.
2. The Middle Class
Comfortable professionals, entrepreneurs, and skilled workers.
Have access to education, healthcare, and moderate luxuries.
3. The Working Class (Ordinary People)
Wage earners and artisans living modestly.
Can cover basic needs but often live paycheck to paycheck.
4. The Lower/Underclass (Extremely Poor)
Struggle daily for survival.
Often unemployed or underemployed, with little to no access to education, healthcare, or stable housing.
Unfortunately, Efe in the movie fell into the third if not the fourth class of living.
The sad truth is that a vast percentage of humanity, perhaps 80â90% of families falls into these last two classes, especially in countries like ours.
Hereâs My Take Home
1. No one deserves the ugly circumstances life sometimes throws at them. Life can happen to anyone regardless of background, education, religion, or hard work.
2. Never take advantage of peopleâs conditions like Efe's superiors in the restaurant. No condition is permanent. You are not their God. When the tables turn, yours may turn too.
3. Remember, there is hope even in dead situations. Never give up. Life is unpredictable, and your breakthrough may come when you least expect it.
4. Donât mock or condemn the weak and vulnerable. If you can help, then help. True greatness is when you give someone what they cannot give themselves.
5. Pray that life never happens to you or your loved ones in a negative way. When one person is affected, everyone around them is too.
6. Finally, if you are young, strive with all honesty and diligence to rise into the first or second class of living. Go the extra mile if necessary, while you still have your strength. For a time will come when all you may have are regrets and by then, it may be too late.
As I close;
âTo Kill a Monkeyâ is more than just a film â it is a mirror of society. It reminds us that success and failure, strength and weakness, wealth and poverty are all part of lifeâs unpredictable journey. But it also leaves us with a challenge: to live with compassion, to strive for better, and to never forget that no shade of life is permanent.
Tamarapriye Tilly
