The cinema of Nigeria, often referred to informally as Nollywood, consists of films produced in Nigeria. This article delves into the history, evolution, and cultural impact of Nollywood, exploring its journey from humble beginnings to becoming the second-largest film industry globally in terms of output.
What is Nollywood?
The definition of which films are considered Nollywood has always been debated. Alex Eyengho defined Nollywood as "the totality of activities taking place in the Nigerian film industry, be it in English, Igbo, Hausa, Yoruba, Itsekiri, Edo, Efik, Ijaw, Urhobo, Ibibio, Annang or any other of the over 300 Nigerian languages". Over the years, the term Nollywood has also been used to refer to other affiliated film industries, such as the Ghanaian English-language cinema, whose films are usually co-produced with Nigeria and/or distributed by Nigerian companies.
Some stakeholders have expressed their disagreement over the term, giving reasons such as the fact that the term was coined by a foreigner, as such being another form of imperialism. In another interview, he stated: "If Nollywood is the name that people decide to call the movie industry in Nigeria, then I am part of it. If Nollywood is what they say is 20 years, then I am not part of that Nollywood because I have been doing film business for more than 30 years now".
Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries - each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents.
Early History and Development
The history of Nigerian cinema dates back to as early as the late 19th century and into the colonial era in the early 20th century. Film as a medium first arrived in Nigeria in the late 19th century, in the form of peephole viewing of motion picture devices. These were soon replaced in the early 20th century with improved motion picture exhibition devices, with the first set of films screened at the Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos from 12 to 22 August 1903.
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Colonial filmmakers started producing films for local audiences within Nigeria since the 1920s, mostly employing the mobile cinema as a means of exhibition. The earliest feature film made in Nigeria is 1926's Palaver produced by Geoffrey Barkas. The film was also the first film ever to feature Nigerian actors in a speaking role.
Nigerian film actors featured in Palaver include Dawiya and Yilkuba. The film was shot amongst the Sura and Angas people of the present day Bauchi and Plateau States in Northern Nigeria, and narrates the rivalry between a British District Officer and a tin miner which leads to a war.
Also in this era there were several films set in Nigeria, one of the most notable being 1935's Sanders of the River by Zoltán Korda, featuring Nigerian actor Orlando Martins. As of 1921, there were four other halls showing films twice a week in Lagos Mainland and one hall each in Ebute Metta and Oshodi.
By this time, cinema had become popular in Lagos with crowds of young and old people usually waiting at the doors of theatre halls. As cinemas became a common feature of the social life in the then emerging city of Lagos, the late 1930s through 1940s marked the beginning of the establishment of big commercial cinema houses with branches in strategic parts of the country.
In 1937, the colonial government set up a Board of Censorship to handle matters relating to the establishment and operations of cinema houses in the colony. Nigerian content in films made and shown in Nigerian cinemas during this period were however virtually non-existent as the production and distribution were controlled by foreigners.
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The Colonial Film Unit, throughout the decade, exhibited health and educational films to local audiences through its mobile cinema vans. After Nigeria's independence from Britain in 1960, the cinema business rapidly expanded, with new cinema houses being established.
However, there came a significant influx of American, Indian, Chinese and Japanese films; posters of films from these countries were all over theatre halls and actors from these industries became very popular in Nigeria. In 1972, concerned about the influx of foreign culture into Nigeria, the Indigenization Decree was issued by the then head of state Yakubu Gowon; which demands the transfer of ownership of about a total of 300 film theatres in the country from their foreign owners to Nigerians.
Also, more Nigerians started playing active roles in cinema establishment as a result of this policy. This transfer also resulted in the emergence of Nigerian playwrights, screenwriters and film producers; popular literature and theatre works were adapted into motion pictures. The oil boom of 1973 through 1978 contributed immensely to the spontaneous boost of the cinema culture in Nigeria.
Television broadcasting in Nigeria began in the 1960s and received much government support in its early years. By the mid-1980s every state had its own broadcasting station. Law limited foreign content on television, so producers in Lagos began televising local popular theatre productions.
As of late 1980s, the cinema culture was beginning to face a major decline, and most Nigerian film producers had transitioned to television productions. The gradual decline of the Golden era of Nigerian cinema has been attributed to several factors, including the reduction in the value of Naira, lack of finance and marketing support, lack of standard film studios and production equipment, frequent Government structural adjustment programmes due to military dictatorships, as well as inexperience on the part of practitioners.
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The drastic decline in cinema culture resulted in some of the existing cinema houses being acquired by religious bodies and turned to churches; others were simply just closed down.
The Rise of Video Film Market
The emergence of the video film market in Nigeria is traced back to the 1980s when television productions thrived. Jimi Odumosu's Evil Encounter, a 1983 horror film released directly on television, was the first production to be a pointer to how lucrative making film directly on video could be.
The first film produced on video in Nigeria was 1988's Soso Meji, produced by Ade Ajiboye. The film was also screened at the few available theatres at the time. However, the boom experienced in this era is generally believed to have been kickstarted by Kenneth Nnebue's Living in Bondage (1992).
The Igbo-language film, Living in Bondage (1992), directed by Chris Obi Rapu and starring Paul Okechukwu Ogunjiofor, Kenneth Okonkwo, Kanayo O. Kanayo and Kenneth Nnebue (who also produced it), among others, is often credited with kick-starting the modern Nollywood era and is associated with southeastern Nigeria. After that were films like Circle of Doom, Nneka, The Pretty Serpent, Rituals, Rattle Snake, etc.
It is important to recognize that the Nigerian film industry has a more complex and diverse history too. Worth mentioning, before Living In Bondage was Things Fall Apart, an adaptation of Chinua Achebe's Novel of the same name, starring Pete Edochie.
Although the Igbo language film Living in Bondage by Kenneth Nnebue was the first massive nationwide hit of the videotape era, most Igbo film makers prefer to make their movies in English. This leads to the paradox where some of the most popular and beloved actors in Nollywood like Patience Ozokwor (Mama G), Chinedu Ikedieze and Osita Iheme (Aki and Pawpaw), Nkem Owoh (Osuofia), John Okafor (Mr. Ibu) who are ethnically Igbo, have mostly acted in English language movies.
These actors occasionally sprinkle their movies with Igbo aphorisms and expressions (e.g. also a movie genre of Nigerian cinema, towing behind the IGBO south eastern themed movies.
As of 2004, at least four to five films were produced every day in Nigeria. According to the Filmmakers Cooperative of Nigeria, every film in Nigeria had a potential audience of 15 million people in Nigeria and about 5 million outside Nigeria. In no time, the industry became the third largest producer of films in the world.
However, this didn't translate to an overtly commercial film industry when compared to other major film hubs across the world; the worth of the industry was approximated at just about US$250 million, since most of the films produced were cheaply made. The film industry regardless became a major employer in Nigeria.
At the peak of the video era at around 2008, the industry had become the second largest producer of films, releasing approximately 200 video films monthly. However at this point, the Nigerian film industry had practically degenerated into a "visionless" industry, with the invasion of several people who did not know a thing about filmmaking, and piracy was at its peak.
Dealing with the menace of piracy, amongst other problems, became a hard nut to crack; as a result of this, most investors of the "Alaba cartel", who control almost 90 percent stakes in the video industry, began to channel their money into other business ventures instead.
New Nigerian Cinema
This is an emerging phase in Nigerian cinema, in which there became a major shift in the method of film production, from the video format, back to the cinema method, which constituted the films produced in the Golden era. A few years into the 21st century, Nigeria began to experience the growth of cinemas, which was initially structured for the middle and upper classes.
The Silverbird Group is the first company to launch a series of modern cinema houses across major cities in Nigeria, mostly situated in affluent areas and districts. It launched its cinema chains in 2004, starting with the Silverbird Galleria in Victoria Island, Lagos. Silverbird cinemas upon establishment started screening Nigerian films with high production quality, as a result discouraging poor film production.
The first New wave film to be shown at a cinema was the Yoruba-language film Irapada (2006) by Kunle Afolayan, which was screened at the Silverbird Galleria in Lagos. The Silverbird experiment became very successful, and as a result, the group launched a few more cinema branches in Lagos and other cities in the country.
Several grants have been launched by the Nigerian Government, in order to support quality content in Nigerian films. In 2006, "Project Nollywood" was launched by the Nigerian Government, in conjunction with Ecobank. The project provided ₦100 million (US$781,000) to Nigerian filmmakers to produce high quality films and to fund a multimillion Naira distribution network across the country during this period.
In 2010, the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan launched a ₦30 billion (US$200 million) "Creative and Entertainment Industry" Intervention Fund, financed by Bank of Industry (BOI), in conjunction with Nigerian Export and Import (NEXIM) Bank. The popular 2009 thriller film The Figurine is generally considered the game changer, which heightened the media attention towards the "New Nigerian Cinema" revolution.
By the end of 2013, the film industry reportedly hit a record breaking revenue of ₦1.72 trillion (US$11 billion). As of 2014, the industry was worth ₦853.9 billion (US$5.1 billion) making it the third most valuable film industry in the world, behind the United States and India.
Unlike the home video era, films in the new wave are generally of much improved quality, with considerably bigger budgets; averaging between ₦40 million (US$250,000) and ₦120 million ($750,000). These films' production periods take months and even span into years, a far cry from the films in video format which are usually shot in a matter of days or weeks.
Sub-Industries and Affiliations
Over the years the term Nollywood has also been used to refer to other affiliate film industries, such as the Ghanaian English-language cinema. Around the year 2006 through 2007, Nigerian filmmaker Frank Rajah Arase signed a contract with a Ghanaian production company, Venus Films, which involved helping to introduce Ghanaian actors into mainstream Nollywood.
This collaboration eventually led to extreme popularity of certain Ghanaian actors, such as Van Vicker, Jackie Appiah, Majid Michel, Yvonne Nelson, John Dumelo, Nadia Buari and Yvonne Okoro, arguably as much as their Nigerian counterparts. Furthermore, over the years, due to the high cost of film production in Nigeria, Nigerian filmmakers have been forced to make films outside Lagos in order to cut costs, mirroring the exodus of filmmaking in Hollywood from Los Angeles to cities like Toronto and Albuquerque, a phenomenon known as runaway production.
Nollywood USA is a broad term, that is used to refer to Nigerian films made in the diaspora. Although they are popularly called Nollywood USA, these movies can be shot in any non-African country.
The Yoruba-language cinema began as actors of various Yoruba traveling theatre groups began to take their works beyond the stage to delve into movie production using the Celluloid format, as far back as the mid-1960s. This film was one of the few huge successes that helped put the Yoruba-language cinema on the map, and it was followed by other productions by Hubert Ogunde and others.
One of the first blockbusters from Nigeria, came from the Yoruba language industry; a notable example is Mosebolatan (1985) by Moses Olaiya, which grossed ₦107,000 (approx. The modern film industry started with films such as, The Narrow Part, which was also titled The White Handkerchief by Tunde Kelani.
The Hausa-language cinema, also known informally as Kannywood, is also a sub-industry of Nollywood, mainly based in Kano. The cinema, which is the largest in Northern Nigeria, slowly evolved from the productions of RTV Kaduna and Radio Kaduna in the 1960s.
The 1990s saw a dramatic change in the Northern Nigerian cinema, eager to attract more Hausa audience who find Bollywood movies more attractive, Kannywood; a cinematic synthesis of Indian and Hausa culture evolved and became extremely popular. The Efik-language cinema, also known as Callywood is also a sub-industry of Nollywood, mainly based in Calabar but also include the Ibibio and Annang cinema.
Challenges and Opportunities
Despite its remarkable growth, Nollywood faces several challenges, including piracy, lack of formal structure, and limited access to funding. However, the industry also presents significant opportunities for economic growth, job creation, and cultural promotion.
Recognizing its huge economic potential, in recent years, Nigeria’s government has worked to improve IP awareness within the film industry. Through a range of training courses, seminars, and practical workshops, filmmakers are becoming more IP-aware.
A new IP savvy generation of filmmakers is emerging; one that ensures that IP rights are recognized and protected and that appropriate contracts are in place. Copyright law (and contract law) underpins the relationships arising from the filmmaking process.
Last amended in 1999, Nigeria’s Copyright Act is of particular relevance to Nigerian filmmakers. As the arm of government responsible for strengthening the policy and legislative framework for more effective copyright protection, the NCC is driving the current review of Nigeria’s copyright law.
The industry received a welcome boost in 2011 with the establishment by the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan of a US$200 million fund for the film industry. The fund is available in the form of loans and statutory corporate documentation is required to qualify.
Nollywood is a major employer of labor, reportedly second only to agriculture and generates millions of dollars every year. Its importance to the Nigerian economy cannot be over-emphasized. However, while it is the second largest film industry in the world in terms of volume, when it comes to revenue it falls far behind Bollywood and Hollywood.
In order to create a more enabling environment, the Government of Nigeria, therefore, still has much to do. In just 20 years, against all the odds, Nigeria’s low-budget film industry has become an increasingly influential multi-million dollar business.
A growing number of quality productions are making their way to international film festivals and enjoying premieres screenings in major film markets and leading Nigerian actors are gaining international prominence.
Key Figures and Films
Several filmmakers have played a significant role in shaping Nollywood, including:
- Ola Balogun
- Hubert Ogunde
- Eddie Ugboma
- Kunle Afolayan
- Tunde Kelani
- Kemi Adetiba
Some notable films that have contributed to Nollywood's success include:
- Living in Bondage (1992)
- The Figurine (2009)
- Irapada (2006)
- The Wedding Party (2016)
- Osuofia in London
These films showcase the diversity and creativity within the Nigerian film industry, reflecting Nigerian culture.
