Nollywood Finally Gets Hooked

Across The Niger

The film ‘Across The Niger’, the sequel to ‘The Battle Of Love’, is probably the first ‘Nollywood’ production in which the Federal Govt of Nigeria has rightfully taken an official interest and has expressed a desire to give it’s full backing.

This in itself is recognition, belated as it might appear to be, of the crucial and widely acknowledged role that film and other art forms have to play in national development. Nigeria has always been a country known more for its potential than its actual achievements, and for the vibrancy and sheer audacity of it’s people even in the face of overwhelming, often crippling odds.

The ‘Nollywood’ phenomenon has taken the world by storm, and long before even the industry itself became aware of the impact it was making beyond the shores of Nigeria, people out there were taking note. Like the fabled rose that grew from concrete, the Nigerian home movie industry has virtually ‘sprouted’ from nowhere, from nothing, and from ‘nobodies’ – young Nigerian men and women who would otherwise not be given a second glance in the glamorised film capitals of the world – Hollywood, London, Paris, Berlin, Cannes, even New Delhi.

Without any significant capitalisation, without an existing or readily identifiable market base, without any pre-existing marketing and distribution strategy or even an infrastructure that could support even the most rudimentary one, and without any official recognition or support from government sources of any sort, the industry ploughed ahead into uncharted territory regardless. What we see today is the end-product of a near-isolated evolutionary process that has grown in response to a huge population that has been crying out for something that truly satisfies a peculiar need, and which all the dollars and awesome machinery at the disposal of the likes of Hollywood have been unable, and to be quite frank, totally ill-equipped to meet.

The result is an industry which has defied conventional wisdom, and has either by accident or design developed its own peculiar and customised marketing and distribution strategies, and has, to the dismay of many a purist film-maker, developed a highly unconventional yet efficient method of churning out cheap, cost-efficient films for it’s insatiable market. What is more fascinating is the fact that, depending on which source you choose to believe, up to about 95% of these home movies make a profit.

One can understand the interest this is generating in the established world of film. Even now, nervous glances are being cast in the direction of Hollywood, as international interest seems to grow. The local industry is rife with conspiracy theories of Hollywood plans to invest vast sums of money in ‘Nollywood’-type films, with a view to cashing in on the newly discovered ‘African’ market. As things stand, it’ll be like taking candy from a baby. Without government backing, the industry doesn’t stand a chance. The first of a number of state-of-the-art cinema multiplexes has already been built by private business in Lagos, but for now, local moviemakers have not been invited to the party. And who can complain? Nollywood movies, despite their giant strides, are yet to hit international standards, save possibly a handful.

Nigeria is a country of at least 120million people. It used to be the case that Nigerians would queue for hours to watch the latest Hollywood blockbusters in the country’s cinemas scattered across the country. The James Bond all-action genre, the ‘Blaxploitation’ films, the horror genre that brought us ‘The Exorcist’, ’Omen’ and even ‘Dracula’. Then there were the innumerable Chinese and Indian films that flooded the country and were just as popular, if not even more so.

But then came the downturn in the country’s economy, and with it, the slow and steady demise of the cinema-going culture. It was no longer profitable for cinema houses to stay open showing foreign films. People just couldn’t afford to see them, and probably, just weren’t interested any more. Those that still were, according to some analysts, were frightened away by Nigeria’s dangerous night-life, and would rather sit at home and watch television, or, if they could afford to, foreign videos.

And that, it seems, was the cue for Nollywood. It seized the moment, and hasn’t looked back since.

But this is not the story of Nigeria. This is not even the story of the African continent. This is the story of Africa as a whole. It is the story of the African in the diaspora, including the people of the Caribbean, who to the surprise of everyone, including themselves, see in Nollywood movies something vaguely familiar and speaking a secret, culture-coded language that Western film makers simply cannot fathom.

This therefore, is the story of a market base of more than half a billion people. And counting….

Yet, even now, despite widespread international interest –some cynics call it mere ‘curiosity’- the industry is still in a state of self-doubt and under-achievement. It is almost as if the industry as an institution has no real understanding of it’s true potential, worth or relevance. But if the industry has little appreciation of self, then the Nigerian government has been even guiltier of being slow on the uptake.

Until now.

Nollywood churns out an average of thirty-five movies in VHS and VCD formats every single week. It has been described as the third largest in the world, coming only after Bollywood and Hollywood. It’s annual turnover is in excess of $100m (declared), and it employs many thousands of otherwise disenfranchised young men and women. It provides inestimable value to the lives of it’s people, and consumer opinion suggests that social issues which these home movies almost invariably address have a greater social impact than the most sophisticated government-sponsored public awareness campaigns. This social-engineering role is one that is so often overlooked. It is unquantifiable in financial and political terms. Yet every major country of the world needs it’s own stories in which it projects it’s own heroes from whom it’s population derives a sense of self and a sense of collective worth. The movie is the stuff of nations’ dreams. Indeed, the much-discussed ‘Americanisation’ of the world is to a great degree the direct result of the exportation of American culture via its movies and music. You want to make a nation feel good about itself? Show the people why in a well-crafted movie. It has been said that, for better for worse, today’s chroniclers of world history are not to be found buried under piles of books in ivory tower libraries, but rather in the corporate offices of Hollywood, writing and pitching scripts.

Thanks to ‘Nollywood’, ‘The Nigerian’ sits in living rooms across the continent of Africa and in African homes in the diaspora every evening. Without even realising it, Nigerian ‘culture’ (I use the term in the broadest sense) is being quietly exported in a user-friendly package that even at this moment, is doing it’s own little bit for diplomatic relations and international trade, both directly and indirectly, both for the present and far into the future. It is something that the Nigerian government has done well to recognise, and not a moment too soon. What is needed now is a concerted and coordinated effort to harness all the skills available and give it the much-needed backbone to really take the world by storm, to the benefit of Nigeria and it’s people. One out of every five black people on the planet is a Nigerian. The ‘Nigerianisation’ of the continent via ‘Nollywood’ should therefore not be seen in a negative, exploitative light as do the terms ‘Americanisation’ or ‘imperialism’, but rather as a means of engendering a positive familiarisation with Nigeria and Nigerians that serves as an elixir to help smooth the way for wider, friendlier and mutually beneficial interaction between Nigerians and the people and governments of Africa and beyond.

To adapt a well-known Indian proverb, ‘Show a man a film, you’ll thrill him for a spell. Teach the man how to make a film, you’ll thrill him for a lifetime. Show him how to package and market it, he’ll go out and thrill the whole world for you’.

Nollywood is now a reality. It is a testimony to the true Nigerian spirit. It encompasses so many things that represent the concept of who and what the Nigerian is. By acknowledging the effort of such works as Kingsley Ogoro’s ‘Across The Niger’, and agreeing to adopt it as it’s ‘Certificate of Registration’ with Nollywood, the Nigerian government is indicating it’s willingness to provide that much-needed moral support to an industry that has bravely soldiered on with little or no resources, but has been hugely successful nonetheless.

For Nollywood, it is such a relief to know that the prophet is now getting official recognition in it’s own home.

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Dr. Kola Munis
FABUHOUSE Productions
London, UK.
Email: fabuhouse@postmaster.co.uk

Kola Munis was joint winner of the ‘Best Screenplay’ Award (‘The Return’ directed by Kingsley Ogoro) at the Nigerian Reel Movie Awards, Lagos, February 2004.