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Sierra Leone: "Voice of Islam" FM. Vs Nollywood
November 29, 2006
Posted to the web November 30, 2006
Oswald Hanciles
Freetown
This week, my radio dial wheedled into the new Voice of Islam FM radio station, broadcasting from Towerhill in Freetown. Though born a Christian, I have read a lot on Islam ; I put 'religious survival value' to some of the emphasis of the Islamic creed (like: Muslims must go out in search of education at all cost, even at the risk of their very lives). So, I stayed glued.... There were two speakers, one Jalloh and one Sesay - both never forgetting to clearly enunciate "Doctor Sesay"...or, "Doctor Jalloh" - who heavily criticized Nigerian-made home-movies.
Dr. Jalloh and Dr. Sesay said that Nigerian-made movies - now recognized globally as 'Nollywood' films - have poisoned the traditional extended family bonds in Sierra Leone; extended family glue which is also "Islamic". One of the Islamic scholars said that he has watched over ONE THOUSAND Nollywood films (Before he became an Islamic scholar?.
For pleasure? Or, was he a scholar on Nollywood, too?). Part of the fears aroused by the Islamic scholars about Nollywood films in Sierra Leone I empathize with. But, in their fundamentalist zeal, they hit-below-the-belt in condemning wholesale one of the best things - Nollywood!! - being done by Africans today. The Islamic scholars were unscholarly.
One of the Islamic scholars who said he'd spent 12 years in Nigeria said that within the Federal Republic of Nigeria Nollywood films were not much appreciated, and little value is placed on them, unlike the way Sierra Leoneans rave over Nollywood. That, putting it mildly, was a 'terminological inexactitude' - and it is bad that one of the Islamic scholars tried to give credence to his talk by saying that he stayed in Nigeria for about twelve years.
I stayed in Nigeria for five years. And I studied Nigeria. According to the Filmmakers Cooperative of Nigeria, every film in Nigeria has a potential audience of 15 million people within the country and about 5 million outside. These statistics may be somewhat conservative considering that half of West Africa's 250 million people are Nigerians and according to the World Bank, slightly over 7 million Nigerians are scattered around the world, most of them in the developed economies. In terms of per capita spending power among a middle class that is relatively vast, no country in black Africa comes close to Nigeria. . The only way that Nollywood can keep on churning out such profusion of movies - making Nollywood the largest film industry in the world today!! - is because they are meeting the market demand of Nigerians! Nigerians adore Nollywood!!
Indeed, the President of the Republic of Nigeria, nearly all the leading senators, and big men in Nigeria today, have honoured, and feted, the leading Nigerian film stars. About the most famous of the Nollywood icons today, Genevieve Nnaji, who can be compared to the best actresses on the global arena, having recently secured a contract to promote the global soap brand, "LUX". Hey!!: Nollywood is marketing Africa - even in the richest and most powerful country in the world, the U.S. of A!!
"These English-language Nigerian movies are gaining popularity among the nation's fast-growing African immigrant population, offering their very Americanized children a glimpse of African life, particularly the clash of modernity and traditionalism and the battle between fundamentalist Christian, Islamic and tribal religions that is sweeping the African continent. .'They remind you of everyday life back home,' Ziebono Nagabe, 26, originally of Ivory Coast, said recently .... In the Nigerian movies, the Maryland resident observed, 'there's always hope for good-hearted people. They're going to win over the wicked.', writes WING website .Nearly five years after entering the U.S. market, movies made in Nigeria constitute a multimillion-dollar industry, with about 600 made last year, triple the number made in 1995, according to the Filmmakers Cooperative of Nigeria, a Lagos-based consortium of 75 production companies .
Today, filmmaking employs about a million people in Nigeria.... according to the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB). The industry has sales of $200m-300m a year. South Africa now has a satellite TV channel devoted to Nollywood films, and BSkyB, Rupert Murdoch's British pay-per-view satellite company, is adding a Nollywood channel for Nigerian and other African expatriates in Europe.So successful are the Nigerian movies in the U.S., that they merit serious study by one of their reputable universities: The Media Research Centre, College of Mass Communications and Mass Media Arts, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA has this year embarked on a study of NOLLYWOOD films.
What the Voice of Islam radio broadcasters were silent about is what a Columnist, Paul V.M. Flesher, who is also the Director of the University of Wyoming's Religious Studies Program (U.S.), screams about in this article titled, 'Using Film To Destroy Faith', in the CASPAR STAR TRIBUNE, October 22, 2006: "What is interesting about Nigerian films is that one of the most popular plot lines features the clash of religions, old and new. The key characters are villains who use aspects of traditional African religions, often characterized as witchcraft or voodoo, to work their wicked ways. In the end, however, Christianity triumphs by redeeming the victims and vanquishing the evildoers, although they may be forgiven upon conversion to Christianity.....
.Given the film industry's cutting-edge character in Nigeria and its popularity among younger Nigerians, these Nollywood plots help solidify Christianity's increasing hold on the populace." Aha!! I have articulated the silent concerns of the Voice of Islam broadcasters - the Nigerian films are helping Christianity to gain ground against Islam on the minds of the impressionable young, in Nigeria, and in Sierra Leone!!. Solution!. ' "Doctors" Jalloh and Sesay appealed to government to 'outlaw' the films... That's a joke.
It's like appealing to government to stop a hurricane.Muslims in Sierra Leone must become less 'ritualistic Muslims', and become real Muslims. Probably, the richest Sierra Leoneans today are Muslims. In per capita terms, among dollar billionaires in Nigeria, there are three times more Muslims than Christians.Let Muslims invest in producing interesting pro-Islamic video drama like they do in Nollywood.That is the only way Islam can win the contest with Nollywood.
Called from Concord times.
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Love is not a choice - it is a Commandment ~ Pastor Bimbo Odukoya
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