In the early 90s, when Nollywood was less than a decade old, I had in a three-part studycharacterised it as “providing instant fame for the girl and boy nextdoor and instant fortune for a hybrid of producers.” Nollywood was aphenomenon which in its development had minimal links; technically,professionally and ethically with the older Nigerian Television andCelluloid-film industries. It set its own standards, which sadly, werebased on the business ethics of its principal financiers, electronicequipment traders turned producers/marketers. These basicallyuncultured traders with limited education shaped and called the shotsin Nollywood, driven by the desire for huge profits from littlefinancial, aesthetic and cultural investments.
Women as commodities
They viewed women as ‘commodities’ and worked on the perception that any pretty faceand/or attractive figure (in their eyes) is an automatic actress andstar. Naturally, hordes of all manner, shapes and shades of Nigeriangirls and women propelled by a mixture of poverty, the need forself-promotion and notoriety as well, flocked to the venues where theseproducers and their directors hung out.
It is instructive to note that these Nollywood moguls didn’t need to go out scouting foractresses. Rather, their hang-outs like Winnie’s Hotel in Surulere,became flesh bazaars of aspiring actresses. Skimpily dressed andflaunting their assets they came in droves to attract the attention ofproducers and directors who practically carried out spontaneous publicrehearsals and castings.
Predictably, the Nollywood moguls could bluff, pick and choose whilst the eagerpotential actresses were literarily ready to do anything for bit-parts.That these star-struck girls and women ‘fought’ each other to secureparts and, the moguls in turn well aware of the seemingly unendingtraffic of aspirants, confidently and callously discarded them at willto create a fast turnover, soon became the established rules of theNollywood casting game!
Celebrity driven
It was not dignifying or respectful of women. But what was expected of theseNollywood moguls who held the aces, given their socio-culturalbackground? Nonetheless, the girls and women equally share the blame asthey were willing partners in Nollywood’s early ‘debasement’ ofNigerian women which set a trend that has not been completelyobliterated. There were noticeable improvements as better-educated(mostly Mass Communication and Theatre Arts graduates) women got intothe industry. This raised the social profile of actresses in Nollywoodbut they were still at the mercy of the scriptwriters andproducer-financiers who determined the type of roles they were cast in.
Interestingly, rather than concern themselves about the cinematic image of Nigerianwomen, Nollywood was consolidating, the actresses seemed moreinterested in relatively frivolous talk about whether they would kissin films or act nude. Being celebrities with huge media (particularlyprint) attention became their sole career goal and fulfilment.
Had Nollywood finally succeeded in producing Nigerian actress-equivalents ofHollywood’s dumb blondes? There were other manifestations of earlyHollywood, like strong rumours of sex with the producer/director forbit parts and the presence of big-boobs-exposing no-talent equivalentsof Hollywood’s Jayne Mansfield and Diana Dors!
Stereotypical portrayals
It could be argued that Nollywood finally took the Nigerian woman out of ‘her place’ inthe kitchen, but in return it put her in the bedroom for too long!Given that Nollywood, from the beginning, was trade-driven not creativeor talent-driven, is it coincidental that its first huge success wasDomitilla? It was a story of Nigerian prostitutes in Italy desperateand depraved to the level of having sex with dogs! A true story and rawslice of life, we are told. A major creative handicap of Nollywood isthat themes that are basically documentary-film material are stretchedout to become movies.
Nollywood has generally not been kind to Nigerian women. In its quest to create reelchicks, young, hip/modern and city-wise as against real women,Nollywood has sold the impression that glamour, fame, money and thegood fast life are all that matter for Nigerian women. So, they havebeen stereotyped in Nollywood as pretty, seductive, devious, cunning,quarrelsome, money-grabbing gold diggers who will readily use theirbodies, juju/charms and love potions to “catch men!” Subliminallyportrayed as ‘pretty toys’ they are also obliquely cast as hard nailedfight-to-finish/death ‘demons’ in a never-ending and escalating battleof the sexes in Nigeria.
Not all Jagua Nanas
We have culturally unacceptable scenes where women slap men and overdoses of men batteringwomen in horrific scenes of domestic violence. Then there are thegun-totting bad girls to boot. Two decades after Domitilla, we areoffered a film in which women fight each other with spiritual,witchcraft and physical weapons in their struggle to “catch” white menin Nigeria. Definitely, Nigerian women are not all Jagua Nanas andOpios as Nollywood would want us to believe.
In a country that has female chief justices, deputy governors, ministers, professors,Pilots and bank chief executives, where are these women featured inNollywood as nation and home builders? Where are the model roles formothers, sisters and loving peace-makers? For every waywardundergraduate soft-prostitute there should be a female Deputy ViceChancellor putting right the savage male cults on campuses.
We acknowledge that Nollywood has produced a number of Nigerian superstar actresses who arerich, internationally famous, brand ambassadors and shinning rolemodels to millions of Nigerian girls and women. Nollywood has alsogiven employment and careers to many thousands of Nigerian women.Nonetheless, a lot more needs to be done content-wise and in theprofiling of Nigerian women.
Generation Next
The time has come for another generation of young Nigerian women to come forward and givea better gender balance and meaning to Nollywood. Three years ago Itaught a practical documentary filmmaking course at the National FilmInstitute, Jos, for diploma and degree students. I was amazed at thepotential of these students I later dubbed the ‘Generation Next ofNigerian Filmmakers.’ Amongst them were skilled and confident femalescriptwriters, producers, directors, camera(wo)men, sound(wo)men andeditors who, given more opportunities and needed encouragement, willmatch their counterparts anywhere in the world, including Hollywood.Let us not forget that the great film ‘Mississippi Masala’ was made bya ‘Third World’ woman!
We must be wary of the new clique of Nigerian women and their white counterpart so-called‘experts’ now on a questionable missionary crusade to ‘help’ theNigerian film industry. Hollywood and its European counterparts havestill to come up with genuine visual proof that they respect and canhonour black women and men in their films and TV. We should embrace ourNigerian sisters from Jos; who are well-trained and intentioned to makeNollywood do the right thing on gender issues and cinematic role modelsfor Nigerian women!
The first ever African Women in Film Forum holds at the Colonades Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos on June 16 and 17, 2010.
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