(By Dr. Tunji Olaopa) - "There is no doubt that today,
Nollywood has become a national brand. It has become the foremost signifier of
our cinematic energy as a creative people. Nollywood began small, but today it
has become a huge contributor to the national economy. In the recent GDP
rebasing exercise, Nollywood contributed 1.2% to the national economy. If that
appears little, then you have no knowledge of where and how Nollywood began.
Its beginning is founded on a shoestring budget and a creative ingenuity of a
few entrepreneurs who had to face commercial risk and cinematic scorn to
achieve their objectives. If you want an exact date for the beginning of
Nollywood, scholars point at Kenneth Nnebue’s 1992 movie, Living in Bondage.
Today, Nollywood has achieved global reckoning by its sheer capacity to
proliferate beyond all its economic, political and social limitations.
Nollywood is second only to Hollywood in global entertainment ranking; Bollywood,
the Indian film industry, has since been displaced to third place.
On another significant level, Nollywood can
rightly be considered as the sole heir of the tradition of African cinema
pioneered by the likes of Ousmane Sembene, Souleymane Cisse, Haile Gerima, and
others. In spite of being founded on the format of the home video, Nollywood
has captured the imagination of Africa in its attempt at a cinematic representation
of African and Nigerian cultural themes, values, conflicts and challenges. It
is therefore possible for some to think that Nollywood cinematically
represents Nigeria and its cultural and historical complexities. It shouldn’t
even be far-fetched to consider Nollywood as Nigeria’s national cinema,
especially with its many attempts at exhibiting issues that speak to our
collective predicament as a people.
In spite of these adulations, there are so
much that are still wrong with this film industry. And my point of
interrogation is its capacity to not only adequately reflect and recreate, but
also to challenge the national project in Nigeria. Nigeria is a plural society,
divided along religious, linguistic, cultural and ethnic lines. This is the
first fact that precipitates the need for national integration of all the
diverse groups and nationalities forcefully amalgamated into the Nigerian
state. Nollywood therefore already has its work cut out for it: it is to
cinematically map the terrain of failures, successes, and possibilities of
this Project in a manner that challenges all of us, government and the
governed, to pause and rethink our collective existence as Nigerians. It isn’t
enough to cinematically re-present what is wrong with us, and to do it badly.
We don’t need a national cinema that is merely exhibitionist.
‘Movies for me,’ says Steven Spielberg, ‘are
a heightened reality.’ This is critical: the cinema acts as a mirror which is
deployed to re-examine our collective experience. And the more traumatic the
experience, the more disturbing the movies should be. The cinema therefore
ought to be able to tell the Nigerian and non-Nigerian audiences something. It
should, for instance, reveal to them how the Nigerian project is faring. These
audiences are not just to be entertained; rather, the experience of visiting
the Nollywood cinema or watching the movie should add to their perception of
what is going on, what is working, what isn’t working, what needed to be done,
and so on. My worry, however, is whether Nollywood, as presently constituted,
will be able to do this adequately. Nollywood hardly speaks to us the way it is
right now. The statistics may be favourable; the cinematic experience is
however what counts in the final analysis. And in nine cases out of ten, the
rush to produce a movie almost always kills the creative genius.
A normal Nollywood movie is predictable and
boring; you sit for hours through mostly ordinary depictions of city and rural
life that you are already familiar with. You are also treated to a rehash of
historical moments not properly researched. When the movie finally ends, you
get up and you are not the wiser for it. You sure would find many actors to
praise for sterling performances, and on top of my head are actors like Pete
Edochie, Olu and Joke Jacobs, Gabriel Afolayan, Genevieve Nnaji, Nse Ikpe-Etim,
Ramsey Nouah, Funke Akindele, Odunlade Adekola, to name just a very few. You
even get to laugh too, watching movies like Osuofia in London and Jenifa. But
then, it isn’t just the stars that make for compelling movies that speak to our
collective conditions as Nigerians. There should be more that Nollywood can do
beyond its stars, and comedy and bland storylines. I am talking about aesthetic
sophistication, technical quality and convincing plot and storyline with
historical and philosophical weight.
It is in this sense that I find the newest
volume on Nollywood a commendable and compelling redirection for rethinking
and rescuing the Nollywood phenomenon. Auteuring Nollywood (edited by Dr.
Adeshina Afolayan, of the Department of Philosophy, University of Ibadan) is a
work that captures the several worries of Nigerians about the Nollywood
phenomenon, and the question of whether or not it has the capacity to do more
in terms of contributing to the transformation of Nigeria and our assessment
of who we are and what we can hope to be. To achieve this critical contribution,
Nollywood must first transform itself through several internal adjustments and
rehabilitations. It doesn’t matter if Nollywood drops behind Hollywood and Bollywood
in terms of the quantity of films it injects into the market; that would seem a
fair price to pay for the need to produce qualitative films that matter. The
various contributors to Auteuring Nollywood were united in their recognition of
the urgency of a revolution of the aesthetic and technical forms of the movies
in terms of good storylines, coherent plots and reasonable casting. The book
particularly asked for an auteur; a director that stands at the forefront of
the cinematic revolution with a vision.
I am particularly thrilled by the assessment
of one of the contributors as to the possibility of Nollywood assuming its
role as a national cinema. This comes with a lot of responsibility. Most
importantly, such a national cinema must learn to tell the Nigerian story with
all its challenges, possibilities and failures. That trajectory of telling our
story has already been championed by the prolific Tunde Kelani who not only
interrogates the Yoruba cultural heritage, but also projects the twists and
turns of the Nigerian projects. Many people will not forget Saworoide and Agogo
Eewo, two critical movies that constitute a parable on our nation-building
efforts. When such efforts are complemented by other films like The Figurine
and October 1 (Kunle Afolayan), Half of a Yellow Sun (directed by Biyi Bandele,
and adapted from a Chimamanda Adichie’s novel of the same title), and many
others, we can begin to motivate Nollywood towards a cinematic dynamics that
could carry the burden of cultural and national trauma and possibilities.
The evolution of Nollywood as an industry
benefitted from the Nigerian socio-economic situation. Nollywood came into
existence in the throes of the economic troubles confronting most African
countries in the 80s. It therefore owes a moral debt to respond critically and
creatively to the situation that brought it to life. Nollywood stands at a
critical juncture in Nigeria’s current effort at undermining and transcending
its national predicament. What we need are no longer several cameras wrongly
placed for commercial purposes. Rather, what ought to proliferate are visionary
auteurs who can challenge us at every turn in our national existence. The Nollywood
director is no less a patriot than the political leadership in the country;
she/he has a responsibility to project our collective experiences in a manner
that antagonises and disturbs and forces us to think about the past, the
present and the future. The Nollywood of the future is a cinematic industry
that would begin to take Nigeria seriously. Thus, for the Nigerian Nollywood
director, there is only one commandment: imaginatively recreate Nigeria!"
*Dr.Tunji Olaopa
is Permanent Secretary, Federal Ministry of Communication Technology, Abuja.
tunji.olaopa@commtech.gov.ng
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