(Tam Fiofori)--In the early 90s, when Nollywood was less than a decade
old, I had in a three-part study characterised it as “providing instant fame for
the girl and boy next door and instant fortune for a hybrid of producers.”
Nollywood was a phenomenon which in its development had minimal links;
technically, professionally and ethically with the older Nigerian Television
and Celluloid-film industries. It set its own standards, which sadly, were
based on the business ethics of its principal financiers, electronic equipment
traders turned producers/marketers. These basically uncultured traders with
limited education shaped and called the shots in Nollywood, driven by the
desire for huge profits from little financial, aesthetic and cultural
investments.
Women as commodities
They viewed women as ‘commodities’ and worked on the
perception that any pretty face and/or attractive figure (in their eyes) is an
automatic actress and star. Naturally, hordes of all manner, shapes and shades
of Nigerian girls and women propelled by a mixture of poverty, the need for
self-promotion and notoriety as well, flocked to the venues where these
producers and their directors hung out.
It is instructive to note that these Nollywood moguls
didn’t need to go out scouting for actresses. Rather, their hang-outs like
Winnie’s Hotel in Surulere, became flesh bazaars of aspiring actresses.
Skimpily dressed and flaunting their assets they came in droves to attract the
attention of producers and directors who practically carried out spontaneous
public rehearsals and castings.
Predictably, the Nollywood moguls could bluff, pick and
choose whilst the eager potential actresses were literarily ready to do
anything for bit-parts. That these star-struck girls and women ‘fought’ each
other to secure parts and, the moguls in turn well aware of the seemingly
unending traffic of aspirants, confidently and callously discarded them at will
to create a fast turnover, soon became the established rules of the Nollywood
casting game!
Celebrity driven
It was not dignifying or respectful of women. But what
was expected of these Nollywood moguls who held the aces, given their
socio-cultural background? Nonetheless, the girls and women equally share the
blame as they were willing partners in Nollywood’s early ‘debasement’ of
Nigerian women which set a trend that has not been completely obliterated.
There were noticeable improvements as better-educated (mostly Mass
Communication and Theatre Arts graduates) women got into the industry. This
raised the social profile of actresses in Nollywood but they were still at the
mercy of the scriptwriters and producer-financiers who determined the type of
roles they were cast in.
Interestingly, rather than concern themselves about the
cinematic image of Nigerian women, Nollywood was consolidating, the actresses
seemed more interested in relatively frivolous talk about whether they would
kiss in films or act nude. Being celebrities with huge media (particularly
print) attention became their sole career goal and fulfilment.
Had Nollywood finally succeeded in producing Nigerian
actress-equivalents of Hollywood’s dumb blondes? There were other
manifestations of early Hollywood, like strong rumours of sex with the
producer/director for bit parts and the presence of big-boobs-exposing
no-talent equivalents of Hollywood’s Jayne Mansfield and Diana Dors!
Stereotypical portrayals
It could be argued that Nollywood finally took the
Nigerian woman out of ‘her place’ in the kitchen, but in return it put her in
the bedroom for too long! Given that Nollywood, from the beginning, was
trade-driven not creative or talent-driven, is it coincidental that its first
huge success was Domitilla? It was a story of Nigerian prostitutes in Italy
desperate and depraved to the level of having sex with dogs! A true story and
raw slice of life, we are told. A major creative handicap of Nollywood is that
themes that are basically documentary-film material are stretched out to become
movies.
Nollywood has generally not been kind to Nigerian women.
In its quest to create reel chicks, young, hip/modern and city-wise as against
real women, Nollywood has sold the impression that glamour, fame, money and the
good fast life are all that matter for Nigerian women. So, they have been
stereotyped in Nollywood as pretty, seductive, devious, cunning, quarrelsome,
money-grabbing gold diggers who will readily use their bodies, juju/charms and
love potions to “catch men!” Subliminally portrayed as ‘pretty toys’ they are
also obliquely cast as hard nailed fight-to-finish/death ‘demons’ in a
never-ending and escalating battle of the sexes in Nigeria.
Not all Jagua Nanas
We have culturally unacceptable scenes where women slap
men and overdoses of men battering women in horrific scenes of domestic
violence. Then there are the gun-totting bad girls to boot. Two decades after
Domitilla, we are offered a film in which women fight each other with
spiritual, witchcraft and physical weapons in their struggle to “catch” white
men in Nigeria. Definitely, Nigerian women are not all Jagua Nanas and Opios 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 in Nollywood as nation and home builders? Where are the
model roles for mothers, sisters and loving peace-makers? For every wayward
undergraduate soft-prostitute there should be a female Deputy Vice Chancellor
putting right the savage male cults on campuses.
We acknowledge that Nollywood has produced a number of
Nigerian superstar actresses who are rich, internationally famous, brand
ambassadors and shinning role models to millions of Nigerian girls and women.
Nollywood has also given employment and careers to many thousands of Nigerian
women. Nonetheless, a lot more needs to be done content-wise and in the
profiling of Nigerian women.
Generation Next
The time has come for another generation of young
Nigerian women to come forward and give a better gender balance and meaning to
Nollywood. Three years ago I taught a practical documentary filmmaking course
at the National Film Institute, Jos, for diploma and degree students. I was
amazed at the potential of these students I later dubbed the ‘Generation Next
of Nigerian Filmmakers.’ Amongst them were skilled and confident female
scriptwriters, producers, directors, camera(wo)men, sound(wo)men and editors
who, given more opportunities and needed encouragement, will match their
counterparts anywhere in the world, including Hollywood. Let us not forget that
the great film ‘Mississippi Masala’ was made by a ‘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’ the Nigerian film industry. Hollywood and its European
counterparts have still to come up with genuine visual proof that they respect
and can honour black women and men in their films and TV. We should embrace our
Nigerian sisters from Jos; who are well-trained and intentioned to make
Nollywood do the right thing on gender issues and cinematic role models for
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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