“In the Nollywood universe, there
is an absolute requirement of ideological closure: good must triumph over evil
at the end. …
“… Filmmakers have internalized the
idea that their stories should have a moral and, like other African artists,
they like to position themselves as teachers of lessons. … But overwhelmingly,
the demand for moral closure comes from the audience’s aching need for order or
justice. The reality of contemporary Nigeria does not provide either order or
justice. Nigerians have faith in God, and they can depend on Nollywood to make
sense of the world. Nollywood renovated stories about justice-dealing
indigenous spiritual forces, and the rise of Nollywood coincides with the
spectacular spread of Pentecostalism and Islamic fundamentalism, both of which,
like Nollywood, offer narratives that explain and find consolation in a world
of hardship, evil, and social disintegration.
“So the ‘fast money’ theme, like
other Nollywood themes, is strongly rooted in a local popular discourse and
pressing emotional needs. The moralizing is kept real because it is lived all
the time. The temptations and instabilities that make the theme prominent are
built into the structure of the industry itself.”
Jonathan Haynes
Nollywood: The creation of Nigerian film genres, 2016, pp. 54-55
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