Nollywood: Omoni Oboli and Gender Equality

(By Ijeoma Chinonyerem) - Before now, I rarely watch movies by Omoni. But since I came home, the family and I have watched plenty of her movies on Netflix and I just have to stan. 
In all the movies produced by Omoni's production company, there is a conspicuous or subtle promotion of egalitarian ideals. 

No matter how trite the storyline is or how weak the jokes are, you cannot miss the infusion of these feminist ideals here and there.

In Wives on Strike, they reinforced consent even in marriage. Did you notice that NONE of the husbands in the movie forced the wives to have sex. Did you notice? Did you? Nothing like "your body belongs to me cos you're my wife".

The wives retained FULL bodily autonomy, starting from the senator's wife to the mechanic's wife to even the prostitute. Reinforcing what we've been preaching that NO IS NO even in marriage. It was a teachable moment that even when married, consent can still be denied and forcing it is rape. No husband raped their wife.

In Okafor's Law, Toyin's character said something which resonated with me. She said "you women think that by slaving away for men, he will pick you. Get some self esteem. Grow up".

Gbowam!!!

Then we saw RMD's character (a billionaire who loves his wife) fight a man for sleeping with his wife. Something that rarely ever ever ever ever happens in Nigeria movies. It's always the women fighting side chicks. This time around, a billionaire not only fought his wife's side cock, he also forgave his wife and told her he loved her immensely. 

See where I'm going with this?

Then, in Love is War when Omoni's husband said he allowed her venture into politics she cut him short and screamed "ALLOW! You do not ALLOW me to do anything. The decision is mine to make".

Seeeeee!!!!

Motherfucking content I signed up for!

At first, I thought it was a fluke when I watched the first movie but with every Omoni movie I watch, I see the unshakeable stance with female empowerment through the story and characters. Omoni has never said she's a feminist, but consistently putting out projects that subtly or overtly promote female empowerment is all I need to doff my hat for her.

I said something about content (movie, music) as a means of social education and this is what she's doing. Social education is happening, no matter how subtle!

And you know why this means so much to me? Because yesterday, Africa Magic was showing a movie a man raped his brother's wife and then the lady was forced to marry him. Her husband rejected her. Rapist brother now married the girl and proceeded to maltreat her. In 2020 o.

In 2020, we are still putting out content where men are raping women (the guts to rape YOUR BROTHER'S WIFE) and the women are forced to marry their rapists while the rapists go scot-free. 

Since I have been home, I've watched over 5 movies about rape on Africa Magic. The movie producers insert it everywhere with no repercussions for the rapists. Rape is like Maggi they add to movies whether necessary or not.

Men in the movies rape women and it's spoken about casually. Like they drank pure water. Nothing happens to the rapists. Absolutely nothing. What kind of agenda are they pushing with this kind of content?

Once Africa Magic starts those yeye movies, I jejely take the TV remote and change to Netflix and find a movie for the family to watch cos achoro m ihe ga-atakasi m ahu.

So you see why I super appreciate Omoni and what she does through her movies. There are thousands of people who will not read our posts on Facebook but they'll watch the movies and learn.

Good content is a tool for social education and she's got that on lock.