Adichie: Stories, Diversity, and What Matters

Inbound

Nigerian Patriarchy, American Patriarchy

(By Temidayo Ahanmisi) - 

America (read: The US) is a patriarchy.

Nigeria is a patriarchy.

America strongly discourages polygamy, domestic violence, spousal rape and other acts which denigrate the self-worth of the female person.

Beyond a sociological aversion for all these, America creates and maintains institutional agencies to push her cultural preferences, so that even though she remains a patriarchy, the birth of a female child is not as tantamount to a mild tragedy which must be endured and borne stoically at best, as most in Nigeria have been forced over time to see it as in our enclave.

America is a patriarchy.

Nigeria is a patriarchy.

The American legal system won't let anyone on their soil withdraw their underaged daughter and go marry her off to a man because she is a girl.

In patriarchal America.

No cultural paradigm can be foolproof as they are results and by-processes of conscious evolution of a developing species.

Street Art with a Message of Hope and Peace

(TED)--What does this gorgeous street art say? It's Arabic poetry, inspired by bold graffiti and placed where a message of hope and peace can do the most good. In this quietly passionate talk, artist and TED Fellow eL Seed describes his ambition: to create art so beautiful it needs no translation.

Nollywood and Religion

In our series of viewpoints from African journalists, Sola Odunfa considers what Nigeria's movie industry reveals about the country's spirituality.

One major reason why I like Nollywood films is that I easily relate to the stories told and the morals implied.

I do not need a fertile imagination to understand the plots - if there are any serious ones - neither do I find it difficult to connect to the spiritual impulses of the characters.

Nollywood truly reflects the innate character of the Nigerian.

On a couple of occasions some friends have asked how I could "stoop so low" to spend hours watching these films, which are filled with scenes of voodoo and are of poor technical production, rather than spend quality time watching "first-rate" films from Hollywood.

What hypocrites!

Film and the Christianization of Nigeria

Let’s start this column with a quiz question. Which film center produced more commercial movies in 2005: Hollywood (USA), Bollywood (India), or Nollywood (Nigeria)? If you guessed Hollywood, guess again. America produced only 611 commercial films in 2005. Ok, Bollywood then. Nope. Although India outshone the USA, producing 964 films, they produced less than half the output of Nollywood, which released over 2000 films. (Hollywood comes out on top when the criteria is gross sales income.)

Admittedly, the Nigerian film industry operates on different principles from those of America and India. Most films are low-budget, often costing less than $30,000 to make. They are shot in ten days or less by hand-held video cameras, and distributed directly to DVD without ever seeing the light (or is it the “dark”?) of a movie theater. Most films made in Nigeria sell for about $3 and rent for 50 cents.

Nollywood and Matters Arising: Bob Ejike Replies Ola Balogun

Bob Ejike

Dr Ola Balogun’s recent acrimonious attack on the Nigerian film industry came as a rude shock to most of the country’s moving picture practitioners. Majority of Nollywood film makers murmured their indignation because of the pioneering role Dr Balogun played in the creation of the Nigerian film tradition. But it is my considered opinion that by publicly disowning Nigerian film and acidly castigating the professionals, Dr Ola Balogun has nullified the hallowed consideration accorded him as one of the pioneers of Nigerian film. The doomsday undertone of the doctor’s tirades are to say the least repugnant and reminiscent of the ‘market woman’ criticism that Nigerian film has faced from disgruntled seminal columnists, misguided elites, former specialists, former this, former that, seeking relevance where they have invested no effort.

Since Nigerian film broke out of the chains of NTA hegemony about a decade ago, the high living and low thinking elites have sought to prove their social pre-eminence by advertising their DSTV patronage. The Nigerian media which, in any event thrives on negativity, initially wrote off the film revolution as an exercise in mediocrity, while the often racist western press dismissed Nollywood as ‘how not to make a film’. Admittedly, it is how not to make a Western film, but it works!

Nollywood and the Road to Stardom

(Business Eye) - Despite the numerous challenges facing the Nigerian film industry, the practitioners have remained steadfast and focused and the industry is now the toast of local and foreign investors. In this review, Amarachukwu Iwuala, examines Nollywood’s rough road to stardom as it turns 21.

From a modest beginning about 21 years ago after Chris Obi-Rapu directed and released Nigeria’s first scintillating pioneer movie, Living in Bondage on the 8th of September, 1992, the industry has not looked back in its determination to rule the world.

The box office

The box office has helped the turn the fortunes of the industry around. For instance, in 2009, Stephanie Okereke’s Through the Glass grossed N10 million in three weeks at the box office.  The film went on to rake in a total of about N15 million by the time it ended its run in the cinemas. Indeed, recent films like The Figurine and Tango with Me are reported to have grossed about N25 million and N40 million respectively.

Ije, which remains the highest grossing Nigerian film, raked in about N60 million at the box office while the highest grossing Hollywood films in Nigerian cinemas make between N150 million and N200 million.

Independent Producers, Nollywood's Last Hope--Ejike Asiegbu

Asiegbu

Veteran actor and filmmaker, Ejike Asiegbu, is not in a happy mood at the moment due to lack of unprofessionalism in the motion picture industry as well as the abduction of the Chibok schoolgirls. In this interview with Sam Anokam, Asiegbu bares his mind on the many controversies in the film industry, his career and other issues

What has been happening to you lately?

Nothing much, I’m just there watching as usual and also doing my private things. I am in one way or the other contributing to the development of our dear country.

What about the movie industry?

By the special grace of God, I’m one of the forerunners of the industry, an experienced one for that matter. I am saddened by a lot of occurrences, which are quite unprofessional. These days, I hear that actors pay to act; most predominantly women pay to act and they do it with impunity. You can imagine girls who throw caution to the wind, give money to people who claim they are producers just because they want to be popular at all cost. It goes to show you how morally bankrupt the industry has become and professionally so much needs to be done to arrest the situation.

It is unfortunate a lot of unprofessional things are happening. People now pay for their transportation, accommodation, feed themselves and, at the same time, pay for roles, that’s what I hear. That is not how a well thought out professional body or industry should operate. I began to ask what the guilds and association are doing to curb the excesses of these willy-nilly producers who are cashing in on these helpless people because of their hunger to become popular someday. And these are some of those things that I think are wrong and I will never lend my dignity to such excesses and it further gives the industry a bad name. It is a minus for the industry as a matter of fact.

Debating the Value of Yoruba Nollywood

I have been defending the value of Yoruba Nollywood on the USA-Nigeria Dialogue Forum, where Kayode Ketefe has opened a debate on the industry’s shortcomings. As it turns out, Ketefe is a journalist for the National Mirror newspaper. Who knew, right? He published a large portion of my statements in this week’s column (without my permission). But I stand by my defense of Yoruba Nollywood as “distraction.” Nollywood’s detractors often reproach video films as “mere distractions” which do little more than offer mindless escapist fare.

I want to turn that disparaging notion of “distraction” on its head. The films are distraction in the sense that Siegfried Kracauer meant when he describe early popular German cinema as a “cult of distraction.” As Kracauer observes, “the shows which aim at distraction are composed of the same mixture of externalities as the world of the urban masses,” and that they, “lack any authentic and materially motivated coherence, except possibly the glue of sentimentality which covers up this lack.” For Kracauer, the hope is that such popular films “convey in a precise and undisguised manner to thousands of eyes and ears the disorder of society.”

Ketefe has edited out some of these details from my online statements, but I’ll reproduce his article here for anyone interested.

Rethinking Nollywood in the Nigerian Project

(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.

Nollywood: Still An Untapped Gold Mine?

As an entrepreneur, 32-year-old chemistry graduate Jason Njoku achieved success in a most unlikely way: he is Africa’s largest distributor of Nigerian movies, and has raked in over $8 million since 2010, when he founded the company Iroko Partners. In December 2012 he captivated an audience at a conference in Texas, United States, as he narrated the story of his success after failures in some other business ventures. Mr. Njoku currently has 71 employees in Lagos, London and New York, and often boasts that “these people are working for us in a country with 50% unemployment.” He was recently listed by Forbes, an American business magazine, as one of the top 10 young African millionaires to watch.

The Nigerian film industry is undoubtedly helping create jobs in a country with an economy that relies mainly on oil and agriculture. Over a million people are currently employed in the industry, making it the country’s largest employer after agriculture. Although Nigeria’s economy will grow by 7% this year, according to the African Development Bank, insufficient jobs for a growing youth population continue to be a huge concern.

NollyCulture

RMD Receives "Dike Oha na Nollywood" Title

Veteran Nollywood actor and Delta State Commissioner for Culture and Tourism, Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD), will be honored with the “Dike Oha na Nollywood” chieftaincy title at the 2014 4th Nollywood Igbo Film Festival in Asaba, Delta State.

The founder of the festival, Nze Harris Chuma said RMD deserves the "people's warrior" title, having paid his dues as one of the celebrated actors in Nollywood.

According to Chuma, the three–day festival which holds from August 27th through 30th is designed to “help film makers reach the broadest possible audience, enable the international film community and general public to experience the power of cinema and promote Asaba city in Delta State as a major filmmaking centre.”

Culture: Key to Sustainable Development

The International Congress "Culture: Key to Sustainable Development" was held in Hangzhou (China) from 15 May to 17 May 2013. This was the first International Congress specifically focusing on the linkages between culture and sustainable development organized by UNESCO since the Stockholm Conference in 1998.  As such, the Congress provided the very first global forum to discuss the role of culture in sustainable development in view of the post-2015 development framework, with participation of the global community and the major international stakeholders.

While culture was absent from the Millennium Development Goals (MDG), integrating the cultural dimension into actions and goals in achieving sustainable development is an approach that is making its way on the international level. The Outcome document of MDG Summit, “Keeping the promise: united to achieve the Millennium Development Goals” (2010), emphasized the importance of culture for development and its contribution to the achievement of the Millennium Development Goals. Furthermore, the trend toward integrating culture into UN development policies is particularly visible at the level of the United Nations Development Assistance Framework (UNDAF). Indeed, by January 2012, culture was included in 70% of UNDAF work plans worldwide. These figures are the result of an increasingly positive trend since the late 1990s, when only about 30% of UNDAFs included cultural entries.

NollyCulture Launched

Welcome to the NollyCulture blog, the discourse arena for everything Nollywood, everything Africa. NollyCulture explores the critical socio-cultural questions at the intersection of media, religion, and culture, with particular emphasis on contemporary Africa (continental and Diaspora) as framed and portrayed by Nollywood--the Nigerian film industry.

In little over its twenty-years existence, Nollywood has become Africa's most dominant and transnationally accessible expression of popular culture, telling African stories, with African voices, to African (and growing global) audiences.

Africans are said to be notoriously religious; and religion plays complex roles within cultures. NollyCulture therefore concerns itself primarily with how Nollywood articulates, frames and portrays Africa and the Diaspora through the creative tension within and between religion and culture.

Sometimes it's subtle and at other times brazen in its representations, raising for itself admirers and critics in equal measures. But Nollywood never shies away from its message: religious and socio-cultural normative forms underpin the framing of the discourse, the language, and the representation of gender, class, and power in Africa.

Let's talk Nollywood then--its movies, narratives, and stakeholders (actors, producers, marketers, audiences, etc.). Let's discuss Africa--its peoples, cultures, and societies. Bring your passion for Nollywood and for Africa. Have your say. Express your opinions. Show some love. Agree. Disagree. But don't hate on anybody.