Farewell, Buchi Emecheta

Nigerian Christians Suffer From Amnesia

(By Temidayo Ahanmisi) - Nigerians play too much.

You defended the sheer insensitivity and idiocy of people claiming that a man who survived the Chapecoense plane crash did so because he was reading a Bible.

Reasonable people saw it for what it was. Tactlessness and possible lack of good breeding.

You insisted they were glorifying God.

Now right in the house of said God, with more open Bibles than one can begin to count. More believers than on an aircraft, another tragedy.

Of course the rational query should be:

Does holding or reading a Bible only work for plane crashes and not building crashes?

You suddenly suffer from amnesia. You no longer remember how Jehovah killed one of the Beatles for disparaging Jesus, per your claim. You no longer remember how your God purportedly visits people with disasters for looking at his children cross-eyed.

You now run around doing your God's work. In your usual fashion.

Now the usual yodelers are going about with that tired "these atheists are at it again".

You are all full of your usual mischief and shit. That's all you religious nitwits are about. Lying propaganda. Filibuster and crap.

Suddenly anyone who wonders at the irony of people going to church to pray for protection against death, and then getting killed, is now an atheist.

Look we cannot run away from the truth. Prayer is at best an emotional palliative. There is no proof it does anything besides make the one who prays feel calmer, more settled from the feeling of surrender.

Praise the Living god Anyways

(By Uzoamaka Doris Aniunoh) - When that painful Dana accident happened that took many lives and left families devastated at the airport as they waited for their loved ones, I heard Frank Edwards' testimony.

He was going to board the same flight but the powerful man of god, Pastor Chris, called him and asked him not to board that flight. Pastor Chris had felt something in his spirit whilst praying, hence the life saving phone call.

Frank missed that flight and it crashed. Praise the living god!!!

Frank did not die, because he worshiped at Christ Embassy and his man of god was powerful and he prayed. Pastor Chris even commented on the importance of 'taking instructions from your men of god', he spoke about obeying the spirit and the conveyor of the word.

Everyone was happy. They thanked god. The god that saved Frank and yet allowed over 150 others to die. The god that told his man to only ask Frank to stay away from the flight, the rest can enter and die.

So you thank god for saving Frank from that one crash, and you also thank him for killing hundreds more in the same crash?

I am not understanding it.

Soon, you will hear testimonies of people who narrowly missed being crushed by that church building. They will tell you how they didn't go to church the day the building fell. God told them not to go, but he told the others to also go.

Isn't god great and unconfused? Halaluya!

I Don't Get Nigerian Christians

(By Temidayo Ahanmisi) - Once I made an update about an untoward event in my life when I was a child.

I was a Christian child who went to church, prayed hard and wanted to save the world for Christ.

For years I went about confused and angry as to why God didn't save me from abuse as he saved the Israelites just to prove his name.

It took me a while and forays into different vistas of inquiry and knowledge to understand that there was no God to hold responsible.

Humans messed me up. If anyone should pay, these humans should. There is no God to redress any wrong. It behoves on us humans to seek justice and to administer good for our own good.

I stopped holding God responsible and let God go.

My inbox was chock full of protestations against my peace and equanimity.

I don't get Christians. I don't get religious people as a whole. I will never ever get Nigerian Christians even if I live for the next 500 years.

They want me to hold God responsible, even though they say God is not responsible.

It seemed the only point of departure for them was that I was the wrong mouth to say it.

Self-serving Interpretations of African Culture

(By James Ogunjimi) - Self-serving interpretations of African culture. When you are an African, you do not have the liberty to talk as you like. You are told to challenge injustice and untruths, but there is an unspoken caveat that your African upbringing should have instilled in you: challenge injustice and untruths among members of your generation, not among the elders. African culture is flung in our faces by elders whose words and actions drag African culture and what it represents through the mud every day. When you speak up, they remind you of African culture. A child that says the mouth of elders stinks will not grow old. You don't know? It is not a curse; it is OUR CULTURE.

They are quick to forget that inasmuch as African culture lays emphasis on respect for elders, it also emphasizes, perhaps even more, the protection of young ones and seeing to their upbringing. It is like a social contract: protect the young ones and raise them well and they will respect you and cater for you in old age. The older generation breached that social contract first, the older generation of elders ditched African culture and stole from the younger generation.

Finally Done With The Church

Aniunoh

(By Uzoamaka Doris Aniunoh) - I knew I was finally done with the church when the Catholic Church refused to bury my best friend's mother because she had owed some money at the women's meeting (she missed many meetings as well) and my friend did not have money to pay the debt.

Prior to this one, when my friend learned about her mum's death, she went straight to Christ Embassy, where she was a member, and asked to see a pastor. She was broken and confused and desperate, and needed to speak to a pastor urgently. She had even considered suicide.

They posted her up and down till she gave up.

She did not have an appointment to see the pastor. Pastor was not available. Pastor was in a meeting. Pastor was praying. Pastor was busy. Sit at the reception. Wait. Come back later.

My mother just died. I need to speak to the pastor, please.

Nope. She didn't speak to anyone. She left there more broken.

You know, if I had an envelope and I was there to sow seed or pay my tithe, the pastor would have been available, she said.

My friend had to find a pastor somewhere in her village, paid him money (money is the operative word here), so he could pray and have her mum buried.

The Catholic Church refused to bury her because money, Christ Embassy refused to see and counsel my friend because no money. The church? Lmao! Stay very far away from me, please.

Charles Novia on Izu Ojukwu's '76

(By Charles Novia) - If there is a movie I would recommend for anyone to watch anytime, that movie would be ’76, Directed by the phenomenal Izu Ojukwu.

Usually, as a rule, I do not review or critique my colleagues movies, being a Nollywood Filmmaker myself. I limit my critiques to Performance Art and other pop culture highlights within such productions but in this case, I can’t help myself but to break my rule for once. And that is because, take it from me, this movie defines genres and breaks barriers.

Top 5 Nollywood Actresses 2016

Adesua Etomi

(By Charles Novia) - It’s The Novia List once again!

My annual ‘ Top 5 Best Actress/Best Actor’ list has always been released for the past three years during this period and it culminates for me, an exciting year in Nollywood wherein more than ever this year, there was a competitive slant in the quality of acting in the industry.

Nollywood Beyond Nollywood

Beyond Nollywood Green White Green; Photo Source: CNN.com

(By Nadia Denton) - There are some exciting content emerging from the Nigerian film space which is largely obscured from view because it does not fit the Nollywood model. The content on the periphery of Nollywood -- Beyond Nollywood as I have termed it is a growth area within the Nigerian film industry and in my opinion the most likely to cross over internationally.

The Beyond Nollywood weekender presents a motley collective of filmmakers who are creating work that subverts Nollywood both in content and style. Creatives who have interesting things to say about Nigerian culture that is frankly not out there and gives some indication of what is to come from this young industry.

Hooray for the Women of Nollywood

(By Tara Brady) - Making it in Nigerian film isn’t easy - just ask Tope Oshin Ogun [pictured] director, producer, actress, dialogue coach, casting director and mother of four boys.

Nollywood, as we are often told, is the third largest film industry in the world, placing just behind behind Hollywood in the US and Bollywood in India. The numbers are extraordinary; Nigeria produces an average of 50 movies each week and makes some $590 million each year.

Until her unexpected death in 2014, Amaka Igwe was one of the most authoritative figures in Nigeria’s cinematic landscape. Igwe, the writer, director and producer of such well-regarded films as Rattlesnake and Violated, helped transform Nollywood from a cheap and cheerful, amateurish, video- based sector into a professional industry, replete with its own film grammar, genres and pan-African audience.

Nollywood As A Lived Reality

(By Lota Ofodile) - For my Nollywood people, I’m pretty sure we’re all aware that when it comes to Nollywood movies, it’s never just about entertainment. From the greedy uncle of the recently orphaned children and their widowed mother (i.e. Pete Edochie), to the wicked and malicious mother in-law (i.e. Patience Ozokwor or “Mama G”) our movies have always had a lesson or two to teach, and you were sure to take something significant from them.  I am speaking particularly about mainstream Nollywood – because that is what I am most acquainted with. I am almost certain that the same is true for the Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo movies.

Right from time, the stories and plots portrayed in these films and shows were always aimed at something more, something greater—usually a moral significance of some sort. Just think about some of those classics that aired back in the day: Super Story, Dear Mother, Edge of Paradise, This Life, Fuji House of Commotion, Papa Ajasco, Binta and Friends, and many more! With a lot of our movies, there’s just so much more than meets the eye.

Nollywood Lite: A Movie in 7 Days

(By Binyelum Ewulluh) - For those who want to sharply make a movie without having to spend much money. Ever wondered how you could quickly produce a movie without having to spend much? You can stop wondering, I have the perfect answer for you.

Nollywood: Movie Producers Chart Way Forward

R-L: AMP President Ralph Nwadike, Board of Trustee Chairman
Eddie Ugbomah, Secretary General Forster Ojehonmon

(By Omiko Awa) – The leadership of the Association of Movie Producers (AMP), last week, met at its Suru-Lere office in Lagos to chart a way forward for the Nigerian movie industry, generally referred to as Nollywood.

Speaking on the myriad of issues facing the creative industry, AMP president, Ralph Nwadike disclosed that Nollywood could be self-sustaining if governments at all levels put the right policies in place and mandate relevant agencies to enforce them.

According to him, the Nigerian creative industry is not expecting government to spoon-feed it because it has all it takes to make money to sustain itself and even give loans to members to produce new films. He, however, noted that with the current situation where uncensored foreign films flood the market, aside piracy and cable pay stations showing Nigerian films for free to the public, filmmakers and marketers have been denied their main source of livelihood, making government to lose several millions of Naira that would have come in inform of taxes and other payment.

Scotland Goes to Nollywood

(By Judith Duffy) – The Champagne Room is the first Nollywood film shot in Scotland. Tonight it is being screened in Edinburgh at the Bedlam Theatre as part of the British Film Institute’s Nollywood Nights strand of the Black Star season, which celebrates black actors. The film is directed by Olumide Fadeyibi, and was filmed on location in both Nigeria and Scotland.

The Champagne Room follows the story of a journalist and political activist seeking political asylum in Glasgow, highlighting issues around domestic violence, human trafficking, drug crimes and immigration.

Fadeyibi said he believed it was the first Nollywood film shot in Scotland – but it took longer to shoot than usual.

“It took about two-and-a-half years to get done – I had a shooting schedule but it didn’t work out because of budget constraints and most of the actors were volunteers," he said.

“A typical Nollywood film is done in about three or four days – that is because there is very little budget as well, there is nothing fancy and they just tell the story.

“The story is based on real life experiences of harassment of press freedom, child abuse, human trafficking and immigration. It is more like a docu-drama being acted out.”

The boom in Nollywood is thought to have begun in 1992 with the making of the straight-to-video film Living in Bondage, about a man who is lured into a satanic cult - which sold more than a million copies.

5 More New Movies to Watch in 2016

(By Chidumga Izuzu) – Nollywood has had a riveting year with great films like "Oloibiri," "The Arbitration," "Green White Green," "93 Days," Wives on Strike" among others.

Also in 2016, eight Nollywood films got to screen at the Toronto International Film Festival as part of the festival's City to City programme.

It's two more months before the end of 2016, and the Nigerian film industry still has more to offer movie lovers.

Pulse movies have put together five Nollywood movies to watch out for before the end of the year.

Here we go: