Misrepresentation and Bastardisation of the Igbo in Nollywood Films

Abstract

More than any other video films: Yoruba, Hausa, Ibibio/Efik and the Ijaw films in Nigeria, the Igbo film culture has been at the vanguard of sustaining what many have described as the other Hollywood culture in sub-Saharan Africa, maintaining a gigantic viewership and an economically viable enterprise. However, the most disturbing aspect of this success story is the thematic preoccupation of these films, otherwise known as the content. In the near two scores of its existence, the Igbo film culture has more often than not presented the Igbo as a nation of voodoos, occultists, dupes, witches, sorcerers, ritualists and prostitutes, thereby undermining their cultural diplomacy and importance. While it controls and enjoys the largest network of viewership and market returns, it has deliberately and heavily misrepresented its primary constituents: the Igbo. Video films usually x-ray a particular culture and within the visuals, content and aesthetics, an aggregate of the people’s social attitude is formed. We can say that Igbo image in the Nigerian movie industry is replete with misrepresentations and casts doubts about the sincerity in their business successes and general life-style; and this is invariably as a result of misconceptions from Nigerians about Igbo cultural matrix and mores. This paper re-visits the image myth currently surrounding the Igbos in their films vis-à-vis the Igbo reality. It concludes that placing too high premium on financial gains, the inability to conduct credible research, the impatience to allot time to a particular film project, lack of professionalism that is associated with the video format, and lack of creative and critical borrowings from foreign film cultures have masterminded the ignoble trend that characterizes the Igbo film culture and has conversely cast doubts on the true image of the Igbo.

Full text

Misrepresentation and Image Bastardization of the Igbos in Nollywood Films
Bernard Eze-ORJI
Dept. of Theatre and Media Studies
Federal University, Ndufu-Alike, Ikwo
PMB 1010, Abakaliki, Ebonyi State
Email: callobe@yahoo.com
GSM: +234-803-749-4775; +234-909-110-8021
Abstract
More than any other video films: Yoruba, Hausa, Ibibio/Efik and the Ijaw films in Nigeria, the
Igbo film culture has been at the vanguard of sustaining what many have described as the other
Hollywood culture in sub-Saharan Africa, maintaining a gigantic viewership and an
economically viable enterprise. However, the most disturbing aspect of this success story is the
thematic preoccupation of these films, otherwise known as the content. In the near two scores of
its existence, the Igbo film culture has more often than not presented the Igbo as a nation of
voodoos, occultists, dupes, witches, sorcerers, ritualists and prostitutes, thereby undermining
their cultural diplomacy and importance. While it controls and enjoys the largest network of
viewership and market returns, it has deliberately and heavily misrepresented its primary
constituents: the Igbo. Video films usually x-ray a particular culture and within the visuals,
content and aesthetics, an aggregate of the people’s social attitude is formed. We can say that
Igbo image in the Nigerian movie industry is replete with misrepresentations and casts doubts
about the sincerity in their business successes and general life-style; and this is invariably as a
result of misconceptions from Nigerians about Igbo cultural matrix and mores. This paper re-
visits the image myth currently surrounding the Igbos in their films vis-à-vis the Igbo reality. It
concludes that placing too high premium on financial gains, the inability to conduct credible
research, the impatience to allot time to a particular film project, lack of professionalism that is
associated with the video format, and lack of creative and critical borrowings from foreign film
cultures have masterminded the ignoble trend that characterizes the Igbo film culture and has
conversely cast doubts on the true image of the Igbo.
Key words: Image misrepresentation and Bastardization, Nollywood Films, Igbos, Movie
Industry, Cultural Diplomacy

Introduction
If the value of art, is to find expression in the society in which it is created, if the artist does not
create in vacuum as the society in which he lives and creates his art serves as both originator and
projector of this art, if countering Oscar Wilde’s position that “art expresses nothing but itself,”
and therefore, assenting that “art is, indeed, the expression and reflection of the totality of the
human condition” Umukoro (5), then in a more affirmation to Soyinka’s views expressed in
Olaniyan and Quayson that, “the artist and his art have always functioned in African society as
the record of the mores and experiences of his society and as the voice of vision in his own time”
(101). The themes in Igbo films therefore, are the expressions of those world-views which
intricately bind the Igbos together. This therefore, is the Nollywood, our way of telling our own
story to the world in our own way. It is the magic and authority that this telling gives to both
producers and the taste publics that pulls the culturally diverse parts of Nollywood together. It is
this magic that brings the life of and existence of the African (the Igbo) closer to his roots
through the film medium.
It is now public opinion that the emergence of the Igbo film, has indeed boosted the entire home
video front in Nigeria, opening new possibilities, dimensions and of course challenges in the
industry at large. Its entry has been considered a major breakthrough for the Nigerian home
video industry in more ways than one, obvious lapses of recycled themes and technical know-
how regardless. For example, the theme and sub-themes of Living in Bondage by Nek Video
Links has been so much recycled that people now see ritual, bloodletting and occultism as part of
Igbo lifestyle, thereby misrepresenting the Igbo cultural matrix. Most Igbo films today reflect the
above wrong notions, which is no doubt a bad footing for the Igbo film. In the words of

Ogunjiofor, a product of NFI, Jos, he asserts, “…the video film world in Nigeria has not yet
started. We have a long way to go… we are imitative; we produce in English and adopt Western
concepts which are lost on our people who patronize our films (Haynes & Okome 35).
In spite of its breakthrough commercially and numerically most of these Igbo films still lack that
cultural touch and taste akin to ethnic films. For Nigerian video producers, the films are
theatricalized, fantasized and magicalized in terms of visual effects, the more they are guaranteed
heavy financial returns. This is done unfortunately at the detriment of thematic content, context
and other filmic features. Some of the films that are culture based on the other hand are grossly
misinterpreted or misrepresent the people and their culture. This is as a result of wanton
extravagance of illiteracy and ignorance among the Igbo film makers. Their works reveal a proud
display of inadequate research and unnecessary generalization and assumptions, especially those
of them that embark on epic film production. Many of the films are false representation of the
Igbo society, they blow situations out of proportion and are infused with an excess dose of ritual,
witchcraft, occultism, bloodletting, nudity and sex which are what the Igbo socio-cultural mores
do not represent.
It is undoubtedly true that the Igbo film maker is not a professional but an opportunist and an
avaricious businessman whose sole aim is to maximize profit at all cost. However, much as
business cannot be undermined in filmmaking, it must not overshadow or control the thematic
preoccupation; a people’s ethos and image must not be murdered on the altar of wanton financial
pursuit. The potency of art in externalizing the most in-depth of a people’s culture and life style
must be harnessed and put into use in filmmaking. Culture should be the core factor in ethnic
films and Igbo films inclusive. Therefore, a people for whom a film is created around should be
able to identify themselves in the films. They should be able to see their culture and life style,

their challenges, their world-view from which their strengths and weaknesses are made manifest;
from which they see and feel their past, their present; and from which they take cues for better
future.
It is incontestably true that every work of art stems from the society that gave it birth. The
product of any work of art is, therefore, nurtured and conditioned by the varying environing
factors around which the work sprouts. Bamidele, quoting G. H. Bantock, confirms the
relatedness of literature to society. In his words:
G.H. Bantock restates the interrelationship between literature and the
social world from which it is created. In his view, he argues that all
novel and plays and a fair amount of dramatic or narrative poetry
(film inclusive) may not be understood without their environing
context (2).
Barzun concludes that, “a country, finally, erodes and the dust blows away, the people die and
none of them were of any importance permanently, except those who practiced the arts…a
thousand years makes economics silly and a work of art endures forever” (18). We human beings
do not last a thousand years, but art surely has and does. So, when because of the immediate
monetary inducement we want by all means, we mortgage the future of our arts (films), when it
does outlives us, the future surely will be bleak just the same way the past has been hazy with
lies for monetary rewards.
In reading the Igbo film culture, quoting Chris Okey Obiako, Ekwuazi, in his seminal essay
captures this ugly trend inter-alia:
Today the credibility of the Igbo man… has been smeared. His hard
earned reputation for business and financial success and more
importantly, his unquestioned uprightness, which used to be a subject
of envy to other tribes, has been dragged into the mud…. In their

hurry to amass wealth, in their lust for state of the art cars and other
luxuries, in their quest to build heaven on earth, a bunch of scoundrels
have turned Igbo myth around – from sublime to the ridiculous
(Ekwuazi in Haynes 82).
It is based on the foregoing that the misrepresentation of the Igbos in Nollywood films shall be
underscored in this paper.
The Film Medium as Satire
Film medium in Nigeria aside its entertainment function, has also been geared towards satirizing
the socio-political and economic life of the Nigerian people. Okoye has affirmed that, “Nigerian
cinema showed marked interest in a critique of contemporary socio-political life…” (Looking at
Ourselves…26). Kongi’s Harvest, the first Nigerian film, adapted from Wole Soyinka’s play of
the same title, in 1970, for instance, is a satirical critique of the proliferation of military
dictatorships across the political landscape of contemporary Africa. Film as virile vehicle of
expression seeks to investigate man, his behaviour in society and his knowledge of himself. Film
like literature is part of and product of society. Its nature is essentially social, satiric and didactic.
Edwin Wilson defines satire as, “art form related to traditional burlesque, but with more
intellectual and moral content” (26). Satire employs wit, irony, and exaggeration to attack or
expose evil and foolishness. Satire can attack one figure… or it can be more inclusive… (27).
Satiric film is a form of social control. Bamidele in his Comedy… theorizes about satire in
society and asserts that the genre came about in a cultural climate that saw the form of literature
in the service of its didactic intent. In all facets of life, man needs to conform to a social norms
and mores, and so satire in its various forms; film, stage, television or even our communal
moonlight story telling sessions is a ready weapon to drive home these ideals using its various
methods and styles. This style or method could be through irony, parody, invective, sarcasm and

wit. In most cases our enjoyment and understanding of satire in films, texts, television and on
stage derives from our thought of political ineptitude or inadequacy of a leader, a system or an
institution. According to Bamidele, satire acts as target of political wit. Political wit can be
directed against social groups, circles or strata whose social position is contested (6).
These people become the butt of satirical gibes when they act at variance with established norms.
And so film employs satire tremendously to achieve and realize its aims and objectives at
remodelling the society. Satire adopts the means of correcting manners, establishing moral
values and ideas in the process, through the employment of exaggeration with dramatic wits or
sarcasm. But when these themes emanating from satire and other genres in the film are overused
deliberately without recourse to research into the thematic content or the society from where the
theme is derived, it becomes a case of derision, misrepresentation and misconception leading to
character assassination and image bastardization. Film, like the media, is active in visual imagery
and laundering. And people tend to respond more to what they see than what they hear. This is
the case with the Igbos and the reality of Igbo film and its image bashing in Nigeria movie
industry.
Critical Dimensions/Perspectives
Scholars have been at daggers drawn on what side of the divide they will take their scathing
criticisms from; poor scripting, poor financing, lack of technical input, lack of professionalism,
over used actors, shylock marketers and producers, etc., yet, there are some who do not see
anything wrong about recycled themes of Igbo films which testify to the humiliation and
embarrassment suffered daily by the Igbos due to their battered image in Nigerian movie
industry, as much as the economy is progressive from the earnings. Beyond this negativisation
syndrome, this view believes a medium that churns out as much as 40Billion naira annually

cannot but be good as the vision 20:2020 lurks around the corner (Utoh-Ezeajugh 225). Others
believe the reputation and notoriety of our actors is good enough for the international image of
the country despite what goes on in the industry since our stars in the industry can now be
recognized in Europe, America, Asia, Britain and more so, on the streets of major cities in
African sub-regions (Ayakoroma 17). Yet, others are of the opinion that the only problem with
the industry is with the quality of the camera and continuity interplay (Adedokun 260-263).
Ekwuazi in ‘Nigerian Literature’… opines that, “the truth is that all those prevalent themes –
witchcraft/sorcery, cultism/ rituals, prostitution/scammers, murder/armed robbery etc. which the
home video are forever recycling, are really the instruments of wealth creation – they sell” (18).
Be that as it may, we cannot, therefore, murder our cultural diplomacy and hard earned
reputations as a people (Igbo) on the altar of financial gains and the euphoria of the moment.
This is the position of (Barzun 20), when he insists that “art cannot be divorced from moral and
social significance; but in subversive art the future interests of society replace the present
interests…genuine art cannot be anti-people.” The Igbo filmmakers should take a cue from this.
Thematic Preoccupation of Igbo Films
Nigerian movie industry no doubt has contributed in no more small measure to the socio-
economic gains of the country, yet, it is also replete with negative tendencies. Starting with the
box-office hit, Living in Bondage, Nollywood has projected Nigeria and the Igbo in particular as
a ritualistic society, where sacrifices involving human beings are perpetrated with reckless
abandon.
Most of the Igbo video films take all the time to glamorize evil and unethical behaviours like
prostitution, sexual vulgarity and bawdiness, armed robbery, money laundering, money ritual,

occultism, scammers, internet fraudsters, 419ners, etc. all these themes run through the whole
length of the film, consuming about 85minutes of the 90minutes duration of the film. At the end,
a paltry five minutes is used to right the wrongs that spanned through the whole film, just to
fulfill the Aristotelian concept of good triumphing over evil. With such films, the aspiration and
desire of the audience to come to terms with their culture and life style must have been dashed by
the incessant show of all forms of amoral life style and conduct replete in the films.
The thematic preoccupation of most if not all Igbo films nay Nigerian video films in the words of
Ekwuazi, “has succeeded in branding Nigeria as a country of occultists, swindlers, drug barons
and go-go girls” (5). Everybody closely associated with the production of the Igbo films from the
script writer, director, actors, marketers, producers and most annoyingly the reviewers are all
culpable in this erroneous peddling of these farcical visual aesthetic assault.
The newspaper reviewer, who should be an arbiter, is also caught in this web. Ekwuazi states
inter alia:
The critic/reviewer mediates between the industry and the audience,
his immediate aim is to influence the reader to decide to see a specific
film; his ultimate aim: to refine the taste of both the industry and the
audience (15).
The newspaper reviewer at first glance would tag the films as Igbo cultural films and would
recommend it to every home, or proclaim it “a must watch for everyone”. This is because he has
been deceived by the charade of costumes, make-up, location, etc., shown in the films. He does
not ask how much of the brazen display of obscenity and sexual overtures are becoming of a
typical Igbo community. These things are sacrosanct and hallowed in Igbo cultural life and so
should not be shown however implicitly. Even when these values are becoming over-thrown by

all sorts of immoral conducts introduced by Western civilization, the ethnic filmmaker should be
an astute researcher whose work it is to research into cultures and exhume whatever culture
seems dying or dead and try his hand in resuscitating and reviving them through the vibrant
medium of film for the benefit and betterment of the society at large.
The filmmakers always seem to want to fill in the gap with just anything without considering its
sociological impact on the people. Themes from rituals through the portrayal of sudden
possession of wealth, sorcery and the portrayal of magic and witchcraft, voodoo and the extent to
which the oracles kill, and armed robbery has been recycled more than any other theme in Igbo
film culture. This has necessitated some critical approach to why creativity has nosedived in the
film industry and quest for monetary returns elevated beyond imagination. The themes, the high
imaginative intensity and ability to communicate at a level that immediately holds emotions and
captures interest is a reflection of how good these movie makers have become in false fabrication
of Igbo cultural reality and how conversely lies can easily be peddled and disseminated for the
unsuspecting and gullible viewers to believe what they see (visual reality different from the
cultural reality).
From every indication it appears that the Igbo film maker is not a professional but an opportunist
and an avaricious businessman whose sole aim is to make money at all cost, thereby placing
mercantilism above social value and image construction. As Haynes and Okome opine, “the
main reason for this would seem to be the historical situation of the Igbo in modern Nigeria. The
Igbo videos are the expression of an aggressive commercial mentality whose field of activity is
Nigeria’s cities” (quoted in Enem 24). Much as business cannot be undermined in film making, it
must not overshadow or control the content and context of the film. Art must not be sacrificed on
the altar of business. The potency of art in externalizing the most in-depth of a people’s culture

and life-style must be harnessed and put into use in an art that reflect and refracts their mores like
the film medium and not otherwise. Culture should be the core factor in ethnic film making and
Igbo films should not be left out and or rather bastardized in its thematic preoccupation. A
people for whom a film is made should be able to identify themselves in the film; they should be
able to see their culture and lifestyle, their challenges, their world view from which their
strengths and weaknesses are made manifest; from which they see their past, their present, and
from which they take cues for a better future. But when the film is badly made, bereft of any
contextual link to the people for which it was made, they will fail to see themselves even while
“looking at themselves in their own mirror” (Okoye 20). Such a film, therefore, loses its
sociological impact and becomes reduced to a banal piece of work and of no significance.
Such Igbo films like Living in Bondage, Wipe your Tears, Blood Money, Died Wretched and
Buried in One Million Casket, Billionaires Club, Widows Cot, Glamour Girls, The Master,
Across the Border, Yesterday, to mention but just a few, have taken all the time to glamorize evil
and unethical behaviours like ritual, prostitution and sexual suggestiveness, armed robbery,
money laundering, drug peddling, voodooism and occultism. Many of these films and their
thematic preoccupation are false representation of the Igbo society. These film producers and
directors blow situations out of proportion in a bid to entice and keep their unsuspecting
audience. These exaggerations are exactly what the Igbo social-cultural system avoids. But
because these people are businessmen and to keep their business going, there must be a story to
attract patronage no matter whose culture is on the brink of bastardization.
For instance, the Igbo films that deploy magic and witchcraft do so to increase the theatricalities
inherent in the film and invariably increase sales. In fact, since after the production of Kenneth
Nnebue’s Living in Bondage, subsequent Igbo films have recycled the thematic versions of this

formative and groundbreaking film. There is hardly an Igbo film without a group of occultists
who involve themselves in ritual killing of family members to get rich. For more than a decade
of such nefarious filmmaking practice, the long lasting Igbo image and reputation have been
smeared immutably. Therefore, while the Igbo proud themselves, as very enterprising and
hardworking people, these films show them as indolent and never-do-wells, people who want to
make quick and easy money by all means possible. The films are used to disseminate wrong
information about the Igbo, yet beyond this negativisation syndrome, the producers are the better
for it, smiling to the bank, no matter whose image is on the precipice of bastardization.
What is more worrisome is the general and erroneous assumption that any success story is based
on involvement in occultism, juju or fetishism. This paper is not holding brief or saying there is
no juju but the argument is simply; must we ascribe success to spirituality or negativity? The
objective of this article is simply to change our erroneous belief that ascribes every success to
occult or evil power. We must at least respect the creative and entrepreneurial ingenuity of our
the Igbo. Take, for instance, the case of our music talents, today, when a creative artiste hits a
blockbuster in music or movie, what you hear is he or she has gone to his village to re-engineer
his juju; funny as it may sound, most people have come to accept it as the truth and of course the
newest fad – the Illuminati and Dorobucci story currently making the news in our music space.
So much has been said about the spirituality behind the Illuminati group. Many have ascribed
negativity and diabolism to the activities of the group. The source of their success and powers
has been said to be gotten from the devil. This perceived assumption has lain credence to the
widely accepted contraption that the success of most talents in the creative industry globally is
from the Illuminati sect, how true this is not the interest of this paper.

Unmasking the Money-mongers behind the mask of Image Bastardization
A holistic approach was taken to bring to the fore the perceived culprits of this phenomenon; the
bastardization of Igbo myth and realities in Igbo films. This perceived culpability has left Igbo
cultural matrix at the brink of extinction due to the many injustices bedevilling the film industry
as a result of hankering after financial gains which conversely hampers the genuine growth of the
medium and its taste publics.
The Industry:
The Nigerian film industry lacks cohesion. The industry operates differently among the three
major ethnic groups in Nigeria: Yoruba, Hausa and Igbo, recently films in Ijaw and Efik cultures
have taken the centre stage. Each of them further constitute three or more different and disparate
cultures which determine the content of their films.
The Yoruba film is influenced by the animated universe of the Yoruba people. Life for the
Yoruba is cyclical involving the world of the living, the dead and the unborn (Soyinka, 1976).
Their belief in reincarnation and continuity is shown in the films which infuse and expose
history, myth and legendary acts, folklore and songs.
The Hausa film on the other hand is dedicated to showing the Hausa man’s devotion and
commitment to his religion especially, Islam. This is what Ekwuazi describes as the call of the
muezzin. The Qur’an looms large over story, technique and acting. Whatever runs counter to the
tenets of this religion is considered sacrilegious and abominable. The art of film itself was
against Islam from the beginning and is recently being tolerated. Filmmakers, therefore, place
their films on self-censorship or face the attendant economic consequences. Larkin captures it
succinctly:

Adding to this problem was the traditional Islamic prohibition on the
creation of images, which raised the fundamental issue of whether the
practice of viewing itself was unislamic. The early Hausa names for
cinema, such as Majigi (derived from magic) and dodon bango (evil
spirit on the wall) betray the linguistic traces of these controversies.
From the beginning, cinema had disreputable, unislamic is attached to
it (114).
The Hausa religion does not provide a platform for any form of compromise in their thematic
preoccupation. As a producer, one must comply with the don’ts associated with making a film
for Hausa audience. Their culture and worldview which is heavily religious are preserved for
posterity and the future generation. Any wonder the phenomenal rise of the Boko Haram
dissention in the North-East Nigeria.
The Igbo film shows more of the Igbo man’s excessive, insatiable and inordinate hankering with
wealth than it shows the Igbo cultural matrix and world view. Though the former serves as a
vehicle for the later, the later (culture and world view) is featured in the passing. Majority of the
Igbo films are replete with the Igbo man’s aggrandizement and megalomaniac. But this not the
true picture of the Igbo man’s world views. According to Ekwuazi:
the Igbo people place high premium on achievement and associates
failure or laziness to leprosy or lameness. Therefore, the individual
goes to any length to distinguish himself from his peers by hook or
crook. This individualism is opposed to, and contradicts
communalism, which the Igbo people prize higher than the individual
cult (73).
Moreover, Onitsha, Aba and Idumota in Lagos which is heavily populated by the Igbo youth and
where these films are majorly shot serve as a melting pot where different individuals from all
over the eastern states and beyond converge, involving themselves in all sorts of deals, trying to
outsmart one another by all means but genuine. It is only natural therefore, for filmmakers here

to create stories reflecting these healthy and unhealthy rivalries among these disparate entities,
who have abandoned their communities to participate in a commercial muscle-flexing contest,
seeking achievement by all means.
Distributors/Marketers as Power brokers
Most of what is happening in the video films today is a reflection of the atypical nature of the
film industry. The industry is skewed. In a typical set up, the paradigms of power in the industry
include: the producer, the director, censorship, exhibitor, and the audience. Apart from the
Censor Board, which has even caved in with the pressure from the producers, every other
paradigm is subject to the lordship of the distributor. The exhibitor died with the cine film. The
distributor/marketers who are mostly semi-literates and illiterates form a cartel of juggernauts
and by virtue of being the financiers and marketers of the films; they arrogate power to
themselves and control the entire industry. Jonathan Haynes and Onookome Okome capture this
ugly trend:
Because in many cases they put up the capital for video productions
they are in a position to determine casting… and as a cartel they can
kill films in which they have no cultural or financial interest. All this
is the more resented are generally wholly uneducated in film
aesthetics… (31).
Production under this system is rigid if not impossible. Directors have a lessening opportunity to
contribute to the whole. Most directors end up being directed. They are assigned a script rather
than choosing one. They are given a cast list of performers and told to shoot the film in a few
days. The distributor/marketer amasses so much power to himself that he calls the shots in any

film from casting to editing. Not just on the director alone, the distributor-marketer also uses his
veto power on the scriptwriter, the producer and the cast as well.
The Scriptwriter
For a distributor/marketer to accept a film script presented to him for production, the story must
first conform to a particular genre currently in distribution. Take the thematic preoccupation of
‘Love’ for instance, if the story does not relate to love, no matter how topical or timely the theme
of the story is, it will be rejected. It can also be totally dismantled or reassembled to suit the
distributor/marketer. Perchance the script is a good one, the distributor/marketer pays off the
scriptwriter and inscribes his name as the writer. Whatever story is to be produced, must of
necessity, represent the interest and satisfy the aspiration of the distributor/marketer. The image
of the culture on parade here is as good as bastardized to suit the distributor/marketer and
scripter.
The Producer
The producer under this system is employed by the distributor/marketer. He is charged with
making sure that capital mapped out for the film project is frugally used and the most result
achieved. He is tasked with ensuring production ends within the shortest number of days
possible. He fuels the entire production process, cutting corners where possible to beat time and
save cost. The earlier he submits the edited master tape to the distributor/marketer, the longer he
keeps his job. Therefore, whatever form of malpractice that needed to be done to secure his job is
most welcome.
Censorship
Censorship is a weapon usually used by government or its agencies to prevent the circulation of
sensitive materials considered unhealthy for the taste public. In film, censorship is an

indispensable power block. It exists to place a check on the numerous excesses that are naturally
associated with films in all film cultures. By numerous excesses, I mean the blazing depiction of
nudity, sexual acts and suggestiveness, immoral and defamatory languages or remarks, actions or
words considered inimical to the society or state, presentation of criminal acts, depiction of
violence and cruelty, explicit or gratuitous depiction of sexual violence or other related acts.
However, the National Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) saddled with the
responsibilities of checkmating these excesses look the other way in silent while this brazen
recklessness is committed and the Igbo film culture is the worse for it. Owing to the multi-ethnic
and multi-religious societies that confederate into the country, Nigeria, there is every reason for
censorship board to be taut on films that discuss issues relating to culture and world view of a
people, religion, politics, violence and sex. Ironically this is not so in Nigerian film industry
where cultures are murdered for lust for money.
Lack of Professionalism
The issue of professionalism has taken a front burner in Nigerian film industry; hence, it has
become part of the new dimension in reading the bastardization of the thematic preoccupation of
Igbo films. Quite unlike the cine film, video is less demanding in terms of production. As a
result, it has opened the door to armatures and debutants from all walks of life flooding the
industry. This accounts for the reason why most Nigerian video films technically is nothing to
write home-about. Okoye’s position says it all:
However, because of its technical limitation and the peculiarity of its
economy of production, critics have faulted it on all counts, citing its
invisibility in notable international film festivals as evidence of its
ineffectiveness (21).

This is very particular of the Igbo filmmakers. Most of them are business tycoons who are
completely ignorant of the film medium but still gate crashed into it, hijacking both the
production and marketing of the films. Haynes captures it this way: “The Igbo marketers who
largely control Nollywood are bitterly resented by many filmmakers, who stereotype them as a
mafia of semi-literate traders with no education or real interest in cinema and an extremely
narrow and short-sighted view of the film industry” (32). Not just the marketers, most directors,
producers, scriptwriters and cameraman lack professionalism. Anything goes because the video
format is a free-for-all format. No wonder Nigeria video films are hard to find in any notable
international film festival.
Conclusion
Nollywood has become a global phenomenon and a brand of international repute. But this needs
to be qualified. It is a global phenomenon because the outside is beginning to pay attention to it.
While there is no doubt in my mind that Nollywood is a big industry, which has attracted a lot of
attention in the last two decades or more, it is still unclear why this is the case outside Nigeria. In
Nigeria, Nollywood is popular because it speaks to aspects of social life that many people live. It
speaks to and debates social and cultural anxieties the way no other media had done before, yet
the content of these social and cultural anxieties are what leave much to be desired especially in
the Igbo films. Okome, in an interview with Onyerionwu, captures the scenario aptly:
A lot of the ordinary people who are curious about Nollywood in
North America and Europe do so because it appeals to the sense of the
noble savage - that picture of the African running around in circles in
the jungle or beside the river waving frantically at Europe’s steamer
on the river banks. I think this is a deliberate misreading, which is
why the emphasis on juju, magic and witchcraft are some of the tell-
tale signs of the way Nollywood is seen and consumed outside
Nigeria. I do think Nollywood is much more than this.1

It is against this background that, this misrepresentation of the Igbos using video film business in
Nigeria produces culture of mediocrity and a society of debased and tarnished culture and
conversely a society influenced by its social and cultural markets.
The Igbo are in a dire need of cultural resuscitation, a need to re-christen the Igbo with an
identity, a name. The task lies in the use of film to re-awaken the traditional institutions that have
hitherto been bastardized by the wrong use of the film medium and give the Igbo a cultural
diplomatic boost. Igbo filmmakers should rather lead in the vanguard for proper repositioning
and representation of Igbo cultural heritage and mores rather than serve as megaphones for their
culture’s bastardization through the film medium. The Igbo film ought to lend itself not only as
an instrument for nation building and cultural diplomacy but also as a cohesive force for the
restoration of the lost paradise of the Igbo nation through proper dissemination of the people’s
socio-cultural ideals and aspirations.
There cannot be an effectual change without involving the audience. The Igbo filmmakers have
shown disinterest in what the audience thinks about their films. Yet no work of art is complete
without an audience; passive or active. There should be a mechanism for audience evaluation to
know how satisfied or otherwise they are with the films. Until now, the Igbo film has been
everything the Igbo nation and culture is not. This is a far cry and a misrepresentation of what
the Igbo stands for.
Notes.
1. In an interview with Ezechi Onyerionwu, Professor Onokome Okome bares his mind on
many issues confronting Nollywood including its thematic misrepresentation of the
culture of its society and concludes that nevertheless, it is hard to ignore Nollywood no
matter how badly we perceive their arts. They have come to stay and will surely change.
The emergence of New Nollywood where films are now being previewed in cinemas and
entered for festivals is revealing of what to come in the very near future.

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