©www.kwenu.com, 2006
A tribute to Nollywood
M. O. ENÉ
New Jersey, USA
Thursday, June 15, 2006
I have been studying Nigerian movies for FOUR years. Within this period, I have amassed quite a library of so-called Nollywood movies. In fact, the movie makers should honor me for my patronage.
The first I watched and enjoyed was “$1: One Dollar” —with Victor Osuagwu as “Oderaa–It shall be well with you”; Patience Ozokwor—Mama G; Chiege Alisigwe, and Jim Iyke as a Nigerian-American druggie for whom his father arranges a layaway wife). I am impressed by the works of Nigerian movie stars. They have shown that, in an enabling economic environment, Africans can produce and excel. With low budgets and high costs of production, Nollywood has created a multibillion dollar industry with no government intervention whatsoever.
I
have followed such stars as Oge Okoye (Sister Mary), Rita Dominic,
Omotola Jolade-Ekeinde (Pretty Woman), and veteran Liz Benson, and Ini
Edo (Last Kiss), Stephanie Okereke (Miss Nigeria), Joke Silva (Last
Wedding), Stella Damasus (Bridesmaid), Ibinabo Fiberesima (A Night in the
Philippines), Chioma Chukwuka (Beware of Love), and Shan George (Computer
Girls).
Oh
yes, and the men: Gabon-born, multilingual Zack Orji, Jim Iyke, Segun Arinze,
Kanayo O. Kanayo, Desmond Elliot, “Mr. Nice Guy” Richard Mofe-Damijo (RMD)—Nigeria’s
Denzil Washington, Saint Obi, Bob Manuel Udokwu, Ofia’afuluagu Mbaka, Enebeli
Elebuwa, Pat Attah, etc. Who could forget Udi-born Osuofia Himself, Nkem Owoh.
To list the titles I have watched would take the space available for this tribute. Some are however worthy of mention. Any aficionado must give it to Osuofia in London I & 2 for raising the roof and bringing Nollywood to many homes. It is a collector’s item. Then there is Civil War; no, it is not about war… well, not the type in Iraq. If you want to be a polygamist, watch the movie first.
Mama G in America (Patience Ozokwor) was fun, and Old School was so much joy to watch the producer made Parts 1, 2, & 3! As in everything, there are still rooms for improvement. For one, I think Nkem Owoh has to reinvent his acts; the old, predictable comic routines are wearing thin. American Visa and Akanchawa got my thumbs down! There was no head nor tail, just the usual, sometimes bland Nkem Owoh humor.
I like Chinedu Ikedieze, a graduate of mass communication (Institute of Management & Technology, Enugu) and Osita Iheme, also a mass communication graduate (Enugu State University of Technology) in 2 Rats and in Mr. Ibu. However, I no longer see much fun in the two rabblerousing boys-to-men. Spanner was stretched too thin beyond part 3, and pairing the duo often is no longer necessary, as in Baby Police. There must be some other "little people" out there who can act -- if it must take TWO vertically challenged men to make a movies.
The juju themes are most repulsive to me. It’s no wonder the Ghanaian government frowned, even though some believe it was dictated by an attempted muscling of the invading Nollywood that was eclipsing Ghanaian movie market. Some otherwise good movies are ruined by the injected of unnecessary supernatural effects that are not properly projected.
I find the excessive use of guns
unnecessary; it is simply un-African, and it does not reflect present
sociocultural trends. If a fellow man grabs your chick, you don’t get a gun and
blow his brains out. That’s insane.
Then there is the introduction of risqué bedroom scenes. I could not believe UK Anunobi (What Women Want) in “Falling Apart.” Wow, not even Hollywood comes close to handing out unbridled boobs and obviously simulated sex in popular videos. Then Liz Benson stepped it up in Crazy Passion by falling for the fiancée (Chidi Mokeme) of her daughter (Oge Okoye) in a reversed May-December frolicking. Yes, adults can handle sex scenes, but everyone knows that no one in Nigeria pays attention to the “18” warning. Anyone with the right amount can buy movies from the sea of hawkers. Just when you thought you have seen it all, Cossy Orjiakor takes boob-baring to new heights. Wow! I read recently that some of her movies are now classified as pornography!
Senior
stars such as Onyeka Onwenu (Government House), Ngozi Ezeonu (Abuja
Connection) Regina Askia (Dangerous Babe /Veno), Clarion
Chukwura (Danger Signal) complement such other budding stars as Maureen
Solomon and Amaka Aneke (Love is a Game), Nkiru Sylvanus (Okemmiri),
Caroline Ekanem (Deadly Kiss), etc.
I have not seen any new movies with Pete Edochie, but he numbers as a granddad of the Nigerian movie industry, as would Olu Jacobs.
I have watched some Yoruba movies,
notable Ọmọge Campus and others.
Ronke
Ojo and Toyin Adegbola (Ashewo to re Mecca) are worthy of mention.
Jide Kosoko too. As for Igbo movies. They are few and far between. Peter Eneh (Divided
Kingdom), Chiwetalu Agu (Love Nwantinti), and Sam Loco Efe (Igbo
Made) are great. Nkem Owoh (Mr. Trouble), of course. I am yet to
watch a recent Hausa movie, which is vibrant in Northern Nigeria. In all, I
believe that the subtitles need improvement for the benefit of non-speakers of
the Nigerian languages.
Nollywood has come to stay, but it cannot continue to do business as usual. I am amazed at the level of piracy going on right under our nose. If the level of copyright violation in USA is as I have discovered, imagine what would be happening in Nigeria and other African countries where these home movies are quite popular.
Yes, there is the problem of demand
and supply, and copyright laws do not fly in the face of high demand and no
supply. For example, when Osuofia in London 2 with Nkem Owoh became the talk of town,
many people either borrowed or copied Osuofia in London 1 because it was
no longer available in the market. By the time the “1 & 2” packaging
became available, the harm had been done. Regardless of the problems, the
deliberate mass reproduction of Nigeria movies by fraudulent entrepreneurs in
America must be stamped out. The fight should start with everyone who wishes
Africa well; we cannot wait for the producers, who cannot afford to fight the
pirates here in America.
How? Simple: Stop buying the fake copies, some of which are quite sophisticated. For me, I have since decided not to buy cheap pirated copies, especially the shop-copied CDs with handwritten labels. Last year, some well-packaged DVD versions were produced by a company in Chicago. They soon disappeared from East Coast markets.
Now we have sophisticated, pirated DVDs that combine the two VCDs in one. At $5:00 dollars a copy, against the regular $10:00 or $7:50 for original copy, something tells me that not all these good-looking DVD productions are kosher. I stand to be corrected.
There are other issues to address: too many titles in the market. These titles come at a rate consumers cannot absorb. Making many movies at a time and flooding the market with cheap productions won’t raise the bar. On the contrary, it will simply saturate the market and turn many people off, especially since the movies are not really made to be watched twice; once you get the gist, you are done.
Any wonder why video clubs are popping up all over the country, where people go to rent and return. Attempts to stamp out rental outlets will fail. Since Nollywood cannot beat them, they must join them by creating legitimate places for rental. From these outlets, as in America's Blackbuster chain, the money can be retrieved and ploughed back into the system for the good of all.
Due
the quick productions, many mistakes are made. In True Romance (with
Rita Dominic, South Africa’s Lillian Bach, Desmond Elliot), Richard
Mofe-Damijo (RMD) was supposed to be “Mr. Jim Douglas”; in some scenes he was
referred to as “Mr. Richards.” The level of proofing and editing needs to be
raised a bit. Some simple grammatical errors are avoidable and should be edited
out or the scenes re-shot to remove such obvious mistakes.
On
the whole, the Nigerian movie industry needs to sit back and retool. It cannot
control the market by the ill-advised banning of popular stars because they were
demanding “too much money.” Some of these stars took to producing music videos.
And that was how Nkem Owoh ended up with “I go chop your dollar,” from
The Masters. Genevieve got her Lux deal. Mrs. Omotola Ekeinde,
popularly known as "Omo Sexy" now sings.
The industry, I understand, is driven by local distributors who actually finance the production. Fair enough, but the actors can pull resources together and source out other outlets. The industry can no longer be controlled by merchants who want to pump out several titles into the market every week. Profit is good, but art is forever.
Nollywood has become a part of Nigerian culture. So far, it has done very well as a vehicle for ethical debate — what is wrong and what is right. In most cases, the supposed right guy wins; the bad guy loses. It’s time for the industry to start eyeing the big screens, to control distribution networks, and to a fight the piracy to a halt.
Nollywood
has come to stay, even though I don’t appreciate the term “Nollywood.” It’s a
cheap imitation of “Bollywood” (Bombay-based Indian movies). “Nolly” does not
mean anything to anyone I know. Established actors and directors must realize
they have interests in the future of the industry. It blows the mind that such
popular actors as Desmond Elliot would at this point feature in so many
movies at a time, including the Nigerian version of children’s Cinderella.
I
bet that other top stars won’t be towing the line of “anything-goes —as long as
there is a camera to record their moves.” I doubt it. The great works of leading
male stars reveal that the best is yet to come, that the great ones are not yet
born! They include: Ramsey Noah Jr. (Real Love), Emeka Ike (Deadly
Affair), Tony Umez (Blood Sisters), Charles Okafor (Mr. Ibu),
Amaechi Muonagor (Master Planner), Hank Anuku (Formidable Force),
and Alex Usifo (Fear of the Unknown), and Ashley Nwosu (Dream Lover),
Pat Attah (Passionate Soul), and Yomi Blaq (The Good Samaritan)
The likes of Genevieve Nnaji (Sharon Stone in Abuja) — probably Nigeria’s topmost star, have even transcended the movies industry. As the face of Lux soap in a #20 million deal, the single-mother superstar has become an icon. It will surprise me to see her act in Nigeria’s version of Wizard of Oz, for example.
The
same status of stardom could be wrapped around Chiege
Alisigwe (Accused),
Omotola Jolade-Ekeinde (I Will Die for You), Stephanie Okereke (Virgins
Night Out), Stella Damasus (Behind Closed Doors), Rita Dominic (A
Night to Remember), Dakore Egbuson (Bus Driver), Oby Edozie, (Rough
Rider) Jennifer Eliogu (Risky Affair), Barbara Odoh (419:
Dangerous Game), Caroline Ekanem [Endless Lies with Hank Anuku,
Desmond Elliot (A Night in the Philippines), and Ngozi Ezeonu (Hotel
Business)], etc.
Many consumers now depend on the names and faces of these top actors to decide which titles to buy, since there is no regular reviews available. The marketers know this, and they sometimes use the actors simply to introduce the movie. After five minutes, you will not see the popular actors again. Elliot Desmond and Oge Okoye starred in one such rip-off. There was also another such scam set in Ghana with Bruno Iwuoha (Another Bondage) with, I believe, Oge Okoye masking the cover and introductions.
This is not the way to go.
The are too many good things going for Nollywood; it cannot afford to lose the public confidence in its ability to deliver wholesale and simple entertainment.
I know African Americans who are hooked on Nollywood movies and who bought VCD players just for Nigerian home movies. Yes, Nollywood is that popular, even with the annoying “Part I & 2” ploy designed to stretch the plot and make a few more bucks off the back of expensive actors. It’s a good ploy, but it is being misused by many producers.
Nollywood is rubbing off gradually on some Nigerians in America. The production of This America marked a stage in the eventual explosion of Nollywood in America. I have not seen the movie, as it is not available in local stores.
I have seen Strange Ransom,
produced by Dr. Tai Balofin, who also starred as the main actor in the movie. As
I have told the actor/producer himself, there is nothing strange about the
movie, and I see no ransom. Strange Ransom is yet another stopover on the
road to eventual Nollywood Americana. The movie has all the ingredients for a
great production: Jide Kosoko, Toyin Adegbola, Ayinde Barrister, and featuring
our own Floxy Bee. What Balofin did with the ingredients is another story.
Luckily, there is this thing called sequel, or “Part 2” (immediate sequel) in Nollywood slang. I
believe that Otunba Tai Balofin will wrap up the loose ends in Part 2, which will most
likely catapult Strange Ransom to where it should have been.
I planned to do a periodic piece on Nollywood home movies. Time never permitted that dream. I hope that this short tribute makes up for the wonderful times I have had watching Nigerian home movies. It was fun. Alas, all fun things, such as being truly in love and being loved back by the person of your interest, soon becomes routine and largely unvalued. Often, the bond is taken for granted, believing that the one who truly loves for love-sake will take whatever is thrown at him or her and that he or she would be there at all times.
There we lose it, and life moves on.
Like the uncared-for lover who longed to be loved back with the same intensity, I have noticed a gradual pullback and an increased patronage of cheap copies of Nollywood home movies. I have also seen an increasing interest in Bollywood (Indian) movies among Nigerians. The reasons are not hard to find: Bollywood provides wholesale entertainment that is almost predictable and accentuates more of the feel-good than the gruesome turn-off stories of force and fake but fearsome juju practices.
If
you think you have seen it all, watch the latest 2006 releases. Much-respected
Zack Orji and Tony Umez shocked the pants off fans with their roles in
Co-operate Runs. It does not matter what anyone thinks about sex in movies,
the exploration of anal sex, even as a money-making ritual, is not a subject
many Nigerians want to experience. Then come Passionate Appeal with
Ramsey Noah, and one wonders where Nollywood is headed.
But, as they say in Nigeria, “Agarachaa must come back.” Nollywood producers will return to wholesale productions once the censors hearken to the public outrage and curb their steady slide to pornography. With review of home movies even before they hit the stores, consumers will become wiser and shop wisely.
Personally and on Indian and Chinese movies, I have seen enough to last me a lifetime. They did not last in the Nigerian society because they became monotonous and very predictable. Here is the pit Nollywood must avoid to stay profitable and, maybe … just maybe, I will one day return to return to watching ...studying Nollywood.
I will warmly cherish the memories because it was fun while it lasted.
©www.kwenu.com, 2006
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See also: M. O. ENÉ: Failed or freed state?