The emergence of television and films in Nigeria are credited to two Nigerians: Late chief Obafemi Awolowo and Late Herbert Macaulay. The impact of these two media especially their informative, educative and catharsis functions coupled with it economic contributions to Nigerians cannot be over emphasized. In this discourse, we want to review the events and inventions that led to the development of the Nigerian film industry especially what is called Nollywood.
The Nigeria film industry story began as far back as August 1903 according to Oyero, Amodu and Usaini (2015). The effort of Herbert Macaulay coupled with those of the Indian-Lebanese merchants allow Messrs. Balboa of Spain to screened this first film at Glover Memorial Hall, Lagos. This film was on screen for ten consecutive nights and it was a silent one that predated “The Jazz singer”, the first of the rapidly moving image to be laced with sound and was produced in 1927. The success of the film encouraged other merchant such Stanley D. Jones and Albireo to join the business. Film was commended for relieving the monotony of Lagos life through interesting and innocent entertainment and it soon spread to other places like Ibadan in 1921 and Ijebu Ode in 1929.
It is important to mention that Shaibu Husseini stated in special report: Nigeria titled “Hooray for Nollywood” in The AFM Daily of Friday, November 6, 2009 says Nollywood “… Started with what the locals call ‘‘Yoruba Travel Theatre’’.
In (Oyero, Amodu, & Usaini, 2015) citing Ekwuazi (1991) work, it was written that film evolved from three crucial socio-economic stages in Nigeria. These are colonial/independence period; the post-independence period and the post indigenization Decree period. In 1939, under the colonial government, William Sellers established the colonial film unit (CFU) during World War II with the sole responsibility of producing films for the colonies. The films, among others, were used to convince the colonies to support the war efforts against the Germans. A very important benefit of CFU was that it also worked as an agent of development in enhancing standards in areas such as education, agriculture, health and industry among the locals. This was achieved through documentaries on Good Business, Better Housing, Mixed Farming and Fighting Tuberculosis.
By 1947, the CFU which was folded up gave way to the establishment of the federal film unit (FFU) though the basic direction of the CFU was maintained. Upon Nigeria independence in 1960, a film division was established under the federal ministry of information and funded to produce documentary films about post-independent Nigeria for distribution within and outside the country. The main functions of the film produce were to function as a tool to national consciousness detached from the colonial framework on which the nation had previously been pivoted. This measure gave birth to home-grown documentaries which limit the influx of colonial mainly imported films.
The Christian missionaries also contributed to development of motion picture in Nigeria as they did in newspaper, but in this case they were not the trail blazer. They screened films for the locals with the aim of integrating or acculturating their converts into the Christian fold.
In addition, the modes of projection of films in Nigeria then were in two forms. the first on these was the mobile film units ( a van, a 16mm projector, a reel of 16mmfilm and a motion picture film) operated by the government and the church. While the other mode involved commercial distributors operating through showings in the big halls and film theatres with films brought through the British Council in London and the Crown Film Unit.
Though Federal Government sponsored “Bound for Lagos” in 1962 was said to have opened the floodgates to a large number of films produced and sponsored by the government and independent producers, “Culture in Transition” of 1963 was adjudged as the beginning of professional film making in Nigeria.
“Culture in Transition” is more of a docudrama as against the feature films that were in the market and it is an assemblage of disparate aspects of traditional and modern cultural forms of the Nigerian society coupled with adapted sequences from Soyinka’s The Strong Breed and Duro ladipo’s Oba Moro. Similarly, the cinematic adaptation of Soyinka’s Kongi Harvest of the same titled produced in 1970 kick-started independent film production in Nigeria.
One should permit to mention that my introductory paragraph of this piece is not in disagreement with Shaibu Husseini’s “Hooray for Nollywood” especially since the Yoruba Travelling Theatre exploits suggested a positive and successful future as we now hoped. The Yoruba travelling theartre was credited to have established a rich tradition of touring plays and made a debut with Ogunde’s Aiye in 1979 and Jaiyesinmi in 1980. These two films were not the first produce indigenous language because Amadi by Afrocult Foundation Limited was produced in 1975 and Ajani Ogun (1976) in Yoruba language and Sheu Umar (1977) in Hausa were worthy predecessors. Another thing to mention is that the Yoruba travelling theatre companies turned films film production companies and together accounted for over 60 percent of the films that featured at the 1st National Film festival in 1992.
Another factor that helped the Yoruba travelling troupes was their ability to grab all available popular performance of their time. They explored other media such as waxing their music and plays on discs, printing their plays as photo-plays and literature. Television is one that enjoys gross patronage of the travelling troupes. This is due to the dire need for local content in television programming of the then Western Nigerian Television (WNTV) in 1959. More so, the insertion of films into stage plays by the theatre producer-managers led to the relation to the new film genre. Hubert Ogunde was credited for this new development. To that effect, theatre practitioners later abandoned the stage for television and film coupled with it fascination derived from their audience enthusiasm for this.
But the shift from stage to film gave way to the shift from film to video. The reason for the movement from film to video was the cost of production of films on celluloid. Since film production was an area which has witnessed lot of private initiatives, producers were on their own when it comes to funding. Thereafter, the realities of a depressed economy and stringent lending conditions by financial institutions led most film makers to turn to as their survival option.
As noted by (Husseini, 2009), that it was (Living in Bondage) which was released in 1992, and funded by Chief Nnebuhe with an estimation of $2,500 that caused the major shift from production in standard celluloid format to video, another portion of film history beg to differ. Olayiwola (2011) pointed out that the Yoruba travelling troupes were the originators of the video film tradition in Nigeria mentioning Yoruba films such as Ekun produced by Muideen Aromire in 1986, Igi Da produced by Kola Olatunde in 1990 etc. as examples. Thus, the Yoruba itinerant troupes found an opportunity to replace the evading motion-picture tradition with video format that was ridiculously cheaper to produce. The most used camera then were video cameras meant for recording social functions such as wedding and funerals.
Living in Bondage by Chief Nnebue brought about the emergence of movies being with VHS cameras and edited in television studios using VCR machines which attracted an eager viewing audience which, at that time, had few alternatives to Indian and Chinese movies. In (Husseini 2009), he documented that the video market opened by Chief Nnebue garnered large audience for the industry through the retail sale of video. These served as inspiration for others and allow the igbo-centred video makers to bobard the industry and, within a short while, infest the home video market. The vast marketing network in audio cassette distribution in Onitsha were major marketers also make this possible. More so, apart from having romanticized with television, a couple of Igbo/English Language video practitioners have their origin in the university based theatre and therefore are conversant with the use of script, an important element lacking among the Yoruba practitioners.
Similarly, the English Language ‘videographers’ have improved by finding a way to link and manipulate advanced film and television techniques when compare to the Yoruba genre.
Today, though the industry may still be using handheld cameras, the digital revolution has led to better production values, and the access to affordable equipment has led to a film movement like no other in the world. Movies like ‘The Meeting’ and ‘October 1’ by Rita Dominic and Kunle Afolayan respectively, among others have put Nigerian Movie Industry in almost every western cinema.
In November 2015, Al Jazeera priced the Nollywood-Nigeria’s film industry at $5 Billion and makes more films than Hollywood in the US, making it the second largest in the world behind India’s Bollywood. This feat is being mar by the production of substandard films which lack technical expertise. Another dent according to (Husseini, 2009), is that “… the west vilified Nollywood for exuberantly embracing cheap religious sentiment, occultism, rituals bloodshed and violence” and this has not allow most movie to enjoy an audience that cut across all ethnics and religious beliefs. However, this does not diminish the potential of Nollywood who is currently providing jobs for many Nigerians making it the largest informal employers of labour in Nigeria.
With the proficiency of the two industry’s regulatory bodies- the Nigerian Film Corp and NFVCB- coupled with the advice of well-respected producers and directors as Tade Ogidan, Zeb Ejiro and Tunde Kelani, there is hope that the unprofessional and unethical practices that pervaded the local scene will be curb. Another way out is the optimistic statement of Catherine Ruelle in Husseini (2009) that “the industry must seek collaboration, training and partnership to enhance the entire film making process, from development to distribution”. If this is done, Nollywood will be making almost what the Oil and Gas sector of the country is making.
Works Cited
Husseini, S. (2009, November 6). Horray for Nollywood. the AFM daily, pp. 29-36.
Oyero, O., Amodu, L., & Usaini, S. (2015). Film Histroy and Production Technique. Ibadan: Stirling Horden Publishers.
IFUNANYA ORJI a student of the Department of Mass Communication of University of Lagos, Akoka, Lagos Nigeria.
Her flair for writing coupled with the effort of her Lecturer and Mentor Mr Shaibu Husseini made her write on the Drifts and Emanations of Nollywood.
