What is Nollywood?

A couple of weeks ago, I visited a shop around Allen Avenue roundabout in search of some classic Nigerian old school music, the kind of music labels like Premier Music were churning out decades ago. As I browsed the shop's CD collection, going through the likes of Paulson Kalu, Joe Nez and Celestine Ukwu, I overheard the following discussion between the shopkeeper and a young lady:

Lady: Which new film you get?

Shopkeeper: Plenty o. Which one you want? I get latest of Aki and Pawpaw…

Lady: I no want Aki and Pawpaw, dem no funny again. You get anyone wey Chiwetala Agu or Ashley Nwosu dey inside?

Shopkeeper: That one wey just die? I get plenty.

Lady: Oya, bring. The guy funny well well.

She bought about five films and left the shop. I was struck by some truths in that conversation. The lady did not care about who wrote the screenplay of those films. She certainly did not give a damn about who directed the films or whether they were blockbusters or low-budget films. She seemed well aware of the measure of fun to expect from watching the films and desired very little else.

That encounter once again reinforced something I have recently been thinking a lot about. What is Nollywood? How is Nollywood different from other filmmaking? What are the characteristics of a Nollywood film? What distinctive traits set Nollywood apart from other filmmaking traditions across the globe? If such obvious and specific traits are identifiable, shouldn't this qualify Nollywood to be engaged on its own merit, rather than the continued importation of critical theories in its engagement?

Our Nollywood is 'celebrated' all over the world. This baby that's less than two decades old is the subject of seminars, conferences, workshops and many other creative and intellectual engagements. Foreign Scholars and researchers have made a name simply by researching and writing about Nollywood. Documentaries have been made by many filmmakers from across the globe, all in an attempt to understand the peculiarities on what has become the most industrious indigenous filmmaking tradition out of Africa and the black Diaspora. Yet, this same filmmaking tradition is the butt of every joke; bashing Nollywood is our second national pastime, just slightly behind bashing politicians. Little wonder Nollywood is now comatose; no one should take this much bashing continuously and stay on his feet.

What is it that the lady in the shop understood that most of us who bash Nollywood seem to have overlooked? Can it be that she has come to recognise Nollywood for what it is, rather than what it should be? The step to recognise a work of art for what it is must be first taken, I believe, before we begin to engage it further concerning its other possibilities. Yes, Nollywood can be a lot of things but what is it at present? Surely, it would be foolhardy to seek to improve or ask for the improvement of something you do not understand.

Part of the problem with our understanding of Nollywood is that we often take Nollywood to mean the grand total of Nigerian filmmaking, therefore, if it isn't up to par, we conclude that it shames filmmaking in Nigeria as a whole, and Nigerian as a nation. This is a fallacy. Filmmakers in northern Nigeria have never claimed allegiance with Nollywood. They have always stuck to being different and therefore, Kannywood has evolved. Yoruba filmmakers do not also see themselves as Nollywood practitioners. Even a prominent filmmaker like Tunde Kelani has often set himself and his works apart from Nollywood. It is quite clear that Nollywood does not translate to totality of filmmaking in Nigeria. There's nothing new or unique about this: Bollywood is not synonymous with filmmaking in India. Since India started making films in the 1900s, India has produced about 27, 000 films in 52 different languages. Mumbai, formerly Bombay, may be the filmmaking centre of the country, but Madras, Hyderabad and Calcutta are also important film production centres. Same for the U.S: Hollywood isn't representative of all the filmmaking that happens in the U.S. Films that come out of places like New York have often attempted to differentiate themselves from Hollywood. Independent producers have done great works that are representative of another aspect of American filmmaking, out the big studios of Hollywood. The earlier we see the same reality here in Nigeria, the sooner we will see that there are alternatives to Nollywood; therefore, we cannot hold Nollywood responsible for all that is wrong with filmmaking in Nigeria.

It is worthy to note that two crucial sectors have failed to assist us in understanding Nollywood. Perhaps because of the circumstances surrounding its birth, Nollywood has never been respected as a valid art form. Rather, it has often been seen as a plaything that some unserious and otherwise jobless people engage in. It is why it is often said that Nollywood films are mere 'Mickey Mouse movies'. Dr. Ola Balogun even went as far as to declare that Nollywood products do not qualify to be referred to as films seeing that they shot on video and not film. Such declarations are of course ludicrous, but the main point here is that the likes of Ola Balogun, who were trained filmmakers and scholars, were the ones who should have engaged Nollywood right from its early days and help it find its place as a genuine art form. They didn't; rather, they glorified in its demolition. Shame.

Secondly, the Nigerian media continues to fail Nollywood daily. Content to celebrate its stars, spread its rumours and fabricate success stories, no worthy engagement of its art occurs anywhere across media platforms. Reporters and reviewers masquerade as critics, spewing reviews and opinions that have no foundation in film history, theory or criticism. When the people that analyse a product for a consuming audience are those largely incapable of critical engagement, there's a big problem. Funny enough, people like Steve Ayorinde, Chris Otaigbe and Jahman Anikulapo engaged Nollywood in newspapers and on television in its early days, but those days are long gone now. Today, there isn't a single knowledgeable film critic/researcher/scholar who constantly engages Nollywood in a critical manner in any newspaper, on television or on any Nigerian Blog or website. Yet, sites, blogs, newspaper pages and television programmes abound on Nollywood gossip.

If Nollywood is reputed to be worth about $250million and is the most innovative and representative filmmaking tradition from black Africa and the African Diaspora, why are we not critically engaging it? And if we are not critically engaging it, how can we ever understand it?

Ihidero, a Lagos-based writer and filmmaker, runs the column Chris Ihidero Unedited.