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In the early 90s,
when Nollywood was less than a decade old, I had in a three-part study
characterised it as “providing instant fame for the girl and boy next
door and instant fortune for a hybrid of producers.” Nollywood was a
phenomenon which in its development had minimal links; technically,
professionally and ethically with the older Nigerian Television and
Celluloid-film industries. It set its own standards, which sadly, were
based on the business ethics of its principal financiers, electronic
equipment traders turned producers/marketers. These basically
uncultured traders with limited education shaped and called the shots
in Nollywood, driven by the desire for huge profits from little
financial, aesthetic and cultural investments.

Women as commodities

They viewed women
as ‘commodities’ and worked on the perception that any pretty face
and/or attractive figure (in their eyes) is an automatic actress and
star. Naturally, hordes of all manner, shapes and shades of Nigerian
girls and women propelled by a mixture of poverty, the need for
self-promotion and notoriety as well, flocked to the venues where these
producers and their directors hung out.

It is instructive
to note that these Nollywood moguls didn’t need to go out scouting for
actresses. Rather, their hang-outs like Winnie’s Hotel in Surulere,
became flesh bazaars of aspiring actresses. Skimpily dressed and
flaunting their assets they came in droves to attract the attention of
producers and directors who practically carried out spontaneous public
rehearsals and castings.

Predictably, the
Nollywood moguls could bluff, pick and choose whilst the eager
potential actresses were literarily ready to do anything for bit-parts.
That these star-struck girls and women ‘fought’ each other to secure
parts and, the moguls in turn well aware of the seemingly unending
traffic of aspirants, confidently and callously discarded them at will
to create a fast turnover, soon became the established rules of the
Nollywood casting game!

Celebrity driven

It was not
dignifying or respectful of women. But what was expected of these
Nollywood moguls who held the aces, given their socio-cultural
background? Nonetheless, the girls and women equally share the blame as
they were willing partners in Nollywood’s early ‘debasement’ of
Nigerian women which set a trend that has not been completely
obliterated. There were noticeable improvements as better-educated
(mostly Mass Communication and Theatre Arts graduates) women got into
the industry. This raised the social profile of actresses in Nollywood
but they were still at the mercy of the scriptwriters and
producer-financiers who determined the type of roles they were cast in.

Interestingly,
rather than concern themselves about the cinematic image of Nigerian
women, Nollywood was consolidating, the actresses seemed more
interested in relatively frivolous talk about whether they would kiss
in films or act nude. Being celebrities with huge media (particularly
print) attention became their sole career goal and fulfilment.

Had Nollywood
finally succeeded in producing Nigerian actress-equivalents of
Hollywood’s dumb blondes? There were other manifestations of early
Hollywood, like strong rumours of sex with the producer/director for
bit parts and the presence of big-boobs-exposing no-talent equivalents
of Hollywood’s Jayne Mansfield and Diana Dors!

Stereotypical portrayals

It could be argued
that Nollywood finally took the Nigerian woman out of ‘her place’ in
the kitchen, but in return it put her in the bedroom for too long!
Given that Nollywood, from the beginning, was trade-driven not creative
or talent-driven, is it coincidental that its first huge success was
Domitilla? It was a story of Nigerian prostitutes in Italy desperate
and depraved to the level of having sex with dogs! A true story and raw
slice of life, we are told. A major creative handicap of Nollywood is
that themes that are basically documentary-film material are stretched
out to become movies.

Nollywood has
generally not been kind to Nigerian women. In its quest to create reel
chicks, young, hip/modern and city-wise as against real women,
Nollywood has sold the impression that glamour, fame, money and the
good fast life are all that matter for Nigerian women. So, they have
been stereotyped in Nollywood as pretty, seductive, devious, cunning,
quarrelsome, money-grabbing gold diggers who will readily use their
bodies, juju/charms and love potions to “catch men!” Subliminally
portrayed as ‘pretty toys’ they are also obliquely cast as hard nailed
fight-to-finish/death ‘demons’ in a never-ending and escalating battle
of the sexes in Nigeria.

Not all Jagua Nanas

We have culturally
unacceptable scenes where women slap men and overdoses of men battering
women in horrific scenes of domestic violence. Then there are the
gun-totting bad girls to boot. Two decades after Domitilla, we are
offered a film in which women fight each other with spiritual,
witchcraft and physical weapons in their struggle to “catch” white men
in Nigeria. Definitely, Nigerian women are not all Jagua Nanas and
Opios as Nollywood would want us to believe.

In a country that
has female chief justices, deputy governors, ministers, professors,
Pilots and bank chief executives, where are these women featured in
Nollywood as nation and home builders? Where are the model roles for
mothers, sisters and loving peace-makers? For every wayward
undergraduate soft-prostitute there should be a female Deputy Vice
Chancellor putting right the savage male cults on campuses.

We acknowledge that
Nollywood has produced a number of Nigerian superstar actresses who are
rich, internationally famous, brand ambassadors and shinning role
models to millions of Nigerian girls and women. Nollywood has also
given employment and careers to many thousands of Nigerian women.
Nonetheless, a lot more needs to be done content-wise and in the
profiling of Nigerian women.

Generation Next

The time has come
for another generation of young Nigerian women to come forward and give
a better gender balance and meaning to Nollywood. Three years ago I
taught a practical documentary filmmaking course at the National Film
Institute, Jos, for diploma and degree students. I was amazed at the
potential of these students I later dubbed the ‘Generation Next of
Nigerian Filmmakers.’ Amongst them were skilled and confident female
scriptwriters, producers, directors, camera(wo)men, sound(wo)men and
editors who, given more opportunities and needed encouragement, will
match their counterparts anywhere in the world, including Hollywood.
Let us not forget that the great film ‘Mississippi Masala’ was made by
a ‘Third World’ woman!

We must be wary of
the new clique of Nigerian women and their white counterpart so-called
‘experts’ now on a questionable missionary crusade to ‘help’ the
Nigerian film industry. Hollywood and its European counterparts have
still to come up with genuine visual proof that they respect and can
honour black women and men in their films and TV. We should embrace our
Nigerian sisters from Jos; who are well-trained and intentioned to make
Nollywood do the right thing on gender issues and cinematic role models
for Nigerian women!

The first ever African Women in Film Forum holds at the Colonades Hotel, Ikoyi, Lagos on June 16 and 17, 2010.