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Film journalist and critic Shaibu Husseini has launched a book, ‘Moviedom… The Nollywood Narratives, Clips on the Pioneers’, presented on December 17 to commemorate his 40th birthday. Incidentally, his fellow film journalist, Victor Akande, did a similar thing a month ago.
The book launch which took place at the National Theatre in Lagos saw a gathering of Nollywood stars, filmmakers and stakeholders in the industry, as the writer has interviewed and interacted with every known name in the business.
Jahman Anikulapo, editor of the Sunday Guardian, veteran filmmaker Eddie Ugbomah, Peace Anyiam Osigwe, founder of the African movie awards, Victor Akande, film journalist with the Nation newspapers and Martins Adaji, artistic director of the National troupe of Nigeria graced the launch.
Filmmaker Zeb Ejiro, Segun Arinze, president of the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria and Abuja Film Festival head, Fidelis Duker among many others were also at the event.
The book
Husseini said he coined the term ‘Moviedom’ to describe the movie industry in Nigeria. “It is a book of profiling,” he said. “We profiled people we considered the pioneers of the movie industry.”
On the motivation for the book, he stated that, “It was motivated by the fact that we might forget them. There is a need to think about our past so as to know how to forge ahead.” For him, it was important to identify the key players, hear their stories and know what made them tick.
Husseini informed that it was difficult to profile all the names that had been gathered as there were over 185 individuals after the compilation, and they wanted to publish just 60.
“We had to pick the major players, that is, those who played significant roles in the evolution of Nollywood,” he said. To make this a bit easy, they also chose a timeframe, because the list of names was exhaustive.
Husseini disclosed that the book was also intended to correct certain misconceptions about how the Nigerian movie industry started. According to him, people often mention the movie ‘Living in Bondage’ whenever they talk about how the industry started. “But there were people like Bayo Salami, and Alade Aromire did ‘Ekun’ in 1988”, Husseini revealed.
Peace Anyiam-Osigwe, a key personality at the event, gave the welcome address. “Celebrating Nollywood is something we must do. If there is one thing that has put Nigeria on the world map, it is our creativity. Nollywood inclusive,” she declared.
Nollywood Producer and actor Zik Zulu Okafor also offered some remarks, observing that, “The book offers an insight into our history.”
The review
Hyninus Ekwuazi, the book’s reviewer, said, “I have known Shaibu professionally. Both of us sit on the AMA jury.” Ekwuazi a lecturer in the Department of Theatre Arts at the University of Ibadan and a film critic, while giving the review, spoke a bit about the history of the Nigerian video film.
He touched on the transition from the cine to video. “There are certain things that led to movies like ‘Living in Bondage’. We are beginning to see that without the cine, the home video would not have come in,” Ekwuazi pointed out.
“The value of this work is that it helps us to look back on the road we have travelled. It’s part of the process of documentation.” Ekwuazi however indicated that he had expected to see more significance given to Ola Balogun, Eddie Ugbomah and the late Hubert Ogunde, in the book.
The Kogi-born Husseini, a pioneer member of the National Troupe of Nigeria and a former chair of the Dance Guild of Nigeria, started writing for The Guardian in 1999 after being moved to do so by Jahman Anikulapo. He currently runs two columns in the newspaper’s Saturday and Sunday editions: ‘Celebrity’ and ‘Moviedom’.