Uzoatu
27 June 2009
analysis
Lagos — The Nigerian movie industry, universally known as Nollywood, has a determined chronicler in Kema Akeh, a University of Ife (now Obafemi Awolowo University) trained historian, public administrator, industrial sociologist, journalist, lecturer, and management, marketing and public relations consultant. Kema Akeh has just published the 92-page book entitled The Movie Industry in Nigeria, which encompasses the history of filmmaking in Nigeria, the entry of Nollywood, the relationship of corporate bodies with Nollywood, the role of government, capped with an appendix on code of ethics and production for filmmakers in Nigeria.
Akeh interviewed scholars such as Professors Tejumola Olaniyan, Awam Amkpa, Niyi Coker etc to earn himself a good grounding on the vast subjects of drama, filmmaking and Nollywood. He pays a special tribute to the public relations impresario Osayande Osunde who tragically passed on in 2008 while the book was going to the press. A prolific author, Akeh has written other books such as Managerial Factors Causing Distress in Banks, Managing Magazines, The Music Industry in Nigeria etc.
Akeh informs that the name "Nollywood" was given to the Nigerian movie industry by Nick Moran, a British journalist and actor. He then stresses that Nigeria's Nollywood is rated as the third largest movie industry in the world after the American Hollywood and India's Bollywood.
Going back in history, Akeh cites Prof Alfred Opubor who wrote that the first film in Nigeria was exhibited in August 1903 at the Glover Memorial Hall in Lagos. Akeh writes: "In 1904 a brief glimpse of the Alake of Abeokuta was shown during his visit to England."
Pa Orlando Martins would in 1935 blaze the film trail by appearing in the production of Edgar Rice Boroughs' Sanders of the River. Wole Soyinka's Kongi's Harvest in which the future Nobel Laureate acted the title character owns the distinction of Nigeria's first independent feature film produced in 1970. It was directed by the African-American legend, Ossie Davies, and was produced by Francis Oladele of Calpenny Films. The first feature film in a Nigerian language, Hausa, is Mama Learns a Lesson produced by the Northern Nigerian Film Unit in 1963. Other scholars, notably Opubor and Nwuneli would rather give that pride of place to the Igbo language film Amadi produced by Afro-Cult Foundation Ltd. The 1976 Ola Balogun film Ajani Ogun paved the way for Yoruba folkloric films. The doyen of Nigerian theatre Hubert Ogunde also made his presence felt in the film world.
General Ibrahim Babangida's Structural Adjustment Programme (SAP) sounded the death knell for celluloid film production. Nigerians had to make do with television soaps such as Mirror in the Sun, Checkmate, Ripples, Sparks, Cockcrow at Dawn etc.
According to Akeh, "Kenneth Nnebue, a Nigerian trader, dealing in blank tapes and sale of foreign films flung open in 1992 the otherwise moribund entertainment circuit in Nigeria with the film titled Living in Bondage and this heralded the dawn of a successful filmmaking tradition for the local populace. Before him, Prince Alade Aromire produced the first-ever home video in Nigeria, titled Ekun. But Nnebue by dint of merit and patriotism from fellow Ibo men (which the Igbos were known for) changed the face of movie production in Nigeria."
Akeh identifies the problems of Nollywood as funding, "poor sound quality - quality sound track, audio production, music and sound design, sound effects, foley work, mixing." He deploys the expert opinion of the boss of the Nigerian Film Corporation (NFC), Afolabi Adesanya in regard to "problems of distribution and market."
Akeh has done a pace-setting work in The Movie Industry in Nigeria. He highlights the Herculean efforts of the likes of Olu Jacobs, Mahmood Alli-Balogun, Richard Mofe-Damijo, Kate Henshaw-Nuttal, Genevieve Nnaji, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, Francis Onwochei, Zik Zulu Okafor etc. Other writers should follow in the footsteps of Akeh to give the Nollywood phenomenon the intellectual grounding that it deserves.
Uzoatu writes from Lagos
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