Nigeria: Trends in Nollywood - a Treasure of Insights

28 June 2015
opinion

My first contact with a Nigerian movie was in 1977. I grew up near a Cinema Hall and the Urban Community School I attended was also located behind the Central Cinema in Abakaliki. The movies trending then were foreign movies like: Enter the Dragon, Game of Death, Heroes Two, Blacula, Saturday Night Fever, Longest Day, One Arm Boxer, and The Ten Gladiators amongst others. Early in the morning, we used to deploy the promotional signpost "Showing Tonite" at strategic locations which accounted for our gate fees. It was then surprising to see on the coming attraction promo board a Nigerian movie titled "Bisi Daughter of the River" starring Patti Boulaye, a Nigerian celebrity who we had watched severally on LUX soap commercials courtesy of the Lever Brothers' market activation team at Hosanna hill.

I have journeyed down memory lane to connect with the title of this book review, which is all about trends. But first, what is a trend? It is a gradual change or development that produces a particular result. As the human society develops, trends emerge. Life evolves in diverse ramifications, creating trendy patterns at every point in time. In short, trend is a function of change, and change itself is a mirror of the dynamics of human civilisation. Nothing is ever static in various aspects of life. So it is with the film industry in modern times. Today, the film industries in America, Europe, Asia, South America and Africa have evolved dramatically unique from what they were in centuries and years past.

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