Parents Are Now Forbidding Their Children From Watching Nollywood Movies
Most Nigerians either love or hate Nollywood, with not too many occupying the middle ground.
In primary school, children play clapping games while singing songs about Living in Bondage, considered the first Nollywood blockbuster, and the film that launched the Nigerian cinema industry.
However, as the industry grew, parents began to forbid their children to watch Nigerian movies due to the abundant depictions of rituals or “juju” and very x-rated movies.
Still Nollywood continued its ascent, and it is not until when a Nigerian goes outside that he realise how much of an influence Nollywood has.
Perhaps Nollywood is so influential because of its shows of wealth, which many living in poverty aspire to, while simultaneously reflecting the realities and challenges of ordinary people as it imparts one moral message or another.
But while many criticise the industry for its obsession with witchcraft, there’s been a lot less criticism about the way in which women are portrayed and treated in these movies.
And when people discuss the female characters, the focus is largely on how scantily dressed they are, and what a bad influence they are on young women.
For a country that prides itself on being morally righteous and religious, you can’t help but wonder what kind of morals most Nollywood movies are trying to communicate.
If Nollywood is a reflection of Nigerian society, then what it reveals doesn’t say much about how Nigerians view women.
Nollywood movies feature heavy doses of sexism that even the least feminist Nigerian is likely to pick up on.
One has to ask why did the filmmakers chose to tell the story from the male perspective?
A petition in Lagos started by Bayo Olupohunda, is attracting signatures from all over the world, which suggests more people are becoming aware of the problem.
Olupohunda notes that Nollywood “movies are dominated by scenes of s*x and extreme violence against women”, and concludes that that Nollywood scripts perpetuate violence against women while cementing the longstanding patriarchal narrative.
While we wait for Nollywood to get it right when it comes to women, we should seriously watch it with our children and the type of movie they watch.
