What Is Nollywood?

Just saw a headline from www.theheraldng.com that goes “Blackberry must not hear, Nollywood releases Bold 5 Babes”.

For anyone who has had the misfortune of seeing that trailer, you know it’s simply a shameless display of nudity, the kind that would put even Ghallywood to shame (no offense to Ghallywood). And this had me thinking, there has got to be a difference between Nollywood and Nigerian movies.

The discussion has been brought up a million times over and I’ve never really paid much attention to the debate, but now I have to ask “What is Nollywood?”

Here’s something that I don’t do very often but let’s take a look at Bollywood and Hollywood when examining the question. Not every movie out of America is considered Hollywood? Not every movie made by Americans is considered Hollywood? The movie need not be made in America to be considered Hollywood, so exactly what makes a movie a Hollywood movie?

Let’s take a look at Bollywood: Not every movie out of India is a Bollywood movie; Are south-Indian movies even considered Bollywood? Why move all the way to the south, not even all movies from North India are considered Bollywood. And some Bollywood movies are not made in India.

Asides from the obvious “Life of Pi” and “Tears of the Sun”, how do you make that distinction between a movie filled almost entirely with foreigners vs. indigenous films? Life of Pi might have a cast of Indians and some Indian superstars but it’s still a Hollywood movie, Tears of the Sun might also have a cast of Africans but it’s still a Hollywood movie.

Be that as it may, the purpose of this post is not to explore the topic of Nollywood USA and whether or not it’s Nollywood but the topic is a bit closer to home. And the question is:

Are all made-in-Nigeria movies, Nollywood?

How do you answer that question? First of all we’d have to determine what exactly the term ‘Nollywood’ means, what exactly constitutes Nollywood and where did it start from? Ask this question to anyone and you’d most likely get an answer towards the lines of ‘Living in Bondage’ and even though this makes me proud as an Igbo person, I’m not so ignorant as to act oblivious to the fact that there were films before ‘Living in Bondage’.

Besides, even movies made with Ghanaians in main-stream African cinema, are still considered Nollywood by a majority of people, so what constitutes Nollywood.

Here’s my definition, I’ll follow the example of other -woods and define Nollywood as “commercial Nigerian cinema, by Africans, for Africans and recognized by most Africans”

Now that’s my definition, you can choose to take it or leave it but if you’re going to take it then you need to realize that it has four components.

1. Firstly, it’s commercial Nigerian cinema! That means your movie has to be selling and available for viewing by the public for it to be considered Nollywood in my book. Ignore the word cinema there, because I’m not arguing that it has to go to the cinemas to be considered Nollywood but it has to be commercial and it has to be Nigerian. And I use the word ‘Nigerian’ there instead of Africans because South Africans have cinema, and Kenyans have cinema and Eritreans have cinema and their cinema is not Nollywood. 
2. By Africans! It means it has to be made by people with African interests (I don’t know any other way of phrasing that). Be it the director, the actors, the producers, it must have some African interests.
3. For Africans – This is not to say that Nollywood movies are not for Americans but in as much as we wish to reach out to the world we can’t afford to loose our identity. We can change up our stories, we can (unfortunately) imbibe other cultures but we can’t go about speaking Hindi in our movies, because that’s not African. You also can’t go about speaking Twi, Swahili and the likes in a Nollywood movie because then it’s simply an African movie with more ties to Ghana or South Africa than Nigeria…. and lest we forget this is Nollywood!
4. Recognized by most Africans – and this is the part that’s a bit controversial and closed-minded (arguably) or elitist but the fact is you cannot make a Nollywood movie if nobody knows your name. It sounds bad but it’s the fact. If you’ve never made a Nollywood movie in your life, and you get together with a production house that’s never made a Nollywood movie in their entire lifetime, and you cast actors who have never made a Nollywood movie in their entire lifetime, then your movie is NOT a Nollywood movie; it’s just a movie made in Nigeria. I hate to burst your bubble but I could get a camera and cast my entire household in a video/film/movie and shoot in Lagos, that does not make it a Nollywood movie.

So Yes there is a distinction! Not all movies made in Nigeria are Nollywood and not all Nollywood movies are made in Nigeria!

Yes! You can make a movie with Ghanaians/Americans/Australians speaking English, in Nigeria with a Nigerian production house and it would be a Nollywood movie.

Yes! You can make a movie with Nigerians in Pakistan, who suddenly learned how to speak Urdu, and as long as most of the film is English or a traditional Nigerian language starring recognized faces, it is a Nollywood movie.

And yes! Unfortunately, Bold 5 Babes is also a Nollywood movie… smh