History

Kunzler (2006) attributes the birth of Nigerian cinema to the Nigerian governments decision in the 1960’s to fund movies made within the country. Nigeria had gained independence from Great Britain in 1960 and government funded movies were created to generate money for the economy. Unfortunately, Nigerians did not watch the movies produced. Instead, Nigerians preferred Asian and Hollywood movies (Ukadike, 2000). However, a performance group from the Yoruba tribe, The Traveling Theater, was extremely popular and used small film clips to create visual fantasy actions and supernatural events. The Traveling Theater first emerged in the 1930’s in Victorian Nigeria. They used music, dance, acrobatics, and drama in their performances. The group was enjoyed by all regions in Nigeria, so and when Nigeria went through an economic crisis in the 1980’s, performance were recorded on video and showed with video projector and monitors in public locations.

            During the oil boom era, the heightened economy made it possible for Nigerians to purchase film equipment and there was a slight increase in the amount of video-taped performance available (Kunzler, 2006). The end of the oil boom era, however, security became a serious issue for the residents of Nigeria, making home activities the preferred form of entertainment. People began purchasing movies to watch at home and the demand for home movies increased. Until the nineties, Nigerian movies were produced in the countries native languages (Igbo or Yoruba). In 1992 Kenneth Nnebue produced In Living Bondage, the first Nigerian English speaking movie (first made in Igbo, then synchronized in English). The movie was a success, selling over 750,000 copies. Nnebue only spent 2000 naira (about $350) to produce the movie. Soon after, the demand for Nigerian movies in English increased dramatically. The film industry then created genres for the increasingly popular movies: rags to riches, reminiscent of soap operas, historical epos, comedies, and Hallelujahs, in which Jesus comes and saves the day right on time (Ruirok, 2006). Nigerian movies experienced a sharp increase in sales and production in the year 2003. The industry produced 2300 films and generated 200 million dollars in sales (Osofisan, 2004). Experts (Winkler, 2004; Ogunlesi, 2006) suspected the high demand for Nollywood movies has blossomed because of the genres ability to be relatable to the African audience. Nollywood movies contain characters that act like, look like, and talk like the Nigerians viewing them, something a Hollywood or Bollywood movie can not provide. The relatable element is an important one, since one out of very five black individuals within the black population in the world is Nigerian (Winkler, 2004). Currently, Nollywood is now the second largest source of jobs in Nigeria and has improved the country’s economy significantly (Klein, 2006). According to Kunzler (2006) there are currently two ways of consuming Nigerian movies in Nigeria. First there is home consumption, and then there is public presentation. People in south Nigeria regularly by video CD’s while people in the north of Nigeria buy VHS’s.