Nollywood: the Influence of the Nigerian Movie Industry

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Nollywood: The Influence of the Nigerian Movie Industry on African Culture Uchenna Onuzulike Abstract Since its emergence at the turn of the twenty-first century, the Nigerian movie industry “Nollywood” has had a profound influence on African culture. The Nigerian accents, style of dress, and behavioral idiosyncrasies, all of which are distinctly Nigeria, are now being transmitted as images around the globe. The medium of film has come to be directly associated with the culture industry. In Nigeria such a role for the film industry is still evolving. However, certain factors are altering the profile of what could be regarded as the country's culture, while the film industry itself is undergoing a crucial transition. The corpus of songs and oral literature, festivals, rituals, the traditional religion, performing arts, music, dance, and indeed, the entire range of artifacts constituting traditional oral performance of Nigerian culture are represented in Nigerian movies. Introduction This work highlights the Nigerian movie industry and demonstrates how it impacts and influences African culture. “We are often reminded that film is a powerful medium of entertainment and the transmission of cultural values” (Orewere, p.206). In this study, Nigerian films will be viewed through a relevant theoretical framework deeply rooted in Nigerian cultural traditions and social texts and a comprehensive methodology that focuses on the intervening mediations between community life and representation. Cultures are the creation of human interaction. Culture is something we learn; we are not born with it. He writes that changes in human society reflect the dynamism of culture. This dynamism is responsible for constant change in patterns associated with given cultures, and the multicultural character of most, if not all, societies substantially widens the range for influence on

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