FILM AS A PURVEYOR OF NIGERIA’S IMAGE AND SOCIO-CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT: AN ANALYSIS OF SELECTED NOLLYWOOD MOVIES

Abstract

Film is one of the significant tools of communication available to human society. In Nigeria, the Nollywood which is the household name for the movie Industry in Nigeria can be described as a potential tool for the promotion of cultural identity and national development. However, there seems to be some lapses and permissiveness of undesired contents in most Nollywood films which tend to imprint negative socio-cultural images of the country in the mind of viewers. Lately, Nollywood movie producers have started looking socio-cultural themes and concepts to drive home the quest for promoting Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage so as to limit the effect of globalized media contents on our socio-cultural development and national integration. This paper intends to evaluate how Nollywood movies which is the most accessible form of exhibiting Nigeria’s cultural indigenous heritage, is promoting and projecting the indigenous cultural values of Nigeria to the outside world. Of consideration to this paper, was the theme of the selected Nollywood movies within the context of indigenous cultural development. The paper made use of documentary observation and content analysis methods on selected Nollywood films such as: ‘Inale’–produced by Keke Bongos and directed by Jet Amata in 2010, Lion heart produced by Chinny Onwugbenu and directed by Genevieve Nnaji 2018, and ‘Wedding Party 1’ directed by Kemi Adetiba in 2016. The selection of the films was based on the fact that they reflect some of the genres like Classic, Comedy, Romance and so on in Nollywood. These categories of films contributed significantly in unraveling the different lifestyles and socio-cultural experience of Nigerians in their ethnic and socio-cultural contexts. From the analysis of these films, it was found that the potential for cultural representation and portrayed of the diverse indigenous cultural heritage of the Nigerian society in Nollywood is immensely high. This, one would say, could help in ensuring cultural renaissance in the face of erosion of our cultural values due to globalization.