“The Herd” Didn’t Target Any Nigerian Ethnic Group – Daniel Etim Effiong

Nollywood actor Daniel Etim Effiong has opened up about the controversy that followed the streaming of his movie “The Herd” on Netflix. He recently shared that he only wanted to tell an impactful and heartfelt story, and fans have been reacting.

According to him, even though the film’s teaser, which showed herders crossing a road with cattle, was interpreted as a jab at Fulani communities, he actually consulted widely with Fulani people and Muslims before production.

Daniel added that the script was written by Lani Asiadi without targeting any particular ethnic group.

His words, “I didn’t anticipate the backlash. I just wanted to tell a heart-felt story. How I know that the story would be heart-felt is that if I’m moved by the telling of the story, then I’m sure that someone else will also be moved by it. That was what I went out to do, to tell an impactful story.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.