Afrobeats Stars Must Start Promoting Nollywood – Gideon Okeke

Nollywood actor Gideon Okeke has come out to speak about the growth of the Nigerian movie industry. He recently had his say while speaking to the press, and fans have been reacting.

According to him, the movie sector will be bigger than it is today if the big names in the entertainment industry promoted Nigerian films better.

Gideon added that Afrobeats stars deserve criticism for not promoting Nollywood films despite their global recognition and influence.

His words, “You know how we carry our Afrobeat music on our head. Big three, big five, big this. We idolise and worship ourselves. What’s going to happen if your big three, big five, or whoever big over there, come down to look around and see your cousins on the other side of the media hemisphere and say, ah, you see that bros over that side? He’s bad. That babe, bad.

Una no dey watch Nigerian films, all of una, una know yourself. Una watch Nigerian film? Beat yourself on the chest, you know yourself. Since when Obama sit down for presidential seat, na every year Obama dey endorse una, every year, it will come out. He will publish his best music, una name no dey fall inside? Abi no be so?. Nobody owes you anything, and you don’t owe anybody anything.”

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.