False Accusers Shouldn’t Undermine Fight Against Rape – Deyemi Okanlawon

Nollywood actor Deyemi Okanlawon has come out to support popular singer Simi following backlash over her recent comments on rape. He recently had his say via his X account, and fans have been reacting.

According to him, Nigerians should avoid bringing up false accusers when people speak out against rape across the country because that is a separate conversation.

Deyemi added that the only valid response to any “stop raping women” tweet is an emphatic Yes.

His words, “When women say “STOP rap*ng women’… Your response cannot be ‘what abt men/children’ neither can it be ‘what abt false accusers’ nor anything else. Your reply MUST only be YES!!! You can start your own separate conversation abt anything else at another time/place.”

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.