I Battled Impostor Syndrome Because My Parents Were Famous – Clarence Peters

Popular music video director, Clarence Peters has come out to say that he hated the fact that his parents were famous. Recall that Clarence is the son of Afro-Juju legend, Shina Peters and Nollywood icon, Clarion Chukwurah.

According to him, having famous parents caused him trauma, and that actually made him decide to remain behind the scenes at the early stage of his career.

Clarence added that his impostor syndrome condition forced him to prefer to remain out of the public eye even though his work was being recognised globally.

His words, “I grew up with famous parents, and some of my trauma stemmed from them being in the limelight—I didn’t like that.

But then I realised I had a level of imposter syndrome. I didn’t even want to put my name on music videos, but a friend I used to edit with tricked me. He insisted on adding my name, and there was nothing I could do about it.

I didn’t think I had the personality for it. I wasn’t even sure about my talent. The only person who was certain – even before I started exhibiting it – was my mother. She firmly believed that it’s in the genes.”

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.