I Dislike My Tribal Marks – Olaiya Igwe

Veteran Nollywood actor Olaiya Igwe has said that he once disliked his tribal marks. He recently had his say while speaking about culture and tradition across Nigeria, and fans have been reacting.

Admitting that he wanted tribal marks as a child because he considered them attractive, Olaiya questioned the relevance of tribal marks in modern society, stressing that advancements in technology have changed how people identify family ties.

The moviestar added that he was raised in a polygamous home where tradition required only the first child of each wife to bear tribal marks.

His words, “In my family, my dad had six wives but only five gave birth and my mom was the second to the last.

Traditionally, only the first born from each wife was mandated to have tribal marks, but because I was very sharp, I requested for it.

But when I eventually understood the meaning of tribal marks, I started to dislike it. I realised it wasn’t really our culture; it was lack of exposure.

Does it stand as DNA? No. These days, DNA can expose who truly belongs to a family. Somebody might give all the children tribal marks thinking they are from the same lineage, only to later discover otherwise.

It was when I saw the late Ade Love and Sunday Omobolanle’s tribal marks that I started liking it again.”

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.