> The following appeared on the Africa News of PeaceNet World News
> Service
> and is posted with their permission.
>
> Copyright 1998 InterPress Service, all rights reserved.
> Worldwide distribution via the APC networks.
>
> *** 24-Feb-98 ***
>
> CINEMA-NIGERIA: Videos Serve Up Heavy Dose of Evil
> By Remi Oyo
>
> LAGOS, Feb (IPS) - While writers at times may be at a loss for
> words, producers of home videos in the vernacular languages of
> Nigeria always seem to be out of new ideas as they recycle themes
> of violence, greed and voodoo.
>
> ''Once you have seen one local video, you have seen them all -
> the only difference is that the characters may be different,'' Ade
> Ifatunmise, owner of a rich collection of videos in Yoruba and
> Igbo, told IPS. ''The dominant messages are that violence pays,
> wealth is good and that voodoo works when you desire revenge.''
>
> For example, of the seven currently most popular home videos on
> sale nationwide, one celebrates wealth, another violence, three
> depict witchcraft and two are about ritual killings. All four
> themes are topics steeped in this West African nation's age-old
> culture and tradition.
>
> One of the videos, 'Agbo Odaju' (Circle of the Wicked), which
> is in Yoruba, tells the story of a man who had two wives, but was
> murdered by a hit squad hired by one of his spouses, who also
> attempts to knock off the second wife.
>
> 'Aje ni iya mi' Yoruba for 'My Mother is A Witch' is one of the
> best films of the Yoruba video genre, and its theme is that voodoo
> can be successfully used to settle scores. This film is similar to
> another called 'Iyawo Alhaji', meaning ''Alhaji's Wife.'' The wife
> uses voodoo on her perceived enemies in the household. Alhaji
> discovers this, kills her and is sent to jail.
>
> 'Blood Money', written in Igbo and a financial winner in 1997,
> centres on a man who trades in human body parts to make money.
> The film highlights particularly the connivance of law enforcement
> agents with criminals.
>
> But Nigerians are beginning to lose patience with these themes,
> arguing that they are not educational and are quickly losing their
> entertainment appeal.
>
> ''I don't like these videos. I don't like them because they
> are not educative for my kids. They are not informative and I've
> not noticed any significant contribution to our social and
> cultural values,'' says local journa;list Patrick Olajide. The
> videos tend ''to celebrate evil.''
>
> The man in the street agrees. Isaac Adeniyi, a driver, says
> ''Christian video films are much better. We have found them
> useful in my church especially for revivals. More and more
> producers are turning to the production of religious videos,
> rather than those with social themes which appear to be the same
> anyway.''
>
> Oluwole Peters, an independent producer of English language
> drama and documentaries, says that ''the themes of the current
> video films are a reflection of what is happening in society.''
> But he admits that ''most of the video producers in Nigeria do
> not really treat the topics (in depth) enough, giving rise to
> replication or duplications''.
>
> Ifatunmise believes that most film producers are more concerned
> about making a quick buck, and do not pay much attention to the
> moral benefits of their artistic works.
>
> ''The general feeling one gets from watching highly publicised
> Yoruba films is that they celebrate the negative and unwholesome
> aspects of human behaviour,'' he says.
>
> Some producers have become more critical of their work and are
> beginning to speak up about the problems with local productions.
> According to Ola Makinwa who has produced four films, impatience
> on the part of the producers is the bane of the Nigerian film
> industry.
>
> ''Many of the so-called film producers we have in the country
> are not producers at all,'' Makinwa argues in a recent interview
> in the Sunday 'Punch' newspaper.
>
> The producers ''are not experienced. And that is why they are
> always rushing into locations to produce films and they end up
> having third rate productions,'' Makinwa says, arguing that
> originality is slowly becoming a thing of the past.
>
> ''Many of the film producers just copy what has been produced
> in foreign films, re-enact the scenes and then get Nigerian
> actors and actresses together to play the roles so as to give it a
> Nigerian outlook.'' (END/IPS/ro/pm/mk98)
> Origin: ROMAWAS/CINEMA-NIGERIA/
> ----
> [c] 1998, InterPress Third World News Agency (IPS)
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