In Nollywood, a village girl character is one where the actor literally has to play dumb and speak bad English. She structures English like Zebrudaya, Chika Okpala’s popular 80s character does. Instead of entertaining, movies like that are often confusing and mixes themes that leave viewers empty.
Being the master of the craft, Chika Okpala did not make it easy for Nollywood to replicate Zebrudaya’s grammar. The character mixes English, Igbo and Pidgin languages to communicate and this bears a defective grammar.
Its lack of certain tenses and certain verb forms just complicates the grammar. The intricacies of Zebrudaya’s English does not allow for any form of precision no matter how you analyse the structure.
Why The Village Girl English in Nollywood is Now Overused
This communication method has been used for a long time now in Nollywood movies. All shiny Nollywood actors today played bad roles in the beginning. Many of them including Mercy Johnson, Ini Edo, Tonto Dikeh, Rachel Okonkwo, Queen Nwokoye and Chika Ike attempted using this grammar.
As for the Nollywood movies with the village girl English, we can not begin to name them all.
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The role quickly transformed into a cliche and just elevates the worst in Nigerian movies. It is now a diversification issue in Nollywood plotlines and it is defying all Nollywood actors who have tried using it.
A Nollywood movie with a village girl in the lead says many different things at the same time. The aptest descriptions are a poor girl attracted to the Prince or a wannabe who likes to speak English. The theme of such movies can be confusing and never really nails the point.
When a movie just reveals stereotypical views and says women are insane that can easily be followed. But a movie that opens with a girl that speaks bad English and then marries a Prince isn’t a flick. But Nollywood won’t stop making them.
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