The American movie industry, Hollywood, has influenced the culture in the Nigerian film industry a lot. But that caused no debates until Hollywood capped the Nigerian movie industry and it made it Nollywood. The name Nollywood is an identity that was deployed from a lack of creativity and with little meaning.
How did “Nollywood” come?
Replace the first letters of both words and it gives the name of the Nigerian movie industry. Most people around the world have adopted this technique. However, this only seems to make all industries doing the same look like tribal descendants of Hollywood. The name does not truly capture the meaning of Nollywood as an industry and many people do agree with that.
What is the meaning of Nollywood?
Nollywood should be able to cast an influence with its culture, rather than letting Hollywood influence all of it, including its name. From
Bollywood, Hindi language movie industry in Mumbai to Ghallywood, Ghanian movie industry everyone seems to be struck by a trend.
Nollywood might seem good enough for the Nigerian movie industry, but most people disagree. They claim that the industry is original and uniquely African. So the name is not a true identity and does not suit the industry.
Others claim that ‘Nollywood’ has no basis, neither by location nor by history and relevance, therefore is unacceptable.
To back it up, they have pointed out rich events and pioneer actors in Nigeria from the 18th century, including Orlando Martins. These people are a part of the rich history of the industry and should not be discarded. Also, as an honour, a name can be coined using these events and these people to that they could be a part of it.
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