"Old Nollywood brought me up... but it kept women in a box"

An interview with an old Nollywood movies aficionado(?)

Mar 07, 2024

So I have this fascination with old Nollywood memes, especially the ones yungnollywood makes. I like that they are women-centric, funny, relatable, oozing with the confidence of Nollywood baddies of the past, shocking, etc.

I have a whole album on Google Photos that houses my favourite old Nollywood memes, this is it if you’re interested (all photos in this album and this newsletter post are sourced from @yung.nollywood and occasionally @nolly.babes on Instagram).

Sometimes I show my older sister these memes or a random scene from an old Nollywood movie I found on the internet, and the number of times she’s seen them and said, “Oh, I know this movie” has made me see her as a sort of old Nollywood films expert. She likes watching old Nollywood movies and I thought it would be fun to interview her on the topic.

According to her, she spent a lot of her teenage years watching old Nollywood movies, especially when they were at their peak in the 1990s, and they basically raised her.

So here it goes.

(This interview was edited for clarity.)

Me: When did you start re-watching old Nollywood movies?

Sister: When I went to the UK for my master’s. I was missing Nigeria so I went on Youtube and started watching them.

M: Do you actually like them? Or do you watch them for a different reason like connecting to your past, hate-watching, or is it merely entertainment?

S: It’s not that I necessarily like them. Most of the time I get angry, I’m like, ‘God’ *rolls eyes.* It’s both for entertainment and like you said, connecting to my past— reminiscing, nostalgia. It’s also nice seeing our lifestyle on screen, something to relate to. When you constantly watch American movies, it can get tiring.

M: What emotions do re-watching them bring up?

S: Different emotions but a lot of the time I get angry and think, wow, we were so stupid. I realised at the time, it was what a lot of us were watching growing up so most of our values, principles, and mentalities came from Nollywood.

M: Do you have a certain year you don’t watch stuff after? Like post-2009 for example.

S: Duh, of course. Is it 2009? I don’t remember the year, but yes, there are.

M: In a lot of memes or videos I’ve shown you, even if it’s a blurry picture or a 10-second scene, you say, oh I know this movie. How many can you say you’ve watched approximately?

S: I can’t say, I’ve watched a lot. But there’s still a high number I haven’t watched.

M: Can you give me a number?

S: I don’t know, I can’t give a number. But I’ve watched a lot.

M: Do you have favourite movies?

S: Ehn, there are some I really liked.

M: Can you mention them?

S: I can’t remember their names. But there are some actresses I like to watch.

M: Okay that’s the next question. Do you have favourite actors? Who are they?

S: I like to watch Rita Dominic and Genevieve. When I see Nse Ikpe-Etim, yeah I like to watch. And some of these really old actresses like Ngozi Ezeonu, Eucharia, Clarion Chukwura. Also Charles Okafor and Bob Manuel.

M: Who is your favourite old Nollywood baddie (like Eucharia, Monalisa, Ini Edo, Oge Okoye, etc) and why?

S: I think my baddie is Genevieve because she’s cold when she’s acting all those parts. She’s never emotional. She’s cold like, she’s just cold sha. You can’t get her. She’s not the usual ‘waiting for the knight in shining armour to come and save her.’ She’s baddd.

M: What’s the worst movie you’ve watched?

S: Worst? I can’t remember the name. But there are some I’ve watched and I’m like wow, my brain cells are dead, why did I waste my time? Sometimes I don’t even finish some of them. Other times I’m watching, fast-forwarding and hissing like, what is this?

M: I was going to ask what’s the best you’ve watched but those are like your favourites and you can’t remember them,

S: Yeah, I can’t remember their names. Most times I don’t even look at their names I just watch them.

M: What’s your favourite trope?

S: Ouu I have one. The girl marries the man and things happen in the marriage…I just like those stories about marriage, sha. But most of the time they don’t go how I hope they go. But some do.

M: How do you hope they go?

S: I like it when the woman gets to stand up for herself. There was one movie I watched with Bob Manuel. After dealing with his wife, he threw her out of the house and she ended up back in the village where she suffered for many years. Bob went ahead to marry another woman, he lived the high life and did many things. Then all of a sudden, he came back to his first wife and she’s just supposed to accept him like that because…she’s just supposed to accept him?

But there are a few movies where the women don’t go back to the man. They get to make decisions for themselves and not get walked over because they’re women and are meant to be “submissive” and take nonsense.

M: What’s your worst trope?

S: I don’t watch all those old cultural movies like the Egg of Life setting. There are a few I can watch like Egg of Life and Oganigwe, because I’ve watched them before. But all the other ones where the crown prince is looking for a wife and maidens come to dance, it’s so annoying like please, please, please. I don’t ever watch them.

M: Is there anything about old Nollywood that distinguishes it from new Nollywood that you like and wish they’d incorporate into the industry?

S: Hmm, for me I think they do the same story over and over again. Even with old Nollywood at some point I got tired. But with the new Nollywood, they are still doing the same story, you get tired of it.

M: Like the same story they did in old movies?

S: Yes, the same storyline, and it’s getting worse. It was better in those days. Aside from the occasional Nigerian movies we watch now with different stories, like Sistà, in general, it’s the whole prince who wants to marry a wife, maidens dancing or a woman looking for a husband.

With some of them, the production is better and they have good actors but the storylines are nothing to write home about. It’s just bland, like do something new and realistic, something people can relate to.

M: What do you think of remakes?

S: I’ve not watched any of them but I don’t think it’s a bad idea to bring the old stories back. If I can I would like to watch them but I’ve not gotten around to it.

M: What do you think about people looking down on old Nollywood and calling it trash?

S: It’s not trash because if we didn’t have old Nollywood, would we have what we have now? They’re like a foundation and they tried considering where they came from. With a number of their movies, I was surprised by the standard they had and over time, this standard fell. You’d expect new Nollywood to grow from where those guys started.

M: Like which standards?

S: Like the acting for instance was pretty good and with the way they spoke, I was shocked at how good their English was in the really old films. The storylines were also interesting. They started with what we had in our society. Most of their stories were about what was happening around at the time, even though a lot of these stories weren’t right.

They didn’t help our mentality, especially women. It kept us in a box. For instance, it told girls growing up that they were supposed to look forward to getting married and finding that man who would take care of them and they were not encouraged to go and do stuff and explore and just be human beings!

In a lot of these movies, the women who had careers were bad mothers and bad wives who neglected their families. Then their husband, who is usually the prize, marries the housemaid or some other poor girl from somewhere. The husband sleeping with another person is the woman’s fault, not the man’s fault. It’s not him that doesn’t have self-control, no. It’s the woman’s fault. So women were not encouraged to go out there and explore and do things. They were supposed to just be a wife and bring up children, that’s all.

Women were not encouraged to go and do stuff and explore and just be human beings!

There were also the movies that preached that the girl with a poor boyfriend should stick with him because, at the end of everything, the boy was going to make it in life if she was patient enough. But the most important reason to stick with him was for ‘love’.

M: Like the the reward is he’ll marry you and what greater reward is there than a man picking you?

S: Yes, the so-called ‘love’, getting married and acquiring the ‘Mrs’ title is everything. Also, the girl is supposed to sacrifice all she has for the man as she’s in school. So her pocket money goes to the boy who is from a poor background. They made it seem as if it was the right thing to do and it influenced me, I practised it in my own life too because I spent so much of my teenage years watching Nollywood movies. They brought me up more than my parents did.

And I guess it (old Nollywood) was that way because it’s a ‘man’s world.’

M: PATRIARCHY 😡

S: Yeah, so that’s what they encouraged. But then we’re supposed to grow out of that. They tried looking at where they came from with little resources. But there are more resources and more exposure now, so they are supposed to grow out of that. Instead, they are just going down and I’m thinking these storylines, what’s going on?

M: What do you think is the best way to enjoy an old Nollywood movie?

S: Anyhow you want to. I just sit down and watch. But usually, before I pick a movie I look at the actors in it. And there are many times I start, even with the actors I like, I’m like abeg, abeg, abeg, and I stop watching.

M: I was going to say can you give some recommendations for people who want to start this journey of watching or re-watching old Nollywood movies but you don’t remember anything.

S: Mm-hmm, I don’t remember their names. I don’t really keep tabs on the names.

M: The names get as they be

S: My dear. So I don’t remember. And I‘ve watched so much so I’ll just mix everything up.

M: But you can just search for them on YouTube right? Nigerian movies?

S: Yes, ‘old Nigerian movies’ and you can stick to the years you want to.

That’s it! There’s a lot more to be explored in this topic but I hope you enjoyed this post and are inspired to see old Nollywood as the legend it mostly is (especially with those songs and sound effects) whilst acknowledging its flaws in the way it told women’s stories amongst other things.

Will you attempt to watch some of these movies? I’ve been trying to get into those old Nollywood horror movies like End of the Wicked, Nneka the Pretty Serpent and I’ve been looking for someone to watch Karashika with.

Let me know your thoughts in the comments or by replying directly to this email! I hope you have a magical March! ✨