Nigerian Movies No Local Art

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Yemi Alade, who sings hits like Johnny and Double Double, 
incorporates African elements in most of her videos. 

Movie producers seldom smile. Too many things on their minds like signing actors, directors, sourcing food for them and where the movie will be shot.

There’s always an office scene and there are usually three or four trinkets on the desk. Nigeria is soccer mad. That’s why a soccer ball is the most common trinket. There’s always a living room scene with a coffee table covered with a fake fur cloth, which hides the expensive looking table. Like everything else, framed art on the wall is from China. What’s wrong with that? All the trinkets in European, Canadian and American homes come from China.

It’s the absence of Nigerian local art. Movies are ambassadors. Books, magazines and movies were ambassadors of the British Empire. Before the internet, Hollywood was America’s biggest ambassador. Bollywood is India’s ambassador because it is the #1 producer of movies in the world.

Nollywood (Nigeria) is #2. That is why the lack of Nigerian art in Nollywood movies is glaring. Bollywood, Japanese and Chinese movies have local art by default. It’s not trinkets on a desk. It’s things they use for cooking, cleaning, sleeping and their clothes.

If Nollywood wants to use objects on a desk scene, they can source them from millions of artists who carve or weave cultural objects. Nigerian movie directors can support local painters by using their work as props on the wall. Better still, they can buy the paintings or commission them for special movie projects.

By: Nonqaba waka Msimang.

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