LAGOS — Renowned Nollywood actor and comedy icon Nkem Owoh, popularly known as "Osuofia," has weighed in on the ongoing debate surrounding the origins of Nigerian cinema, asserting that Yoruba theatre practitioners laid the actual foundation for the country's screen and stage arts long before the Igbo-led home-video revolution of the 1990s.
Owoh made the remarks while countering recent public commentary by fellow veteran actor Francis Duru regarding how the Nigerian movie industry began.
According to Owoh, Yoruba practitioners had already established a thriving culture of stage drama, structured film production, and cinema exhibitions decades before VHS tapes popularized modern Nollywood.
"The Yorubas were already deeply involved in filmmaking, theatre, and stage performances long before the home-video era," Owoh stated, noting that early pioneers utilized professional celluloid equipment, cinema halls, and established production workflows.
A Tale of Two Eras: Celluloid vs. VHS
The debate touches on a longstanding historical distinction within African film history—separating the pioneer celluloid era from the commercial home-video boom.
- The Yoruba Stage & Celluloid Era (1940s–1980s): Theatre icons such as Hubert Ogunde (widely regarded as the father of Nigerian theatre), Duro Ladipo, and Moses Olaiya (Baba Sala) built a self-sustaining travelling theatre industry. By the late 1970s and 1980s, these troupes transitioned their stage plays to 16mm and 35mm celluloid film, releasing classics like Aiye (1979) and Orun Mooru (1982) in commercial cinema halls across West Africa.
- The Igbo Home-Video Revolution (1990s): The release of Kenneth Nnebue’s Living in Bondage in 1992 birthed a new distribution paradigm. By adopting mass-produced, low-cost VHS cassettes distributed through commercial networks like Alaba International Market, Igbo producers democratized film access and created the high-volume model globally recognized today as Nollywood.
Industry Reaction
Owoh’s perspective has drawn significant attention across the entertainment landscape, notably because it comes from an Igbo actor who became one of the definitive faces of the 1990s and 2000s home-video era. Film historians and culture commentators have praised the veteran actor’s objective historical take, acknowledging that while Igbo marketers and producers built Nollywood's global commercial engine, the artistic and technological foundations were established decades prior by early Yoruba theatre practitioners.
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