The Nollywood Project

The Nollywood Project is an ongoing research initiative based at the Global Media Research Center, College of Mass Communications and Media Arts, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA.

Our objective is to investigate the new West African video movie industry centered in Nigeria commonly known as "Nollywood." These popular movies are now available across the continent and are rapidly displacing imported media in African homes. Nollywood evolved in a market that had been disregarded by the global media industries. A professional base of television writers, directors, technicians, and actors had been nurtured by the early and extensive development of television broadcasting in Nigeria. In some parts of this densely populated country you could get five to seven channels with a simple antenna. A robust popular theater culture in the city of Lagos found an ally in the content-hungry television industry. Thus, Nigeria was rich in storytellers, professional production talent, and cheap televisions. It was an environment in which the video movie industry could flourish. video movies circulated informally throughout the 1980s. By the early 1990s Lagos electronics traders began to capitalize on Nigerians' desire for a movie culture of their own. The market responded aggressively and the moviemakers got to work creating Nollywood.

The most significant consequence of Nollywood’s entrepreneurial origins is the autonomy it affords. The industry has never received any significant support from the Nigerian government. Neither is it dependent on support from the foreign interests that cultivate the Palme d’Or aesthetics commonly associated with the canonical films of African cinema studies—most of which are unknown to ordinary Africans. It has arisen free of the dogmas of cultural development programs and adheres to no conditions or regulation beyond censorship of the most ordinary kind. Nollywood is a product of the popular market. While the African continent still provides the primary audience, video marketers are now beginning to extend their reach worldwide to the scattered populations of expatriate Africans abroad. Even in globalization the autonomy is largely sustained. Nollywood traders are developing international markets without engaging, in any significant way, with global media corporations or the regulatory arrangements that normalize and institutionalize their dominance. Rather, the free exchange in Nigerian videos that radiates from Idumota Market in Lagos extends through networks of traders to the world's major cities and onto the Internet, reaching audiences everywhere.



Site Navigator Home Nollywood? Research Archive People a project of the SIUC -			The Nollywood Project is an ongoing research initiative based at the Global Media Research Center, College of Mass Communications and Media Arts, Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA. Our objective is to investigate the new West African video movie industry centered in Nigeria commonly known as "Nollywood." These popular movies are now available across the continent and are rapidly displacing imported media in African homes. Nollywood evolved in a market that had been disregarded by the global media industries. A professional base of television writers, directors, technicians, and actors had been nurtured by the early and extensive development of television broadcasting in Nigeria. In some parts of this densely populated country you could get five to seven channels with a simple antenna. A robust popular theater culture in the city of Lagos found an ally in the content-hungry television industry. Thus, Nigeria was rich in storytellers, professional production talent, and cheap televisions. It was an environment in which the video movie industry could flourish. video movies circulated informally throughout the 1980s. By the early 1990s Lagos electronics traders began to capitalize on Nigerians' desire for a movie culture of their own. The market responded aggressively and the moviemakers got to work creating Nollywood. The most significant consequence of Nollywood’s entrepreneurial origins is the autonomy it affords. The industry has never received any significant support from the Nigerian government. Neither is it dependent on support from the foreign interests that cultivate the Palme d’Or aesthetics commonly associated with the canonical films of African cinema studies—most of which are unknown to ordinary Africans. It has arisen free of the dogmas of cultural development programs and adheres to no conditions or regulation beyond censorship of the most ordinary kind. Nollywood is a product of the popular market. While the African continent still provides the primary audience, video marketers are now beginning to extend their reach worldwide to the scattered populations of expatriate Africans abroad. Even in globalization the autonomy is largely sustained. Nollywood traders are developing international markets without engaging, in any significant way, with global media corporations or the regulatory arrangements that normalize and institutionalize their dominance. Rather, the free exchange in Nigerian videos that radiates from Idumota Market in Lagos extends through networks of traders to the world's major cities and onto the Internet, reaching audiences everywhere.
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