Nollywood actress Judy Austin has filed a lawsuit against her colleague, Rita Edochie, over alleged defamatory statements made against her. She recently had her say in a Writ of Summons filed before the High Court of the Federal Capital Territory, Abuja Judicial Division.
Accusing Rita of constant defamation online and offline, Judy asked the court to compel the veteran actress to publish a full and unreserved retraction and apology in at least two widely circulated national newspapers and across her social media platforms.
Yul Edochie’s wife concluded by urging the court to ensure Rita refrains from further publishing or circulating statements allegedly defamatory of her in the near future.
Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.
The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.
Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.
Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.
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