Old Nollywood Movies Broke Barriers – Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde

Nollywood actress, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde has come out to say that way before Afrobeats, the Nigerian movie industry introduced the Nigerian Entertainment scene to the world.

She recently had her say via her social media page, and fans have been reacting.

According to her, even if the quality of pictures was not so great back then, Nollywood movies actually broke a lot of barriers many years ago while putting Nigeria on the map.

Her words, “Someone sent me some of these vids and it was nostalgic…lol”

“Despite the not so great quality , No social media , these movies Broke barriers … Way Before Afrobeats We … introduced Nigerian Entertainment to the World ! We took on the World … we still …”

“Name the Movies you know… Lol”

WOW.

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.