In a series of tweets today, veteran Nigerian rapper, Eldee The Don says he strongly believes that Nollywood can save us all but the script writters and story tellers must deliberately begin to aggressively promote fairness, hard work, integrity, honesty, respect'.
According to him, 'Nollywood is the one thing that connects all Nigerians besides music and football, and it has the potential to shift the mentality of the population. Our writers must become more careful with the content that we feed our people'.
See all his tweets below...
In this episode I discuss the consequence of not being intentional and deliberate, as a storyteller.
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My intention on the episode is to highlight a huge but rarely acknowledged opportunity for nation re-building through media.
Much of modern Nigerian culture is passed on and reinforced through Nollywood storytelling and in my opinion, majority of Nollywood movies reinforce too many negative stereotypes.
I watched a lot of Nollywood this summer and the recurring themes of more than 90% of the movies unwittingly reinforce negative stereotypes. The values that perpetuate the societal decay.
I understand that movies are a reflection of society but there is a unique opportunity to change narratives with movies that we don’t seem to realize or have totally ignored over the last 2 decades.
In my humble opinion, the intentional attitude of 80’s NTA needs new representation in Nollywood. The carefully thought out storylines that deliberately encourage the inclusion of Nigeria’s ethnic & religious diversity through TV & Film.
Storylines that subliminally teach the values that we are losing rapidly today, the values that are necessary for the positive attitudes that lead to nation building, and not the opposite.
Storylines that may help the population unlearn some of the very negative attitudes that led us to where we are as a people today.
We weren’t always this bad, we just stopped being intentional & allowed our population consume a lot of negative reinforcement.
The Nollywood boom was as a result of filmmaking barriers to entry being lowered and thats a great thing, but it also encouraged a lot of the unintentional but truly damaging consequences of today.
Good stories with the right values and life lessons, told at the right time in someone’s life can change their outlook, and shine a light that is bright enough to illuminate the way ahead on the map of life.
We must go back to telling deliberate stories that are intended not only for entertainment but for teaching the values that are desperately needed for the nation to change its current course.
Our stories must deliberately begin to aggressively promote fairness, hard work, integrity, honesty, respect, discipline, compassion, accountability, selflessness, empathy, responsibility, Kindness, self-awareness, resilience, self-control, independence, I could go on.
Nollywood is the one thing that connects all Nigerians besides music and football, and it has the potential to shift the mentality of the population. Our writers must become more careful with the content that we feed our people.
There’s a reason why people come in contact with hollywood believe America is the greatest country in the world. There’s a reason why 17 year olds voluntarily sign up to join the military in developed countries.
There’s a reason why citizens feel a sense of pride in being community builders and custodians. Being a teacher, fireman, or a police officer is considered a thing of pride in more developed countries. It takes a lot of intentional effort to get human beings to that state of mind
We must begin to re-teach & reinforce values that help us feel a sense of responsibility to & for one another. We must rebuild our sense of community & the value of our collective well being. A failure to do so is what results in today’s prevalent “i-before-others” mentality.
As storytellers/influencers, our goal is to entertain but we must recognize the power of our unintentional narratives, story plots, & the negative cultural nuances we reinforce through the content we create.
Nigeria’s problems are beyond who is in office, but more about the poor habits and negative attitudes that we have all learned and had reinforced over the years.
Nollywood has the potential to change our attitudes and redirect us.
Im not asking for government censorship even though some moderate censorship may be necessary. Im asking for us creatives to recognize our storytelling superpower and use it to shape narratives that help rather than worsen our situation.
We need a Govt or private partnership film bureau to take up this mission. To raise capital to encourage, fund & support big budget stories/movies/plays that are intentionally developed to change the narrative, and re-teach the values we seek in our citizens.
We need a Govt or private partnership film bureau to take up this mission. To raise capital to encourage, fund & support big budget stories/movies/plays that are intentionally developed to change the narrative, and re-teach the values we seek in our citizens.
Wakanda is fictional. Never underestimate the power of a story to plant the right seeds. Nollywood can save us all.
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