Nkem Owoh Sparks Nollywood Origin Debate, Credits Yoruba Film Pioneers
Veteran Nigerian actor Nkem Owoh has reportedly reopened the long-running conversation over the origin of Nollywood, with comments crediting Yoruba theatre practitioners and filmmakers with establishing a significant filmmaking tradition before the home-video revolution of the 1990s.
Owoh’s reported position offers a different perspective on narratives that largely associate the birth of modern Nollywood with the explosion of Igbo-led home-video productions in the early 1990s.
According to the account attributed to the celebrated actor, Yoruba practitioners were already actively involved in theatre, stage performances and film production years before the home-video era transformed Nigeria’s entertainment industry.
He reportedly argued that Yoruba filmmakers had developed organised production structures and were working with professional filmmaking equipment at a time when stage drama and travelling theatre were major forms of popular entertainment in Nigeria.
The comments effectively shift the discussion from the question of who created Nollywood to the different historical movements that contributed to what eventually became one of the world’s biggest film industries.
Nigeria’s entertainment history has a rich Yoruba travelling-theatre tradition associated with legendary practitioners such as Hubert Ogunde, Duro Ladipo, Kola Ogunmola, Moses Olaiya (Baba Sala) and other pioneers whose stage productions helped develop generations of actors, directors and producers.
The later emergence of home-video productions, particularly during the early 1990s, dramatically changed the business model. Movies became cheaper to produce and easier to distribute directly to Nigerian households.
The phenomenal success of Living in Bondage, released in 1992, is widely regarded as an important turning point in Nigeria’s home-video revolution. Its commercial impact encouraged producers and investors to embrace the rapidly expanding video market.
However, describing that period as the absolute beginning of Nigerian filmmaking risks overlooking decades of theatrical and cinematic activity that preceded it.
Owoh’s reported intervention therefore introduces an important distinction between the historical foundations of Nigerian cinema and the commercial home-video revolution that produced modern Nollywood.
Rather than belonging exclusively to one ethnic group, Nollywood as it exists today can arguably be viewed as the product of several generations of Nigerian creative traditions — from Yoruba travelling theatre and early cinema to the Igbo-driven home-video expansion and contributions from filmmakers across the country.
The renewed debate also highlights how Nigeria’s film industry evolved rather than appearing suddenly in the 1990s.
While arguments over who “started Nollywood” may continue, the contribution of early Yoruba theatre and film pioneers remains an important chapter in the broader history of Nigerian cinema.
