Cultural Promotion and Image Portrayal in the Nigerian Movies

CULTURAL PROMOTION AND IMAGE PORTRAYAL IN THE NIGERIAN MOVIES

 

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background to the Study

By the time Nigeria gained independence in1960, a significant portion of the British educational system, British moral values, and the English language had already become widely accepted and deeply ingrained in nearly every aspect of Nigeria’s national psyche. This is because the years of British colonial rule in Nigeria profoundly altered her pre-colonial culture.

Mahdi Adamu states in Clark, E., and Jegede, D.(1992:24) that because of the colonial experience, English has become our official language and is used in this country to teach pre-primary, primary, and post-primary subjects. Mahdi Adamu states in Clark, E., and Jegede, D.(1992:24) that because of the colonial experience, English has become our official language and is used in this country to teach pre-primary, primary, and post-primary subjects.

Mahdi Adamu states that English became our official language and is used to teach pre-primary, primary, and post-primary education in this country as a result of the colonial experience in Clark, E., and Jegede, D. (1992:24).

Mahdi Adamu claims in Clark, E., and Jegede, D. (1992:24) that the colonial experience led to the English language becoming our official language and the medium through which pre-primary, primary, and post-primary education are taught in this nation.

According to Mahdi Adamu in Clark, E., and Jegede, D.(1992:24), “Due to the colonial experience, English Language became our official language through which pre-primary, primary, and post-primary education are taught in this country.”

To be formally literate in this country, one must learn to read and write in English, as evidenced by official acts and statements. The similarities are evident and different in the area of political culture as well.
From 1960 to 1966 until 1979, when Nigeria adopted the American political system, Nigeria’s first democratic experience was modeled after the British style of parliamentary democracy.
Nigeria embraced the European system of government since there wasn’t a widely acknowledged alternative that was truly Nigerian.

The striking parallelism is also seen in business. Mahdi Adamu (1992:26) believes that the Nigerian economy has been so intimately bound to one European capitalist economy that we no longer have our own commercial system that is distinct from that of our mentors to further clarify this.

 

Cultural Promotion and Image Portrayal in the Nigerian Movies

One thing is certain: the emergence of colonial rule in Nigeria had a significant, unfavorable impact on the emergence of indigenous socio-cultural institutions. The ongoing reliance between colonized countries and European nations is caused by this circumstance.

According to Tylor’s study reported by Bashir in Nasidi and Bello (1991:20), the most obvious result of this is that some African, specifically Nigerian, traditions being supplanted by western ones (knowledge, beliefs, arts, morals, laws, etc).

Using the media, Africans are being encouraged to adopt strange buying habits. Consumer societies were developed using the patterns and products of the western industrialized nations as the basis for their lifestyles, values, interests, and inspirations.

The belief is that victims of this cultural imperialism will continue to have their fate determined from without, which will impede their progress and growth because their production and consumption patterns will be shaped by the demands and ideals of an outsider.

 

Cultural Promotion and Image Portrayal in the Nigerian Movies

1.2  Statement of Research Problem

There is no gainsaying that, the Nigerian Home Video has challenged the influx of western cultures that invade Nigeria through film and other media products. At inception it brought to the fore what Nigerians could identify with. This is evidenced in the nearly total welcome and recognition by both Nigerians and non – Nigerians worldwide.

The Nigerian home movie created an alternative entertainment for Nigerians and non-Nigerians. Through the movies, good cultural values and the people of Nigeria have been recognized and promoted globally and a lot of wrong perceptions upheld by non-Nigerians about Nigeria are corrected. Based on this, the Nigerian Home movie is a viable tool for cultural promotion to enhance the nation’s development, socially, economically and culturally.

However, despite the successes it had recorded, there are still inevitable problems in the way the practitioners engage in this activity of film making. There are both trained and untrained practitioners who are business – oriented, churning out films without considering their cultural implications. Most of these practitioners, driven by some selfish interest (money), have ignored the main reasons for their being and have gone into the act of creating what is alien to the Nigerian society.

The Nigeria home movie industry knowingly or unknowingly incorporates negative themes and cultures which are capable of corrupting the members of the society. Violence, crime, quest for money and behavioral decadence, become the overriding factor in some of the movies, which impacts negatively on Nigerians and non-Nigerians.

 

Cultural Promotion and Image Portrayal in the Nigerian Movies

Therefore, this work focuses on the positive and negative portrayal of the image of the Nigerian society in the Nigerian home movies, the positive representation being issues and themes that will uplift the citizens of Nigeria, bring peace, understanding, self-control, unity, promote growth, and then development, while the negative representations are the incessant show of crime, violence, avarice, corruption and immorality which will ensure the deterioration of the Nigerian society and hasty generalization and judgment about Nigerians by non-Nigerians.