In reaction to this comment, many persons of Igbo extraction have kicked, saying they started the home video business and one tribe can’t lay claim to Nollywood.
However, a clip of veteran Yoruba/Nollywood practitioners, like Iya Awero, Ogogo, Oga Bello and many more, has come out to reveal the actual owners of the industry and how it started
For some days, there have been arguments on social media about the true owners and pioneers of the Nigerian film and theatre industry.
Famous actress Aisha Lawal stirred the argument with a comment she made during an interview where she noted that Yorubas are the true owners of the Nigerian movie industry and its founders.
In reaction, some Igbo practitioners went online to disagree with this statement, noting that it is individualistic and reeks of ignorance.
These were the words of Gideon Okeke, an Igbo actor. Some Igbos on Twitter have also claimed ownership of Nollywood, noting that they started home video production and packaging.
Pa Hubert Ogunde, Ade Love, and Duro Ladipo are the pioneers of Nollywood – Oga Bello, Ogogo clarify
According to Chief Adebayo Salami, better known as Oga Bello as well as Lanre Hassan, aka Iya Awero they noted that Nollywood didn’t start in the late 80s or early 90s but as far back as the 1940s when the first cinema was opened in Yaba, Glover’s street.
In a documentary by Dotun Taylor, an American-based cinematographer, the veterans mentioned the same names who had started the filmmaking and theatre business in Nigeria.
They all mention Pa Adedeji Hubert Ogunde, Ade Love (Kunle Afolayan’s father), Duro Ladipo, Kola Ogunmola, Bala Sala, and others as the founders and pioneers of filmmaking and theatre in Nigeria.
“Pa Adedeji Hubert Ogunde, Ade Love, Duro Ladipo, Kola Ogunmola, Bala Sala are the founders and practitioners of filmmaking and theatre in Nigeria, and they’re all Yoruba.”
And not the narrative by some Igbo practitioners who claim Nollywood started after the first Living in Bondage was realised in the early 90s.