Nollywood greats Emem Isong and Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen on Nigerian Language films

Emem Isong wrote, “I was inspired to start making films in my native Ibibio dialect because I want to help preserve the language and culture of the Ibibio people of Nigeria.” Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen expanded on this point: “I was conscious of the fact that some languages were going extinct and Edo language was one […]

Emem Isong wrote, “I was inspired to start making films in my native Ibibio dialect because I want to help preserve the language and culture of the Ibibio people of Nigeria.” Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen expanded on this point: “I was conscious of the fact that some languages were going extinct and Edo language was one of the languages that was listed to be going extinct in the next hundred years, so as a filmmaker, with some level of recognition nationally and internationally, I felt it would also be good for me to begin to sustain my Edo language community. So for me it was more about using the language for sustainability with the movies, and also to globalize it. Also for me, a lot of our people in the Diaspora, and some of the children are losing touch with their language, because the English language and the American culture in which they are rooted have encroached so terribly into the entire world, Nigeria, and my people in particular, where everyone is so Westernized. So I feel I could teach some of our contemporary stories using the language, creating some kind of a bridge, and because they are subtitled in English, people are taking advantage of that to learn how to speak the language.”

Imasuen told me that they do cinema premiers abroad, but make most of their sales on VCD and DVD. Similarly Isong told me that she premiered one of her Ibibio films Uyai (2007), but did not release it in the cinemas. Most of her films are sold by VCD. Like Imasuen, she markets her Ibibio films abroad, particularly in Houston and Atlanta in the United States, where there are large communities of people from Akwa Ibom and Cross River state. Nevertheless, she said, “My main focus is on the Nigerian market.” In fact, she said that she finds “the Ibibio films more profitable at the moment. A lot more people are hungry for movies in their native dialect. Each of these movies sell at least 100,000 copies, which is a huge success in the VCD market as at now.” Imasuen also told me, “I have made more money with my language movies than English. The passion with which the people go after [indigenous language films] is different from that of English.” Even though they have a more restricted audience, he emphasized that “if it is well packaged, they are bound to get more appreciation from it. Right now the language movies sell far more than English movies. Yoruba, Hausas, Ibibio, they sell far more.”  In fact, he pointed out that the Edo (or Bini) language film industry he is involved with is the fourth largest industry in the country after Yoruba, Hausa, and English. Part of the reason Nigerian language films are more profitable, he said, is because they are less costly to make than English language films, so while “the English one may be more popular, if you look at the profit margin, you find out that you are making more doing a language movie than in English.”

When I asked them if there was any difference in the sorts of stories they told in English and in Nigerian languages, Isong told me that “there’s not really much of a difference between the themes I explore in English films and the Ibibio films, but a lot of times I prefer to treat social themes in my language films. Uyai, using comedy, touched a little bit on the plight of widows in our society. Edikan (2009) treated the child witchcraft issue that was prevalent in my state, Akwa Ibom state at the time I shot the movie. The others were mainly for entertainment purposes.” Imasuen said there were some differences in the English language films he made and Nigerian language films. He said that in his Edo language films he tries to present moral issues and their connection to his people. “I did a movie titled Ebuwa (2009). The reason was to lend my voice to the issue of human trafficking, HIV/AIDS and stigmatization. So, I feel that [a film] made in local dialect has a deeper impact on the people than when it is made in English, because the language gives them some sense of belonging, and the message is more appreciated than when it is in English.”

When I asked them if they used English language stars in their films, they both pointed out that the Nigerian language film industries had their own stars, though they occasionally will use English-language stars. Isong pointed out that Ibibio film stars are also sometimes popular English-language stars. “A good example is Ini Edo who is a big star in the English genre, but also big in the Ibibio one. Moses Armstrong, Imeh Bishop Umoh, and Ini Ikpe are some of the big names we have in the Ibibio film industry.” With her film Midnight Whisper (forthcoming) and Idomo (2011), she shot the same story simultaneously in English and Ibibio. It was the first time she tried such a thing but she doesn’t think it will be her last. “It was quite challenging,” she told me “because I used mainly the same artist with the exception of about two or three who featured in the English version but not in the Ibibio version because they did not understand the language so I had to change cast. It was very tasking for all cast and crew because it took a longer time to shoot. The Ibibio version has been released and is doing very well in the market,” while the English one has yet to be released. She concluded that “I’m focusing a lot on the Ibibio language films these days and I will focus on this for a while until we have been able to work out our chaotic film distribution system in Nigeria.”

Imasuen concluded by telling me a little bit about his most recent film “the biggest film of my career” about the invasion of the Benin Empire by the British in 1897, which he shot in English because he wanted to “draw global attention to the idea of reparation.” But even in his English language films, “I want to sustain the culture, the rich cultural heritage of the Benin people. So for me, I’m more like a cultural ambassador, using my craft to celebrate, sustain, not just the language,” but the culture.”