by Okey Ikechukwu

“I, Afrocandy, solemnly want to clear the air here and now that I do not act porn movies, never acted in any porn movie and I am not a porn star. I act in regular movies, not afraid to go naked but that doesn’t make one a porn star. I am a boss and I know where I invest my money.”

The issues around the Nigerian film and video industry are at once exhilarating and depressing for many people. There are debates of course, but they all revolve around its economic and cultural value, as well as its impact on our overall profile as a people. The debates, arguments and counter arguments always boil down to disagreements about its content and output. Some of its strongest defenders argue that Nollywood is no match for the litany of political and economic ailments that damage the image of the nation, chief among which is said to be corruption. One thing is clear in all of this though: whether we like it or not, what the world terms Nollywood is now one of Nigeria’s major cultural exports. It is a major employer of labour, even as its reputation for promoting some of the most reprehensibly atavistic about us thrives.

Flash back to a trip we made to South Africa with some officers of the National Orientation Agency (NOA), for a programme on leadership and service delivery. This was in 2003. A Programme Assistant in Johannesburg accosted the then DG of the agency, Alhaji Idi Farouk, and asked to know whether ‘the eating of human flesh in Nigeria’ was real. It all ended on a hilarious note when we first answered in the affirmative, before assuring her that there was no such thing. The truth is that Nollywood has some impressive output by whatever standards you choose to measure, even as the perception of Nigerians by much of Africa and the world is sometimes coloured negatively by it.

Two other remarkable events of interest on that trip was the meeting with the Washington County authorities and the type of people I met up close as Nigerian actors and actresses. On the first point, and being the leader of the Nigerian delegation and representative of the government who was standing in for the then Minister of Information, Chief Chukwuemeka Chikelu, I had the peculiar task of ensuring that “the Federal Republic of Nigeria Stands tall at this event and that in all thing our fatherland is not brought into disrepute”. This brief included everything, from warehousing our team, briefing them on how to manage the attention of fans (most of whom they know nothing about) sundry television appearances; one of which was a one-hour engagement at Studio 18 of the Voice of America (VOA) television. Nigeria did stand out in every way and our actors and actresses epitomised the best.

But it included something else on which it was unwise to ‘deliver’. Having got wind of strong piracy networks feeding off Nigerian films in the Washington area, we put together the meeting with the County authorities – especially since their own investigations showed that the pirates were creaming off roughly $100 million every year, tax free. This was great news …. until we found out that many of the culprits were Nigerians. With such income outside the tax radar, the news is a good headline for CNN on tax evasion. Coming at a time the minister and I were strengthening the national image project, “Heart of Africa”, my enthusiasm about catching the film pirates suffered shipwreck. Of course it would all have led to arrests and more, but the monies would not have come back to Nigeria.

The second point is that, up close and staying in the same hotel with the Nollywood actors and actresses as leader of delegation, I saw men and women of varying levels of maturity. Most importantly, I saw a collection of very responsible young men and women who are as gifted as they are sober and career-driven. Stephanie Okereke had a professional focus that expressed itself in a readiness to quickly execute any plans she is convinced she wants to try. Zack Orji was a man in every sense of the word, totally unaffected by his profession in his normal, everyday life. Ramsey Noah was, again, more than a gem of a decent young man. He distinguished between the glare of the screen and was simply himself – ever conscious that he has his real life to live and that you cannot live in the real world as a star. Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde was simply a woman, a lady and a young mother woven into a sober modern lady with very few illusions. They and so many of the others on the trip were all real, except for one who made it a habit to come out late from her room for meetings and outings. Her reason: “I am a star and cannot just come down at the exact time mentioned”. I gave her a tongue lashing that had all the ingredients of thunder.

On more current matters, I dare say that this our Nollywood is now enmeshed in an on-going re-profiling that is best captured by the word ‘Afrocandy. This has become a metaphor for all sorts of things in the Nigerian film and movie industry and one of its brand symbols, and probably the boldest chief index of its trajectory, seems to be Judith Oprara Mazagwu. She is an X-rated singer and producer and is actually the artiste popularly known as Afrocandy. The gifted and creative young lady who says that she is ‘a bad girl in a good way’ makes no bones about her visibility and the multiplicity of platforms through which she puts forth her creative abilities. Perhaps she should.

Some have said that she moves from the peculiar to, perhaps, the reprehensible. Shortly after her involvement in a new movie was announced, more news filtered out to the effect that this movie is ominously described as “the bomb.” She has a major part in the much talked about “Destructive Instinct” and this fact alone accentuates both the profile and the ump of it all. The release of the first two parts of the movie online last year was said to have been deliberately designed to raise the hype about the four-part production. Someone was quoted to have described one of the major attractions of the movie as the fact that it contained adult scenes, said to be mostly seen in pornographic movies.

It was with apparent excitement that some commentator talked about a particular scene from the movie, where the actress gave her clothing to the winds. For good measure the scene is said to include the enactment of actions and activities that involved the Adam and Eve brand of nakedness; including some oral baptism of her fully undressed colleague of the opposite gender. Other scenes in the movie put this actress on the receiving end with other male actors; and it does not end there. But this is all cheerfully talked about as simple art and “creativity”. The implication is that something must be wrong with anyone who sees anything wrong with this ‘modernisation’ of our taste in the 21st century. I disagree. I also say that there is a limit to everything; just as there is a difference between development and decay.

There are reports of how the actress, who allegedly launched a website to scout for young men and women, especially from Nigeria, who could be ‘courageous enough’ to act in pornographic movies. No one has denied or refuted these reports. Many industry watchers still recall how one of the actors who played a role in the movie while completely undressed later came out to announce that he was pulling out. His demand that his roles be deleted had to contend with the fact that as an agreement from the actor predated the shooting.

Some have said, in Afrocandy’s defence, that she is into soft pornography as against hardcore. She has also cleared the air on the matter, hear what she is reported to have said: “I, Afrocandy, solemnly want to clear the air here and now that I do not act porn movies, never acted in any porn movie and I am not a porn star. I act in regular movies, not afraid to go naked but that doesn’t make one a porn star. I am a boss and I know where I invest my money.” She continues: “…What I do is not different from what the soft porn Hollywood does, (that is) regular movies with some nudity, but because Nigerians are so backward they term it porn”.

Ekenekwaa m unu!

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This post was published with permission from Abusidiqu.com

Op-ed pieces and contributions are the opinions of the writers only and do not represent the opinions of Y!/YNaija.