Conference Abstracts
40. Oni, Duro; Centre for Black and African Arts
and Civilization, Nigeria:
"The Dwindling Fortunes Of The Cinema In Post Colonial
Lagos"
Urban generations in post-colonial cities have been
characterized by the development of certain monuments, architectural
edifices and socio-cultural infrastructural facilities. Most of
these have, over time, gone into extinction, though their relevance
to the urban milieu is not in question. Restoration of these legacies,
in particular the cinema, would assist in the sustainable socio-cultural
linkages of at least the immediate urban community.
Recently, a Nigerian Entertainment Business conglomerate, Silverbird
Productions, opened a set of cinema houses in Victoria Island, a
high brow area of the Lagos metropolis. The event took many observers
of the cinema in Nigeria by surprise. This was due mainly to the
fact that the cinema in Nigeria had been considered as going into
extinction, over taken by the emergence of the video films in the
nineties.
The paper examines the historical emergence of the cinema in Nigeria,
particularly in the Lagos metropolis from the colonial period to
the present. While discussing the cinema in general, the emphasis
in the paper is on the physical structure of the cinema houses.
From the Victorian period, emphasis on entertainment of a Western
nature was a prominent feature of the Lagos social life (Echeruo,
1977). Such entertainment included operatic productions known as
Christian cantatas and film shows. In order to indigenize the entertainment
industry, the local community proposed the erection of the Glover
Hall, opened in 1893. This began the development of such spaces
in Lagos. Subsequently, other venues were constructed for the showing
of films and other forms of entertainment. These have included the
Casino in Yaba, Pen in Agege, Metro in Somolu, Super in Surulere,
Tarzan in Orile, Plaza in Lagos Island and the Cinma Halls of the
monumental National Theatre in Lagos.
An examination of the variety of the films screened from the period
of the late 19th Century, reveal the predominance of “cowboy
films” of the Western world, the Indian films from Bollywood,
the Chinese films of the Kung Fu Era and more recently the Nigerian
Nollywood video films. These films were shown in a variety of cinema
houses that cut across social strata. While the rich went to the
more expensive cinema houses, the poor took solace in the often
run-down cinema houses in the suburban areas and the ghettoes.
Apart from very few cinema houses still operative, our investigation
reveals that over seventy five percent of them from the colonial
period are currently housing churches and other places of worship
and in some cases have been converted into lock up shops. There
are several reasons that can be adduced for this development. First
are the socio-economic conditions that made it impossible for celluloid
films to be made in Nigeria, after the first attempts by such people
as Ola Balogun, late Hubert Ogunde and late Ade Love. Secondly is
the rather strong campaign by the religious groups associating the
socio-economic problems in Nigeria to the hosting of the 2nd World
Black and African Festival of Arts and Culture (FESTAC ’77)
in 1977, which may be partly responsible for the non-rehabilitation
of the National Theatre complex, venue of the festival, by the Nigerian
government?
While some optimism may be shared about the return of the cinema
the question to ask is that will the emergence of the Silverbird
Cinemas houses bring about a reintroduction of celluloid films?
This is not likely to occur as the culture among film makers has
shifted to the making of video films which are marketed essential
for home consumption, given the high costs of making celluloid films
in a depressed economy. So, the Silverbird Cinemas are likely to
continue to screen Western, Indian and Chinese films for a long
time to come, thus contributing to the continuation of the colonized
city now further sucked into a globalized economy.
Be that as it may, cinemas are, however, still relevant in this
discourse, as its continued survival will stem down the inimical
social, demographic, economic and spatial problems occasioned by
the near absence of recreational facilities in the Lagos metropolis.
The paper will also attempt to identify spatio-temporally the cinema
houses of the past, map them out and propose modalities for their
resurgence as a vital component of the recreation of a rapidly developing
urban city of Lagos.
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