There is currently simmering a spat in the Nollywood industry as to who owns the actual industry .

Many Igbo film makers seem to think that Nollywood is theirs and that it was started by an Igbo man when in actual reality it was started off by Herbert Ogunde with the epic cinematic piece Aye, please feel free to correct me if I am wrong.. by the way in copyright cases one has to establish who wrote the work first to see who the original author is.

Ogunde made the cinematic piece which propelled the Nigerian Film industry then came the Video mass production era which was cornered by the Igbos, there were also Yoruba video makers .

Whilst I congratulate Mrs Theodora Ibekwe Oyebade on her many awards in the industry she is a hard worker .

However I cannot accept that Nollywood the Nigerian film making industry is an Igbo creation or that it belongs to the Igbos only as it is being insinuated… Again please feel free to establish how it was that the Igbo are sole owners of the industry?

London Nollywood is not an Igbo thing neither there are also Yoruba and other Nigerian Ethnic film makers here who are doing their own thing. Eg. Deola Folarin who is established in her own right made films with the Bfi and gone on to direct episodes of Sesame Squares in Lagos..there are others too you get my point.

This a long held debate I recall this came up in 2010 when I presented an item at the Nollywood Now film festival in Deptford , there was a division in the audience even then and I had to point out to the white organiser Phoenix Fry that Hebert Ogunde is known as the first film maker and the kick starter of the industry as we know it.

Ms Toyin Moore also pointed this fact out on the Pauline Long show during the promotional tour of her summer film At Home and Abroad .

As Christians we are told by the Word of God to give custom and credit unto whom it is due etc..so what is up with this change of historical facts? Has there being new discoveries ? Please share so we can shut up and be corrected.

I was told by a close friend a Nollywood researcher and author that for most Igbos they consider themselves as separate from the rest of Nollywood ( Yoruba and Hausa and Christa( Christian) woods!) and feel that English speaking Nollywood and therefore Nollywood itself is theirs.

I personally don’t see how or why , if we looked at who made the first epic cinematic piece we see that it was a Yoruba man, and if we consider the language issue, Igbo is not an English language nor is English an Igbo language.

Nollywood consists of Nigerian made films whether they be Nigerian English and or Nigerian Ethnic language films . That is what Nollywood is , Films made by Nigerians and those of Nigerian ancestry /descendants and as such belongs to the whole nation of Nigeria .

Whilst its true within it you can have on sub groups eg , English Igbo, English Yoruba etc…but the whole of the Nigerian Nollywood English or otherwise does not belong to the Igbos only nor was it started by the Igbos…unless you know something we don’t know if you do please share …