Meet The Titans Who Birthed Nollywood

From Hubert Ogunde’s travelling theatre to NTA’s Village Headmaster and the daring celluloid period, how a technology of courageous storytellers constructed an trade earlier than the time period Nollywood existed, writes SAMUEL ABULUDE

The Nigerian movie trade didn’t start with Nollywood. Long earlier than the time period was coined, and lengthy earlier than dwelling movies flooded the markets of Idumota and Upper Iweka, there was a movie tradition. In truth, the story of movie in Nigeria predates the nation’s independence.

Its earliest roots hint again to the travelling theatre motion of the Nineteen Fifties and 60s. Men akin to Hubert Ogunde, Duro Ladipo and Kola Ogunmola took Yoruba folklore, songs and ethical classes from village to village, from metropolis to metropolis. They had been the primary superstars, the primary producers, and the primary to point out that Nigerians would pay to observe their very own tales.

Then got here a essential turning level. The interval between 1966 and 1977 was arguably probably the most important transition in our efficiency historical past. The nation was in turmoil, but creativity was booming. It served because the bridge connecting three nice eras.

On one aspect was the golden period of that travelling theatre. On the opposite hand, there was tv. In 1968, the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) launched _The Village Headmaster_. It was Nigeria’s first actual nationwide cleaning soap, and for 20 years it stored households glued to their black-and-white units. It created our first TV legends.

At the identical time, a brand new, bold dream was born: Indigenous Celluloid Cinema. This was the period of big-screen 35mm movie. Filmmakers akin to Ola Balogun, Eddie Ugbomah, and later Ade Love started to place Nigerian tales on celluloid. Films akin to Ajani Ogun (1976) and Kongi’s Harvest (1970) confirmed that we might make cinema.

But the dream was fragile. The movie trade, just like the nation, suffered below army rule. Harsh financial insurance policies, the devaluation of the naira, an absence of funds, and an absence of cinemas made celluloid filmmaking nearly unattainable. Many filmmakers went bankrupt. The reels disappeared. By the late Nineteen Eighties, cinema tradition had nearly collapsed.

From that collapse, Nollywood rose. In 1992, Kenneth Nnebue shot _Living in Bondage_ on VHS on a shoestring funds. He had no thought he was making a revolution. The low cost video format sidestepped the issues of celluloid — no costly movie inventory, no want for cinemas. The movie may very well be shot shortly and offered instantly on cassette.

Nigerians had been hungry for their very own tales, they usually purchased them by the hundreds of thousands. That singular success opened the floodgates. Suddenly, everybody was a filmmaker. A brand new, frenetic, can-do trade was born within the markets of Lagos and Onitsha.

Today, that trade has come a great distance, from shaky VHS tapes to Netflix and Amazon Prime, and from Idumota to the Toronto International Film Festival. The pioneers have left the stage, however residing legends akin to Joke Silva, Jide Kosoko and Pete Edochie stay — a hyperlink between yesterday’s travelling theatre and in the present day’s world cinema.

We profile a number of the titans of the Nigerian movie trade.

Stage Giants Of Travelling Theatre

Hubert Ogunde

Regarded as a pioneer of the Nigerian movie trade, the late Hubert Ogunde toured all through Nigeria and West Africa with the Ogunde Concert Party throughout this decade earlier than making his legendary celluloid movies.

Duro Ladipo

Duro Ladipo carried out his world-renowned Yoruba folks opera, Oba Koso, on native and worldwide levels till his passing in 1978.

Kola Ogunmola

He was a number one determine of the Yoruba Travelling Theatre, well-known for his iconic stage adaptation of Amos Tutuola’s The Palm-Wine Drinkard.

Moses Olaiya (Baba Sala)

Baba Sala fashioned the Alawada Group in 1966, pioneering tv comedy and stage performances earlier than transitioning to celluloid.

Oyin Adejobi

He ran one of the crucial outstanding touring theatre troupes out of Osogbo, producing fashionable stage and tv performs all through the Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies.

Early Celluloid and Screen Pioneers

Adeyemi Afolayan (Ade Love)

Ade Love joined Moses Olaiya’s group in 1966, fashioned his personal troupe in 1971, and starred in Ola Balogun’s landmark function movie, Ajani Ogun (1976).

Jab Adu

He starred in Francis Oladele’s early function movie, Kongi’s Harvest (1970), and performed a core function in The Village Headmaster.

Orlando Martins

Orlando Martins was Nigeria’s first worldwide movie actor. He returned to Nigeria throughout this period to star in landmark native movies akin to Kongi’s Harvest (1970) and Things Fall Apart (1971).

Taiwo Ajai-Lycett

She is a residing legend (85), an actress, journalist, tv presenter and cosmetologist whose performing debut got here in December 1966 in Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel, a two-act comedy directed by William Gaskill on the Royal Court Theatre in London.

Eddie Ugbomah

He started his filmmaking and performing profession within the mid-Nineteen Seventies, producing early Nigerian motion movies on celluloid, together with The Rise and Fall of Oyenusi (1977).

Early Television Drama Actors (NTA Era)

Ted Mukoro

Ted performed the unique Headmaster when NTA launched The Village Headmaster in 1968.

Femi Robinson

He took over the enduring lead function of the Headmaster in The Village Headmaster from 1968 by way of the early Nineteen Seventies.

Justus Esiri

Justus returned to Nigeria within the Nineteen Seventies after coaching in Germany, changing into a staple of stage and tv drama and later enjoying the Headmaster.

Zainab Bukky Ajayi

Bukky Ajayi joined NTA in 1966 as a presenter earlier than transitioning to performing in landmark tv dramas through the Nineteen Seventies.

Lari Williams

Lari Williams actively carried out on UK and Nigerian levels and tv all through the Nineteen Seventies after getting back from formal dramatic coaching in Britain.

Veterans Active During This Era

Taiwo Ajai-Lycett

Taiwo Ajai-Lycett is an actress, journalist, tv presenter and cosmetologist whose performing debut got here in December 1966 in Wole Soyinka’s The Lion and the Jewel, a two-act comedy directed by William Gaskill on the Royal Court Theatre in London.

Olu Jacobs

Olu Jacobs was an actor and movie govt whose profession started with appearances in a number of British tv sequence and worldwide productions earlier than he returned to Nigeria to contribute to the Nigerian film trade. He handed on 16 September 2026.

Lere Paimo (Baba Eda)

He featured prominently in Duro Ladipo’s troupe all through the late Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies, together with in performs akin to Ogbori Elemosho.

Adebayo Salami (Oga Bello)

Oga Bello has been actively performing with the Young Concert Party, later often called Awada Kerikeri, since 1964.

Kareem Adepoju (Baba Wande)

Baba Wande was a core performer with the Oyin Adejobi Theatre Group all through the late Nineteen Sixties and Nineteen Seventies.

Pete Edochie

He joined the Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation (NBC) in 1967 as a broadcaster and radio actor, paving the way in which for his display screen performing profession.