Yorubas started Nollywood and own the Nigerian film terrain — Aisha Lawal

Nollywood actress, Aisha Lawal has set into motion what could start a controversial narrative moving forward as she has claimed the Yoruba ethnic group are the reason behind the creation of the Nigerian movie industry.

According to the thespian, this happens to be the case because actors and filmmakers of Yoruba extraction all started the Nollywood dream.

Aisha Lawal revealed this expression in an interview with the Tribune, with the filmmaker going further to ask Nigerians who would debate on the topic to go into research.

In the interview with Tribune, Aisha Lawal was quoted as saying;

“We own the industry. Go back to research. The industry belongs to the Yoruba people. If you go back to research, you will hear from people like Hubert Ogunde and Ade Love.

The actress went further to admit the Yorubas took a step back in later years, leading to the obscurity of Yorubas in the industry. She however has claimed that the Yorubas aren’t in to play catch-up with those currently dominating the industry, insisting ‘we are already there’.

“I don’t want to go into details. But, if you go and research very well, you will discover that Yorubas own this industry, we started this industry. We messed up at some point, but we are not playing catch-up. We are there already. Now, everybody wants to shoot a Yoruba movie.”

Aisha Lawal establishes some fascinating theory, however an idea is not a monopoly of a single mind as many can lay claim to an idea. The Nigerian film industry has been created, and certainly no single unit stands the authority of the entertainment franchise.