Nigerian Video Films and the Image Question: A Critical Reading of Lancelot Oduwa Imasuen's Home in Exile

Abstract

The video film medium in Nigeria has become very engaging, both to the producers and the consumers. An electronics merchant, Kenneth Nnebue, pioneered the production of Igbo language films on video tapes for home consumption. The experimental work (Living in Bondage 1992), directed by Chris Obi-Rapu, was an instant success and it made other electronics merchants, spare part dealers, and so on, to follow suit. Somehow, the video film industry became more of a jungle thereafter, as just anybody could venture into it. Curiously, government has been a mere distant observer, for close to twenty years now, oblivious of the billions of naira accruable as revenue to the national coffers. The fact is that the global popularity of Nigerian video films is not in doubt, considering the inroad many star actors and actresses have made in many African countries and beyond. But the question that needs to be answered is to what extent these video films are positively portraying our image abroad, especially in the face of government's rebranding project. This stems from the concern in some quarters that there is a whole gamut of negativity in our video films. As it were, the ability to create our own images and capture our own stories has given us a voice and a power to change perceptions of ourselves, our surroundings, and our cultures, both locally and internationally. In this study, therefore, we shall attempt a critical study of Lancelott Oduwa Imasuen's Home in Exile, to see how the Nigerian video film industry could be invaluable in the projection of country's image in the global arena.