This paper offers a longitudinal appraisal of Nollywood’s engagement with characterizations of sexuality, specifically its altering perceptions of homosexuality through a reading of three Nigerian films.
Paper long abstract:
Nigeria is one of the remaining countries in the world that still criminalizes same-sex relations, probably due to its deep religious affiliations. This posture plays a significant role in shaping public opinion and cultural reflections on homosexuality and LGBTQ+ identities in the country, with attendant social stigma and discrimination. Drawing from this socio-cultural reality, Nollywood, Nigeria’s renowned film industry, has created LGBTQ+ depictions with varying ranges of villainy since its inception in the 1990s, and more recently, more positive attributes. Scholars have paid little or no attention to the different characterizations of LGBTQ+ persons in Nollywood and this gap is what this essay seeks to fill. To do this, the essay derives its primary data from a longitudinal survey and comparative analyses of three films, Glamour Girls (1994), Men in Love (2010), and Ife (2020), produced individually in each of the three decades of the industry’s existence, to show the altering perceptions of queer representations in Nollywood. This essay thus provides insights into how attitudes towards homosexuality have evolved in Nigerian society, and how Nollywood reflects these changes.