Giving Women Pride of Place in Nigerian Films: A Critical Reading of Andy Amenechi's Egg of Life

The Nigerian video film industry, popularly called Nollywood, has become a phenomenon, so much so that it has been adjudged the second largest in the world, after Bollywood. The industry has succeeded in projecting the Nigerian culture, and indeed, the African continent, to the outside world. What the Western world see on screen as reflections of our cultural heritage are no more warped impressions hurriedly presented by foreigners, but those projected by Nigerians. But then the question has been whether producers are actually telling such stories to project the image of the country positively, or otherwise. There have been concerns as to the contents of the films. These include projecting ritual elements, violence, sex, flashy cars and houses, portrayal of women as objects to decorate the house, and telling history in hurry, among others. But then, the production context has, to a large extent, influenced the way the industry has been operating. For a privately driven industry which has emerged through the personal experiments of Igbo traders, it is not surprising that the overriding element is maximisation of profit. In this study, it would be argued that the epic, Egg of Life (Amenechi, 2003), which was produced more or less as the feminine version of Igodo (Amenechi/Obaseki, 1998), is an attempt to give the Nigerian woman a pride of place in films. The film posits that the feminine gender could assume leadership positions and move the country forward.