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One thing I've always found puzzling about Nollywood, Nigeria's burgeoning movie industry, is its portrayal of family life and size in the country.
Avid watchers and
fans of these home videos and films (and there are millions in the country and
abroad), must have noticed a strange thing: when you watch the average
Nollywood film, most of the couples you see in it have just one child.
Sometimes,
and in very rare cases, they make it two children, especially in movies where
the pint-sized duo, Aki and Pawpaw*, act in.
It does not
matter the class of the couple featured- whether poor, averagely poor, middle
class or wealthy. It's the same one child per couple. And this begs the
question- if as the movies portray (and art which includes movies/films is
supposed to be a reflection of life), that most couples in Nigeria have just
one child, then how come we are so many, making us the most populous black
nation on earth? With over 150 million population?
Where did
the other babies come from? The moon? Or we found them when we broke firewood?
It becomes
even more puzzling when a traditional ruler and his household are portrayed.
It's only in Nollywood movies you will see a traditional ruler of a large,
prosperous kingdom having just one wife and one child.
Now, as we
all know in this country, this is far from reality. The average traditional
ruler or king in Nigeria whether an Oba, Obi, Emir or Amanayabo has probably
never heard of T.M Aluko's popular novel, One Man, One Wife. Most of them are
firm disciples of their ancient counterpart King Solomon in the Bible, who
married so many women and had an equally large number of concubines, it's a
miracle how he recognised them all or had time to spend with all of them.
Agreed, today's
kings in Nigeria might not have Solomon's extra large harem, but many are not
doing badly in that regard with fair sized ones of between two to seven or more
wives. And that is minus the concubines and mistresses. And simple logic states
that wherever there's a harem, there will also be a truckload of children,
enough to fill several nursery and primary schools.
Besides,
until a few decades or so ago, the birth rate in the country was about 8.5
children per woman, one of the highest in the world.
And that's
for the women. For the men, there is no limit to the number of children or
wives they could have as ours is a polygamous society. Infact, back in the day,
the more wives a man had, the more respect he had in the society. It showed he
was a strong man who could control his women well.
My father for
instance, a civil servant and community head (on his retirement) had three
wives, producing twelve of us (minus the ones that died). This was the norm in
his generation and that of our grandfather and forefathers.
Ok, polygamy
is not as popular among young men of today as it used to be in the past. But it
still thrives in many parts of the country particularly among Muslims, whose
religion permits them marrying four wives. In such places, it's common to see a
man with several wives having 20 or more children.
To such
people, the concept of family planning or the 'one child policy' of the Chinese
is an alien concept.
As you can
see, we are a nation just like the average African country that love big
families, in fact, the bigger the better.
Indeed,
there was once a man, (he's late now), who founded a village with his
offsprings and wives alone. The village in Delta State, is close to my
hometown. My father told me that at a point, his children were so numerous,
numbering over 300 that he found it difficult recognising many of them, much
less remember their names!
Strangely, all
these are not reflected in Nollywood movies. So, what could be responsible, you
might wonder.
A Nollywood
actress friend of mine, whom I discussed the issue with, gave this explanation:
"It's
simply stinginess. Using more children in a film will cost more, add to
production costs. That's the reason they feature just one child though they are
aware it's not a real portrayal of the society. It's a matter of
economics," she noted.
Whatever it
is, I believe these producers should look for other ways of cutting costs as it
gives a wrong impression of family size in Nigeria. Any foreigner watching our
movies might even be forced to believe that Nigeria is practising China's one
child policy. It's far from the truth.
While the
birth rate has fallen over the years (to about 4.5 children per woman) as more
couples are seeing the importance of family planning, it has not reached the
level of one child per couple as shown in the movies.
Methinks,
the producers need to rectify this as its a wrong depiction of an average
Nigerian or African family size.
By
Patience Saduwa, Blog Author
Note:
Aki and Pawpaw refer to Chinedu Ikedezie aka Aki and Osita Iheme
(Pawpaw), Nollywood actors who hit the limelight after they starred in the
movie Aki Na Ukwa in 2001 in which their characters were named Aki and Pawpaw.
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