Nollywood made me lose virginity
Over the years, many Nollywood actresses
have come out to talk about their experiences, but have refused to name
the perpetrators. Filmmakers, investors, and powerful actors asking for
sexual favours to advance careers is just a better-kept dirty secret in
Nollywood. But it does exist.
Shirley
Frimpong-Manso said she didn’t want to have a daughter because she does
not want her child to go through what she did as a young woman.
“Even
having a script and trying to get somebody to look at it, I'm first
addressed as 'you're a pretty woman' instead of 'this is my work,” she said.
She would see how men would go through the door much quicker than she would because she is first a woman before anything else. "And it made me afraid to want to have a daughter,” she added.
Joke Silva recalled the experience of her intern, who she once took on the set of a Nollywood production.
“Some
older actor goes to this girl and asks that they discuss, and she says
'fine.' But when he says where she should come for the discussion, she
then comes to me and says 'oh, I have been asked to come to this hotel
to discuss this and that.' And I say, "Why must it be in a hotel and why
must you go alone?'
As a newbie in Nollywood, Blessing Egbe, who is popular for “The Women” and “Lekki Wives,” once
had to slap off the “smelly hand” of a big producer/marketer, who
caressed her breast when he saw her at a producer’s office.
Narrating her experience to Pulse Nigeria, Egbe said:
“He walked in, looked at me for a while and said “nna this gal will be
very good for epic feem ooo… I returned his words with a polite smile
which he mistook for softness. Next thing, he came to me and started to
caress me. The push slap that followed shocked the other producer who
exclaimed “Ah, Blessing, that is big marketer Oh. And my reply? And so
what?”
If
you follow the paper trail, you will get to read about instances of
sexual harassment and molestation in Nollywood. During an interview with
Daily Post, actress Juliet Patrick Odigwe revealed that a popular producer asked her for six rounds of sex for six movie roles.
In 2015, Rahama Sadau took to Instagram to accuse Adam Zango of
denying her of a role because she refused his sexual advances. She,
however, apologized the next day, describing her post on a matter as
sensitive as sexual harassment, as ‘childish.’
Just like the mainstream Nollywood in the early 2000s,
the marketers and distributors are the most powerful in the Yoruba
movie industry: They decide whose work gets seen by the public, and in
turn, which actress becomes famous.
In 2016, Yoruba filmmaker Seun Egbegbe threatened to destroy the career of his ex-lover, Toyin Aimakhu, warning movie producers to end ties with the actress.
"Anybody that deals with her, the person is on his or her own. And I will act appropriately," he said. "Toyin Aimakhu’s career is finished as far as Yoruba movie sector is concerned," he added.
You only need Egbegbe's comments to ascertain how much power these movie producers and marketers wield.
And
for most of them, it is an opportunity to exploit their power by
dangling the promise of a job or a successful career in exchange for a
sexual favor.
In 2014, Emeka Ike reportedly listed Emma Ogugua, Murphy Stephen, Sunny McDon, Okey Bakassi and Ifeanyi Dikeh
as producers who demand sexual favours from aspiring actresses. An
accusation that was denied by Bakassi during an interview with YNaija.
While
sexual harassment against women is a much more prevalent situation, the
nature of these predatory relationships is not strictly one-sided.
Shame, cultural norm and the pressure to appear traditionally masculine
are some of the reasons why men rarely share their experiences.
“I
think we continuously talk about just the females, I think we need to
also explain that there are male actors having their fair share of
harassment. Especially, if they are a fine, cute boy," Frimpong-Manso said.
A
filmmaker groping an actor. Another one spewing lewd comments on
rehearsal set. So, if the casting-couch culture is as common as it is in
Nollywood, why isn’t there more outrage about it? Why the deafening
silence?
It is probably because victims
are still being blamed by their abusers and the world as a whole.
There’s also the fear of not being believed, and for an industry such as
Nollywood, the knowledge that reporting a powerful abuser could
“destroy” a career.
“They may feel
that exposing these culprits may leave them jobless or blacklisted or
ridiculed by others who feel it’s no big deal,” Blessing Egbe said.
“The
reality is that it's scary. You don't want to go against someone like
Harvey Weinstein. The guy was one of the biggest shot in Hollywood, so
imagine someone like Lupita [a newbie and an African] when she narrated
her experience,” Shirley said.
Weinstein denied Lupita’s claims that he had tried to "take off his pants" in front of her and asked if he could massage her.
Shirley recalled reading that New York Times’ Jodi Kantor, who turned the Harvey Weinstein ‘open secret’ into a big story, was bombarded by lawyers to drop the story for a long time.
The Weinstein’s case has something similar to several other cases of sexual assault and rape: people knew.
The
cases of sexual harassment in Nollywood are known by a lot of people.
Most of them excuse the casting-couch mentality with outrageous comments
ranging from “it is not a Producer or director's fault if an actor decides to go the extra mile for the role’ to “it is what it is, an actor must pay his or her dues.
Blessing
Egbe said that actresses who eventually become victims are coerced by
producers, who list names of superstars who have ‘supposedly slept their
way through.'
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