Francis Duru: Why Yoruba Movies Dominate Cinema, Netflix over Igbo

Francis Duru has attributed the strong presence of Yoruba people in Nollywood to their ability to create and protect opportunities, a move he claimed Igbos failed to make despite being early pioneers.

Duru shared his thoughts about the evolution of Nollywood and the roles both ethnic groups have played in shaping the industry in an interview with Yan Kontent Factory.

The film star argued that Igbo filmmakers have allowed their Yoruba colleagues to dominate a space they created through complacency and a failure to protect their cultural identity.

The actor also blamed the Igbo community’s “individualistic mentality” for their declining visibility in the industry.

“We ‘Igbos’ created Nollywood, but if you go to Netflix today, you hardly see one movie that speaks of Igbo heritage. But the Yorubas, on the other hand, created opportunities for themselves and utilised them,” he said.

“Igbos failed to learn because of their individualistic mentality. You think you are the big man, so you are self-centred. But you forget that a time will come when you need to be expansive.

“You need to be proactive and ask yourself, ‘There is a new market space; why am I not there?

“Most of the persons who pioneered Nollywood were mere traders. So, you created something, and some people saw the gold in it, got together, called their people who have the ‘do’, and they invested in it. The Yorubas protected their own.

“Don’t get angry with them. These are people who saw their own and protected their own. What happened to you? Igbos have many great men in Nigeria.”

The actor also questioned why stories of prominent Igbo figures are rarely adapted into films.

“When was the last time you saw the epic of one of these great men? We have great writers who are now writing for the Yorubas. You even see the Yorubas crossing over to write Igbo stories like ‘Ahamefuna’ and making a mess of who we are,” he added.

Yoruba pioneers such as Hubert Ogunde, Duro Ladipo, and Moses Olaiya were active in Nigeria’s film and theatre industry from the 1950s. The modern Nollywood era, however, emerged during the home video boom of the 1990s.

Kenneth Nnebue’s 1992 film ‘Living in Bondage’ is widely considered a major turning point in the growth of Nigeria’s video film industry.