ABSTRACT

Entertainment has been one of the vibrant outfits that sustain man and

add to his longevity because it plays a very vital role on his psyche. It is

generally accepted that the western nations are dominating the entertainment

sector in the entire media practice today. Therefore, the need to project Nigeria

in the entertainment sector gave rise to the Nigerian Home Movie Industry. The

Nigerian Home Movie Industry is nationalistic, a movement that tries to challenge

the influx and the influence of foreign culture through foreign movies on

Nigerians. Through the movies Nigerians are educated on their indigenous

culture as against the foreign culture represented and promoted globally. Several

misconceptions about Nigerians are also corrected.

Though Nigerian culture is being promoted, there are still mounting

challenges, as the image of Nigeria is being represented positively and at the

same time negatively. The problem has to do with local hegemony in form of the

money bags who determine what the thematic thrust of each movie made will

be. Consequently these persons engage in making movies that are violent, full of

crime, obscene behaviours, and movies that encourage behavioral decadence. At

the climax of the control of these overlords, there came up what is called

alternative hegemony, a struggle by some positive - minded Nigerians to counter

the repeated show of crime with movies that are worthwhile and which promote

morals.

The focus of this study is to project the hegemonic activities of the Home Movie

practitioners in the business of film making. The study takes a closer look at the

ways the image of Nigeria is represented and the impact of such representation

on Nigerians and the general public, using four Nigerian movies, namely, “Dons

in Abuja,” “Hot Girls,” “The Peace Maker” and “The Price”. “Dons in Abuja”, and

“Hot Girls” stand for negative image portrayal while “The Peace Maker” and “The

Price” stand for positive image portrayal. The objective of this study is to

recommend ways of using the Nigerian Home movies as a tool for identity

promotion and image laundering for Nigerians in the effort towards national

development.

The study adopted various tools in the collection of data; library research

on work previously done on areas related to the study. It used for its information

materials both in audio - visual and live interviews. The study reveals that the

motion picture is one of the fastest and one of the most viable ways of exporting

culture for economic gains. It also observes that the Nigerian movies have not

succeeded in promoting the culture and image of Nigeria as a result of local

hegemony on the side of the practitioners. Most importantly, the study reveals

that the movie practitioners are more concerned with enriching their pockets,

relegating to the background the cultural implication of such representation.

Therefore, it suggests that movie - making for image laundering should not be

left in the hands of individual producers but should be sponsored and controlled

by government and philanthropic Nigerians who have the development of the

country in mind.

The study establishes that hegemony taken from a pos