In spite of the commendations that Nigerian movies,
Nollywood, has been receiving from viewers all over
the world, some of the movies, especially Yoruba
movies, have been attracting criticisms as regards
how fetish practices are portrayed in such movies .
According to recent statistics from the Nigeria Movie
Critics, NMC, seven out of every ten movies released
every week since 2012, portrays ritual exercise.
It added that at least an actor from every four out of
seven movies will run mad at the end of the movies.
Speaking on this development, Mulikat Adio, a home
video dealer, spoke in support of Yoruba movie actors
saying: “People should learn to appreciate what
Nollywood actors are doing by exposing the evil
nature of traditional practitioners (Babalawos) through
their movies.
“These movies are not design towards debasing our
moral values but to celebrate our culture and the
value of our traditional history.
“The story line in most of the movies is better and
superior to the foreign ones, but I do support those
saying all the fetish practices portrayed in some of the
home videos should be done away with.”


Also, Harrison Smith argues that the constant display
of fetish exercise in Yoruba movies is gradually killing
the creativity and suspense that usually keeps viewers
glued to the movies till the end.
He said: “The consistence display of ritual exercise in
Yoruba movies makes it easy for every smart viewer to
predict the outcome of every movie and that demeans
the value of creativity in the industry.
“The idea of “every problem must be solved by
Babalawo syndrome” must be critically looked into
and they should constructively initiate a more creative
idea to compete with contemporary movies.
“It usually seems like movie producer is stuck at the
end of every story and eventually device the herbalist
consultation to solve all issues, this takes away all
creativity in the work and makes it boring.
“I prefer movies in which characters fashions out
solutions to the challenges and solve them.
“Instead, these characters head off to the babalawos’
houses, churches, or mosque when they face any
problem. Nothing is as boring as watching people who
can’t use their brains to solve problems on the small
screen.”
Mrs Ola-Smith also shares her concern for the
continuous display fetish practices in Yoruba movies.
In her own word: “Since I came back from the UK few
months ago, I’m beginning to get worried about the
same issue raised in Yoruba movies.
“I am a great lover and supporter of quality cultural
Yoruba movies and I rent up to 10 to 20 movies each
week.
“I am now beginning to get irritated by the amount of
lack of self-belief of the producers and the use of
almost same traditional story line.
“You would be surprised that out of all the Yoruba
movies I’ve watched so far, it is just about 3 that
doesn’t contain a herbalist scene?.”
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However, Mrs Adebukola Ake points out some of the
implications of this occultist trend.
She said: “I believe that these movies are responsible
for the high rate of occult practices in the country
today as these actors make it feels like fetish practice
is part of our heritage.
“This explains why foreigners who study our culture
through the movies they watch to perceive that
Nigerians are fetish.
“My sister, who was married to a white man in Europe
for about five years, says her husband refused to visit
Nigeria through out their marriage because, according
to her, he thinks Nigerians are into voodoo.”
A Yoruba movie producer, Adebunmi Olaopa, while
dismissing the claim that Yoruba movies encourage
fetish consultation, said that what they portray in
their movie is usually hinged on what is obtainable in
the society.
“Don’t let us get it wrong, it is the society that
influences our movies, not the other way round. Most
of our stories are inspired by real life events that we
want our viewers to learn from.
“We make a very rigorous research before we go into
production, sometimes we meet with law enforcement
agents who gives us details of issues such as
kidnapping, abduction, ritual killing and other fetish
issues that fall on their desk every day.
“These are what we consider before we choose to
embark on any movie production,” Olaopa stated.
Meanwhile, Akin Arejan, a popular Yoruba movie
producer, added that the Nigerian movie industry is
working towards establishing an internal screening
exercise that will rate movies and recommend if they
are viewers-friendly content that is void of extra-
terrestrial activities.
“We are aware that the world is changing and we
cannot be left behind. We want to assure all Yoruba
movie lovers that our stories shall be revaluated and
shall satisfy the expectation of all the categories of
our viewers very soon,” he said...

So on point.

Not to mention the flashbacks. Every Yoruba movie must have a flashback.

'Same old shit just a different day'.abeg let dem know ooooo, its what kids/viewers sees on tv dat dey tend to learn from i.e imagine watchin a movie dat main actor goes to a spiritual man for consultation just because he could not figure out what to do with his life....n so d s.man will tell him to go n buy a goat n sacrifies n after he will dream about his future. Dis is what young viewers will think is d normal way of thinkin 2 fix their problems.

Yoruba Movies are Predictable.

Can't remember the last time I watch one of those.

I'm a Fan of Kunle Afolayan.