Nollywood: the role of women filmmakers in national security and development

Women are often regarded as agents of social change, this implies that the slogan: “women are their own enemies” is a product of women’s outright negligence of their willpower and reluctance to change perennial practices that impede the transformation and improvement of their social status and everyday life. The negative profiling and stereotypes of dehumanizing roles played by women on screen which are validated and re-established through repetition become the raw materials for Nollywood women filmmakers to re-create a new and realistic identity for Nigerian women. Against this background, the cultural practices that devalue women, as projected in Nollywood films will be questioned, and the need for women filmmakers to deploy new modes of promoting the downplayed traditional and cultural practices that validate the role and place of women as contributors to national development and promoters of culture and national security should henceforth be centre-stage of feminist discourses and women’s film. In the quest for a re-positioning of women in society, the Duty theory will serve as the theoretical framework for this discourse. Thus women are encouraged to exhibit their social-civic responsibility as security agents and watchers and builders of our nation. Keywords: Cultural practices, security, women filmmakers, Nollywood, national development