A Nollywood interest group known as The Igbo Film Forum has taken it upon itself to establish a centre to be called Nollywood Cultural Centre. The group, headed by Chief (Dr) Harris Chuma, who is popularly known as Ogene Ndigbo, said the initiative is to promote the rich culture of Nigeria.
The Igbo Film Forum is a socio-cultural organisation charged with the mandate of promoting, preserving and propagating the Igbo culture using Nollywood as a veritable medium.
The organisation will hold the first Ndigbo in Nollywood New Yam Festival, which would also be used to launch a N50 million fund raising campaign for the establishment of the centre.
A statement signed by the group’s head and made available to us, the event is scheduled for September 28, 2013 in Lagos. He said, ‘Nollywood has registered its presence on the world stage with an assertiveness that cannot be ignored.’
Chuma added further that, ‘central to its evolutionary process is the initiative taken by producer of Igbo extraction in pioneering the industry. In Nollywood, other ethnicities are using the medium to promote language, preserve and propagate their cultures while the Igbo, who are among the pioneers, are unrepentantly silent and playing deaf to their language and culture, which is being eroded.’
He also said that, ‘We need to arrest this very ugly situation urgently. The sure way of ensuring the survival of Igbo language is to produce more of films in our dialects, and also, active promotion of Igbo cultural heritage.’
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