Yoruba filmmakers started Nigeria’s home-video industry but did not start Nollywood, Osuofia says

He credits veteran filmmakers Hubert Ogunde and Adebayo with helping popularise Yoruba productions.

His comments come amid renewed debate over the contributions of Yoruba and Igbo filmmakers to Nollywood’s development.

Veteran actor Nkem Owoh, popularly known as Osuofia, has said Yoruba filmmakers pioneered Nigeria’s home-video industry but did not start Nollywood.

Owoh spoke on Curiosity Made Me Ask, a YouTube show hosted by comedian and content creator Adebayo Abidemi, popularly known as Bae U, in an episode published on Saturday, November 7, 2026.

Nkem owoh on the set of a movie Asked about his alleged claim that the Yoruba started Nollywood rather than the Igbo, he rejected that interpretation and called it a wrong accusation. He said the name Nollywood did not exist when filmmakers began producing movies. "The Yoruba did not start Nollywood. They started Home video," he said.

Owoh credited Yoruba filmmakers with making home video very popular in Nigeria. He named veteran filmmakers Hubert Ogunde and Adebayo, whose works he said he enjoyed watching. In addition, he also dismissed the suggestion that Ogunde was Igbo, maintaining that he was Yoruba and had gained prominence before Igbo filmmakers became widely recognised in the industry.

The debate gained fresh attention in August 2026, when the late actor Francis Duru argued that Igbo entrepreneurs built modern Nollywood through the home-video boom of the 1990s and early 2000s, while Yoruba filmmakers had become more dominant through stronger organisation and promotion of their culture.

Owoh’s earlier comments had been reported as a claim that the Yoruba started Nollywood. He said that was not what he meant, and that he had reportedly pointed out that Yoruba filmmakers were active in theatre and performance long before the Igbo-led video wave of the 1990s.

Living in Bondage (1992), produced by Kenneth Nnebue, is widely regarded as the first blockbuster Nigerian home video and helped launch the home-video boom. Nnebue had also produced Yoruba-language video films before it, including Aje Ni Iya Mi (1989), following multiple historical accounts.