Nollywood emerged in the 1990s. The decade began with hope and a promise of civilian rule. But when military honchos tossed out the election results in 1993, hope was replaced by terror. General Sani Abacha was a brutal leader, even by Nigerian standards. He used execution to silence the protests of Ken Saro-Wiwa and eight other environmental activists from the petroleum producing "south-south" region where abject poverty is aggravated by environmental degradation from petroleum operations that produce billions for multinational corporations. Abacha died shortly before elections ended military rule in 1999. Unfortunately, postcolonial Nigerian government has reproduced the worst characteristics of colonial rule: a formal economy of resource extraction that remains divorced from the domestic economy, kept in place by a kleptocratic elite prone to militarism. The recent transition to civilian government has done little to provide new leadership. Against this gloomy backdrop, it is hard not to be intrigued by this plucky movie industry's success transforming Africa's popular imagination into profitable commerce. Nollywood's success in Africa means it does not have to grovel for attention and awards from the West to survive. Scholars concerned with Africa's future, however, cannot afford to ignore Nollywood's spirited, and indeed glamorous, refutation of the West's smug pessimism about the continent's potential.

The cinema of Nigeria is a developing industry that has become increasingly productive in recent years. Although Nigerian films have been produced since the 1960s, the rise of digital cinema has resulted in a growing video film industry. The Nigerian video feature film industry is sometimes colloquially known as Nollywood. The term is of uncertain date and origin, but is derived from Hollywood in the same manner as Bollywood, as the other Indian film industries (such as Tollywood and Kollywood), and as Lollywood (which refers to the Cinema of Pakistan and also to a movie slot on German kids' TV channel KI.KA). According to Hala Gorani and Jeff Koinange formerly of Cable News Network (CNN), Nigeria has a multi-billion dollar movie industry, churning out some 200 "home videos" every month to become the third largest in the world after the United States and India (visit cnn.com/transcripts and www.isop.ucla.edu). Many foreign and local critics have criticized Nollywood for its trite plots, poor dialogue, terrible sound, and poor production values. Some worry that the prevalence of witchcraft and violence in the movies may encourage negative stereotypes about Africans. Yet in just 13 years, Nollywood has grown from nothing into an industry that employs thousands of people.

The first Nigerian films were made by filmmakers such as Ola Balogun and Hubert Ogunde in the 1960s, but they were frustrated by the high cost of film production. However, television broadcasting in Nigeria began in the 1960s and received much government support in its early years. By the mid-1980s every state had its own broadcasting station. Law limited foreign television content so producers in Lagos began televising local popular theater productions. Many of these were circulated on video as well, and a small scale informal video movie trade developed. Nigerian film is thus a video movie industry; Nigerians call them 'home videos'. There is some debate concerning what caused this small local market in videos to explode into a booming industry that has pushed foreign media off the shelves in much of Africa and is now marketed all over the world. Use of English rather than local languages served to expand the market. Aggressive marketing using posters, trailers, and television advertising also played a role in Nollywood's success. Many point to the 1992 release of Living in Bondage, a film about a businessman whose dealings with a money cult result in the death of his wife, as the industry's first blockbuster. Since then, thousands of movies have been released. One of the first Nigerian movie to reach international fame was the 2003 release Osuofia In London, starring Nkem Owoh, the famous Nigerian comedic actor. Modern Nigerian cinema’s most prolific auteur is Chico Ejiro, who directed over 80 films in a 5-year period and brags that he can complete production on a movie in as little as three days. Ejiro’s brother Zeb is the best-known director of these videos outside of the country.

The first Nollywood films were produced with traditional analog video, such as Betacam SP, but today all Nollywood movies are produced using digital video technology. Only recently, Time magazine published an article rating the industry as the third-largest after Hollywood and Bollywood.
Nollywood has one studio in Tinapa, Calabar. Most movies, however, are not produced in studios in the Hollywood style. Video movies are shot on location all over Nigeria with distinct regional variations between the northern movies (made primarily in the Hausa language), the western Yoruba-language movies, the Igbo movies shot in the southeast, and the popular English-language productions, also shot primarily in the southeast. Many of the big producers have offices in Surulere, Lagos. Shooting films in Nigeria is difficult.
Themes

Many Nollywood movies have themes that deal with the moral dilemmas facing modern Africans. Some movies promote the Christian or Islamic faiths, and some movies are overtly evangelical. Others, however, address questions of religious diversity, such as the popular film Not Without My Daughter, about a Muslim man and a Christian woman who want to marry but go through many obstacles.