Adaptations in Nollywood have always led to iconic and often heartfelt memories relevant culturally and to the career growth of filmmakers’ careers. In the past, Nollywood has boasted of well-received adaptations like Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart which gave the actor, Pete Edochie, significant popularity, Femi Osofisan’s Maami and Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s Half of a Yellow Sun. The past five years have been nothing short of interesting with some of the most beloved books and novels receiving attention on the big screen.

In June 2020, Mo Abudu secured the rights to adapt two well-known source materials through her Ebony Life production company exclusively for Netflix. These included Lola Shoneyin’s The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives and Nobel Laureate Wole Soyinka’s Death and the King’s Horseman. In the usual style of collaboration with the audience, Mo Abudu took to X (Twitter) to announce to her audience that Shoneyin’s novel would be adapted into a series. She then listed out the characters, gave descriptions and encouraged fans to give casting suggestions (who they would like to see) on screen in the roles. Excitedly, her comments were filled with hundreds of suggestions. Although both projects were announced at the same time, it was Soyinka’s play that graced the screen first as Shoneyin’s adaptation is yet to be released. The adaptation was released as Elesin Oba: The King’s Horseman in 2022. The film was directed by Biyi Bandele who also directed Half of a Yellow Sun (2013).

Another compelling Soyinka adaptation was announced in September 2022. The project is spearheaded by longtime collaborators and friends of Soyinka including Nigerian veteran filmmaker, Femi Odugbemi, culture consultant, Jahman Anikulapo, and the film’s director, Awam Amkpa; playwright and New York University professor of drama, film and social and cultural analysis. The source material is The Man Died: Prison Notes of Wole Soyinka which he wrote in Cambridge while in exile from Nigeria. The book detailed his incarceration during the Nigerian Civil War (1967–1970) where he was accused of treason and assisting Biafran secessionists.

During the Nigerian Civil War, Soyinka was arrested and incarcerated for 22 months, most of it spent in solitary confinement in a cell, 4ft by 8ft. His offence: assisting the Biafran secessionists. Despite the tragedy of his situation, conviction and humour are elements he employs to stay afloat. The film is set to be released in July 2024. Its trailer has garnered positive reception on social media. On YouTube for example, user @/ugoawa3171, wrote:

It’s good that we are beginning to tell the difficult stories about our troubled history as a nation. This is a quality production and we need many more like this to come.

The trailer was released at an expedient time after a pubic rift from the recent 2023 general elections in Nigeria with Soyinka losing public opinion as a result of seemingly disparaging comments made on ‘Obidients’ (a political movement of young Nigerians who supported the presidential bid of Peter Obi) calling them and calling the party itself a ‘regional party’ at his ‘The Lives of Wole Soyinka—A Dialogue’ event in Stellenbosch, South Africa.

Swallow based on a novel of the same name by Seffi Atta is another project graced with an adaptation from Kunle Afolayan through a collaboration with Netflix. The film was released in 2021. It tells the 1980s Lagos middle-class story of Rose and Tolani, eternally hustling in corporate Nigeria to make ends meet with nothing but poverty pangs and sexual harassment to show for it. In hopes of better financial days, Rose clings on to a drug smuggler and she decides to take a fatal leap into the illicit world herself. Despite the extravagant production design and superb casting, including a comeback from Ijeoma Grace Agu, some reviewers criticized the film as soulless and reductive.

In an exciting switch of visual format, the industry has also announced some projects that have kept viewers keen and on the edge of their seats. In November 2018, Magic Carpet Studios released a teaser for a 2D animation adaptation of Mallam Illia’s Passport. The story is a tale of vengeance and the personal cost it often requires. The teaser went viral, gaining over 65,000 views. Five years down the line, the studio has released a teaser. Although prolonged, the yearly updates the studio has provided have kept hopes up and fans interested. The studio has also announced two other projects including an animated sitcom, Meet the Igwes, which is based on ‘an underclass family trapped in a class war’ and a pan-African mythology 3D series, Legend of Bulan.

Nollywood’s successes over the past five years have been so diverse that what is happening can only be described as an entertainment boom. Different stakeholders are concurrently chasing different goals—funding, technological advancement, education, artistic flair and more—but arriving at the same end: growth⎈