Nkem Owoh 'Osuofia' Breaks Silence on Claim He Said Yoruba Founded Nollywood

• Nkem Owoh, known as Osuofia, addressed his earlier comments during an episode of Curiosity Made Me Ask hosted by Bae U
• The actor drew a clear line between the origins of Nollywood as a brand and the older Yoruba home-video tradition
• Osuofia's remarks reignited long-running ethnic debates about who truly built Nigeria's film industry

Veteran Nollywood actor Nkem Owoh, better known by his screen name Osuofia, has stepped forward to set the record straight on comments widely attributed to him about the founding of Nigeria's film industry.

The clarification came during an appearance on the YouTube interview series Curiosity Made Me Ask hosted by content creator Adebayo Abidemi, popularly called Isbae U. The episode was uploaded on Saturday, 7 November, and quickly drew attention online.

Owoh was responding to reports that he had claimed the Yoruba people started Nollywood, rather than the Igbo. He rejected that framing outright, explaining that the word "Nollywood" did not even exist when he and his contemporaries first began making films.

"First of all, you have given me this wrong accusation that I said, Yoruba started Nollywood. No. Yoruba started this film on…when did Nollywood come out? When we started the thing, there was no Nollywood as a name. We sat together and we're banding, you know, ideas and all that, how the thing is going to come to fruition. And eventually, we chose Nollywood," he said.

Osuofia credits Yoruba pioneers of home video

While distancing himself from the claim that Yoruba filmmakers founded Nollywood, Owoh was clear that they had indeed pioneered the home-video tradition in Nigeria. He gave particular credit to legendary filmmaker Hubert Ogunde.

"So, Yoruba started the thing. They made the thing very popular home video and all that. Yes, they did. And I've said it several. Okay. Ogunde and Adebayo Papa. These are the people I love to watch their thing," he said.

When the host playfully suggested that Ogunde might have been Igbo, Owoh firmly pushed back, insisting the director was Yoruba.

"Ogunde is not Igbo. I'm telling you that Yoruba started it. When Ogunde was out, I don't think there was any Igbo man who was that popular in that," he added.

His final summation drew the clearest distinction yet:

"The Yoruba did not start Nollywood. They started Home video."

Owoh's comments connect to a broader conversation that resurfaced in August 2026, when the late actor Francis Duru argued that Igbo entrepreneurs were the real architects of the modern Nollywood home-video boom during the 1990s and early 2000s, while also acknowledging that the Yoruba community had grown more dominant through stronger organisation and self-promotion. Duru passed away in October 2026.

At the time, Owoh was reported to have countered that Yoruba filmmakers had been active in theatre and performance long before the Igbo-led video wave of the 1990s. His latest interview seems aimed at adding precision to those earlier remarks, separating the coined industry label "Nollywood" from the deeper, older roots of Yoruba cinematic tradition.

The video of Osuofia clarifying Nollywood's origin is below:

Nkem Owoh recounts how he started acting

Legit.ng previously reported that Nkem Owoh revealed that his journey into acting was never part of his original plan, describing it as an “accident.”

The veteran entertainer explained that he initially wanted to work behind the scenes as a scriptwriter.

However, his natural flair for comedy caught the attention of colleagues, who encouraged him to step in front of the camera.

Source: Legit.ng