Nollywood’s Unrefined Portrayal of Sex Work and Sex Workers

After watching Kenneth Gyang’s 2019 film, Òlòturé, and its sequel, Òlòtūré: The Journey, a recurring flaw in Nollywood’s portrayal of sex work and sex workers became impossible to ignore. Since the late 1900s to early 2000s, this storytelling pattern, with few exceptions, has been a staple of old Nollywood classics and has since been adopted by new Nollywood filmmakers. Though a sensitive topic, some Nigerian productions offer a shallow, pretentious portrayal of sex work. In their hollow attempts to ‘address’ the issue, they often lack a compelling story. Beyond showing glimpses of suffering and violence, these films rarely explore the lives of their characters beyond their roles as sex workers. Moreover, the films mostly present sex workers as morally corrupt individuals, rather than victims of a broken system—though some are. These films fail to convey how sex work reflects the cracks in that system.