The Genres and Audience of Yoruba Film Industry

The phenomenal increase in the quantity of films produced in the Yoruba movie industry calls for critical attention of movie scholars and critics. The quantity of films produced from the Yoruba belt of the film industry attests to the fact that the Yoruba have a rich theatre culture before the revolution in the video film format. Owning to the fact that the Yoruba have a rich theatre culture, the present article traces the development of Yoruba theatre tradition, and it also examines the state of the Yoruba film industry in relation to its genres and audience. The identified genres of the Yoruba films, which are mutually inclusive, are history, biopic, political, thriller as well as love and romance. The audience of the Yoruba films is grouped into two: the audience at home (onshore) and the audience in the diaspora who are spread across the globe (offshore). The attitude and reaction of the Yoruba film audience vary based on the variables of cultural orientation; educational status and residency (home or diaspora). The variation in the attitude and reaction of Yoruba film audience is informed by perception, preference and taste owing to exposure and experience. The paper concludes that there should be harmonization of the ethical and aesthetic values of Yoruba films for cultural nationalism and favorable place in the global film industry

Diaspora · Ethnic group · Film genre · Film industry · Taste · Yoruba · African history and culture studies · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies · South Asian Cinema and Culture