Article originally posted on Facebook on January 27, 2022.
Hmm, this ( Liberian Woman season one flyer) is interesting that’s why I refuse to hold back what came rushing to my mind.
You see, if you’re on tiktok, you’ll notice that there are so many Nigerians on there that have so many negative things to say about how we speak and how “Liberians are not fully Africans” because according to some of them, “LIBERIA is an English speaking country “, “Our people came from the United States ( they don’t even know that we are a mixture of descendants of Americo-Liberian, Native, which is the majority of the country’s population, etc..), which makes us less African”, etc… it amazes me to see “Nollywood” making movies ( you heard right) about LIBERIANS without even trying to cast LIBERIAN actresses and actors, at least a few of our excellent actors. I can give you names if you need it.
I’m not too surprised to see this because this is NOT the first time they have made movies in our name. There’s a Nigerian movie played by #MercyJohnson acting and trying to speak Koloqua, however, as we all know, Kolo is NOT something easy to speak and we love it just like that. I genuinely like Mercy Johnson and all but that accent was definitely NOT ours. Yikes!
Anyway, if you go on YouTube ( I screenshot some titles below) and type in “LIBERIAN girls”, you’ll see some Nollywood movies popping up. There’s not many yet, but we all know when Nigerians start something, they’ll end it. Very soon, we’ll have a whole category of movies titled, “Hipco”, “Koloqua Love”, “Monrovia Love”, etc.. although these titles sound ridiculous but watch out. I tired ya.
So, far, I’ve noticed and also learned that Nigerians are not too open to supporting other Africans entering their entertainment industry unless they’re from Ghana. From what I have observed, this is the only African country I see them open to.
Even when there’s a conversation on online about “JOLLOF RICE”, they swear the conversation is between the two countries and that “the rest of the African countries are irrelevant”. They also believe their “JOLLOF” is better than every other African country. Lol…, “Ly child what say his Ma will na slee, even he seh will na slee.”
I know some Nigerians, Ghanaian, ( including Liberians don’t know little about these issues) will come here to mention Artus Frank, Juliet Ibrahim and Eddie Watson or Korto Davis, however, that’s NOT enough!!
Back in the day, Liberians used to watched Nollywood movies heavily; however, time has changed and Liberians have their own industry that is slowly growing. We are asking our people to support us and due to these little changes, our people are shifting their attention to their own , which is impressive.
I will like to bring your attention to how smart the Nigerian man is and he knows that their industry need us to add money to their market like we used to, they’re spending money making movies in our name and trying to get us back!
The Nigerian man has NEVER supported the LIBERIAN man like the way we have supported them. This new constant habit of making movies and calling it “Liberian” this “Liberian” that, I know these are marketing strategy to get Liberians to start rewatching and buying their movies again. All the contributions we made to Nollywood by buying and watching, where has it gotten us? Nowhere. We neglected ourselves and our people. Even some of our people still find it hard to support their own because they prefer foreign contents over their own. Liberians supported Nollywood movies when their movies were still poor quality. But to show their support and watch low quality Liberian movies is now something difficult for them to do.
Today, where has that support gotten us? Again, Nowhere! Our movies producers are still begging for their movies to be watch. Even something as little as subscribing on YouTube is difficult.
Truth be told, Nigerian movies are still heavily in the Liberian market in Liberia. Last year, during my visit home, I visited a couple of African movies stories hoping to buy some Liberian films but the seller told me , “Liberian pepo na want buy their own movies.” I was extremely disappointed. What is the problem? Why can’t we do more for ourselves? What and who’s stopping us? Can we be a little selfish and pour into ourselves and stop giving to people that don’t give to us? My dear brothers and sisters, let’s work on changing the narrative.
I have learned in life that in order for something to work, you must also do what you’re asking of others. So, until Nollywood start receprocating what we’ve long done for them, we will NOT give our support to them like we used to. They can make all the movies and call it “Liberian” this and “Liberian” that or re labeled them into “LIBERIAN” this or that, we will only support them when they start supporting us! This goes to other African countries as well.
To Liberians, that love to talk down on how we speak, do you see why we should stop shaming ourselves and focus more on supporting?
The exact thing that we have been and continue to be shamed for is now something they have started using to make money off of. Koloqua is supreme.
WE ARE SMALL IN NUMBER BUT WE ARE POWERFUL AND I KNOW THAT! YOU SHOULD TOO! Liberian PROUDLY!!
Written by First Lady / Augustina Kou Monpleh Official
theenimbaianbloggerkou #Liberianstarsview #Liberianstarsviews #theeliberianblogger
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