If you grew up watching early 2000s Nollywood, chances are your sex education came with a heavy dose of melodrama and hypersexuality. One minute, a character is offering kind gestures; the next, they’re in bed. For many, Nollywood was the first exposure to carnal knowledge, setting early ideas of what sex and intimacy should look like.
But beyond the dramatics, Nollywood played a pivotal role in shaping how an entire generation of Nigerians understood sex, intimacy, and relationships. I spoke to five Nigerians about how Nollywood influenced their relationship with sex — here’s what they had to say.
“Watching that scene made me horny. At the same time, it exposed me to what sex is.” – Damilare
I was eight years old when I first saw a sex scene in a Yoruba movie. I can’t remember its title, but the action of the promiscuous husband is still fresh in my mind. He cheated on his wife while his children were at home. He locked the kids in and continued his philandering.
Watching that scene made me horny. At the same time, it exposed me to what sex is, which I had never seen before. It also answered my curiosity about how babies are made. Apparently, babies don’t drop from heaven.
Watching sex scenes in that movie didn’t damage me, but it gave me exposure to what sex is. Over time, sex also became a conversation in school and within my friend groups. So, it’s no big deal to me.
“I stayed terribly curious about what sex felt like.” – Temitope
The first time I saw a sex scene in Nollywood was in a Yoruba movie. The housewife was trying to seduce the houseboy. The houseboy wasn’t into it but eventually, she had her way. They didn’t show the sex scene, but it was implied.
That situation in the movie happened because the husband and wife were not on good terms. Watching that opened my eyes to understanding that people are likely to connect to and have chemistry with the closest person around them.
I kept that act in that movie in mind for years, though. I stayed terribly curious about what sex felt like. When I finally tasted it in university, that movie stayed on top of my mind.
Interestingly, I had a similar experience to that film. One time, I got a scholarship and needed to stay close to the school. I stayed with a family whose father was hardly around, and the mother and daughter I stayed with were attracted to me. The plot twist in my own story is that I didn’t get down with the mom and daughter.
“Sex scenes in movies have had more influence on my relationship with sex than when I was a kid.” – Precious 1
I didn’t get to watch a lot of Nollywood films growing up, and when I eventually did, I didn’t understand what was going on. I saw sex scenes in movies as a kid, I didn’t understand what it was, but it felt like I saw things I shouldn’t at a tender age. That feeling is similar to seeing an elderly person in the house naked—it feels weird but you can’t really explain it.
Those scenes definitely put naughty ideas in my head, but they just stayed there. No one really talked about sex to me as a kid. Anytime sex came up in movies, they’d tell us to stop playing it. They [parents and elderly ones] tried to show that it was wrong but never explicitly said why.
For me, as an adult, sex scenes in movies have had more influence on my relationship with sex than when I was a kid. But I won’t even give Nollywood the credit for this.
“I laid on our sofa, face down, and moved up and down like men do in a missionary position.” – Sophia*
I once watched a Yoruba film in our former landlord’s sitting room when I was a kid. I watched it with his first daughter and her then-boyfriend. I can’t remember the full gist of the movie, but I remember they made out a lot in it. I’d try to avoid looking at those scenes, and the daughter and her boyfriend would make small jokes about it and tease me. Looking back now, that was weird.
However, NEPA took the light and we couldn’t finish the movie. But what happened not long after I stepped out was more intense than what I had seen on the screen earlier. This daughter and her boyfriend made out in the large sitting room, and I peeped through the ajar door until they moved to a corner, and my eyes couldn’t glance.
I didn’t know what I saw was called sex, but I innocently told my mom about it anyway. She calmly told me to never go there again except when her dad, mom or siblings were around. Despite that and other restraints, the event of that day stayed in my head for a long time, especially the girl and her boyfriend.
The effect of that on me was that when no one was around, I laid on our sofa, face down, and moved up and down like men do in a missionary position. As an adult, I’m hypersexual, but I won’t say Nollywood movies or any movie did that to me.
“I prefer to see sex in a way that feels natural.” – Precious 2
Growing up, we had to close our eyes when watching sex scenes in movies. The first time I saw a sex scene in a Nollywood movie was a man cheating on his wife. But it didn’t feel realistic because growing up, I had expectations for Nollywood and didn’t fancy a lot of its productions. I prefer to see sex in a way that feels natural.
