Hello and welcome to the Witness Podcast from the BBC World Service with me Alex Last,

moments of history told by the people who were there.

And today it's the chance to hear a story from our amazing archive about an African cultural phenomenon

because in 1992 a film was made in Nigeria for the new home video market called Living in Bondage became a huge hit and is

credited with launching the incredibly successful Nigerian film industry

known as Nolliwood.

It's

Nigeria actor Canio O Canio is hired to star in a new feature-length video film

We were able to tell our own story in our own language to our own

own people in the way they understand.

With the mannerisms they can access you with,

the conducts they can display and so on.

It was different because it told a story that people have always heard of a story that people could relate with but never saw it in picture.

That's because Nigerian films were rare by the 1990s.

Celluloid was expensive.

Insecurity in the cities meant audiences didn't go to the cinema after dark but the new home video

market was booming at the time only imported videos were widely available local

productions had been attempted without much success.

Then a local producer, Kenneth Nebue, put up the cash for an Eboe language film.

Actors like Canayo, who had been in soap operas on state television

were first in line. Some of us were already popular from the soap operas and so on.

So it was like one tell another there's no official publication if you hear you

...