Actor Yemi Solade has said that the first Nigerian home video was not Living in Bondage, but a Yoruba production by Ade Ajiboye, also known as Big Abass.
Solade made the statement behind the scenes of The Father’s Path with Temitope podcast, where he addressed what he described as misinformation about the origins of Nigeria’s booming film industry.
“The first man that shot home video in this country, his name is Ade Ajiboye (Big Abass); he’s alive,” he said.
The actor explained that the idea of recording performances for home viewing began as an experiment in the Yoruba theatre scene. “We have been doing it… there was celluloid, we did that,” he said.
He mentioned some of the early pioneers of Yoruba cinema including Hubert Ogunde, Baba Sala, Ade Love and Ola Balogun. “Some of them have gone,” he added.
Solade recalled how the likes of Muhideen Alade Aromire used camcorders to record stage plays and sold them in bookshops, similar to how evangelists distributed their recorded sermons.
According to him, one of the major reasons why Yoruba filmmakers do not get as much credit is because they failed to properly document their works.
“It all started like that… my people in the Yoruba setting didn’t document anything,” he said.
“That’s why some people in the film industry will come out to boast saying they started.”
“They didn’t start anything. Living in Bondage was not the first movie. But because they romanced the media while my people were doing the act. Agreed, most of them weren’t schooled and they didn’t have access to media,” he added.
Solade noted that veterans like Adebayo Salami, father of actor Femi Adebayo and Jide Kosoko can testify to how things truly started.
“It’s only in the Yoruba setting that you would find practitioners who will tell you they’ve been around for over 60 years,” he said.
The actor also spoke about his own long career in the industry, saying, “I started acting before Pete Edochie, but he’s older than me. I was 17 in 1977 when I represented Nigeria at Festac 77 as the youngest actor. I’ve done 48 years and I’m still standing.”
Although Living in Bondage, released in 1992 and produced by Kenneth Nnebue, is widely regarded as the film that started Nollywood, earlier records show that Yoruba home videos like Soso Meji by Ade Ajiboye (1988) and Ekun by Aromire (1989) predated it.
Film historians have long acknowledged that Yoruba-language filmmakers were already experimenting with video formats before Living in Bondage became a commercial success. However, limited documentation and media engagement meant their contributions were less recognised in public discourse.
