Over the years culture has been described by many scholars as “a unifying factor” which comprises the totality of a group of people. It covers the entirety and total being of a people.
Entertainment, on the other hand has been exploited in different ways by brands in appealing to target consumers. Taking a cursory look at successful brands, it will be discovered that at one time or the other they have used music to catch their consumers fancy or patronage.
Considering the importance of entertainment in a country like Nigeria, which is enormously rich in culture, it is right to say that if rightly utilized, entertainment can be a veritable tool to promote our cultural values effectively.
Some may be tempted to express pessimism as to the usefulness of entertainment in the promotion of culture in Nigeria and beyond its borders. But suffice to say that if it has been very effective in promoting local and global brands, then why not culture?
Entertainment plays a vital role in enhancing the lives of people living in a society. It’s unifying characteristic dates back to time immemorial.
History records that many years ago, in Greece; entertainment brought citizens together every year in one place to celebrate the god of fertility. In fact, that was how drama began, all in the celebration of culture.
In South West Nigeria and other parts of the country, like Benin, any initiative that advances the course of entertainment and cultural values are held in high esteem, as was the case of the ‘Excellency Tour’ embarked on by Goldberg, from the stables of Nigerian Breweries Plc.
The tour which went through five cities in the South West namely; Abeokuta, Ilorin, Ado Ekiti, Ikare Akoko, Benin City, and Oyo State, was aimed at promoting the culture of the people in these regions through traditional drummers’ competition where winners were rewarded with fabulous cash prizes. The initiative was by all means an innovative one just to enhance indigenous talent in ways not seen before.
In the whole of Africa, Nigerian is the only country characterized by vast cultures and traditions more than even any other country in the world. With entertainment these cultural heritages can be properly promoted and strategically re-positioned to partner other sectors such as tourism to boost the Nigerian economy.
Before now, the Nigerian movie industry, Nollywood and the music industries have been making considerable efforts in promoting the Nigerian culture to the world. The scripts, storyline and language of indigenous movies produced overtime have been able to effectively portray many aspects of the Nigerian culture including religion, dressing, marriage, lifestyle, family life, naming ceremony, wedding ceremony, abolition of twins killing, to mention a few.
The music industry is not left out as many indigenous songwriters, producers, rappers, singers; video directors have also been able to fully capture several aspects of the Nigerian culture in their lyrics and music videos.
Culture is people-oriented, as it includes everything that concerns the ways of life of a group of people. In fact, it would be right to say that culture and entertainment are symbiotic because to a large extent, entertainment thrives on culture. Take for example most of the movies shown on Africa Magic, their message, theme, sound track, language, dressing, to mention a few, are cultural based, and by so doing the Nigerian culture is being promoted.
Also, the lyrics of artistes such as Sunny Ade, K1 De Ultimate, Ebenezer Obey, Sir Victor Uwaifo, 9ice, Olamide and a host of others, are replete with aspects of the Nigerian culture which western culture has almost eroded, but with their inclusion in the lyrics of the songs of these legendary musicians, these cultural values still remain relevant.
If the federal and states governments, corporate bodies and other private organizations can invest more in entertainment like they have been doing for other sectors, there can be a glorification of the Nigerian culture or even achieve cultural renaissance through music, dance, movies, festivals and more.
Though some brands have been doing pretty well in promoting culture through entertainment, there still lies a huge vacuum to be filled because there are a lot more aspects of Nigerian cultures that are yet to be promoted using entertainment.
