Abstract
When the seminal home video movie, Living in Bondage, burst into the market and Nigerian homes in 1991, it literally hit the ground running! It was such an instant hit that it caused a revolution in the Nigerian movie industry akin to the literary revolution set off by Chinua Achebe with Things Fall Apart fifty-six years ago. One aspect of the novelty, mystic, charm and great promise of the great movie was that it was rendered in Igbo language with English sub-titling. It triggered a rash of home video productions in several Nigerian languages notably Igbo, Ibibio, Edo, Hausa and Yoruba in English sub-titles. For the Igbos and their language – still to recover sufficiently from the debilitating effects of the Nigerian civil war, the Biafran War – that seminal movie seemed to herald the beginning of a much awaited linguistic and cultural renaissance. But that was not to be. The Nigerian home video industry did grow from its humble beginnings in Living in Bondage to become a world renowned industry called Nollywood – named and rated third after the Indian Bollywood and the American Hollywood. Unfortunately, the Igbo language component of the revolution soon petered out like a flash in the pan – an unfortunate victim of the dictate of the profit motive and yet another evidence of the free fall of the Igbo language from its previous position of strength in the era of Tony Ubesie, hailed as ‘probably the most gifted and accomplished Igbo writing fiction today in any language’ (Emenyonu, 2001:3  
Highlights
Dream DeferredWhat Happens to a Dream Deferred? Does it dry upLike a raisin in the sun?Or fester like a sore— And run?Does it stink like rotten meat?Or crust and sugar over—Like a syrupy sweet?Maybe it just sags like a heavy load.Or does it explode?
The second clear implication was that having by design or by accident made fame, proven the efficacy of home video as purveyor of films and having awakened the hunger of consumers for Nigerian stories acted by Nigerians, our heroes did not feel bound to stick with one of their agents of success – the Igbo language
If the Igbos really think they want to revive their civilization, they must continue from where makers of Living in Bondage abandoned their revolution. Is another example of the potential for linguistic resurgence of Igbo language that lies in the film medium
Summary
Maybe it just sags like a heavy load. Great works of art are classics which provide impetus for the growth of their kind within a milieu. It is worth noting that Amadi by Ola Balogun was the first movie in Nigeria to be shot in an indigenous language, Igbo, (Mgbejume, 1989) but Living in Bondage was the first in an indigenous language with English sub-titles It was the very first notable film in the home video technology, which it popularized in Nigeria and beyond as a film medium. A steady stream of feature films on home video format in Nigerian languages with English sub-titling followed, riding on the impetus created by Living in Bondage. These were in Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa, Ibibio, Edo and other languages. One may wonder why the same financial controllers and executive producers did not keep Igbo language in the hub of the films they made
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