9 - Demonizing Madness: Mental Disorders as Deus Ex Machina in Nollywood Movies

Summary

Although discrimination in different guises is a common worldwide phenomenon, people with developmental disabilities and mental health conditions are frequently discriminated against and stereotyped in many societies. Many even go so far as to argue that mentally challenged people are more discriminated against than any other group. Stories about the mentally challenged in different situations of conflict feature prominently in Nollywood movies. Most of these movies rehash the discrimination against the mentally challenged and uphold the social construction of mental illness as the consequence of moral blemish and spiritual wickedness. Rather than seeing mental impairment as medical and social problems that can be treated and managed, some Nollywood movies depict mental impairments as resulting from spiritual attacks. The situation of the mentally disabled is compounded by negative responses to the impaired person's situation—responses that are largely determined by stereotypical traditional beliefs. Such discriminatory practices contribute to “the perpetuation of discriminatory and stigmatizing attitudes towards persons with mental illness,” and form “a barrier to accessing treatment,” which can dissuade the mentally disabled from seeking medical attention where it is needed, thereby worsening their condition.

The demonization of mental health challenges and the labeling of individuals with mental disability as “dangerous, dirty, and a nuisance to society” is common in Nollywood movies. In some cases, the individual with cognitive development challenges becomes the butt of jokes, while in other cases, mental illness is deployed as a subplot and a deus ex machina, as in Abela Ojomeje. There is usually a collocation between plot structure and the representations of mental illness, and there is a tendency to use mental illness as a handy resolution device. In such instances, the subplots of madness that are grafted onto the main plots as a resolution device become a very infinitesimal part of the story. The effect of this small part of the story on its overall structure is usually disproportional because it provides the missing link to the loose and sometimes unwieldy melodramatic plot.