Why Nollywood Needs Archetypes, Not Stereotypes.
Film: To Kill a Monkey by Kemi Adetiba
Too often, Nigerian cinema leans on shortcuts: characters you recognize instantly but can’t truly believe. The hustler, the politician, the runs girl, the rich uncle—the outlines are familiar, but they lack weight. They exist as labels, not people.
A stereotype is a costume. An archetype is a soul.
In global cinema, the difference is everything. An archetype is a constructed energy—layered, psychologically true, consistent from the first frame to the last. It lives in gestures, dialogue, space, even silence. It’s what makes a Don Draper (Mad Men) or a Kendall Roy (Succession) feel both larger than life and devastatingly real.
Nollywood rarely sculpts at this level. We decorate, we exaggerate, but we don’t always build. Which is why To Kill a Monkey feels like a turning point.
Archetypes in Action: A Lesson from To Kill a Monkey
Kemi Adetiba’s series doesn’t just tell a story—it constructs living energies:
Efe: Long before wealth, his English is polished, deliberate. A thread of quiet nobility runs through his speech, foreshadowing the man he’ll become. His “glow-up” is less transformation, more revelation.
Mrs Sparkles: A high-class runs girl, but not a caricature. Every line, every glance carries sensual control, a woman whose power is in her poise, not just her plotline.
The Restaurant Madam: She wears her low-class ambition in wig choice and cheap-luxe accessories—silent costuming cues placing her instantly in the story’s social hierarchy.
Every choice feels intentional, precise. These aren’t just characters written to move a plot forward. They’re sculpted human energies, designed to be felt before they’re understood.
Why This Matters for Nollywood
When Nigerian cinema stops decorating stereotypes and starts sculpting archetypes, something shifts. The stories stop being “good for Nollywood” and start being good, globally.
It’s what elevates a series from entertainment to art. From a local product to a global conversation. From something you watch and forget, to something that lingers, quoted, dissected, remembered.
Because cinema is language. And archetypes are how you write poetry with people.
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