Inside the sex-for-role culture in Nollywood

When Yvonne Nelson's mother was six months pregnant with her, she decided to terminate her pregnancy.

On the day of the operation, while she lay on the surgical bed, her gynaecologist had a change of heart and refused to proceed with the abortion. Yvonne was born on November 12, 1985, at Korle-Bu Teaching Hospital in Accra, Ghana.

I am not Yvonne Nelson is a memoir by the resplendent actress, who also wears the hat of producer and director. Her 17-year stagecraft has led her to star in more than 100 West African movies, including Princess Tyra, which eventually exposed her talent to the Nigerian film industry, leading to the signing of an endorsement contract with Nigerian telecom giant Glo.

On May 16, 2015, she became the most tenacious civil rights activist in protests against continued power cuts and irregular electrical supply in Ghana. Her generosity later propelled her into philanthropy, establishing the Yvonne Nelson Glaucoma Foundation.

Emotional scars

Throughout her childhood, her emotionally abusive mother persistently reminded her that she had birthed her mistakenly. Regular affirmations that she was a symbol of regret to the woman who conceived her, left her with egregious emotional scars.

Her mother repeatedly informed her that her presumed father, Oko Nelson, a prominent Accra tycoon, had neglected her since birth.

She grew up despising Oko Nelson for the abandonment, only to discover in adulthood that her biological father was the late Peter Ala Adjetey, Ghana's parliamentary speaker from 2001 to 2005.

When Yvonne was 25, she had a brief intimate relationship with then 22-year-old Ghanaian musician Sekondie and fell pregnant. Upon breaking the news to him, he insisted the pregnancy would damage his career and she procured an abortion.

Just before she joined Central University College in Accra to study Human Resource Management, Yvonne participated in Miss Ghana 2005 beauty pageant, finishing fifth.

Shortly after, during a visit to Afrikiko, a middle-class eatery and recreational centre in Accra, she bumped into renowned Ghanaian movie director Abdul Salam Mumuni. He invited her to his next movie auditions, having recognised her from the Miss Ghana pageantry. He cast her in her first movie roles, Beyonce and Princess Tyra.

Yvonne would crudely discover women rarely broke into entertainment with just talent. Sex was transactional and was often extorted in exchange for roles, turning the arts into one of the most hostile environments for women. There is a secret aversion of hostility and a silent wish for a female novice who declines sexual demands to fail.

After filming Princess Tyra, Yvonne appeared in 15 movies without charging a fee, in an effort to ward off the unquenchable sexual desires of producers and movie executives. The more movies an actress featured in, the more relevant they stayed in the minds of the film audience, improving the potential of landing financially secure roles.

Producers know this, and women who are desperately in search of opportunities are often impelled to sleep with them. A popular movie director in Ghana threatened never to enlist Yvonne again, unless she conformed to his sexual stipulations. Yvonne persistently repelled his unwelcome advances.

Opportunities emerged after the release of Princess Tyra. Numerous Nollywood producers head-hunted and poached Yvonne from Accra to Lagos, Nigeria. The sexual manipulation by movie producers in Ghana had startled Yvonne, but the culture shock of persistent sexual harassment and unwelcome advances in Nigeria disillusioned her.

Men wielded money and influence to decide who rose to fame and who flopped. Women in the industry were primarily vulnerable prey at the conspicuous hands of perverted men. The male superiority complex is distinctly obscene and the producers in Lagos missed no opportunity to objectify women, using them as their sex toys, and making them feel insignificant, thus normalising the travesty.

Sex rings

Sexual exploitation extended from movie producers to directors, and to numerous entrepreneurs, religious leaders and traditional spiritual healers. Wealthy sexual predators watch Nigerian movies relentlessly and pursue actors intensely with an unquenchable thirst.

These powerful men possess intermediaries, whom they discreetly send to movie stars on their behalf in exchange for vast sums of money. They categorically believe that because of their wealth, women should automatically submit to their sexual urges.

Yvonne had known the forceful entitlement of men to women’s bodies existed, but the Nigerian film industry magnified its prevalence. Thanks to the success of Princess Tyra, Yvonne learnt early to stand her ground and reject outrageous sexual randiness.

Contractually, starring in Nigerian films was more lucrative than doing so in Ghana. In some instances, Yvonne shot multiple movies in a single Nigerian trip before returning to Ghana. Her home country had given her a professional breakthrough in acting, but her financial advancement came from character portrayals in Nigeria.

To help combat sexual exploitation of women, Yvonne opened her own production company, YN Productions, which strictly cast women for their meritorious talents, without enforcing sexual patronage. YN has produced 14 films, including successful movies Single and Married, Sin City and The Men We Love.

The reviewer is a novelist, a Big Brother Africa 2 Kenyan representative and founder of Jeff's Fitness Centre (@jeffbigbrother).