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AN APPRAISAL OF VISUAL EFFECT APPLICATION IN OLD 

NOLLYWOOD EPIC REPRESENTATIONS: A READING OF KEN 

ANUKA’S ZAZZI (2016) 

 
Uchechukwu Chimezie Ajiwe 

Department of Theatre & Film Studies, 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. 

Email: uc.ajiwe@unizik.edu.ng 

& 

Nwosu Obianuju Gladys 

Theatre and Film Studies Department 

Faculty of Arts, 

Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka. 

og.nwosu@unizik.edu.ng +234 803 865 1639 

 

Abstract 

This paper appraises the way Visual effects are being used in communicating African 

ideologies in Nollywood epic genres and further buttresses that the application of visual 

effects in Nollywood narratives is a construct of Nigerian cultural representation. 

Hence, this paper places emphasis on Igbo cultural norms and beliefs. Semiotic theory is 

used to interrogate the use of visual effects in Ken Steve Anuka’s Zazi (2016) by 

pinpointing the meanings of cultural representations in the selected movie as regards 

Igbo cultural realities. At the end, this paper submits that the application of visual 

effects in Nollywood helps to serve narrative purposes depending on how the filmmakers 

encode the ideology of Nigerian society.  

 

Introduction 

Nollywood as an industry is a highly placed commercial industry that is developing rapidly. 

Its film narratives are characterized by Nigerianness, which is easily understood from 

the perspective of the Nigerian context. Nollywood films are produced in different 

genres, which include ritual genre, the vigilant genre, comic genre; epic genre, religious 

genre, love, and other genres. This notwithstanding, there are films which display aspects 

of more than one genre. In all, these films are representations of different ideologies 

of the Nigerian society.  As such, their visual images are constructs of cultural 

representation in which meanings can only be deduced from the context of culture. Most 

recently films employ the use of visual effect images to construct meaningful signs which 

present objects and images that are larger than life and possibly events that give illusion 

of representations of one’s cultural belief.  These visual effect images are created and 

made to be believable. The point here is that, filmmakers create these images especially 

in Nollywood epic films to create ideological and acceptable cultural beliefs which 

communicate meaningful ideas within the context of the narrative. To understand how 

images created with poor technological equipment in the old Nollywood narratives, it 

warrants a Semiotic reading of those visual images applied in the selected narratives. 

mailto:og.nwosu@unizik.edu.ng


 

 
  

Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts (AJRMA) Vol. 16, September 2023 

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Therefore, this warrants a critical understanding and application of film semiotics to the 

reading of the select film’s visual effect images. 

Film semiotics is the study of sign process or any process that involves signs, including 

the production of meaning, as these signs pertain to moving pictures, Visual effect images 

and animations. Film semiotics is used for the interpretation of many art forms, often 

including abstract art. It has its root in Semiotic and semiology theory.  

 

Semiotics can be referred to as the study of sign processes, signification, or the study 

of signs and symbols. However, there exists the formal and social aspects of semiotics, 

the former (semiology) abstracting signs from the contexts of their usage while the 

latter (semiotics) examines semiotic practices that are specific to Nigerian culture.” In 

this regard, Saussure (1966, p. 16) expressed in his semiotics that; 

 

The signifier calls up a mental image, not a material object. We see the signifier and 

think about the object it stands for; we do not experience the object directly. What is 

signified is not the object, only an idea of the object. As Saussure put it, “Both parts of 

the sign are psychological” (Saussure 1966, p. 16), (as cited in Chandler 2002, p. 25). 

Therefore, film images are representations of what the filmmaker sees which indicates 

that nothing real exists independently of the use of codes. The filmmaker uses cultural 

codes to construct reality. In this respect, semiotics infers meanings from the societal 

expectations, cultural values and individual experiences. 

 

Barthes (1915-1980), as a follower of de Saussure’s semiological programme and a leading 

structuralist, is recognized for his contribution to test semiotic studies of myth, 

theology, literature and narrative. He became famous also for his contribution to the 

semiotics of various types of visual communication, and for his systematic model of 

signification, a Saussurean term which Barthes defined as “a process: it is the act which 

binds the signifier and signified, an act whose product is the sign” (1964/67, p. 48). 

Barthes sets up two orders of signification, which he refers to as denotation and 

connotation. His particular usage of these terms derives directly from Saussure’s dyadic 

(signifier-signified) model of the sign. Huhtamo,(2003, p. 5), highlights the difference 

between denotation and connotation as follows: 

 

The distinction between denotation and connotation is the guiding idea of Barthes' 

semiotic theory. He claims that when we read signs and sign complexes, we can distinguish 

between different kinds of messages. Denotation is the "literal or obvious meaning" or 

the "first-order signifying system". For example the denotative meaning of an image 

refers to its literal, descriptive meaning. Connotation refers to "second order signifying 

systems", additional cultural meanings we can also find from the image or text. Barthes 

identifies connotation with the operation of ideology (which he also calls "myth"). 

According to Barthes, "ideology or "myth" consists of the deployment of signifiers for 

the purpose of expressing and justifying the dominant values of a given society, class or 

historical period (the signs express not just "themselves", but also all kind of value 

systems that surround them). As myths, signs tend to appear "natural" and self-evident 

(although they are basically always artificial, coded), hiding the operations of ideology. 



 

 
  

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Umberto Eco widens the subject and role of semiotics in the exploration of reality of 

human existence when he writes that, “semiotics is concerned with everything that can 

be taken as a sign. A sign is everything which can be taken as significantly substituting 

for something else. This something else does not necessarily have to exist or to actually 

be somewhere at the moment in which a sign stands in for it” (Eco, 1976, p. 7). Moreover, 

it can be visualized as an approach to a wide variety of systems of signification and 

communication or it can be visualized as a description of those various systems focusing 

on their mutual differences or their specific structural properties such as the 

transformation from verbal language to gestures or from visual images to body positions. 

It can investigate those various systems either at the elementary level of their 

sequential units such as words, colour spots, sounds or at the more complex level of the 

texts which is, narrative structures or figures of speech (Eco, 1977). 

 

A semiotic analysis of a film seeks to find out how the messages are formed and given 

meaning. In a semiotic approach, the meanings of images designed in film by their 

creators give shape and significance to our experience of reality. To study film may mean 

to decipher the framing of meaning since they are always produced in a social context 

and are always contextual. Without a context, no meaning can be produced because the 

image will stand for nothing, so films compose connections between the meanings and 

images produced. These images as codes assembled by the filmmaker are also deciphered 

by the viewer. Moreover, understanding of the different codes assembled by the 

filmmaker as a unified entity depends on the viewer’s level of interpretation of the image 

seen and his/her familiarity with the cultural codes. In this regards, visual effect in film, 

TV, and games as tools for connotation produces meanings to the film story and to the 

audience. William notes that, “Awareness of the operations of the devices may also be 

part of the pleasure of the spectators” (as cited by Shilo T. Mc Clean, 2004, p.37). Much 

as this assertion seem true, it should be noted that some genres are dependent on action, 

suspense and visual effects, especially computer generated imagery are the vehicle 

through which tension are heightened and as well elaborated in film’s narrative.  

 

Bordwell states that narration is a process whereby films furnish cues to spectators who 

are interpretative schemata to construct ordered intelligible stories in their minds, from 

the point of view of reception, spectators entertain, elaborate, and sometime suspend 

and modify their hypothesis about the images and sounds on the screen. However, 

representation of reality plays a crucial role in understanding literature and art as a 

whole since ancient times.  

 

In this wise,  Lawant, (2013, p.13) explained that human intervention in rotoscoping cannot 

be denied. The semiotics of this human intervention are a little more explicitly noticeable 

in the iconic aspect of the rotoscoped image than in the indexical. As with the indexical 

aspect the iconic is anchored within the live-action image.” Thus visual effects (CGI) tend 

to make use of allusive and elusive references to individuals and objects which are 

iconically or metaphorically identified by the audience. Therefore, visual metaphor could 

provide subtle means for identifying some references; because visual metaphors 



 

 
  

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generally have much impact than verbal metaphorical expressions in terms of 

understanding the relayed visual messages and their influence on the audiences when 

used in appropriate and specific contexts. Lakoff and Johnson (1980) have argued that 

metaphorical language is pervasive and universal, which is not arbitrary but remarkably 

systemic. Their argument was based on the fact that people’s ordinary conceptual system 

is metaphorically structured helping them to comprehend complex or abstract 

experiences in terms of concrete concepts which they are more familiar with. From this 

perspective, cognitive metaphor is the term used to refer to the understanding of a 

particular idea that is the conceptual domain in terms of concrete or real experience. 

Thus metaphor has been described as a mental process of “understanding one conceptual 

domain in terms of another conceptual domain” (Kovecses, 2002, p.4). 

Lawant (2013, p.13), explains that, 

 

Semiotically rotoscoping obviously works in a matter close to live-action: after all, the 

image is directly traced over from live-action footage. This means that here the iconicity 

and the indexicality of the image behave differently from the forms of film previously 

discussed. The signs of the live-action image become fully incorporated into the animated 

image. While the indexical aspect of the drawn image is in part simply contained within 

the brushstrokes on the canvas (or whatever the material used), the indexical aspect of 

the live-action footage is also incorporated. The live-action image has an indexical aspect 

of registering the light that shoots through the lens and in return the final rotoscoped 

image registers that image. 

 

Animated images and live action images, both make use of indexical and iconic signs, and 

both produce better messages were merged or fused together. Thus, Hisham Bizri, 

Andrew Johnson, and Christina Vasilakis (1998, p.12) highlight that, “the quintessential 

rule of art is its ability to suspend disbelief and create the illusion of art. Through 

convincing representation, the illusion in art manifests itself, forcing the viewer to 

become psychologically involved.” Thus viewers are psychologically involved in a film 

narrative which is imagined as a complex web of signs. The viewers are given series of 

narrative codes which can be deciphered at multiple levels of meaning. Each deciphered 

thread embodies a network of signs leading to other signs. If the viewer fails in his initial 

task he confronts another set of signs to choose from which will lead to other sets. The 

viewer’s psychological inquiry into the narrative and her attempt to decipher its puzzle 

often times yield desired and new meanings as well. 

 

In this respect, the application of visual effects as a narrative device is subjectively 

utilized in Nollywood film narratives by filmmakers to create magical, ritualistic images 

and supernatural characters that are indexical representations of its real objects or 

imaginations that are culturally accepted. The relevance of a variety of images created 

i.e. transformations of the photographic image like motion blur, diffusion or lens flares 

– which are created by digital means in visual effects applications as essential aspects of 

photorealism which are composed to align with the narrative and give meanings that are 

culturally bound. In this regard, Uwah (2013, p. 53) in explaining views on the integration 

of magic and witchcraft in Nollywood film narrative points out that these films represent 



 

 
  

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and portray themes with existential significances for ordinary Nigerian.” Nollywood’s 

depiction of supernatural iconographies and powers indicates the interactivity that the 

digitally manufactured characters and shots interplay with time and space which 

communicates with signs that are either overtly exaggerated or basically of the 

filmmaker’s imagination which often are suggestive realism. This demonstrates that CGI, 

digital visual effects are infused in Nollywood films to serve narrative purposes 

depending on the filmmakers encoding ideology of Nigerian society. This is why Omoera 

(2009, p.197) states that what the filmmakers “in turn produce are concrete reflections 

of the society.” In other words, the society and culture propel the images used as signs 

created with the use of Visual effects in any film genre/narrative. 

 

Benagr (2012, p. 69) explains that “sociopolitical, economic and socio-cultural 

considerations usually determine the nature and shape of technology and consequently 

its application in solving the particular problem it is designed to solve.” This implies that 

social ideologies, culture and values are proponents from which visual effect objects are 

designed and composited in a film narrative with intent to infer illusions cultural realities. 

And the analysis of such images are also decoded and analyzed within visual narrative 

culture and social elements to arrive at a desirable and suitable scientific explanation. 

Benagr reiterates that it “eventually leads too technological innovation.” Therefore, 

depending on the filmmakers’ encoding of Nigerian society’s ideology, the use of visual 

effects in Nollywood narratives not only serves narrative purposes but also communicates 

specific cultural beliefs and ideologies.  

 

According to Chow and Harrell (p.5) “the director or animator can infer the sensation by 

cognitively projecting her or his own experience to the perceived action. This act of 

“inference” seems to be suggesting that the projection takes place at a higher cognitive 

level, demanding conscious mental operation.” Thus, the filmmaker especially the visual 

effects designer blends his or her past experiences and perceived action thereby 

yielding an inferred sensation. The blend is so tight that the Visual effect images are 

associated with the sensation. In this regard, use of visual effects to recreate past 

experiences bring visible and invisible images and events for us to re-experience. This is 

based on a perceptional perspective but also as a narrative category, because visual 

effects offer a vast range of visualization strategies. These visualizations convey 

dimensions beyond the scope of human perception, imagination, thought or magical 

phenomena. Magic is not only a content of representation but refers to the technology 

itself, providing it with a mythic enhancement. Uwah (2013, p. 269) reiterates that “movie 

encoders often dramatise people’s everydayness and bring in some elements of their 

mythical and real history toimbue resonance that connects with viewers in the films.” 

Thus, these images encoded in Nollywood film narratives elicit pleasure and trigger 

reactions of fear, emotions in the narrative and on the viewer. 

 

From a film cognitive-semiotic perspective, most Nollywood films produced with the use 

of CGI tend to distort images in comparison to their real socio-cultural images and roles. 

Thus, CG images in Nollywood films are manipulative representations which are equipped 

with good or bad morals, to covey the necessary messages encoded in a narrative. This 



 

 
  

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instance is seen in Igbo movies. Likewise, in Yoruba movies, representation of ritual 

practice or witchcraft often presents a society comprising of both good and bad, shown 

in dark and white symbolisms. This depiction of good and bad is to present the view that 

the good supersedes or wins over evil actions. Likewise, the Igbo film narratives through 

the CGI xray depictions of retribution in which the culprit after confessing his sins 

either dies or goes crazy to serve as deterrent to the viewers. Therefore, Nollywood 

tend to portray CG images of magical, ritual and witchcraft simulations that are either 

suggestive or exaggerated and rests on retribution. The CGI simulations in both Igbo 

and Yoruba movies are based on their beliefs and sociocultural backgrounds.  

 

Synopsis of Ken Steve Anuka’s Zazi (2016) 

Ahanna is a prince of Umudike kingdom who is betrothed to the princess of Amankwo 

kingdom as a peace offering. The Prince, on the other hand, dislikes the Princess because 

of her pompous behavior and irrational treatment of her subjects. 

 

Zuru is a very wicked father who treats all his daughters and wives like slaves; he goes 

as far as having sexual intercourse with his daughters and impregnating them. He is a 

god and never wants any male child to exist in his land. On the other hand, his community 

has been punished for the atrocities they committed, and they are now depending on 

another community to salvage them, but not without a price. Zazi from a far land 

overpowers her father (Zulu) and kills him after taking his talisman, using her father’s 

talisman to strike him with a lightening that burns into black ashes and evaporates. She 

does this in anger since Zuru killed her younger sister for not being brave as well as killed 

her new-born child after childbirth. On a faithful day, as Prince Ahunna takes a stroll, 

he sees a young maiden being beaten by two boys, and he ordered them to stop and 

reprimands them. He asks his guards to help the young maiden up. He then walks her to 

where she resides despite her refusal. The Prince gets to know that her parents died in 

their farm as a result of thunder and lightening that struck them while it was raining. 

Before the Prince leaves, he invites her to the palace. The next day after she had 

finished her daily fetching of firewood for people, she went to see the palace and the 

guards that were on guard at the entrance of the palace prevented her from entering 

and pushed her away. When the Prince found out what happened he asked her to describe 

the guards so that he will sack them from their duties as guards, but she pleaded with 

the prince not to take such a drastic decision. 

 

The Princess of Amankwo visits her betrothed and proposed husband and she stayed for 

days in the palace. The Prince dislikes her arrogant nature and maltreatment of her 

subjects. Each time the Prince goes out to visit his friends that he rescued from being 

beaten by two boys, the Princess of Amankwo keeps wondering why he goes on a stroll. 

Unfortunately, a messenger who had seen the Prince and the maiden he saved playing, 

informed the Princess of the maiden that the Prince often goes out to visit. She goes 

and give the girl a serious warning to stay away from the Prince. She did not stop at that. 

She plots against the girl with the help of one the elders and accuse Mma of stealing 

from someone’s farm. She is arrested and detained at the palace where she is flogged 

and kept in a cage. When the Prince hears this he is furious and goes to release her. 



 

 
  

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One faithful day the prince went hunting with some guards in the forest and they all 

went in separate directions in the bush to hunt. Then the Prince meets Zazi in his 

direction of the forest. He tried to find out whom she was but lost her when she ran. 

While he is shouting in beckoning on her to come back and not to be afraid, the guards 

heard his voice and came to his recue, thinking he is attacked or injured. He explains 

that he saw a stranger from a far land loitering in the bush path. Later on chaos arouse 

between Zazi’s people and Umuddike people which resulted into war,and Zaazi terrorizes 

the people of Umudike. 

 

A Critical Analysis of Ken Steve Anuka’s Zazi the Amazon Warrior (2016) 

At the beginning of the narrative we are made to see the wicked nature of Zaazi’s father. 

He prevents any of the maidens from going out from the village and impregnates them. 

In protecting any visitor from discovering that such people existed he ensures that 

hunters and wanderers are kept away. We see how his spirit moves away from his body 

when he looked through his magical pot to see a hunter lucking around the bush nearby 

hunting. When his spirit gets to hunter he questions him and he strikes the hunter with 

light flares from his arm. The hunter shouted and dies. The move away of his image from 

his body is a photo trick which has been in used in several Nollywood films right from 

Living in Bondage though more enhanced with time. The drifting away from his body 

symbolizes his powers as a strong man in charge protecting his family. And any kill he 

makes he conjures the blood to fill the sacred calabash he also uses as his medium seeing 

through and around his vicinity. As a matter of fact, these symbolic supernatural display 

show cases the prowess of the king. And these technics has been used in different genres 

in Nollywood. Especially in Vodoo genre such as occult and witchcraft movies. These genre 

visual images that are naturally unseen but are believe to be in existence. Thus filmmaker 

employ and infuse these supernatural and magical images based on their imaginations and 

cultural experiences. As such that the magical and supernatural images are the appealing 

effects of the narrative. Therefore, these surreal images with its synchronized sounds 

horrifies the audience. 

 

Then when Zuru (Zazi’s father) observed that Zazi had taken his protective charm as a 

god, he started pleading with Zazi, Zuru is struck with fire and he gets burnt alive. This 

action describes the ascending of Zazi as the goddess. It shows the automatic transfer 

of power from Zuru to Zazi who leads the people. The entire scene is edifying and 

educative to any viewer that when one is in power he or she should be mindful of his or 

her action which can change and if he/she is wicked on his or her subject such action can 

reserve towards him. Therefore, CGI is infused in the narrative which stands as a 

narrative device to convey main idea or intended meaning of the entire narrative. 

 

 

 

 

 

 



 

 
  

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Pictorial Representations of Supernatural Power with the use of CGI in Zazi (2016) 

Pictorial representation Visual effect interpretation  Sound effect 

interpretation 

 

Superimposition of a scene into 

Zuru’s eyes to give illusion of a 

god seeing all things within his 

vicinity 

 

 

The drifting of Zuru spirit 

back from killing the hunter 

into his stationed body. (ghost 

effect) 

 

 

Lightening flare effects and 

Flares of light signifying that 

the subject has been subdued 

by burning from lightening. 

Lightening 

sound Effects 

and Flares of 

light signifying 

that the 

subject has 

been subdued 

by burning 

from 

lightening. 

 

Sparkling lighting flares are 

placed at strategic points of 

Zuru’s body to give an illusion 

of being inflamed through 

magical means by Zazi. 

Sparkling 

lighting flares 

are placed at 

strategic 

points of 

Zuru’s body to 

give an illusion 

of being 

inflamed 

through 

magical means 

by Zazi. 

 

From the above pictorial representation, the narrative at the beginning showcases some 

supernatural powers which are culturally acceptable. However these surreal images are 

subjective ideas of the designer though there were some inconsistencies in the 

representation when Zuru got burnt. But the CGI representation communicated symbolic 



 

 
  

Awka Journal of Research in Music and the Arts (AJRMA) Vol. 16, September 2023 

9 

ideas. As such, the magical and supernatural representation are acceptable and can be 

easily construed. 

 

Most filmmakers are happy to fulfill only the first challenge to make a relevant story 

relevant, or at least accessible. But the makers of 300, basing their film on the graphic 

novel by Frank Miller and Lynn Varley, take the second challenge seriously. They take 

pains to show the strangeness of Sparta, at least from our perspective, its brutality, its 

fanatical obsession with warfare and its code of manhood. The movie thrusts us into this 

bizarre warlike culture and then, just as we are beginning to get our balance, it surprises 

us by quickly establishing that the Spartan soldiers, in fact, are the good guys. The 

invading Persians are worse, mythical, cruel and autocratic, with no proto-democratic 

traditions. The visual and sound elements are not softened for our benefit but are 

presented with accuracy. As a result we get to feel every move made by the key actors 

and what prompted their move. The film 300 was a studio production which has its 

realistic effects on the film and the audience. The film 300 is like watching marble turn 

to flesh and blood, and the effect is fascinating. Significantly, this hyper-stylization of 

300 is limited to its visuals. The performances are played straight, and this combination 

of straight performances and stylized visuals produce uncanny effect.  It is as if the 

movie is reminding us that we are seeing history as it truly appeared, even if this is 

history as it happened. We are getting it through the lenses of memory, or legend. 

Whereas in Nigerian films, filmmakers have been able to project African cultural 

identities, they have a long way to go. For instance, in the film Mountains of Evil, a good 

plot is technically marred due to poor sound synchronization. Sometimes the visual images 

tend to lack coherence with the sounds synchronized to them. Some of these faults are 

mainly the result of the sound designer not being precise. And some are the result of 

piracy and dubbing. Some sounds were able to decode some information about the scene 

and the theme of the film story. 

 

Conclusion 

This paper explored the use of visual effects to convey specific Igbo cultural ideals in 

realistic and significant ways throughout Nollywood epic film storylines. Despite the poor 

representations as a result of available visual effect tool,  it still uphold African cultural 

beliefs especially the Igbo cultural beliefs system. Visual effect designers create and 

infuse images in tandem with film narratives based on inferred sensation. As afore 

mentioned these Visual effect images are associated with the sensation. In this regard, 

use of visual effects to recreate past experiences bring visible and invisible images and 

events for us to re-experience. This is based on a perceptional perspective but also as a 

narrative category, because visual effects offer a vast range of visualization strategies. 

These visualizations convey dimensions beyond the scope of human perception, 

imagination, thought or magical phenomena. Magic is not only a content of representation 

but refers to the technology itself, providing it with a mythic enhancement. Therefore, 

the use of visual effects in Nollywood Narrative aids in achieving story objectives based 

on the directors’ encoding of the Igbo cultural ideologies. 

 

 



 

 
  

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 Filmography 

Title:  Zazi (2016) 

Screen Play: Ernest Obi  

Producer: Martins Onyemaobi 

Director:  Anuka Steven 

Starring: Rachea l Okonkwo, Gentle Jack, Diamond Okechi 

Company: Onye-Eze Production Ltd 


