After years of watching Hollywood films, Ugandans would be expected to have picked up phrases such as “Wannabe” “Watz up, guys” and “I done nothing.” But this is not the case.

Instead, they are more comfortable with Nollywood phrases like “Oga,” “Igwe,” “My people” and “I don’t like it, oh.”

Welcome to Nigerian movie magic. The movies are all the rage in the Pearl of Africa.

To many Ugandans, no talk is complete without a sprinkling of Nigerian English accents.

What many cannot imitat — at least for now, is pidgin English — a mixture of English and Nigerian local languages.

As an unrelated bonus, the Nigerian community living in Uganda is growing in number.

“When we speak and Ugandans hear our accent, they spontaneously respond “Igwe’ or refer to us as “Oga.” We like it and we think that Ugandans now know us better and can identify with us,” says Pastor Tunde Yesufu, a Nigerian living in Uganda.

The interactions do not stop there. More and more Ugandans and Nigerians are inter marrying.

During the regular Nigerian community meetings, several Uganda women married to Nigerian men turn up.

Some Ugandan women even think the much dramatised simplicity of male characters — who are easily tamed or put in a charmed bottle — is a reality.

So they are searching for single Nigerian men to marry.

“Some women come to me and ask if I know of Nigerian men who are searching for women to marry. They think Nigerian men are simple, loving and caring. But it is not always so. Some men beat their wives brutally,” says Elabisi Yesufu, a Nigerian tailor living in Uganda.

This was not the case 10 years ago, when Tunde came to Uganda.

He had trouble mixing freely with Ugandans, what with the movies then portraying Nigerians as superstitious, wicked and supportive of human sacrifice.

“The movies had a negative impact on us. Some people still think Nigerians are superstitious. They think that Nigerians get money through the occult. But most Nigerians are hardworking,” he said.

Negative impact

Pastor Tunde’s greatest fear is being termed a cult leader.

He is the country representative of the Redeemed Christian Church of God in Uganda.

But until recently, his church was under surveillance by other pastors over fears that it could be cultist.

“I faced many challenges. Other pastors spread rumours that our church served the occult. Even today, I don’t lay my hands on people while praying because of those images of pastors praying for supernatural powers,” he said.

Tunde stopped wearing his wedding ring over fears that people could term it a cult symbol.

In 2007, a Ghanaian pastor working in Uganda was arrested over claims that he was importing an electric “touch” gadget believed to deliver the Holy Spirit to the faithful.

It would allegedly send electric shocks on gullible subject and could be used to dupe them on divine power.

Interestingly, most of the films that were first imported into the country depicted Pentecostal churches with larger-than-life pastors. Theywielded supernatural powers to perform miracles and drive away the devil.

Today, several pastors in Uganda claim to have healing powers, including against HIV/Aids. They have big followings.

Yet other themes like witchcraft and superstition, corruption and greed, power struggle, love, hatred and lust for wealth, dominate the Nigerian films.

For instance, the dominant theme in Dons in Abuja are wealth and human sacrifice.

The film shows several men who join the dons’ club discreetly sacrificing their dear ones to supernatural powers in return for wealth.

Meanwhile, even with the horrific images, predictable plot, poor sound, pictures and general cinematography, Nigerian movies are a great hit in Uganda.