Movie censorship in my childhood

Growing up in the 90s, we weren't privileged to own a television. TV was rare and only those we considered as rich had one. Most often we stay outside the window in groups peeping to have a clear view of the screen and most often we are chased away even before we have a satisfactory look. One of my aunties who was wealthy at that time bought one for us. For a moment we felt like we've arrived. We went to rent a cassette to watch but none of us were addicted to the movie, maybe because it came later in our lives or the fact that I had grown up.

We had grown up with our grandma who didn't care to watch the movies we were watching except for a favorite music she loves to listen to. So we weren't censored on what we watch by her and that was because she doesn't understand English and most movies were done in English, the only area where she restricted us was watching movies late at night. She expected us to be asleep before 10pm, so whatever we needed to do, we did it before it was 10pm else we risked being beaten or the television seized and locked for a few days. She did that a few times as a way to punish us for our disobedience.

Even though our grandma had little problem with what we watched, there was someone who stood as our guardian watching everything we did and that was our elder brother. He seemed to be in control of what we watched and shouldn't watch. Any movie that had a romantic scene with a little touch of +18 rated, he ensued to keep away from us and he was so strict about that since he had an upper hand when it comes to who has control over the gadget.

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But then we always have a way of going back to the same movies he denied us of, we were always curious to know what he was trying to hide. So whenever he wasn't at home, we go get the cassette and play it praying earnestly that Nepa will keep the light until we are done, so that we can pull it out safely. We succeeded in some, other times we loose nuts in the DVD to pull out the cassette when NEPA took the light until he caught me one fateful day.

While growing up, what we never watched was News channels, we turned off the TV immediately News broadcast displays. We watched dramas and music but we did not give room for News and that affected me growing up. Trying to listen to News becomes too difficult for me to do. I have tried a few times but it's hard to develop interest in news and that's because News wasn't what we listened to while I was growing up. Not because it was censored but because our guardian who happened to be my elder brother did not love to listen to news.

In summary, I didn't have much censorship in the kind of movies I watched and that's because I grew up with my grandma but what mattered to her most was the time we stayed up watching movies, but my elder brother was the opposite.

This is in response to the Hive naija contest. Its opened for all to participate

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