Daniel Etim Effiong's "The Herd" Arrives on No 1 on Netflix Nigeria - And the Conversation Has Already Begun

THE HERD ON NETFLIX 

Daniel Etim Effiong's feature directorial debut The Herd has barely landed on Netflix and it's already emerged as one of the most talked-about and most divisive Nollywood titles of 2025. After a robust theatrical run in Nigeria beginning October 17, the crime thriller premiered on Netflix across Africa on November 21, immediately ascending to No. 1 in Nigeria's movie chart while claiming Top 3 positions in Kenya and South Africa. Within days, the film accumulated an impressive 30 million views, dominating continental discourse in ways few Nigerian films have managed this year.

Yet for all its commercial momentum, The Herd arrives trailing controversy not for what it depicts, but for what those depictions represent in a nation still grappling with the traumas it dramatizes.

For now, the film remains conspicuously absent from Netflix US, with no global rollout date announced. Black Film Wire will publish a full critical assessment this weekend. What follows is a primer on why this film matters, why it's dominating regional charts and why it has become the year's most combustible Nollywood release.

What The Herd Is About

Set in Ekiti, the film opens with celebration: a wedding, reunited friends, the fragile normalcy of life continuing despite private fears. Gosi (played by Effiong) is quietly wrestling with his wife's recurring cancer scare when he joins close friends for the festivities. On the drive back, everything fractures. Their vehicle is ambushed on the highway by gunmen disguised as cattle herdsmen, and the group is dragged into the bush at the beginning of a harrowing kidnapping ordeal that unfolds across forest camps, desperate ransom negotiations, and families racing against time to raise ₦50 million (estimated 34,497.40 USD) before the deadline expires.

The ensemble cast includes Daniel Etim Effiong, Genoveva Umeh, Linda Ejiofor-Suleiman, Kunle Remi, Mercy Aigbe, Ibrahim Abubakar, Amal Umar, and Abba Ali Zaky, among others. Critics have praised the kidnapping sequence as "brutal and chaotic in the best way," noting the film's refusal to romanticize violence, instead leaning into fear, confusion, and the psychological wreckage left in its wake.

Why It Has Become So Controversial

The Herd arrived at a cultural flashpoint. Real-life reports of kidnappings and bandit attacks, particularly in Nigeria's North-West and North-Central regions have dominated national conversation for years. The film's timing amplifies its impact, but the true lightning rod is representation.

The film's antagonists are linked to herdsmen, echoing news stories that have become grimly familiar to Nigerian audiences. For many Northern and Muslim viewers, this narrative choice reinforces dangerous stereotypes against Fulani communities, threatening to deepen stigma in regions already bearing the weight of insecurity and suspicion. A widely circulated post on X captured the fury: "Ban Netflix, Ban the herd, Delete Netflix on your phone. As a Muslim, you have no business with this movie."

SOURCE- TWITTER

Former presidential aide Bashir Ahmad offered a more measured but equally urgent concern, warning about "the dangerous consequences of profiling an entire ethnic group and region that has already suffered immensely from years of insecurity."

The film's defenders counter that The Herd is simply reflecting Nigeria's present reality, not inventing it. A Pulse Nigeria opinion piece argues the film has "taken on an unsettling relevance, blurring the line between fiction and the country's daily reality," forcing viewers to confront truths many would prefer to avoid. Fashion designer Tianah Jubilee articulated this perspective viscerally: "Watching The Herd on Netflix feels like watching Nigeria cry out loud. It's painful… because this movie isn't just a story. It's our reality."

The tension is palpable: at what point does depicting reality become complicit in perpetuating it? When does holding up a mirror become wielding a weapon?

What This Means for Nollywood and Netflix

Beyond the immediate firestorm, The Herd arrives during a significant recalibration in the Nollywood-Netflix relationship. Since late 2024, Netflix has notably slowed its commissioning of original Nigerian productions, pivoting toward more selective licensing and revenue-sharing models. Data suggests fewer Nollywood cinema-to-Netflix titles are appearing in 2025 compared to previous years, signaling a deprioritization of that pipeline.

In this context, the fact that a Nigerian theatrical release can still dominate Netflix charts across multiple African territories while igniting region-wide debate carries particular weight. It suggests a future where fewer Nollywood films reach the platform but those that do will arrive bearing heavier expectations, higher stakes, and louder conversations around representation and responsibility.

Benchmarking With Recent Nollywood Netflix Releases

To understand The Herd's trajectory, it's worth contextualizing it against recent Nollywood-Netflix successes:

The Black Book (2023)  Editi Effiong's crime-thriller achieved something rare: top Netflix chart positions globally, not just regionally. Its international reach helped establish new expectations for Nigerian streaming releases, proving Nollywood could compete in the global thriller marketplace without compromising local specificity.

Shanty Town (2023)  This gritty limited series demonstrated Netflix's willingness to lean into Nigeria's darker sociopolitical realities, though its six-episode format allowed for more nuanced character development than a feature can typically accommodate.

These titles illustrate that Nollywood can achieve global reach but rollout strategies, timing, and regional prioritization remain maddeningly inconsistent. The Herd's immediate regional success proves local momentum is formidable, yet its absence from Netflix US underscores a stubborn reality: even in 2025, African-first content still frequently follows a regional-then-global pathway, if it goes global at all.

Why The Herd Isn't on Netflix US (Yet)

The film's regional-only availability likely reflects multiple factors: Netflix's increasingly cautious approach to Nollywood acquisitions, questions about international marketing ROI for culturally specific Nigerian stories, and possibly concerns about how the film's controversial subject matter will play outside African contexts where the underlying security crisis lacks immediate resonance.

There's also a more pragmatic consideration: Netflix may be waiting to gauge African performance and critical response before committing to a global push. In an era of tightened content budgets and data-driven decision-making, even a film generating 30 million views in Africa may need to prove extraordinary staying power before earning a worldwide rollout.

The Questions That Matter

At Black Film Wire, we're less interested in joining a simplistic "ban it" versus "defend it at all costs" binary, and more compelled by the nuanced questions The Herd surfaces:

What does responsible storytelling look like when dramatizing ongoing national trauma? Who gets to tell stories about Northern Nigeria, and how do we balance truth-telling with sensitivity to communities already living under suspicion? How should global platforms respond when a film made in and for a specific country collides with that nation's deepest wounds?

These aren't abstract theoretical concerns, they're urgent creative, ethical, and industrial questions that will define the next era of African cinema.

Final Take

The Herd's success and controversy reveal both how far Nollywood has come and how much terrain remains uncharted. The fact it isn't on Netflix US "yet" doesn't diminish its cultural or commercial value but it does remind us that even as African filmmakers achieve unprecedented craft and ambition, distribution parity remains elusive. African-first content still travels a longer, more uncertain road to global visibility.

What makes The Herd essential viewing isn't that it has all the answers, it's that it refuses to look away from the questions. In a cinematic landscape too often content with escapism, Effiong has chosen confrontation. Whether that's cinema's highest calling or its most dangerous temptation may depend on which Nigeria you're watching from.

The Herd is currently streaming on Netflix across Africa. Our full review, including deep dives into performances, craft, and narrative structure, publishes this weekend on Black Film Wire.