The Herd - is it ethnic profiling?

The Herd is Daniel Etim-Effiong's feature directorial debut. It was released in Nigerian cinemas on 17 October 2025 and later arrived on Netflix on 21 November 2025. The story begins with a wedding celebration and turns into a kidnapping/survival thriller when the travelling group is ambushed by armed men disguised as cattle herders.

The film was produced through FilmOne Studios, ToriTori Films, Serendipity HHC and Airscape, with FilmOne handling Nigerian distribution. 

The cast includes Daniel Etim-Effiong, Kunle Remi, Genoveva Umeh, Linda Ejiofor-Suleiman, Deyemi Okanlawon, Mercy Aigbe, Tina Mba, Norbert Young, Adam Garba and Abba Ali Zaky, among others.five-week theatrical run at approximately ₦190 million. 

BusinessDay subsequently reported that the film had reached more than 30 million viewers worldwide on Netflix. 

The production was filmed in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Daniel Etim-Effiong described the shoot as demanding because of the emotional intensity of the material and the outdoor production requirements.

There is a legitimate ethnic-profiling question around The Herd, but it is more precise to say the film can be read as reinforcing an ethnic stereotype, rather than saying definitively that the filmmakers intended to profile an ethnic group.

The controversy comes from the film's central visual association: cattle herders → armed kidnappers/bandits. Critics, particularly some Arewa voices, argue that this risks turning the appearance and identity of Fulani herders into a visual shorthand for criminality. 

There is another side to the film. Its defenders point out that The Herd portrays criminality across ethnic and religious lines: the story also includes a Yoruba pastor involved in organ trafficking, problematic Igbo family dynamics, and a Muslim/Arewa detective who helps the victims. On that reading, the film is attempting to portray Nigeria's broader ecosystem of insecurity, corruption, prejudice and exploitation, rather than saying one ethnic group is inherently criminal. 

The director, Daniel Etim-Effiong, has also said that the film was not intended to target an ethnic group, and that he consulted Fulani people and Muslims during production. The National Film and Video Censors Board classified it as fiction and required a disclaimer stating that its characters, languages and events were not based on real persons or groups. 

Daniel said:

“This was not made to attack Fulani people.”

Following the backlash, he said he consulted with Fulani people and Muslims before production and that the screenplay by Lani Aisida wasn't written to target a particular ethnic group. He described the movie as researched and intended to reflect Nigeria's insecurity rather than promote stereotypes. 

He also said he didn't anticipate the backlash after the film reached Netflix. His stated intention was to tell an impactful, heartfelt story. 

Earlier, he explained why insecurity was personally meaningful to him: he grew up taking road trips with his father, but now fears travelling Nigerian highways with his own children because of kidnappers. He said Nigeria has beautiful scenery that people increasingly cannot safely access by road.

Intent and effect are two different things.A filmmaker can intend: “I'm depicting banditry.”while a viewer can reasonably experience:“Why is the visual identity of the criminal so strongly connected to my ethnic identity?”

The discussion becomes more sophisticated than “Is the movie racist?” or “Are people just being too sensitive?”.The best question is When does representing a real security crisis become ethnic stereotyping? The Herd movie sits directly in that tension.

Fulani herders are not synonymous with bandits, even though some criminal groups operating in Nigeria have included people identified as Fulani. Critics argue that repeatedly using the cultural imagery of herders as the gateway into a kidnapping narrative can collapse that distinction in the viewer's mind. 

After the controversy, NFVCB CEO Shaibu Husseini said the board had classified The Herd as fiction and required a disclaimer making clear that the characters, languages and events weren't based on real persons or groups.

He also said the controversy raised a broader issue about the responsibility of filmmakers to avoid negative stereotyping while preserving creative freedom. 

 Removing that imagery entirely could also make it harder for filmmakers to represent a particular form of insecurity that Nigerians have actually experienced.

Fans should not ask whether The Herd is good or bad. Let's  ask what the image teaches the audience to associate with whom — and whether the story successfully separates the criminal from the community he visually represents.

The filmmakers say they were depicting criminals, not an ethnic group. But when the criminal looks, dresses and speaks like a recognisable ethnic community, where does representation end and profiling begin?

If a viewers leave The Herd associating the image of a Fulani herder with kidnapping, is that simply the power of storytelling — or an unintended consequence filmmakers have a responsibility to consider?