Global Nollywood: The Transnational Dimensions of an African Video Film Industry (African Expressive Cultures)

Global Nollywood considers this first truly African cinema beyond its Nigerian origins. In 15 lively essays, this volume traces the engagement of the Nigerian video film industry with the African continent and the rest of the world. Topics such as Nollywood as a theoretical construct, the development of a new, critical film language, and Nollywood’s transformation outside of Nigeria reveal the broader implications of this film form as it travels and develops. Highlighting controversies surrounding commodification, globalization, and the development of the film industry on a wider scale, this volume gives sustained attention to Nollywood as a uniquely African cultural production. “Reveals in fascinating detail the wild popularity, controversies, and complaints provoked by this film form... shap[ing] the media landscape of Africa.” —Brian Larkin, Barnard CollegeGlobal Nollywood considers this first truly African cinema beyond its Nigerian origins. In fifteen lively essays, this volume traces the engagement of the Nigerian video film industry with the African continent and the rest of the world. Topics such as Nollywood as a theoretical construct, the development of a new, critical film language, and Nollywood's transformation outside of Nigeria reveal the broader implications of this film form as it travels and develops. Highlighting controversies surrounding commodification, globalization, and the development of the film industry on a wider scale, Global Nollywood gives sustained attention to Nollywood as a uniquely African cultural production.“Offers original material with respect to the transnational presence of Nollywood.”?Moradewun Adejunmobi, University of California, Davis“Unveils a fascinating variety of the ways in which Nollywood cinema is viewed and interpreted.”?Research in African Literatures“Delightfully entertaining yet appropriately erudite.... A welcome addition to the fields of film, media, African, and cultural studies.” —Cinema Journal“Highly recommended.”?Choice“[T]he cumulative effect of [these] studies is to provide invaluable information for those wishing to keep up with where African cinema is today.”?Journal of African History“Global Nollywood represents the most up-to-date research on Nollywood as a transnational cultural practice and is a must-read for scholars and students of African screen media.” —African Studies Review“Ground-breaking.... It proves that, in spite of appearing to be a niche market, Nollywood... can no longer be excluded from the canon of African cinema in the field of film studies.”?African Affairs Nollywood And Its Diaspora: An Introduction / Matthias Krings And Onookome Okome -- Part 1. Mapping The Terrain. From Nollywood To Nollyworld: Processes Of Transnationalization In The Nigerian Video Film Industry / Alessandro Jedlowski ; Nollywood's Transportability: The Politics And Economics Of Video Films As Cultural Products / Jyoti Mistry And Jordache A. Ellapen -- Part 2. Transnational Nollywood. The Nollywood Diaspora: A Nigerian Video Genre / Jonathan Haynes ; Nollywood Made In Europe / Sophie Samyn ; Made In America: Urban Immigrant Spaces In Transnational Nollywood Films / Claudia Hoffmann ; Reversing The Filmic Gaze: Comedy And The Critique Of The Postcolony In Osuofia In London / Onookome Okome ; Nollywood And Postcolonial Predicaments: Transnationalism, Gender, And The Commoditization Of Desire In Glamour Girls / Paul Ugor -- Part 3. Nollywood And Its Audiences. Nollywood In Urban Southern Africa: Nigerian Video Films And Their Audiences In Cape Town And Windhoek / Heike Becker ; Religion, Migration, And Media Aesthetics: Notes On The Circulation And Reception Of Nigerian Films In Kinshasa / Katrien Pype ; African Movies In Barbados: Proximate Experiences Of Fear And Desire / Jane Bryce ; Consuming Nollywood In Turin, Italy / Giovanna Santanera ; Nigerian Videos And Their Imagined Western Audiences: The Limits Of Nollywood's Transnationality / Babson Ajibade -- Part 4. Appropriations Of Nollywood. Transgressing Boundaries: Reinterpretation Of Nollywood Films In Muslim Northern Nigeria / Abdalla Uba Adamu ; Karishika With Kiswahili Flavor: A Nollywood Film Retold By A Tanzanian Video Narrator / Matthias Krings ; Bloody Bricolages: Traces Of Nollywood In Tanzanian Video Films / Claudia Böhme. Edited By Matthias Krings And Onookome Okome. Includes Bibliographical References And Index. Cover 1 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 Preface and Acknowledgments 8 Nollywood and its Diaspora: An Introduction 12 Part 1. Mapping the Terrain 34 1. From Nollywood to Nollyworld: Processes of Transnationalization in the Nigerian Video Film Industry 36 2. Nollywood’s Transportability: The Politics and Economics of Video Films as Cultural Products 57 Part 2. Transnational Nollywood 82 3. The Nollywood Diaspora: A Nigerian Video Genre 84 4. Nollywood Made in Europe 111 5. Made in America: Urban Immigrant Spaces in Transnational Nollywood Films 132 6. Reversing the Filmic Gaze: Comedy and the Critique of the Postcolony in Osuofia in London 150 7. Nollywood and Postcolonial Predicaments: Transnationalism, Gender, and the Commoditization of Desire in Glamour Girls 169 Part 3. Nollywood and its Audiences 188 8. Nollywood in Urban Southern Africa: Nigerian Video Films and Their Audiences in Cape Town and Windhoek 190 9. Religion, Migration, and Media Aesthetics: Notes on the Circulation and Reception of Nigerian Films in Kinshasa 210 10. “African Movies” in Barbados: Proximate Experiences of Fear and Desire 234 11. Consuming Nollywood in Turin, Italy 256 12. Nigerian Videos and their Imagined Western Audiences: The Limits of Nollywood’s Transnationality 275 Part 4. Appropriations of Nollywood 296 13. Transgressing Boundaries: Reinterpretation of Nollywood Films in Muslim Northern Nigeria 298 14. Karishika with Kiswahili Flavor: A Nollywood Film Retold by a Tanzanian Video Narrator 317 15. Bloody Bricolages: Traces of Nollywood in Tanzanian Video Films 338 List of Contributors 358 General Index 364 Film Title Index 380