Anticipating Nollywood
Lagos circa 1996
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 3608901 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Akin Adesokan (Indiana University Bloomington, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2011 |
| Volume | 37 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 96-110 |
| Publication date | 2011-03-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Social Dynamics (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0253-3952 • E-ISSN: 1940-7874 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/02533952.2011.569998 |
| OpenAlex | W2085556454 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 7 |
| References cited | 15 |
This essay discusses the Nigerian film Owo Blow (1996 Owo Blow. 1996. Film. Directed by T. Ogidan, Nigeria: First Call Production and Support. [Google Scholar]), as a way to examine an aesthetic tendency that is largely missing in Nollywood, and to explore the relationship between media and the city, particularly in regard to Lagos. I use this film to propose three issues that are worth highlighting for a productive engagement with the relationship between media and urbanity. First, I argue that the current global interest in Nollywood is highly mediated, isolating the English‐language‐accented, popular genre‐formatted sub‐genre as the Nollywood film. Secondly, this process of mediation has tended to a kind of totalisation because it emphasises the commercial as the primary identity of the cinematic practice. Thirdly, I argue that the possible globalisation of Nollywood is undercut by limitations on how well the generic type can travel. Although recent and longstanding bureaucratic exhortations of Nigerian filmmakers to promote positive images of the country are often derided, Nollywood already fulfils this expectation by default because a systemic, ideologically explicit critique of Lagos as an urban city, for instance, is hard to come by in the films. I contrast this with Owo Blow, which attempts one such critique, a multi‐layered analysis of Lagos as a case study of the postcolonial incredible
Aesthetics · Art · Bureaucracy · Film industry · Film studies · Globalization · Ideology · Media studies · Mediation · Movie theater · Political science · Politics · Social science · Sociology · Urbanity · Visual arts · African history and culture studies · African studies and sociopolitical issues · Engineering · Law · Postcolonial and Cultural Literary Studies
| Unique citing works | 7 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 0,54 |
| Citation span | 2013 - 2026 (14) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 7 |