The Persuasive Influence of Nollywood Film in Cultural Transmission: Negotiating Nigerian Culture in a South African Environment

The popularity and viewership of Nollywood films have expanded across African and Western cities especially those with considerable Diaspora population. This study seeks to investigate whether watching Nollywood films is likely to lead to cross-cultural transmission of Nigeria’s cultural heritage to audience members in South Africa. Data for the study were collected using observation and surveys with Likert-type scales involving participants from a South African college. Results show that watching Nollywood films was significant in increasing participants’ knowledge and appreciation of Nigerian culture. Observed patterns indicate that a small portion of participants could mimic or reproduce some common Nigerian expressions and exclamations while a negligible percentage of participants could actually speak a smattering of Igbo, one of Nigeria’s three major languages.     

The business of film music in mainstream Nollywood: competing without advantage

This article addresses the business of film music in mainstream Nollywood. It does so by focusing on the materiality of the industry as an institution: its social organisation and systems of film music production; markets; networks; and power relations. Specifically, the arguments rely on social organisational theories, and economic concepts such as vertical integration and market competition alongside inferences from interviews with insider-practitioners. Findings reveal that the Nollywood film music industry is characterised by non-institutionalised vertical integration within a perfectly competitive market in which its film music composers are, essentially, competing without advantage.     

A critical analysis of the Nollywood film Osuofia in London

This article analyzes Nigeria’s Nollywood film Osuofia in London [Ogoro, K. (Producer & Director). (2003/2004). Kingsley Ogoro Productions] to understand how the film synthesizes African and Western cultural identities via the prisms of hybridity and postcolonial theory. The paper uses a critical approach within the contexts of three tenets (African, Western, and hybrid) to read the film. The analysis resulted in five themes: African/folk belief systems and Christianity; traditional Igbo attire and English garb; African/folk music and Western music; African and Western food and drinks; and African/traditional medicine and modern medicine. The analysis indicates that unequal power relations and the forces of globalization are inescapable. Even though the protagonist, Osuofia, challenges the Western ideology, he reproduces it as well.