Drawing hearts in the air within new African diaspora spaces: selling Nollywood and consuming nostalgia in London

ABSTRACT

Nigerian video films circulate transnationally across various African diaspora communities, including London, England. This article explores conversations concerning the experience of both real and faux nostalgia regarding Blackness and the African diaspora as expressed through Nollywood cinema in London. Within these diaspora communities, Nigerian venders sell Nollywood DVDs as physical commodities from their homeland, triggering sensations of nostalgia and transporting audiences to experience pleasurable and painful emotions. By consuming these cultural products, Nollywood audiences may yearn for an actual African home or experience longing for a village life they have never truly experienced (Krings and Okome 2013, pp. 5–6). Nollywood DVDs serve as modern cultural artefacts containing a ‘record’, both literally and figuratively, transmitting a ‘‘communication’ of black nostalgia’ (Edwards 2009, p. 145) to consumers by providing imaginative sensory spatial representations of Nigeria and Africa. This article explores research from the liminal temporal space of 2013 London, where Nigerian consumption patterns shifted from a thriving market of Nollywood video-film consumers renting or purchasing DVDs – in ‘brick and mortar’ shops – to streaming these cultural commodities online. Viewer responses reveal the importance of physical and online movie distribution platforms as pan-African content providers, connecting virtual homeland spaces of nostalgia to the African diaspora. Thus, from the comfort of their homes, audiences conveniently accessed Black African representations of Nigeria. This investigation captures transnational socio-cultural exchanges in survey research, through questionnaires, and online social media research. Black venders and consumers reveal their experiences with Nollywood as a means to sustain nostalgic homeland bonds, cultural norms, customs, language, religion, and tradition (Krings and Okome, pp. 5–6). The findings elucidate the psychological importance of maintaining homeland connections through buying, selling, and consuming Nollywood experientially. Therefore, a social mechanism of nostalgia allows consumers and venders to retain and sustain Black African cultural identity abroad.

KEYWORDS:

• Pan-African
• audience reception
• cultural productions
• socio-cultural identity
• global Africa
• psychology

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Notes

1 Nollywood’s transnational cultural flows have been previously studied in the traditional Black diaspora. This study focuses on predominantly African immigrant communities to better understand Black diversity and contextualise London’s African diaspora. Throughout this paper I refer to ‘Black’ as Black African Nollywood distributors and consumers.

2 Based on the responses obtained, most participants identified as ‘Black,’ so ‘Black African’ will be used as a means of ethnic categorisation.

3 Thirty participants were interviewed, but one participant did not meet the age criteria and thus, had to be eliminated from the research findings, which stem from pre-dissertation exploratory research.

4 This is contrary to the Francophone populations who translated Nollywood films and advertised to French speaking African Diaspora audiences. See Jedlowski (2013, p. 31) in Krings and Okome 2013 for more information.

5 ‘New Nollywood’ began around 2009–2010 commencing ‘a ‘New Wave’ in Nigerian cinema, characterized by higher budgets, improved production values, and transnational collaborations’ (Jedlowski 2013, p. 27).

6 The reception sites ‘video parlour’ and ‘street corner’ culture are recreated by African Diasporas in mostly Anglophone and Francophone countries, as well as one Lusophone country: Brazil (Ewing 2016; Ewing 2018a).

7 Participants specifically used the terms: Culture: (5) Culturism (8) cultural difference (2)

8 See: ‘(Baldwin and Landau 2014; Batcho et al. 2008; Vess et al. 2012)’.

9 See: ‘(Routledge et al. 2011; Sedikides and Wildschut 2022; van Tilburg et al. 2013)’.

10 Two foundational co-productions from London and Nigeria are Osuofia in London I and II (2003, 2004), which through satire illustrate the dilemmas of Nigerian immigrants in London. The article does not have space to discuss this connection but the films should be mentioned.

11 She received best actress: in 2004 from the City People Awards for Excellence; in 2011 for Best African collaboration at the Ghana Movie Awards; in 2012 Eloy Awards, Screen Nation Awards; in 2017 at the Toronto International Nollywood Film Festival; and, in the same year, she received the Best Actress at Nollywood Travel Film Festival. For more background information see: https://www.legit.ng/1102269-omotola-jalade-biography.html

12 @Nollywood babes is ‘an account she and her sister Ebele founded in an attempt to flip that script’ (Seward).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by Office of Inclusion Study Abroad Fellowship Michigan State University: [Grant Number]; Commonwealth Institute for Black Studies, University of Kentucky.

Notes on contributors

Kamahra Ewing

Kamahra Ewing is an Assistant Professor in the Department of English and the African American and Africana Studies Program, with a specialisation in African Diaspora Studies, Postcolonial, Global South, Media/Film Studies, Ethnography, Gender, and Religion. Her current book project examines Nollywood audiences, distributers, exhibitors, and producers in Brazil.