Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Of Nollywood and Tyler Perry Movies

The power of soft diplomacy!

 

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
Date: Thursday, February 2, 2023 at 8:07 PM
To: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: Re: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Of Nollywood and Tyler Perry Movies

And this comment, below, is from Farooq, who commented on the topic on my Facebook page.

 

"Plus, like Tyler Perry movies, the storylines and plots of Nollywood movies are often uncomplicated, even simplistic, familiar, predictable and therefore more entertaining than Hollywood's comparatively convoluted storylines and plots. As we agreed when we talked about this, sometimes people just want to enjoy movies whose end they can predict from the very beginning. But there is another dimension to the popularity of Nollywood movies in American and the Caribbean Islands that I didn't know until recently. I teach a synchronous online graduate course at the University of Guyana, and we talked about this just last week. One of the Black students in the class (there are also students of Indian descent there) told me Nollywood movies are popular with the Black Diaspora in the Western Hemisphere because the ostentation, grandeur, and marble splendor they see in the movies are such comforting departures from the images of poverty and deprivation that have been habituated to associate with Africa. She says the movies deepen their racial pride and self-worth. I was blown away. I hadn't consciously thought of how Nollywood could be racially affirming for our long-lost brothers and sisters in the Western Hemisphere."

 

On Thu, Feb 2, 2023 at 4:59 PM Moses Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com> wrote:

Ken,

 

Your point is well taken that this trans-Atlantic logic of reception and aesthetic kinship applies only to the popular, entertainment iteration of Nollywood and other African filmic expressions.

Sent from my iPhone

On Feb 2, 2023, at 3:40 PM, Harrow, Kenneth <harrow@msu.edu> wrote:



the genres of nollywood that satisfy people's needs for entertainment might not be universal, but are resonant in the african american community along with africa. moses does a great job, and we'd have to add something about the portrayals of success in terms of big houses, cars, etc. also the  fears as in esoteric films with satanism etc. these tropes are certainly there in evangelical churches, which is sort of where nollywood got them from anyway. and it doesn't hurt that the major figures are now black, in a world where write stars are uber present

i think everything i said is also true of popular hollywood films, from sci fi (note black panther's presence in both worlds), to all those horror films. in africa zombie movies are now appearing (atlantiques)

and of course hollywood's thing about the beautiful ones—who are born only in the movies—and wealth and bourgeois life etc etc,, planes, fancy cars.

we are talking about popular cinemas, and not surprising that audiences have racial  prejudices that favor some over others.,

for instance, try getting into hong kong movies' humor, that turns on bathroom jokes. not for western audiecnes.

 

but i am writing to say, this popular side to film is only one side; there are african audiences for things besides nollywood, there are african films that are not popular entertainment features. lots of incredible great movies for whom the african audience is the first, and at times only audience, from most countries in africa now. those audiences exist everywhere. if not all we would have would be soap operas and melodramas.

which aint the case, here or there

 

independent black filmmakers, here and in africa; an important domain, although not as popular as the ----woods.

ken

kenneth harrow

professor emeritus

dept of english

michigan state university

517 803-8839

harrow@msu.edu

---

From: usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com <usaafricadialogue@googlegroups.com> on behalf of Moses Ebe Ochonu <meochonu@gmail.com>
Sent: Thursday, February 2, 2023 3:49 PM
To: USAAfricaDialogue <USAAfricaDialogue@googlegroups.com>
Subject: USA Africa Dialogue Series - Of Nollywood and Tyler Perry Movies

 

Of NollyWood and Tyler Perry Movies

By Moses E. Ochonu

 

I have met several African Americans who either watch Nollywood movies or have people in their family who do.

 

At dinner the other day, one of our students said his mom can't get enough of those movies, and the visiting speaker, an African American scholar, said he's very much into Nollywood movies.

 

I've been trying to understand the popularity of Nollywood movies in Black America. The obvious but incomplete answer is that our African American cousins connect to the land, peoples, and cultures of their African ancestors through those movies.

But that answer is too simple.

 

I think the answer that Professor Farooq Kperogi gave during our conversation on the phenomenon is more satisfying, especially since, as he said, it's been backed by scholarly research.

 

To understand African Americans' love affair with Nollywood, you have to understand the popularity of the Tyler Perry movie franchise.

 

Some elitist critics and culture analysts laugh at the Tyler Perry's Madea series. They mock it for perpetuating ethnic and racial stereotypes, and have turned it into a punchline of jokes. But the movies in the series remain hugely popular in Black America and have made Tyler Perry a multimillionaire and the first Black person to own his own movie and TV studio in America.

 

What African Americans love in the Tyler Perry movies they also find and love in Nollywood movies--the melodrama, the over-the-top histrionics, the loud acting, the flat characters, and the moral lessons angle.

 

This may also explain why African diaspora populations in the Caribbean, Latin America, and other places love Nollywood movies.

 

I guess we're a loud, melodramatic people. 

 

The global rise and rise of Nollywood and Afrobeats need to be taken seriously and theorized thoughtfully.

 

Happy Black History Month y'all!

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