Paper long abstract:

This paper explores the rise and fall of motion picture theaters in British colonial Africa. Cinemas were new public spaces that emerged in the rapidly expanding cities of Britain’s African territories. They offered a novel form of entertainment in a unique of urban venue. In cinema houses Africans congregated in large numbers, relatively free from colonial observation, where they viewed a steady diet of action films—initially American Westerns, later Asian Martial Arts films and Bollywood musicals. These audiences created their own form of movie-house culture that would prove puzzling and at times menacing to European observers. Elements of this culture—the raucous behavior of audiences, the active nature of spectatorship, and the influence of cinema icons on urban identities—were shared widely, from Nigeria, to Kenya, to South Africa. This paper charts the history of movie house culture from its beginnings in the early 20th century, through its meteoric rise in the inter-war period, to its collapse during the nineteen sixties.