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Paper short abstract:

This paper refocuses attention on the many ways Africa(ns) have been making inroads in propagating their pop culture through social media, and how such creations are affecting/influencing others across the globe.

Paper long abstract:

With the proliferation of digital media especially in Africa, previously localized cultural productions have become increasingly globalized. Those who ordinarily may not have come across African music, comedy, films, and social media self-presentations and re-enactments of everyday life, are now not only consuming but also replicating these lifestyles. The successes of now more centralized genres such as Nollywood and Afrobeat, as well as the soft power influences of several dance and singing challenges across different social media platforms heralded by South Africa’s Jerusalema song, among others; have put African popular art, music, and literature at the centre of social media cross-cultural encounters today. Consequently, with these forms of digital cross-border movements, the continent has become one of the emergent cultural and entertainment hubs of the today’s world. While academic and mainstream media foci centre on the incidences of socio-economic hardship, conflicts, mass migration, and other realistic and contrived phenomena, the giant strides made in cultural production and dissemination through social media have remained understudied. For this purpose, this paper refocuses attention on the many ways Africa(ns) have been making inroads in propagating their pop culture through social media, and how such creations are affecting/influencing others across the globe. The paper discusses the myriad ways digital media enables Africa(ns) to cross into other cultures and how others engage with African cultural productions.