Paper short abstract:

I engage Nigerian hip-hop as a cultural product wielded for the contestation of (post)colonial subjugation and authorities. I use an eclectic mix of representative data to explore de-colonisation through lyrics and visuality, digital fandom and cultural colonization, and spatial de-colonisation.

Paper long abstract:

Contemporarily, the drive for de-colonisation following the virulence of the colonial experience on postcolonial societies has gained currency. This has been in the face of pervasive Eurocentric hegemonic structures which have de-centred non-Western epistemologies through what Akoleowo (2021: 436) refers to as ‘colonial epistemic violence’. In this proposal, I engage Nigerian hip-hop (subsequently NHH) as a cultural product which consciously or unconsciously has been wielded for the contestation of (post)colonial subjugation and authorities. Some recurring questions are: can Nigerian hip-hop artistes be remarked as de-colonisation activists? To what extent do their creative energies contribute to the discourses on de-colonisation? To provide answers, I interrogate the diverse ways through which NHH has successfully navigated its dispersal and resultant commercialisation, subliminally aiding the de-colonisation advocacies. I use an eclectic mix of representative data, ranging from music lyrics, videos, interviews, and news reports. Some of the facets I explore are de-colonisation through lyrics and visuality, NHH’s digital fandom and cultural colonization, and spatial de-colonisation wherein the West is depicted as epicurean, a space for luxury after wealth has been acquired. I further assert that despite the manifestations of de-colonisation in NHH, relics of colonial tropes still remain – manifesting for instance in the need for validation and external acceptance through international awards. Critical takeaways are that cultural productions are not immune from the influences of politics; and that de-colonisation does not imply the erasure of hitherto existing hegemonies, rather cultural ecologies become enriched when previously suppressed products and epistemologies are enabled to thrive.

Paper short abstract:

This paper discusses recent Nigerian films that are remakes or sequels of "Old" Nollywood movies from the video era, considering the role of digital technologies in their production/circulation as well as audiences' reception, which contributes to the formation of a shared collective film culture.

Paper long abstract:

In this paper I focus on the recent tendency of "New" Nollywood industry producing several films that are remakes or sequels of "Old" Nollywood movies from the video era. The work hypothesis is that Nigerian film is a phase in which cultural production meets archiving, innovation meets preservation. Taking movies like Living in Bondage. Breaking Free (Ramsey Nouah, 2019), Rattlesnake: The Ahanna Story (Ramsey Nouha, 2020), Nneka the Pretty Serpent (Zeb Ejiro, Tosin Igho 2020) as a case study, this paper provides an insight into how digital transformation facilitates the transition from a production-based economy to a copyright-based economy. I intend to analyze this phenomenon taking into consideration two dimensions: on one hand the economic dimension of production and circulation of the sequel/remakes and their antecedents, on the other the dimension of collective memory, i.e. how audiences relate to Nigerian archival films and contribute to the canonization of Old Nollywood and the reappropriation of their own film culture. The paper will then pose the question if and to what extent digital transformations (and in particular digital platforms like Netflix, YouTube, and Irokotv) are producing decolonial and/or neocolonial spaces in the production and distribution of film culture.

Paper short abstract:

This paper explores two cases of intermedial cultural products, their receptions and structural embeddings within African and diasporan contexts. The negotiated receptions of the digital products are mapped out through textual analysis and contextualized within de-colonial debates.

Paper long abstract:

As Ewing (2016) has stated, complex representation and representation of African people in general makes the reception of Nollywood within the Afro-Brazilian communities so successful. Lacking proper depiction and representation within local or other American media industries, and the increasing access to social media and streaming platforms are paving the way for "counter-hegemonic media flows" (Ewing 2016).

These "counter-hegemonic media flows" are one of the benefits of digital transformation processes and the circulation of cultural products in digital spaces through media platforms. "Counter-hegemonic media flows" also play out between other African and diasporan contexts. Cultural centers, cities like Lagos, Kinshasa, London and Brussels, dissolve in the digital space and become a net of interconnected "ethno-, techno-, finance-, media-n and ideoscapes" (Appadurai 1990).

The 2020 film "Ife", written and directed by Uyaiedu Ikpe-Etim and produced by Pamela Adie, displays the first lesbian Nollywood movie to show a 'prototypical', not 'stereotypical' representation. In 2021 the third season of the Netflix production "SexEducation" lets its character Eric (Ncuti Gatwa) discover the queer community of Lagos. In contrast to other Nollywood movies, which often faced criticism from a de-colonial perspective (Okome 2010), these digital cultural products were well-received on social media and other platforms and tagged with terms like "depth", "complexity", " not diluted for marketability", or "realistic" .

This paper will discuss the interconnectedness between social media platforms, streaming platforms, the digital products and all actors involved and will try to make sense of the de-colonial processes initiated by it.

Paper short abstract:

This paper examines Elvin Mensah's London streets and trains performances, portraying them as reiterations of diaspora presences in the colonial homeland, and their online exhibition, as a way of circumventing traditional gate-keeping structures that vet minority expressions for publics

Paper long abstract:

Historically, relations between Europe and Africa have been disproportionate, much more pronounced in cultural productions in which one is more hegemonic than the other. Internet-enabled digital media has however, in the recent past, so liberalised artistic dissemination that hitherto disadvantaged groups, such as African diaspora communities, now have equal access to global audiences. This paper examines the social media memes and skits of Elvin Mensah, a Ghanaian living in the UK, who has a litany of street performances wherein he elicits variegated forms of responses from a range of diverse London residents. Some of his "events" are done on rush-hour London trains, such as surprise dates, barbecue, shower time, barbing session, and even a full-blown wedding. There are also pranks in which he refers to random strangers as "my wife" in live videos, COVID-19 self-distancing dates, and driving a miniature toy car into a McDonald's Drive-through. My study posits these street enactments as performances/performativities of public engagement and response - surprise, indifference, amusement, irritation, and participation - framed for their extraordinariness and deviation from the everyday. With this background, I explore the variegated binaries - immigrant/native, work/play, silence/speech, entertainment/social experiment, colonial/de- or postcolonial - at play within each happening. My work finds digital media to be a medium through which minority groups easily access a wider range of audiences. Works such as Mensah's are thus decolonial texts for the reification of otherness, instantiation of resistance of coloniality, and facilitation of a movement towards Walter Mignolo's (2011) "thinking with the other."