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.