'Osuofia Don Enter Discourse:' Global Nollywood and African Identity Politics

Abstract

The scholarly discourse about Nigerian "home videos," "video films, "Nollywood,"- or whatever you choose to call it - is beginning to move away from defending the phenomenon against critiques from the celluloid industries on the continent, and also away from a certain kind of analysis that places western-European "art films" at the apex of global cinematic evolution. Like the industry itself the criticism is coming into its own. Nevertheless, much of the theorizing about video film still pays too little attention to the actual films. A few scholars, e.g. Jonathan Haynes, Onookome Okome, and Hyginus Ekwuazi, have spilled much ink analyzing specific films, but more and more of the articles we find scattered throughout various journals, of various disciplines, make a whole lot of noise about the realized and potential power of the industry, both culturally and economically, without turning to a single film to make their case. This perpetuates, I believe, a certain amount of scholarly skepticism about the ways that the industry is characterized. There is a disconnect between the economic significance of a thriving, local film industry and what many consider the deleterious content of the films themselves. I want to revisit a few stands of the discussion about what sets Nollywood apart from other identitarian discourses on the African continent., but I want to do so by looking at a particular film. I contend that Nollywood's most successful and furthest traveling film, and which the 2003 release, Osuofia in London, which is generally considered is also popularly characterized as an unfortunate and negative portrayal of African people, is actually engaged in a redefinition of on-screen African identity construction.