The 3Ws of Nollywood: Women, Wealth, and Witchcraft

Critics often upbraid Nollywood for what they term its "thematic obsession" with the occult world, obscenity, prostitution, and money worship. But according to Brian Larkin, "[i]t is the mixing of melodrama with horror and magic and the linkage of financial with sexual and spiritual corruption that makes the melodrama of Nigeria... video film distinctively African."

The critics contend that this "obsession" casts Nigeria and Africa in a negative light. What they fail to acknowledge, however, is that Nollywood frames and represents its society, drawing inspiration from its milieu. No doubt, it does exaggerate its representations for filmic effects, but it does not invent its narratives.

It derives its content mainly from the socio-cultural realities of its environment, constantly beaming its cinematic light on the ugly and uncomfortable realities within society and, instead of allowing us play the ostrich, forces us into an open discursive arena to keep talking about such issues like ritual killings and the burning, torturing, and even killing of innocent children under the guise of forcing witchcraft confessions out of them.

NollyCulture Launched

Welcome to the NollyCulture blog, the discourse arena for everything Nollywood, everything Africa. NollyCulture explores the critical socio-cultural questions at the intersection of media, religion, and culture, with particular emphasis on contemporary Africa (continental and Diaspora) as framed and portrayed by Nollywood--the Nigerian film industry.

In little over its twenty-years existence, Nollywood has become Africa's most dominant and transnationally accessible expression of popular culture, telling African stories, with African voices, to African (and growing global) audiences.

Africans are said to be notoriously religious; and religion plays complex roles within cultures. NollyCulture therefore concerns itself primarily with how Nollywood articulates, frames and portrays Africa and the Diaspora through the creative tension within and between religion and culture.

Sometimes it's subtle and at other times brazen in its representations, raising for itself admirers and critics in equal measures. But Nollywood never shies away from its message: religious and socio-cultural normative forms underpin the framing of the discourse, the language, and the representation of gender, class, and power in Africa.

Let's talk Nollywood then--its movies, narratives, and stakeholders (actors, producers, marketers, audiences, etc.). Let's discuss Africa--its peoples, cultures, and societies. Bring your passion for Nollywood and for Africa. Have your say. Express your opinions. Show some love. Agree. Disagree. But don't hate on anybody.