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Publication
Religion, Migration and Media Aesthetics. Notes on the Circulation and Reception of Nigerian Films in Kinshasa
Book Contribution - Chapter
Media aesthetics in Kinshasa have undergone tremendous changes since President Mobutu opened up local mediascape in 1996. Because of the ordained freedom of press, alternative patterns of media patronage have become possible. At the same time, and coinciding with the charismatic renewal in other urban centers in sub-Saharan Africa, Kinshasa’s public culture, and in particular its broadcast media, turned more and more charismatic.
Many of the charismatic Christian leaders travel back and forth between Kinshasa and Nigeria. Coming back to their hometown, these pastors show Nigerian films in their churches and on their television channels. The influence of the west African films is so tremendous that it even has altered the aesthetics of local television drama in Kinshasa. This article scrutinizes the significance of “Nigeria” in Kinshasa and its media world, in particular the various media brokers that control the arrival and interpretation of the Nigerian films in Kinshasa.
The discussed data offer empirical material on current central African media products, and they also allow us to refine the interaction between media and migration. The material enables us to correct persistent ideas on, first, African migration, which is not always south-north oriented or economically inspired. Apart from commerce, religion motivates Africans to move, and it inspires them in particular to travel within the continent. Second, the fact that south-south migration co-occurs with the circulation of electronic media, which in their turn modify local aesthetic regimes, challenges the assumed Western cultural dominance in postcolonial Africa.
Book: Global Nollywood:The Transnational Dimensions of an African Video Film Industry
Pages: 199 - 222
ISBN:978-0-253-00935-7
Publication year:2013