Being out of Nigeria, you start to realise the potentially dominant influence that Nigeria can wield and sometimes does over the rest of the continent. In most cases, it's our popular culture that carries most easily to other borders via the power of Nollywood and the DSTV channel Africa Magic.
I am miles away from home, but every night I can watch a host of Nigerian films and feel like I'm still at home (afterall, virtually every other show on the channel is Nigerian). People I meet tell me all about the Nigeria they've come to know from films, which includes hateful mother-in-laws, juju, over-the-top theatrics, focus on flashy possessions, extreme wealth, extreme poverty, and the list goes on. People tell me me about our food, as conjured from descriptions in Things Fall Apart and The Concubine, books from their secondary school reading lists.
Tonight I watched an old episode of Moments with Mo on Africa Magic, featuring Adesuwa Onyenokwe. And as corny as it is to say, I felt very proud: to be Nigerian; that we have some good productions coming out of the country; that our culture is so rich and diverse.
No comments:
Post a Comment