ABSTRACTNOLLYWOOD GOES TO BRAZIL: COUNTERHEGEMONIC
MEDIA FLOWS IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA ByKamahra EwingThe current research titled under the dissertation heading “Nollywood Goes To Brazil: Counter Hegemonic Media Flows in the African Diaspora” explores the dissemination of Nigerian cultural productions in Brazil and its reception by a wide array of primarily Afro-Brazilians and Neo-African Diasporas in Brazil. Although Brazil has one of the most robust media industries in the world, the visual representations presented in its media overlook, ignore, and otherwise discount the cultural importance of 51% of the majority of its Black and Brown populations. Therefore, non-African descendants produce television and film representations, which follow a mainstream European Diaspora or Hollywood version, which collapse most spectrums of Brazilian society. The scarcity of a presence in television and movies forces some African descendants to supplement visual images with the support of Afro-Brazilian producers who create documentaries and cinematic representations. Brazilian audiences consume a significant amount of Hollywood and Eurocentric Brazilian productions that rarely feature a predominantly Black cast to supplement their lack of visual representation. Current legislation seeks to augment overlooked populations throughout society even though recent statistics reveal that there is still minimal representation within Brazil. The gap within Black representation could begin to be filled with African cinema that can elucidate contemporary culture through the Nigerian perspective. The Nigerian movies or so-called “Nollywood industry” is a powerful vehicle for creating contemporary representations of Nigerian culture that has the ability to change the way that Africans and the African Diaspora view themselves. Nollywood in Brazil reveals how the largest movie industry in the world could complement current legislation in the country, which mandates African and Afro-Brazilian education. Indeed, recent Brazilian government policies provide incentives for teachers, cultural institutions, and policy makers to promote Nollywood films within Brazil. This project is based on participant observation, surveys, and an ethnographic field study of the official producers, viewers, and distributors of Nollywood videos within São Paulo and Salvador, Bahia in Brazil. Three trends fueled the current investigation. First, new affirmative action policies have encouraged Brazilians to recognize the many contributions of African heritage to their society. As such, I examine Nollywood cultural productions in Brazil in its nascent period (since 2011). Second, I examined the mostly Afro-Brazilian reception to a Nollywood movie whose reactions within six site locations were mixed, ranging from strong identification with African culture, homeland, or aesthetic to some considering the films to be highly offensive. A third (and related to the second trend) is the observation that new African Diasporas, particularly Nigerian immigrants to Brazil, not only constitute a large market of consumers of these movies but are also distributors of these movies to other communities. Within new Diaspora communities mostly in São Paulo and other major cities, Nollywood movies are primarily disseminated by way of informal transnational distribution networks.
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