DOCSLIB.ORG

The Subalterns Sing Music, Agency, and the Politics of Life During the Ebola Epidemic in West Africa

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
The Subalterns Sing Music, Agency, and the Politics of Life During the Ebola Epidemic in West Africa THE SUBALTERNS SING MUSIC, AGENCY, AND THE POLITICS OF LIFE DURING THE EBOLA EPIDEMIC IN WEST AFRICA Author: Amat Jeng Supervisor: Dr. Cristiano Lanzano, Senior Researcher at the Nordic Africa Institute. This thesis is submitted for obtaining the Master’s Degree in International Humanitarian Action and Conflict. By submitting the thesis, the author certifies that the text is from his/her hand, does not include the work of someone else unless clearly indicated, and that the thesis has been produced in accordance with proper academic practices. TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract ………………………………………………………………………………………i Acknowledgments ……………………………………………………………………………ii A Map of West Africa ………………………………………………………………………..iii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION ……………………………………………………………...1 1.1. Background …………………………………………………………………………..1 1.2. Aims and Objectives …………………………………………………………………3 1.3. Research Questions …………………………………………………………………..3 1.4. Thesis Statement ...…………………………………………………………………...3 1.5. Structures of Chapters ………………………………………………………………..4 1.6. Justifications ………………………………………………………………………….4 1.7. Methodology …………………………………………………………………………4 1.8. Delimitation ………………………………………………………………………….5 1.9. Previous Academic Research ………………………………………………………...6 1.9.1. Selected Works on Ebola Music ………………………………………...6 1.9.2. Selected Literature on Agency and the Politics of life …………………..8 Chapter 2. CONCEPTUAL FRAMEWORK ………………………………………….....10 2.1. Defining the Subaltern ……………………………………………………10 2.2. Defining Agency ………………………………………………………….11 Chapter 3. EMPIRICAL DATA ………………………………………………………….....14 3.1. The Rumors ……………………………………………………………….14 3.2. The Sensitization/Education Songs ……….………………………………15 3.3. The Protest Songs ………..……………………………………………….17 Chapter 4. DISCUSSIONS ………………………………………………………………….19 4.1. Chapter’s Summary …………………………………………………………….26 Chapter 5. CONCLUSIONS ………………………………………………………………...28 5.1. Conclusion ……………………………………………………………….....28 5.2. Future Research ………………………………………………………….....29 5.3. References ……………………………………………………………..........31 5.4. Appendix ……………………………………………………………………34 I. Abstract The Ebola epidemic in 2014 was framed as the most serious humanitarian crisis that West Africa has faced since the beginning of this millennium. In Liberia and Sierra Leone, two countries that had just come out of civil wars less than twelve years ago, were the most affected. As Ebola spread in these countries, skepticisms, rumors, and distrust spread along, making it difficult for frontline workers and humanitarian actors to tackle the epidemic. To control the narratives and build trust, INGOs and national authorities had to turn to the music industry to produce sensitization/education songs. But they were not alone in this contested space: Along came the protest songs to expose structural violence and the hierarchy of humanities. What explains the emergence of the latter in Liberia and Sierra Leone? What role(s) did music play during the epidemic? This is a qualitative case-study of music as an expressive art for the subalterns. This thesis is grounded in anthropology, humanitarian studies, and postcolonial studies. Six songs that emerged during the Ebola epidemic have been analyzed within the cultural and contextual matrixes they were produced. The emergence of protest songs can be explained by the deep- rooted distrust of outsiders and the fact that postwar reconstruction efforts in Liberia and Sierra Leone have not managed to fundamentally alter the perceptions of a remote state. Keywords: Subaltern, agency, Sierra Leone, Liberia, music, protests, politics, rumors, Ebola. i II. Acknowledgements The idea to write this thesis came about during some sessions in Anthropology at the Uppsala University, where I met Dr. Cristiano Lanzano and his colleague Anna Baral. The sessions challenged me to start thinking around the politics of life and the voice of those affected during humanitarian crises. The week I finished working on this thesis, one of Sweden’s leading newspaper, Svenska Dagbladet, featured an article about the Mozambique Palma attack, where seven people were killed as they tried to escape a siege on a hotel, while “white people and dogs were evacuated first.”1 This has triggered more thoughts about the politics of life. I must say that the thinking is still going on because the insights I have provided in this work are not enough. However, without the help of Dr. Lanzano, there would not have been any insights coming from me at all. His guidance, patience, and unwavering commitments have made it possible for me to complete this work. Thank you, Cristiano! To everyone who cares about me, loves me for what I am, and believes in me, thank you! To the friends I made in Falun, Oxford, Paris, and Uppsala, you know yourselves, thank you for your moral and intellectual supports. To my girl, Sophi Binta Jeng-Jonskog, I love you and will always do. This journey is for you. 1 Andersen, Svenska Dagbladet, 2021, Vita och hundar evakuerades först. ii III. A Map of West Africa Source: Updated from map courtesy of University of Texas Libraries: http://www.lib.utexas.edu/maps/africa/txu-oclc-238859671-africa_pol_2008.jpg. iii Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION 1.1. Background In 2014, the Ebola epidemic hit West Africa, claiming about 11, 000 lives. Liberia and Sierra Leone were the most affected. Sierra Leone, a former colony of the British crown with a population of about 7 million (2014 estimates) has a sketchy history since it gained Independence in 1961: a civil war (1991-2002), a protracted postwar reconstruction caused by years of economic mismanagement and institutional inertia, and recently, the Ebola epidemic which claimed about 4, 000 lives. Liberia and Sierra Leone have many things in common, except that the former was never colonized; rather, it was founded in 1822 by the American Colonization Society as a settlement for freed slaves. Two civil wars (1989-1997 &1999- 2003) ravaged Liberia, killing more than a half a million people. Conservative estimates have it that 5, 000 people died from the Ebola epidemic in Liberia, whose population was 4.3 million in 2014.2 During the Ebola epidemic, social protests erupted in both Liberia and Sierra Leone as frontline workers entered villages where rumors that the virus was created by the political elites in close collaboration with some outsiders had already taken a firm hold. Consequently, the interventions to control the epidemic were made much difficult by the poor health care systems as they were by the misinformation, level of mistrust of the governments, and the rumors. The governments in both countries, after many years of postwar reconstructions that had disproportionately focused on building institutions at the expense of state-society relations, were caught off-guard. Therefore, an appeal was made to the international community. The US Center for Disease Control (CDC), for example, said that its response to the Ebola outbreak in West Africa, was the “largest in the agency’s history:” 3, 000 of its staff were involved, including the 1, 200 deployed to the region to conduct incident management, surveillance, contact tracing, rapid isolation and treatment, training of health care workers, etc.3 Quarantine centers were built, Ebola hotline opened, ECOWAS trained and deployed 114 volunteers to the affected countries, and 1, 000 health personnel were sent by the African Union from other African countries.4 2 CDC, CDC Releases Detailed History of the 2014-2016 Ebola Response in MMWR. 3 Ibid. Note: This was before the ongoing global pandemic, Covid19. 4 AU, 2014, African Union Support to Ebola in West Africa 1 By December 2014, a staggering US$2.89 billion, more than the combined national budgets of both Sierra Leone and Liberia, had been on its way to the region.5 Despite all these efforts, containing the epidemic proved difficult for many reasons: The status of the public health system in both country was in shamble; health officials and public workers were not familiar with the epidemic; and more alarmingly, there was ubiquitous distrust of the governments, health workers, and aid agencies on the ground. West Africa is rich in oral narrative, so the society thrives on word of mouth passed by one person to another, rather than on official narratives. Also, in West Africa, music plays a symbolic cultural, social, and political roles, making it an instrument for expressing the myriads of problems the society faces.6 Therefore, when Ebola erupted, different songs saturated the airspace and social media. On the one hand, there were those songs I herein categorized as educational/sensitization songs, such as Africa Stop Ebola, Ebola is Real, and Ebola in town. These educational/sensitization songs were supported and written with the help of humanitarian actors. On the other hand, there were the protest songs such as White Ebola, Good Morning Salone, and Ebola, produced by independent and influential artists with no support from the government or NGOs. As has been widely observed, response to humanitarian crises in non-Western societies usually involve Western media and humanitarian communicators speaking for or on behalf of the victims. This was the case of Band Aid and the Western media in Ethiopia in the 1980s. This, as some scholars have observed, infantilizes the victims, turns them into ‘speechless emissaries’, takes away their agency, and fails in recognizing how political oppression, class oppression, and economic and social injustices have played in creating the humanitarian crisis, in the first place.7 Therefore, through analyzing
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Stiwanismo En Un Contexto Africano 1
    Stiwanismo en un contexto africano1 Stiwanism, feminism in an African context Molara Ogundipe-Leslie University of Arkansas at Pine Bluff. Recibido el 19 de marzo de 2002. Aceptado el 19 de abril de 2002. BIBLID [ l l 34-6396(2002)9: 1; 59-92] RESUMEN Molara Ogundipe plantea en este texto cuáles son las distintas situaciones de las mujeres africanas en el contexto actual, de un África en proceso de modernización pero en que a la vez las diferentes tradiciones continúan vivas, y cuáles han de ser los proyectos emancipatorios que las mujeres deberían llevar a cabo. En este sentido, Ogundipe hace un repaso histórico y considera que las mujeres han estado siempre presentes, en primer plano y de manera activa, en los procesos de liberación del continente africano, pero sus demandas han sido siempre relegadas a un papel secundario; y, asimismo, es evidente que no hay cambio social posible en positivo cuando no se cuenta con las mujeres. Así pues, la propuesta de Molara Ogundipe consiste en una Transformación Social que Incluya a las mujeres en África, el concepto Stiwanismo (Social Transformation Including Women in Africa). Palabras clave: Feminismos. África. Mujeres africanas. Stiwanismo. Imperialismo cultural. ABSTRACT In this text Molara Ogundipe raises the issue of the different situation of African women currently, in the context of Africa as a continent in the process of modemization, with different live traditions. She also focuses on the emancipatory projects that women engage in. In her review of history, Ogundipe considers that women are always present in a very active way, in the process of liberation of the African continent.
    [Show full text]
  • Williams, Hipness, Hybridity, and Neo-Bohemian Hip-Hop
    HIPNESS, HYBRIDITY, AND “NEO-BOHEMIAN” HIP-HOP: RETHINKING EXISTENCE IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA A Dissertation Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School of Cornell University in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy by Maxwell Lewis Williams August 2020 © 2020 Maxwell Lewis Williams HIPNESS, HYBRIDITY, AND “NEO-BOHEMIAN” HIP-HOP: RETHINKING EXISTENCE IN THE AFRICAN DIASPORA Maxwell Lewis Williams Cornell University 2020 This dissertation theorizes a contemporary hip-hop genre that I call “neo-bohemian,” typified by rapper Kendrick Lamar and his collective, Black Hippy. I argue that, by reclaiming the origins of hipness as a set of hybridizing Black cultural responses to the experience of modernity, neo- bohemian rappers imagine and live out liberating ways of being beyond the West’s objectification and dehumanization of Blackness. In turn, I situate neo-bohemian hip-hop within a history of Black musical expression in the United States, Senegal, Mali, and South Africa to locate an “aesthetics of existence” in the African diaspora. By centering this aesthetics as a unifying component of these musical practices, I challenge top-down models of essential diasporic interconnection. Instead, I present diaspora as emerging primarily through comparable responses to experiences of paradigmatic racial violence, through which to imagine radical alternatives to our anti-Black global society. Overall, by rethinking the heuristic value of hipness as a musical and lived Black aesthetic, the project develops an innovative method for connecting the aesthetic and the social in music studies and Black studies, while offering original historical and musicological insights into Black metaphysics and studies of the African diaspora.
    [Show full text]
  • Global Hip-Hop Class
    AAAS 135b: GLOBAL HIP-HOP Wed 6:30-9:20 pm Mandel G03 Spring 2012 Wayne Marshall [email protected] office hours: by appointment DESCRIPTION Examining how hip-hop travels and is embraced, represented, and transformed in various locales around the world, this course approaches hip-hop as itself constituted by international flows and as a product and set of practices that circulate globally in complex ways, cast variously as American, African-American, and/or black, and recast through the cultural logics of the new spaces it enters, the soundscapes it permeates. A host of questions arise when we consider hip-hopʼs global scope and significance: What does the genre in its various forms (audio, video, sartorial, gestural) carry beyond the US? What do people bring to it in new local contexts? How are US notions of race and nation mediated by hip-hop's global reach? Why do some global (which is to say, local) hip-hop scenes fasten onto the genre's well-rehearsed focus on place, community, and righteous opposition to structural and representational forms of violence, while others appear more enamored with slick portrayals of hustler archetypes, cool machismo, and ruggedly individualist, conspicuous consumption? How can hip-hop circulate in such contradictory forms? In what ways do hip-hop scenes differ from North to South America, West to East Africa, Europe to Asia? What threads unite them? In pursuit of such questions, we will read across the emerging literature on global hip- hop as we explore the growing resources available via the internet, where websites and blogs, MySpace and YouTube and the like have facilitated a further efflorescence of international (and peer-to-peer) exchanges around hip-hop.
    [Show full text]
  • Toubab: an American Doctor in West Africa
    BOOK REVIEWS Toubab: An American Doctor in toubab, experienced in Africa. He was Africa Medicine and Education West Africa assigned to the emergency department (WAME), a nonprofit program to help of the major hospital in The Gambia. His support medical care and general edu - By David Levine, DO. 281 pp, $25.00. ISBN: text relates numerous insightful experi - cation for West African children. The 978-0-9821064-1-9. Self-published; 2010. ences of friendships, cultural collisions, book notes that all profits from the sale sickness, frustrations, heartbreak, anger, of Toubab will be donated to WAME. The Gambia is a poor, small country in happiness, and much more. A couple Buying this book will help these kids West Africa in which day-to-day life is a examples follow: survive a difficult life. challenge. Healthcare services available My recommendation is to buy there are only a fraction of the services [Stunning to me were] the depth and Toubab and read it, and then try to pic - available in even the smallest towns in breadth of the chasm of ignorance of ture yourself living in such poor condi - the United States. I imagine that condi - the average Gambian about illness. A tions. You will leave Dr Levine’s story tions in most of Central Africa are sim - friend will report to me, “My auntie with a greater appreciation for what we ilar to those in The Gambia. In 2006, is in the hospital.” have in the United States, despite all the “Oh,” I say, “what is wrong with David Levine, DO, a family physician distractions that we’re experiencing in her?” from Washington State, volunteered for medicine today.
    [Show full text]
  • Suriano.Pmd 113 01/12/2011, 15:11 114 Africa Development, Vol
    Africa Development, Vol. XXXVI, Nos 3 & 4, 2011, pp. 113–126 © Council for the Development of Social Science Research in Africa, 2011 (ISSN 0850-3907) Hip-Hop and Bongo Flavour Music in Contemporary Tanzania:Youths’ Experiences, Agency, Aspirations and Contradictions1 Maria Suriano* Abnstract The beginning of Tanzanian hip-hop along with a genre known as Bongo Flavour (also Bongo Flava, or Fleva, according to the Swahili spelling), can be traced back to the early 1990s. This music, characterised by the use of Swahili lyrics (with a few English and slang words) is also re- ferred to as the ‘music of the new generation’ (muziki wa kikazi kipya). Without the intention to analyse a complex and multifaceted reality, this article aims to make a sense of this popular music as an overall phenom- enon in contemporary Tanzania. From the premise that music, perform- ance and popular culture can be used as instruments to innovate and produce change, this article argues that Bongo Flavour and hip-hop are not only music genres, but also cultural expressions necessary for the understanding of a substantial part of contemporary Tanzanian youths. The focus here is on young male artists living in urban environments. Résumé Le début du hip-hop en Tanzanie ainsi que d’un genre musical appelé Bongo Flavour (aussi Bongo Flava ou Fleva, selon l’orthographe en Swahili) date du début des années 1990. Caractérisée par l’utilisation de textes en swahili (avec quelques mots en anglais et en argot), cette musique est considérée comme ‘la musique de la nouvelle génération’ (muziki wa kikazi kipya).
    [Show full text]
  • 7-Perez Crozas.Pmd 129 14/04/2010, 15:06 130 Afrique Et Développement, Vol
    Afrique et développement, Vol. XXXIV, No. 2, 2009, pp. 129–158 © Conseil pour le développement de la recherche en sciences sociales en Afrique, 2009 (ISSN 0850-3907) Des lançados aux expatriés :1 « l’Ethnie2 Blanche »3 entre les fleuves Sénégal et Casamance Armonia Pérez Crosas* Résumé La région comprise entre les fleuves Sénégal et Casamance a un long parcours historique de contact et de présence de l’homme Blanc occidental. Même si les personnages et les situations qu’ont conformé « l’Ethnie Blanche » pendant le temps ont été très variés, il existe des caractéristiques qui se répètent, des continuités associées avec l’ambiguïté du statut social, des relations entre les sexes ou les spécialisations économiques, à la frontière entre le local et le global. L’article explore cette durabilité d’une frontière culturelle, en proposant des pistes de recherche à partir de la figure des lançados. L’analyse montre des indices, des parallélismes réitérés entre les effets des varia- tions dans les conditions frontalières sur le collectif « Blanc », en oscillant entre le maintien de son identité et l’intégration dans les communautés autochtones. L’auteur estime qu’une perspective de longue durée aiderait à comprendre l’articulation actuelle des contingents de coopérants et d’agents économiques qui arrivent à la région, compréhension qui pourrait être extrapolée à d’autres zones du continent. Abstract The region located between the Senegal and the Casamance rivers has a long history of the presence of Western white men. Although the characters and situations modeled by the ‘White Ethnic Group’ over time have been very varied, there are characteristics that are repeated, continuities associated with the ambiguity of social status, gender relations or economic specializations, on the boundary between both * Agrupament per a la Recerca i la Docència d’Àfrica (ARDA), Université de Barcelone.
    [Show full text]
  • 1 Beyond the Economic Impetus For
    BEYOND THE ECONOMIC IMPETUS FOR MIGRATION: PRE-MIGRATION COGNITIONS, SUBJECTIVITIES, AND OCCIDENTALISMS IN THE AFRICAN POSTCOLONY By FELICIA CHIGOZIE ANONYUO-NWAENYI A DISSERTATION PRESENTED TO THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF THE UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 2009 1 © 2009 Felicia Chigozie Anonyuo-Nwaenyi 2 I dedicate this dissertation to Africa that was and will be, and to all who work for her good; to my son, Augustine Chidubem Nwaenyi, my guiding light, Peaceful River without foe, the calm voice in the middle of the storm; to my mother, Susanna Ozuzuaku Anonyuo, teacher of harmony and dignity, everywoman; to the memory of my father and ancestor, Samuel Igboabuchukwu Anonyuo, eternal sage; to my Heavenly Father, His Son, Jesus Christ, and His Holy Spirit whose Love and Grace have shielded and yoked me forever. 3 ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I doubt that I can adequately acknowledge everyone that contributed to the realization of my objectives for this research project, and must therefore state upfront that the names and parties mentioned here are not representative of those who deserve credit for their unconditional and selfless support for this project. I crave the indulgence of my unacknowledged benefactors. My eternal gratitude to Dr. Faye V. Harrison who consistently cheered me on and said yes from start to finish, through trying and tranquil moments, through thick and thin. To have an advisor who never rides the high horse and never demands an appointment, who knows how to hold back her encyclopedic knowledge to make mine important, who has stayed up past midnight working with me over the phone to get a document draft just right, who is ready to share her wisdom and lend a helping hand anytime and anywhere, is to be uniquely blessed.
    [Show full text]
  • Imagination and the Practice of Rapping in Dar Es Salaam
    David Kerr THUGS AND GANGSTERS: IMAGINAtiON AND THE PRACtiCE OF RAppiNG IN DAR ES SALAAM abstract Since the arrival of hip hop in Tanzania in the 1980s, a diverse and vibrant range of musical genres has developed in Tanzania’s commercial capital, Dar es Salaam. Incorporating rapping, these new musical genres and their associated practices have produced new imaginative spaces, social practices, and identities. In this paper, I argue that rappers have appropriated signs and symbols from the transnational image of hip hop to cast themselves as ‘thugs’ or ‘gangsters’, simultaneously imbuing these symbols with distinctly Tanzanian political conceptions of hard work (kazi ya jasho), justice (haki) and self-reliance (kujitegemea). This article examines how the persona of the rapper acts as a nexus for transnational and local moral and ethical conceptions such as self-reliance, strength, and struggle. Exploring the complicated, ambiguous, and contradictory nature of cultural production in contemporary Tanzania, I argue that rappers use the practice of rapping to negotiate both the socialist past and neo-liberal present. Drawing on the work of De Certeau and Graeber, I argue that rappers use these circulating signs, symbols, and concepts both tactically and strategically to generate value, shape social reality and inscribe themselves into the social and political fabric of everyday life. Keywords: hip hop, popular music, Tanzania, Ujamaa, value INTRODUCTION as well as our individual hopes and ambitions. Octavian and Richard, who as rappers adopt It is mid-morning in June 2011 and I am sat with the names O-Key and Kizito, are both students two ‘underground’ rappers, Octavian Thomas and live close to where we meet.
    [Show full text]
  • Perspectives from French West Indian Literature
    ON BEING WEST INDIAN IN POST-WAR METROPOLITAN FRANCE: PERSPECTIVES FROM FRENCH WEST INDIAN LITERATURE by ROSALIE DEMPSY MARSHALL A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Department of French Studies University of Birmingham 2011 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. In memory of Gloria, Luddy, Dorcas and Harry Acknowledgements I would like to thank my supervisor, Professor Jennifer Birkett, for her patience, encouragement, and good advice when these were sorely needed; and also Dr Conrad James, who helped to ease me into French West Indian writing at the beginning of my studies, and who supervised my research in Jennifer’s absence. I am grateful to my dear parents, who kept faith with me over several years, and gave me the time and space to pursue this piece of scholarship. Abstract Most research into contemporary French West Indian literature focuses on writing that stresses the significance of the plantation and urban cultures of the islands in the early to mid-twentieth century or, more recently, on the desire of some writers to explore broader trans-national influences or environments.
    [Show full text]
  • Black Semiosis: Young Liberian Transnationals Mediating Black Subjectivity and Black Heterogeneity Krystal A
    University of Pennsylvania ScholarlyCommons Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations 1-1-2015 Black Semiosis: Young Liberian Transnationals Mediating Black Subjectivity and Black Heterogeneity Krystal A. Smalls University of Pennsylvania, [email protected] Follow this and additional works at: http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations Part of the African American Studies Commons, Anthropological Linguistics and Sociolinguistics Commons, and the Social and Cultural Anthropology Commons Recommended Citation Smalls, Krystal A., "Black Semiosis: Young Liberian Transnationals Mediating Black Subjectivity and Black Heterogeneity" (2015). Publicly Accessible Penn Dissertations. 2022. http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2022 This paper is posted at ScholarlyCommons. http://repository.upenn.edu/edissertations/2022 For more information, please contact [email protected]. Black Semiosis: Young Liberian Transnationals Mediating Black Subjectivity and Black Heterogeneity Abstract From the colonization of the “Dark Continent,” to the global industry that turned black bodies into chattel, to the total absence of modern Africa from most American public school curricula, to superfluous representations of African primitivity in mainstream media, to the unflinching state-sanctioned murders of unarmed black people in the Americas, antiblackness and anti-black racism have been part and parcel to modernity, swathing centuries and continents, and seeping into the tiny spaces and moments that constitute social reality for most black-identified
    [Show full text]
  • Original Paper Nollywood: Indigenous Culture, Interculturality, and The
    Communication, Society and Media ISSN 2576-5388 (Print) ISSN 2576-5396 (Online) Vol. 3, No. 1, 2020 www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/csm Original Paper Nollywood: Indigenous Culture, Interculturality, and the Transplantation of American Popular Culture onto Postcolonial Nigerian Film and Screen Samba DIOP1* 1 Researcher, Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway * Samba DIOP, Researcher, Center for Multilingualism in Society across the Lifespan, Faculty of Humanities, University of Oslo, Oslo, Norway Received: October 30, 2019 Accepted: November 12, 2019 Online Published: December 12, 2019 doi:10.22158/csm.v3n1p12 URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.22158/csm.v3n1p12 Abstract Nigeria, the Giant of Africa, has three big tribes: Yoruba, Igbo, and Hausa. It was a British colony which was amalgamated in 1914. The country became independent in 1962 and was right away bedeviled by military coups d’états and a bloody civil war (1967-1970). In 1999, the country experienced democratic dispensation. In the 1990s, the Nollywood nascent movie industry—following in the footpath of Hollywood and Bollywood—flourished. The movie industry grew thanks to four factors: Rapid urbanization; the hand-held video camera; the advent of satellite TV; and, the overseas migrations of Nigerians. Local languages are used in these films; however, English is the most prominent, along with Nigerian pidgin broken English. Many themes are treated in these films: tradition and customs, religion, witchcraft and sorcery, satire, urban and rural lives, wealth acquisition, consumerism, etc. I discuss the ways in which American popular culture is adopted in Nigeria and recreated on screen.
    [Show full text]
  • Usawiri Wa Masuala Ya Kijinsia Katika Lugha Ya Mashairi: Mifano Kutoka Mashairi Ya Bongo Fleva Tanzania
    USAWIRI WA MASUALA YA KIJINSIA KATIKA LUGHA YA MASHAIRI: MIFANO KUTOKA MASHAIRI YA BONGO FLEVA TANZANIA AMBARAK IBRAHIM SALEH KHALIFA TASINIFU YA M.A KISWAHILI CHUO KIKUU HURIA CHA TANZANIA 2013 USAWIRI WA MASUALA YA KIJINSIA KATIKA LUGHA YA MASHAIRI: MIFANO KUTOKA MASHAIRI YA BONGO FLEVA TANZANIA AMBARAK IBRAHIM SALEH KHALIFA TASINIFU ILIYOWASILISHWA KWA MINAJILI YA KUKAMILISHA MASHARTI YA DIGRII YA M.A KISWAHILI YA CHUO KIKUU HURIA CHA TANZANIA 2013 ii UTHIBITISHO Aliyetia saini hapa chini anathibitisha kuwa amesoma Tasinifu hii iitwayo: Usawiri wa masuala ya Kijinsia katika Lugha ya mashairi: Mifano kutoka Mashairi ya Bongo Fleva, na kupendekeza ikubaliwe na Chuo Kikuu Huria cha Tanzania kwa ajili ya kukamilisha masharti ya Digirii ya M.A. Kiswahili ya Chuo Kikuu Huria cha Tanzania. ----------------------------------------- Sheikh, Professa, Dkt. T.S.Y.SENGO (MSIMAMIZI) Tarehe ----------------------------- iii IKIRARI NA HAKIMILIKI Mimi, Ambarak Ibrahim Salehe Khalifa, nathibitisha kuwaTasinifu hii ni kazi yangu halisi na haijawahi kuwasilishwa katika Chuo Kikuu kingine kwa ajili ya Digirii yoyote. Sahihi........................................................ Haki ya kunakili tasinifu hii inalindwa na mkataba wa Berne, Sheria ya haki ya kunakili ya mwaka 1999 na mikataba mingine ya sheria za kitaifa na kimataifa zinazolinda mali ya kitaaluma. Haki zote zimehifadhiwa. Hairuhusiwi kuiga au kunakili kwa njia yoyote ile, iwe ama yote au sehemu ya Tasinifu hii, isipokuwa shughuli halali, kwa ajili ya utafiti, kujisomea au kufanya marejeo ya kitaaluma bila kibali cha maandishi cha Mkuu wa Kurugenzi ya Taaluma za Uzamili kwa niaba ya Chuo Kikuu Huria cha Tanzania. iv SHUKURANI Kwa hakika si kazi rahisi kuwataja na kuwashukuru kwa majina wote waliochangia kukamilika kwa utafiti huu.
    [Show full text]