Features and Essays

Marketing
Noise or Attention: What Really Sells Nollywood Films?

What separates fleeting attention from lasting impact is not merely scale, spectacle, or formula, but…

Labubu dolls
How Capitalists Are Exploiting Us Through ‘Must-Haves’

What Labubu dolls, AI therapists, and Stanley Cups reveal is not just the power of…

To Kill a Monkey
To Kill a Conversation: Nollywood, Criticism, and the Culture of Silence

The danger of the constant antagonistic resistance to criticism is that it fosters a shallow…

Nigeria
Nigeria’s Class Problem and the Nepotism Debate

Nigeria has a serious class problem. As with all such societies, the controlling oligarchy is…

sexual violence
Dear Nollywood, Stop Using Sexual Violence as a Plot Device

There is a way to portray sexual violence onscreen, even in Nollywood, and that way…

African languages
Do African Languages Come From the Same Place?

Phonologically, African languages can find similarities based on a number of factors. Sound relationships are…

Geoblocking
How Geoblocking and Cinema Scheduling Bias Undermine Distribution in Nollywood

It becomes clear that while geoblocking is a significant barrier to Nollywood’s global reach, cinema…

Area Scatter
The Legend of Area Scatter: Enigmatic Musician or Misunderstood Individual?

Area Scatter’s life is proof that history has been replete with personalities operating on the…

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o
The Life and Political Imaginations of Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o

Ngũgĩ wa Thiong’o passed away at the ripe age of 87 as a towering figure…

Dreadlocks
What’s Behind Nigeria’s Fear and Criminalisation of Dreadlocks?

More importantly, the stigma associated with dreadlocks shows favoritism and protection of colonialist culture and…