Madness, Money, and Movies: Watching a Nigerian Popular Video with the Guidance of a Native Doctor

Abstract

The emergence of a popular video movie industry in Nigeria reveals a need for critical reevaluation of the field of African cinema. Video movies are now viewed in the homes of millions of Africans who never had access to, or perhaps even interest in, the celluloid film productions of African cinematographers. Produced by self-trained artists, these movies fall outside current paradigms of academic film criticism. This paper examines one such movie as a cultural narrative cited by an Igbo native doctor in an ethnographic interview. Analysis of the movie positions it in relation to the cultural links developed in the interview. These links include an indigenous model of madness, popular representations of global capitalism, and socioeconomic conditions in Nigeria as Nigerians interpret them.

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