COVER: The Nigerian cultural coup is here

It is believed that everything Nigerian sells in our part of the world.     What began with works that geared towards literary awakening in the 1960s, has since stretched to movies and music.

Though no particular figures exist to substantiate what many can say is only a claim, these fields put Nigeria as Africa’s giant in many spheres especially on the cultural front.

Literature

In 1958 Chinua Achebe caught the world’s attention with his first novel, “Things Fall Apart.”

He was just 28; the book went on to become a classic of world literature and required reading for students, selling more than 10 million copies in 45 languages.

Publishers in London initially hesitantly passed on the manuscript, doubting that African fiction wouldn’t sell, until an adviser at the Heinemann Publishing House seized on it as a brilliant piece.

He went on to publish other successful titles such as ‘No Longer at Ease’, ‘A Man of the People’, ‘Arrow of God’, ‘Beware Soul Brother’, ‘Anthills of the Savannah’ and many other literary works.

Though there were other distinguished writers such as Ngugi Wa Thiongo in East Africa, he became a house hold name across the vast African continent and beyond.

Alongside other celebrated writers from the most populous country in Africa such as Wole Soyinka, their works redefined African story telling.

These works became a must read for anyone who wanted to excel and as many put it, there are not many well read individuals today who have not read either Chinua Achebe or Wole Soyinka.

Today their works are considered  literary and political beacons that have influenced generations of African writers as well as many in the West.

Achebe and his contemporaries qualify as the most successful of African writers because they knew what could be done with the oral tradition.

They understood how its structures and images could be transposed to a literary mode, and they were able to distinguish mimicry from organic growth.

“It would be impossible to say how ‘Things Fall Apart’ influenced African writing,” Princeton scholar Kwame Anthony Appiah once wrote.

 “It would be like asking how Shakespeare influenced English writers or Pushkin influenced Russians.”

According to Appiah, a professor of philosophy, just like many Africans across the continent and in the Disapora, he found an “intense moral energy” in Achebe’s work, adding that it “captures the sense of threat and loss that must have faced many Africans as an empire invaded and disrupted their lives.”

What particularly made Nigerian literature appealing then and even now with the entry of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, is the fact that it sought to reclaim the continent from Western literature, which many felt had reduced it to an alien, barbaric and frightening land devoid of its own art and culture.

Films 

In 1992 the debut of Kenneth Nnebue’s movie ‘Living in Bondage’ brought a new twist to the infant motion picture industry in Nigeria and Africa as a whole.

 Shot straight-to-video, it was Nollywood’s first blockbuster movie which kicked off the Nigerian cinema industry.

By the following year, more film makers had tapped into this eye opening trend and Nollywood was born.

This came at a time when most African countries hardly thought of films as an industry that could generate employment.

From Ghana, Zimbabwe, South Africa, Botswana, Tanzania, Kenya to Egypt, most of what is known of Nigeria as a country today has been disseminated through these films.

The industry which is the third largest in terms of output in the world is also believed to be the second largest employer after agriculture in Nigeria

Regardless of its current challenges, Nollywood has taught the rest of Africa how films can be a powerful socio-cultural and economic export to the rest of the world such that many Tanzanian actors look forward to collaborating with filmmakers in Nigeria.

The current crop of filmmakers are combining intelligent story lines with great film techniques.  Their works show the emergence of a new Nollywood.

In fact, critics say that the emergence of other film industries such as the Ghanaian and the Tanzanian Bongo Movie was in the wake of success that had been attained by Nollywood.

Even what seems to be an attempt to tell the Tanzanian story has on many occasions been mired by what many have called mimicry of the West African giants.

These emerging industries are visibly struggling under the weight of Nollywood, their stars such as Ramsey Nouah, Omotola Jalade, Genevieve Nnaji, Monalisa Chandi, Patience Ozokwu, Rita Dominic and many others are household names across the continent.

Though it is sometimes hard to believe, the truth is that the African continent is struggling to breakthrough under the weight of the Nigerian big brother.

Walking out of this shadow is going to take a while, what the Nigerians have done is take the content market by its neck.

 Though some say it has been largely by default rather than design.

There is evidence  that some careful marketing strategies have seen Nollywood traverse boundaries.

“These guys are quick at spotting an opportunity, when Kanumba became a hot prospect they were quick to pick him up because guys like Ramsey Nouah knew what that meant market-wise,” says Ali Masono a film critic.

In June at a media meet in Mauritius, some journalists were irked by  the fact that Nigerian content actually passed as ‘African content’.

To some it was more of an ego issue because they thought there were equally good stories being told elsewhere on the continent.

But even with such good stories, one thing is lacking and that is the fact that they have failed to charm Africans like the Nigerians have.

Music

Bongo Flava has grown in leaps and bounds in the last decade or so, to the extent of earning the name tag of Tanzania’s music.

At the turn of the century, several music  genres such as Hiplife, Kwaito and Bongo Flava were christened as music for the new generation, despite some of these genres having existed for more than a decade.

Today it is an industry that employs hundreds both directly as musicians and indirectly in the support services.

Though improvement has been made on several fronts, the old pet peeve of copy cats continues to hurt the infant genre.

The later day ‘artistes’ whose only concern is immediate commercial recognition have succumbed to the weight of Nigerian music.

This new flavour borrows heavily from several other genres, and apart from the language, there is nothing authentically Tanzanian.

Today, Nigerian music rules the airwaves across East Africa with artistes such as Wizkid, Davido, Iyanya, Yemi Alade, Psquare, Wande Coal, Tiwa Savage, Waje, D’ Banj, 2Face, Tinnie Tampa and many others dominating air play.

This  new generation of Nigerian artistes arecalling the shots and they are raking in big money which explains their sumptuous lifestyles.

Their continental rise to supremacy began in 2005 when Innocent Idibia aka 2Face broke into the scene causing a sensation.  His debut single ‘African Queen’, enjoyed insurmountable airplay across the continent and the rest was history. Two years after twin brothers P-Square were on the scene causing a frenzy among audiences, their Game Over album was loaded with hits such as ‘Temptation’, ‘Do Me’, and ‘Busy Body’. Critics attribute this success to the great sense of organisation among Nigerian artistes, even with their pidgin accent they can still entertain any English speaking audience the world over.

And though they live large and dwell in controversy just like elsewhere in showbiz, this silent move, is a sign that a revolution is definitely here.

For now, it is ‘Dorobucci’ all the way.