African Popular Culture Enters the Global Mainstream
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“Africa was long seen primarily as an importer of global cultural forms, but it is
now on the verge of becoming a major exporter of popular culture to the world.”
African Popular Culture Enters
the Global Mainstream
Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article-pdf/119/817/182/400719/curh_119_817_182.pdf by guest on 19 August 2020
Matthias Krings and Tom Simmert
“N
is for Nollywood. . . . N is for Netflix! speak of the Nigerianization of African popu-
But most importantly . . . hello, Ni- lar culture. A closer look at the two dominant
geria!” With these words on Twitter genres—Nollywood films and Afrobeats mu-
in February 2020, Netflix announced its arrival in sic—reveals how African cultural production has
Africa’s most populous nation. As if to prove that evolved and gained global influence over the past
the streaming service is ready to invest in African three decades. Africa was long seen primarily as an
productions, a photo accompanying the tweet in- importer of global cultural forms, but it is now on
troduced several of its brand ambassadors from the verge of becoming a major exporter of popular
Nollywood, as Nigeria’s film industry is known. culture to the world.
A few Nollywood productions had already been The beginnings of Nollywood and the new Ni-
made available to the worldwide Netflix audi- gerian pop music industry can both be linked to
ence—most recently Genevieve Nnaji’s Lionheart, the economic crises that have afflicted Nigeria
released in 2018. With its high technical standards (and many other African countries) since the mid-
and its progressive plot about a woman in a male- 1980s. As a result of a massive recession that would
dominated working world, Lionheart is on a par continue for a decade and a half, cinemas closed
with Netflix productions from elsewhere, and down, celluloid film production ceased, and the
drew an international audience. But the urban Af- recording industry came to a halt as international
rican scene it portrays, and its Nigerian cast, make music labels left the country and local labels went
it unmistakably a genuine product of Nollywood. out of business. Meanwhile, Nigerian audiences
The recent success of musical exports from Af- developed a predilection for foreign films and mu-
rica offers a comparable display of similarity and sic, which had begun to circulate mostly in pirated
difference. There have been numerous collabora- copies on cassette-based media.
tions between African and American or British Nollywood is a child of this cassette culture. Its
artists, and African music has received increasing early proponents—former television station em-
attention in the global North. Reflecting the new ployees, theater people, and electronics dealers—
optimism about the potential of so-called Afro- based the emerging industry’s modes of produc-
beats music and dance styles to become paceset- tion and its distribution system on VHS consumer
ters of global pop culture, Nigerian producer Puffy video technology. Video was comparatively cheap,
Tee boldly declared in 2018, “Beyoncé will dance and it democratized filmmaking to a certain ex-
shaku-shaku.” tent. Although production values were modest
The Nigerian culture industry has developed and piracy soon became a serious problem, the
into the most prolific on the African continent. films readily found an audience, and the industry
In light of the considerable influence it has had prospered during the first decade of its existence.
on other regional producers, some observers even The themes of these movies resonated with the
everyday experiences and sensibilities of a soci-
Matthias Krings is a professor of anthropology and African ety in transition, confronted with multiple impo-
popular culture at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, sitions of modernity under military rule. There
where Tom Simmert is a doctoral candidate in anthropol-
ogy, and both teach in the department of anthropology and were films about money rituals, secret cults, and
African studies. scandalous women; some were about the fight
182African Popular Culture Enters the Global Mainstream • 183
of charismatic Christianity against the powers of By the beginning of the new millennium, an
darkness. What made these early Nollywood films independent music scene had emerged in Lagos,
popular was their display of moral transgression headed by the labels Kennis Music and Dove Re-
and its punishment—an “aesthetics of outrage” cords. Stylistically, the music released in the early
meant to provoke and shock the audience, as an- days of this new recording industry was charac-
thropologist Brian Larkin has observed. This can terized by an eclectic mixture of influences—from
be linked to the rise of evangelical Christianity and international styles like hip-hop, R&B, reggae,
the spread of the “politics of the belly,” as political dancehall, and boy band pop to local genres such
scientist Jean-François Bayart has called the noto- as highlife, jùjú, and fújì. With respect to the lyr-
rious confluence of patrimonialism, clientelism, ics, however, some new ground was broken. Some
and corruption in postcolonial African politics. performers seized on the still-young Fourth Re-
public as an opportunity to explicitly address so-
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The democratization of music cial and political grievances that were not open to
Nigeria had produced a number of interna- debate during the preceding reign of Sani Abacha,
tionally influential musicians in the era of vinyl the military head of state from 1993 to 1998.
records, but the recording industry that helped The newly established record labels faced a lack
them thrive had collapsed under the pressures of of infrastructure for producing and distributing
recession and cassette piracy in the early 1990s. It CDs. Rapper eLDee, part of a group called Trybes-
was the advent of digital audio technology that set men and owner of an eponymous label founded
off the reinvention of the industry by the end of in 1998, was the first label owner to strike a deal
the decade. Personal computers were already so- with the Alaba marketers, who operate in one of
phisticated enough to begin to take the place of Lagos’ biggest marketplaces and had played a cen-
traditional studio equipment, tral role in the production and
drastically reducing the costs distribution of Nollywood
and time needed for record- In Nigerian film and pop music films. Other labels followed in
ing and editing music. The eLDee’s footsteps, and before
introduction of digital audio
circles, nothing is more coveted long the marketers had taken
workstation software in the than international recognition. over responsibility for manu-
early 2000s further changed facturing and distributing al-
the way songs were written, bums and DJ mixes on CDs—
streamlining composition and production into a the physical format used to promote the release of
single process. This allowed one person to create singles and disseminate them across the country
complete songs of any genre with only a computer, and beyond.
a microphone, a set of speakers, and an interface It quickly became apparent that piracy re-
to connect them. mained a problem, weighing heavily on both in-
Despite a lack of revenue sources, the declin- dustries. However, piracy also aided in the wider
ing cost of recording allowed a growing number of dissemination of music and films, within Nigeria
young Nigerians to spend time in a studio. While and eventually across the continent.
many previous genres of popular music had been
performed by hierarchically structured bands, the Pan-african influences
new pop industry gave individuals artistic and Audiences beyond Nigeria were fascinated by
economic responsibility to act as creative entre- Nollywood’s images of a parallel African moder-
preneurs. Unlike their predecessors, they are rare- nity that looked glamorous and dangerous at the
ly called musicians; instead, they are commonly same time. In East Africa, Nollywood left its sty-
known as “artistes.” listic imprint on the nascent video film industries
This development can also be linked to the in- of Tanzania, Kenya, and Uganda, which took off
fluence of hip-hop, which has had a presence in during the first decade of the new millennium.
Nigeria since 1979. Rapping brought with it the Tanzania’s Bongo movie industry, famous for its
promise that anyone could become a star with- Swahili-language films, became almost as pro-
out the band required in virtually all other genres lific as Nollywood. Nigerian films and Nollywood
featuring vocal performers. Nor was any formal film culture—-its glamor, star system, galas, and
education in singing or playing an instrument re- awards—-became an aspirational model for the re-
quired. gional industry. In a bid to tap into Nollywood’s184 • CURRENT HISTORY • May 2020
prestige, the Tanzanian producer Mtitu Game be- 2008, blogs like notjustok.com began to publish
gan assembling mixed Tanzanian–Nigerian casts links that fans could use to download new songs.
for his films. One of them, Dar-to-Lagos (2006) There was nothing unusual about this at the
was shot in both Dar es Salaam and Lagos. time. Similar music blogs had been flourishing
Nollywood’s relationship with the industry in around the world, financed by advertising. The
Ghana, to which it is linguistically and culturally major labels Sony and Universal soon took legal
much closer, demonstrates how it became increas- measures to ensure that websites that repeatedly
ingly difficult for African cultural producers else- offered their content for download without per-
where to thrive alongside Nollywood. At a certain mission were shut down. But the proliferating Ni-
point, Ghana’s video film industry, though at least gerian music blogs were able to avoid the crack-
as old and pioneering, suffered from the massive down because they specialized in Nigerian music,
intrusion of Nollywood productions into its mar- and the Nigerian Copyright Commission is well
Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article-pdf/119/817/182/400719/curh_119_817_182.pdf by guest on 19 August 2020
ket. Local audiences preferred Nigerian films. This known for its reluctance to combat infringements.
changed only when Ghanaian filmmakers adopted The opportunity to download Nigerian songs
Nollywood narratives and aesthetics, and began free of charge contributed greatly to their popular-
producing films in local languages. ization on the continent and beyond. While there
Despite the heavy influence of Nollywood, Tan- are still no digital distribution channels for much
zanian and Ghanaian filmmaking have had their of the popular music from some other West Afri-
own trajectories that connect them to preceding can countries, DJs all over the world have access to
local forms of popular culture. Most notable are a catalog of Nigerian music that has grown daily
the various genres of live performance by “cul- for over a decade now. Particularly on the conti-
tural troupes” in Tanzania and “concert parties” nent but also in the diaspora, countless DJs have
in Ghana. posted their mixes of Nigerian songs on YouTube.
This gave wide exposure to artistes like Davido,
New platforms Yemi Alade, Wizkid, and Tiwa Savage, all of whom
Even with Nollywood’s rising popularity across became celebrities across the African continent.
the continent, making money in video film pro- Similarly, Nollywood films early on were up-
duction became more difficult due to overproduc- loaded in segments to YouTube by Nigerians in the
tion and piracy, discouraging investment in bet- diaspora who, out of sheer fan devotion, wanted to
ter production values. Starting in 2003, the Africa promote their favorite actors, actresses, producers,
Magic channel of the South African digital satellite and directors. Even more important to popular-
television provider DStv provided another option izing Nigerian films beyond the diaspora was the
for Nollywood producers looking for new ways to coinage of the term “Nollywood” in 2002 by Nor-
distribute their films. The license fees paid by the imitsu Onishi, who at the time headed the West
company were low, so this option was not particu- African bureau of the New York Times. Though no-
larly lucrative. But it sustained Nollywood’s conti- toriously imprecise and controversial right from
nental appeal. the start, the term has served as a brand-like short-
It also made Nigerian films trailblazers once hand for Nigerian film production ever since.
again. Within a few years, Africa Magic, stocked
with new content, divided into several channels The birth of afrobeats
broadcasting films in various African languages Nigerian pop music underwent a branding pro-
with English subtitles. They now offer movies in cess of comparable significance, in tandem with a
Swahili as well as in various South African lan- stylistic emancipation. Songs released within the
guages, but the bulk of the content still comprises first decade of the new millennium often sounded
films and series produced in Nigeria, with dia- generic, since they resulted from attempts to cre-
logue in Yoruba, Hausa, Igbo, or English—attest- ate hybrid Nigerian versions of existing genres like
ing to the diversity of Nollywood’s output. hip-hop, reggae, and R&B. Budget constraints and
While video and satellite television were decisive technical limitations often left the desired produc-
factors in the expansion of Nollywood, no medium tion standards out of reach.
contributed as much to the spread of the new pop That began to change by the end of the decade,
music as music download blogs. At first, these blogs once ordinary consumers had access to hardware
tended to be limited to posting reports about new and software that could compete with the audio
releases with links to videos on YouTube. But by late quality of large, expensive recording studios. ThisAfrican Popular Culture Enters the Global Mainstream • 185
technological leap coincided with an increasing Earlier, streaming Nollywood films was made
stylistic focus on up-tempo dance music, con- possible by iroko.tv, dubbed the Netflix of Af-
structed around a rhythmic pattern called clave— rica. Founded in 2010 in London by a Nigerian,
a key ingredient in a multitude of musical genres iroko.tv got its start as a channel on YouTube,
in West Africa and the Caribbean, including son, mainly catering to the diaspora, and eventually be-
highlife, dancehall, and reggaetón. came a legal digital distributor of Nollywood films.
In the early 2010s, both developments cul- In 2018 it was bought by Canal Plus, which spe-
minated in the emergence of a genre that is now cializes in broadcasting Nollywood films dubbed
widely referred to as Afrobeats, which since then into French in Francophone African countries.
has incorporated elements from every possible A substantial improvement in the overall qual-
source, yet has retained a steady core of local in- ity of films released by a segment of the industry
gredients. Beyond the instrumentation, the Afro- labeled New Nollywood catalyzed these develop-
Downloaded from http://online.ucpress.edu/currenthistory/article-pdf/119/817/182/400719/curh_119_817_182.pdf by guest on 19 August 2020
beats sound is characterized by vocals that often ments. Since 2005, a focus on producing films in-
are significantly altered with Auto-Tune, an audio tended for the big screen has been linked to a re-
processing system that enables producers to cor- vival of cinema-going in Nigeria—which has also
rect the pitch and dramatically alter the timbre of been fueled by the introduction of luxurious mul-
the voice. The technology has encouraged artistes tiplex cinemas, whose numbers have been grow-
to sing who would not have done so otherwise. ing substantially. From the outset, New Nolly-
Moreover, it has given rise to its own aesthetic wood aimed not only to open up new possibilities
conventions, which are among the defining char- for generating revenue before films are released on
acteristics of the Afrobeats genre. DVD, but also to measure up to global standards of
Influences from other African countries have film production and eventually gain international
been critical to the develop- recognition. Although it was
ment of Nigerian Afrobeats. not the first of its kind, Kun-
Contributions from Congo, The Nigerian culture industry has le Afolayan’s The Figurine
South Africa, and Ghana are (2009) is the film most often
easy to identify. However,
developed into the most prolific associated with this period of
opinions about influence on the African continent. new Nigerian cinema. Nolly-
are tinged by regional rival- wood films that are interna-
ries, which sometimes are tionally available on Netflix
so intense that Nigerian artistes and producers today can mostly be traced back to this deliberate
shy from acknowledging the impact of Ghanaian departure toward mainstreaming Nollywood.
genres like hiplife and azonto on their develop- For Nigerian pop music, a comparable turn-
ment. Still, cross-border exchanges of influences ing point occurred in 2011. Pioneering American
and ideas, as well as collaborations, seem to have rappers—namely Akon, Kanye West, and Snoop
an ever-increasing impact on the development of Dogg—participated in the first wave of collabora-
African popular culture. tions and made record deals with Tuface, D’Banj,
and P-Square, three of the most successful Nigeri-
The next level an music acts of the time, as well as the newcomer
Netflix’s recent arrival in Nigeria is the latest in Wizkid. These collaborations gave the Nigerians a
a succession of investments made by international boost in visibility in the United States while at the
media corporations, in what could be dubbed the same time affirming their status in Nigeria and Af-
scramble for African mediascapes. The untapped rica at large. In retrospect, seemingly minor events
resource of millions of potential subscribers was have had great symbolic significance, such as
touted in reports issued by PricewaterhouseCoo- West’s cameo appearance in the video for D’Banj’s
pers and other analysts, luring Google chief execu- song “Oliver Twist,” the first Afrobeats song to en-
tive Eric Schmidt to Lagos in 2013, followed by ter the Top 10 on the UK Singles Chart in 2012.
Facebook’s Mark Zuckerberg in 2016. In the past The genre’s name had been coined in Britain a
several years, following the lead of DStv, China’s few months earlier, when Ghana-born DJ Abrantee
StarTimes and France’s Canal Plus have made in- launched his weekly radio show “Afrobeats with
roads in the distribution of African popular cul- Abrantee,” as well as a weekly event titled “Afro-
ture through subscription-based TV networks beats Sundays.” The neologism obviously draws
across the continent. on Afrobeat, the genre created by the famous Nige-186 • CURRENT HISTORY • May 2020
rian musician-cum-activist Fela Kuti in the 1970s. (credited to his trio Major Lazer) consisting of sev-
Despite the fact that Afrobeats shares more stylistic enteen songs featuring African musicians, about half
similarities with other Nigerian genres than with of them Nigerian. Beyoncé followed the next year
Afrobeat—rhythms from highlife and electric gui- with her Grammy-nominated album The Lion King:
tars from jùjú, for example—commentators from The Gift, compiling collaborations with twenty-
outside the continent often struggle to distinguish four musicians, including eight Nigerians and
the two and thus present Afrobeat(s) to their audi- eight from other African countries. She herself is
ences as a single continuous phenomenon that has featured on ten of the fourteen songs, two of which
existed for over half a century. fit seamlessly into the current sound of Nigerian
Afrobeats has drawn more widespread atten- pop. Beyoncé may not dance shaku-shaku, but she
tion since 2016, when Canadian rapper and singer has clearly incorporated the Afrobeats aesthetic.
Drake released the hit song “One Dance,” a collab- At a slower pace, Afrobeats is also spreading
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oration with Wizkid that introduced the Nigerian outside the Anglosphere. In 2015, French rapper
artiste and his genre to their largest North Ameri- MHD founded the Afro Trap genre, a combination
can audience to date. Such collaborations have en- of fast rapping in triplets, Auto-Tune vocals, and
hanced the fame and market value of the artistes instrumentals that resemble Afrobeats and its Ivo-
involved, both within Nigeria and beyond. rian sibling coupé decalé. Along with a series of hit
Another milestone was reached when the major singles, he released two albums that included col-
labels Sony and Universal, after withdrawing from laborations with established grandees of West Af-
Nigeria in the 1990s, decided to open new fran- rican music, Angélique Kidjo and Salif Keita, and
chises in 2016 and 2017. They signed Nigerian ar- with Nigerian Afrobeats stars such as Wizkid and
tistes and released their songs on streaming servic- Yemi Alade.
es like Spotify and Apple Music, Rappers from Germany and
neither of which was available Austria began to adopt Afro Trap
in Nigeria at the time. (They still Piracy aided in the in 2016, and the sound quickly
have not spread across the entire became a trend within German-
continent.) This involvement by
wider dissemination language music. MHD demon-
the major labels has contributed of music and films. strated the same attitude toward
to the increasing availability of this development as his Nigerian
contemporary African music colleagues, emphasizing that he
around the globe, giving them the role of gate- had always hoped others would take up the genre,
keepers who determine which artistes get interna- “even if they are not from Africa.”
tional exposure and in turn shape representations Nollywood films have not yet been subject to
of African popular culture in global markets. similar appropriation of their key elements by
cultural producers outside Africa. This might be
International appropriations due to the fact that as it has gone mainstream over
The term “Afrobeats” has drawn criticism since the past decade, New Nollywood has lost much
it has become synonymous, as far as parts of its of the initial “aesthetics of outrage”—the defining
audience in the global North are concerned, with a feature of Nollywood films during the industry’s
range of popular music from Africa. Non-Nigerian formative years.
music stars like the South African rapper Nasty C
are portrayed as sideshows in a common music Global aspirations
scene. Popular playlists like “Afrobeats Hits” on In Nigerian film and pop music circles, nothing
Apple Music reinforce this misperception. While is more coveted than international recognition,
Spotify offers a section called “Afro-Hub,” where particularly in the United States and the United
specific playlists for Tanzanian bongo flava or Kingdom. Members of a generation that grew up
Ghanaian hiplife can be found, any playlist not watching mostly foreign movies on VHS and lis-
narrowly defined in terms of its region of origin tening to foreign music on the radio now believe
or a specific genre is dominated by Nigerian pop. that they finally deserve a prominent place in the
This tendency has been perpetuated by American globalized culture industry.
appropriations of Afrobeats. After collaborations New Nollywood films have been screened at
with numerous Nigerian artistes, the producer Dip- international film festivals for a number of years
lo released an entire DJ album called Afrobeats Mix now. Managers, artistes, media representatives,African Popular Culture Enters the Global Mainstream • 187
and other key players meet regularly at industry of this endeavor, challenging its subaltern status
events such as the yearly Social Media Week and in the postcolonial context. The rise of Nollywood
discuss how Nigerian music can be promoted glob- and Afrobeats thus provides an opportunity to re-
ally. Many have touted the possibility of a Grammy consider the role of contemporary African popular
music awards category for Afrobeats in the near culture within the global circulation of cultural
future, citing the creation of a reggae category in goods.
1985 as a model. Although debates continue to In his influential 1993 book The Black Atlantic,
swirl around the name of the genre as a catchall British historian Paul Gilroy portrayed cultural in-
term, it is credited with the virtue of being less terchange between Africa and its diaspora in the
vague than “world music,” the category in which Americas as a cycle in which elements always move
Nigerian artiste Burna Boy was nominated at the in both directions. Yet to date, most attention has
2019 Grammys. been focused on certain parts of this cycle, notably
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Meanwhile, Nollywood has begun to aspire to the transfer of elements of precolonial African cul-
winning Oscars. The submission of Lionheart for ture across the Atlantic and their manifestations
best international feature film at the 2019 Acad- in the Americas since the transatlantic slave trade.
emy Awards was a first step in this direction. The More recently, African engagement with diasporic
Academy turned it down for failing to meet the culture, as in the case of hip-hop and its African
standard of having “a predominantly non-English appropriations, has drawn notice. A closer look at
dialogue-track,” a decision that prompted director the new genres of film and music emanating from
Genevieve Nnaji to comment on Twitter: “We did the African continent completes the picture of
not choose who colonized us.” this cycle and opens the door to discussions about
Music awards have also sparked debates over African actors’ access to global stages, while chal-
representation. Nigerian artistes such as Wizkid lenging backward-looking notions of Africa.
and Yemi Alade, as well as the Ghanaian Fuse ODG, Both Afrobeats and Nollywood have reached a
for years have criticized the US cable channel Black certain level of circulation on a global scale. While
Entertainment Television for not conspicuously this success seems to attest to a Nigerian hege-
recognizing “international acts” during its high- mony in African cultural production, the greatest
profile annual awards ceremony, honoring them strength of Nigerian industries is their branding.
instead at a separate event. That perceived snub This enables them to sell new developments as
has prompted some African honorees to decline their own, even if these are recently adopted from
to accept BET awards. BET eventually responded other parts of the continent.
to the criticism in 2018 by giving the award for Netflix made headlines with the opening of its
best international act to the Nigerian artiste Da- new headquarters in Nigeria and is promoting in-
vido, and presenting it on the main stage for the vestments in local productions. But Queen Sono,
first time. the first series to be produced by Netflix Nigeria,
Burna Boy followed suit in 2019, when he was is made in South Africa. Netflix Nigeria has also
set to perform at the Coachella Festival in South- commissioned a Zambian animation series and ac-
ern California, one of the largest music festivals quired streaming rights for two Ghanaian movies.
in the world. The announcement itself received Yet there is little doubt that for now, most produc-
less media attention than his reaction. In several tions will be Nigerian.
Instagram posts, he demanded that his name be Some critics point out the neocolonial dynam-
given greater prominence in the lineup, citing his ics of African culture industries’ dependence on
status as an “African Giant” representing a “whole multinational corporations from outside the con-
generation of solid African creatives going global.” tinent for their global distribution, and question
The festival organizers never responded, but the how long that dependence will continue. But the
statement was widely reported. prospect of being able to fully participate in global
Taken together, these developments add to the markets is tempting enough that many disregard
overall impression of an African culture indus- those concerns. African cultural producers are
try that seeks to extend its reach by all available more confident than ever that they have the means
means—and views itself as being fully in charge to succeed on the world stage. ■You can also read
