VIDEOS IN MOTION - fasopo

emergence of diasporic and migrant cinema in both Europe and North America is a long-term,widely documented phenomenon (cf. Berghahn and Sternberg 2010a; Rueschmann 2003), thecreation of independent production companies that intend to reproduce the format and the structureof an indigenous popular culture industry in the diaspora is something that has happened rarely. Thecentral aim of this chapter, then, is to describe this phenomenon and propose a definition of its mainfeatures. The central focus is on the Nigerian production companies that emerged in Europe, but afew examples from Canada and the United Sates will also be mentioned.From Nigeria to Europe: The historical, sociological and theoretical contexts of Nigeriandiasporic video productionThe history of Nigerian people’s mobility beyond the boundaries of the African continent iscenturies-long, and goes well beyond the consolidation of Nigeria as an identifiable political andcultural unity. The history of slavery, in particular, brought many Yorubas, Igbos and people ofother Nigerian ethnic groups to the Americas since the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries.Linguistic and cultural traces of this connection are still present today, and they are one of theexplanations for the consumption of contemporary Nigerian cultural productions amongst African-American and Caribbean people.Beyond these centuries-old macro-itineraries, more complex and fragmented paths of migrationstarted to emerge since the end of colonialism. While also during the era of the British Empire smallgroups of Nigerians moved temporarily to Europe and the United States for education, it is mainlyafter the end of colonialism that a larger number of people went abroad. During the early years ofindependence most of them tended to come back after a period of education and work experience inEurope or North America. Till the end of the 1970s the Nigerian economy was booming and theopportunities to enjoy good standards of life in the home country were numerous. The Nigerianmigrants that arrived in Europe and North America over this period often belonged to Nigeriansociety’s wealthiest social groups. They used to move to Western countries to study and developconditions or a more secure and stable socio-political environment. ‘Diasporic’ film-makers are typically of the second,third or a later generation. They were born or raised in a disaporic setting and have no, or only a very remote, first-handexperience of migration” (2010b: 16). Most of the directors and producers whose work is discussed in this chapterbelong to the “migrant” category. However, I rather use the term “diasporic Nigerian production” referring, in HomiBhabha’s terms (1994), to diaspora as a “third space”, a space of hybridity within which the encounter betweendifferent articulations of identity and culture generates original solutions.170