Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-p9bg8 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-22T01:08:10.782Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Mobilising Yoruba Popular Culture: Babangida Must Go

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Jonathan Haynes
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Nigerian video films are often characterised as apolitical. A rare and significant exception is Gbenga Adewusi's Maradona (also known as Babangida Must Go), which was released in 1993 in response to the annulment of the 12 June 1993 presidential election by the military ruler Ibrahim Babangida. The film is a fierce denunciation of the annulment and of the whole political regime, employing a number of Yoruba and transnational cultural forms: the chanted poetic form ewi, skits by artists from the Yoruba travelling theatre tradition, the televisual forms of music videos, news broadcasting and call-in shows, and the resources of print journalism. This film demonstrates the political potential of the video film, but also the limitations of the video distribution system.

Résumé

Les vidéofilms nigérians sont souvent qualifiés d'apolitiques. Une exception rare et significative est le film de Gbenga Adewusi intitulé Maradona (encore appelé Babangida Must Go), sorti en 1993 en réponse à l'annulation de l'élection présidentielle du 12 juin 1993 par le chef miliataire Ibrahim Babangida. Ce film dénonce avec force cette annulation et l'ensemble du régime politique, en employant diverses formes culturelles yoroubas et transnationales: la forme poétique chantée ewi, des sketches satiriques d'artistes issus de la tradition du théâtre itinérant yorouba, les formes télévisuelles de films musicaux, les programmes d'informations et les émissions avec appels d'auditeurs/téléspectateurs, ainsi que les ressources de la presse écrite. Ce film démontre le potentiel politique du vidéofilm, mais également les limites du système de diffusion de ces films.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 73 , Issue 1 , February 2003 , pp. 77 - 87
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2003

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

REFERENCES

Apter, A. 1999. ‘I.B.B. 419: Nigerian democracy and the politics of illusion’, in , J. L. and Comaroff, J.(eds), Civil Society and the Political Imagination in Africa: critical perspectives, pp. 267-307. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Balogun, F. 1987. The Cinema in Nigeria. Enugu: Delta Publications.Google Scholar
Barber, K. 1986. ‘Radical conservatism in Yoruba popular plays’, Bayreuth African Studies Series 7 5-12.Google Scholar
Barber, K. 1987. ‘Popular arts in Africa’, African Studies Review 30 (3), 1–78.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, K. 1991. I Could Speak until Tomorrow: Oriki, women and the past in a Yoruba town. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, for the International African Institute.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Barber, K. 2000. The Generation of Plays: Yoruba popular life in theatre. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Barber, K. and Waterman, C. 1995. ‘Traversing the global and the local: fúji music and praise poetry in the production of contemporary Yorubá popular culture’, in Miller, D. (ed.), Worlds Apart, pp. 240–62. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Clark, E. 1980. Hubert Ogunde: the making of Nigerian theatre. Oxford: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Ekwuazi, H. 1991. Film in Nigeria, second edition. Jos: Nigerian Film Corporation.Google Scholar
Fabian, J. 1997. ‘Popular culture in Africa: findings and conjectures’, in Barber, K. (ed.), Readings in African Popular Culture, pp. 18–28. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press Oxford: Currey, for the International African Institute.Google Scholar
Hannerz, U. 1996. Transnational Connections: culture, people, places. London and New York: Routledge.Google Scholar
Haynes, J. (ed.). 2000. Nigerian Video Films, second edition. Athens OH: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Haynes, J. 2001. ‘Political Critique in Nigerian Video Films’. Paper presented to the workshop on Modes of Seeing and the Video Film in Africa, Iwalewa Haus, University of Bayreuth.Google Scholar
Haynes, J. andOkome, O. 1998. ‘Evolving popular media: Nigerian video films’, Research in African Literatures 29 (3), 106–28.Google Scholar
Jeyifo, B. 1984. The Yoruba Popular Travelling Theatre of Nigeria. Lagos: Nigeria Magazine.Google Scholar
Larkin, B. 2000. ‘Hausa dramas and the rise of video culture in Nigeria’, in Haynes, J. (ed.) Nigerian Video Films, second edition, pp. 209-41. Athens OH: Ohio University Press.Google Scholar
Okome, O. and Haynes, J. 1997. Cinema and Social Change in West Africa. Jos: Nigerian Film Corporation.Google Scholar
Okpewho, I. 1992. African Oral Literature: backgrounds, character, and continuity. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press.Google Scholar
Sekoni, R. 1997. ‘Politics and urban folklore in Nigeria’, in Barber, K. (ed.), Readings in African Popular Culture, pp. 142-16. Bloomington IN: Indiana University Press Oxford: Currey.Google Scholar
Srebemy- Mohammadi, A. and Mohammadi, A. 1994. Small Media, Big Revolution: communication, culture and the Iranian revolution. Minneapolis MN: University of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Waterman, C. A. 1990. Jújú: a social istory and ethnography of an African popular music. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar