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Islam and Visual Culture: Sharia Implementation and Cinema as Visual Management in Nigeria

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 May 2020

Musa Ibrahim Open the ORCID record for Musa Ibrahim [Opens in a new window]
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Abstract

Human experience is more visual and visualized than ever before. This has been obvious in Africa since the 1990s, when democratization, media liberalization, proliferation of small technology, and religious reform movements introduced new ways of meaning-making. Ibrahim’s ethnographic research shows how sharia implementation and cinema as cultural production in northern Nigeria are embedded within the implicit and explicit visual regime of influencing what and how people see, think, and perform. The strategic replacement of cinemas with religious or other “neutral” objects is a visual regime that shifts people’s vision or encounter from one means of cultural production to another.

Résumé

Résumé

l’expérience humaine est plus visuelle et visualisée que jamais. Cela est évident en Afrique depuis les années 1990, lorsque la démocratisation, la libéralisation des médias, la prolifération de petites technologies et les mouvements de réforme religieuse ont introduit de nouvelles recherches de la signification. Les recherches ethnographiques d'Ibrahim montrent comment la mise en œuvre de la Sharia [Loi Islamique] et du cinéma en tant que production culturelle dans le nord du Nigeria sont intégrés dans le régime visuel implicite et explicite et influencent comment le peuple perçoit, pense et accomplit. Le remplacement stratégique des cinémas par des objets religieux ou « neutres » est une culture visuelle qui déplace la perception ou la rencontre du public d’une forme de production culturelle à une autre.

Resumo

Resumo

A experiência humana é hoje mais visual e visualizada do que nunca. Em África, isto é evidente desde a década de 1990, quando a democratização, a liberalização dos media, a proliferação da tecnologia entre consumidores e os movimentos de reforma religiosa introduziram novas formas de criação de significados. A investigação etnográfica de Ibrahim demonstra que, no norte da Nigéria, a implementação da sharia e o cinema enquanto produção cultural estão implicados no regime visual explícito e implícito que influencia aquilo que as pessoas veem, pensam e fazem, e o modo como isso acontece. A substituição estratégica das salas de cinema por alternativas religiosas ou “neutras” corresponde a um regime visual que transfere a visão ou o encontro das pessoas de um meio de produção cultural para outro.

Keywords

Islamvisual cultureshariacinemaNigeria
Type
Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 63 , Issue 4 , December 2020 , pp. 719 - 742
Copyright
© African Studies Association, 2020

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