Abstract

Structured within the critical and cultural theoretical perspectives, this paper explores the roles played by Nollywood as an agent of resistance to cultural imperialism. It argues that with the use of indigenous themes, settings, storylines, and characters, as a symbolic and dialectic underpinning of the traditional values, Nigerian home video has provided impetus for creating, raising, and reinforcing sense of cultural consciousness in the local viewers. Such stamina of indigenous independence does not only cause the locals’ perception of cultural inferiority to wither away, but also instigate its demystification of the powerful notions of ideological hegemony and cultural hybridization. The paper’s argument is justifiably associated with conceptual and empirically findings that viewers are selective of what they watch, active in decoding meanings, reflective on artifacts, and resistant to manipulation of, and invasion on their psyche.  Significantly, the paper conceptually establishes a positive correlation between indigenous video storytelling and viewers’ sense of cultural identity and independence, thus belying the monolithic conception of globalization.

Key Words: Nigerian Video Films, Traditional Values, Cultural Consciousness, Cultural   Identity, Ideological Hegemony

^JCMRJournal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 7, No. 1, April 2015, 39 – 52. 

©Delmas Communications Ltd.

About the author

*Dr. Murtada Busair Ahmad obtained B.Sc. and M.Sc. degrees in Mass Communication from University of Lagos, and got Ph.D in Communications from the International Islamic University Malaysia. He currently lectures at the Department of Mass Communication, College of Information and Communication Technology, Kwara State University, Malete, Kwara State, Nigeria.  

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