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The Dichotomy Of American Society's Perception Of Nollywood Film

491 Words2 Pages

Before researching African culture and modern civilization, I had an outdated and inaccurate concept of what Africa looked like. These ideas came from either fiction or narrative biases set in place by American or European writers and travelers. After studying Purple Hibiscus, reading an article on Nollywood, and watching a video about Africa, I came to terms with the stark dichotomy of American society’s portrayal of Africa and the reality of the continent, causing my views and the way I pictured Africa changed drastically. While reading Purple Hibiscus, I learned that a large portion of Nigerians spoke English. This surprised me; due to misleading, culturally inaccurate renderings of Africa, I had always believed that Nigerians spoke some sort of tribal dialect, never thinking much on the practicality or realism of that concept. Additionally, I also began to understand the real influence Europe, especially Great Britain, had had on Africa. While I had always thought that many Africans worshipped polytheistic deities or were Muslim, it had never occurred to me that a large percentage of Nigerians might be Christian. Furthermore, American media depicts Africa as an impoverished continent with mud huts, starving children, and …show more content…

In the article the reporter documents how Nollywood films are made; they are simple, with subpar lighting and limited resources. The films would be considered very poor quality in Hollywood, yet Nigerians love the movies and Nigeria’s film industry is quickly growing. This fact surprised me, for I did not understand why Nigerians would watch Nollywood films when there are better made American and European films. After reading this article I learned that they love the movies because the films tell stories they can relate to and

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