“Nollywood is a product of a complex dialectic between external and internal forces–the history of colonialism, the global economy, local arts, traditions, religious diversity, economic and social conditions–the context of which provides useful pathways to understand the particularity of Nollywood’s aesthetics, narrative forms, and its popularity in the continent. To open up a historical, political, and theoretical context for Africa, Cameroonian scholar Achille Mbembe (2001) proposes a framework of ‘postcolonies’ that radically revises the traditional understanding of postcolonial subjectivity in Africa… In Comaroff and Comaroff’s view, the confluence of these factors created ‘occult economies’ in the region, a series of practices energized by the magical and inscrutable mechanisms of economic exchanges, which replaced realistic, material structures” (Deshpande and Mazaj 186).

Read more on the occult economy (Comaroff and Comaroff)

Read more on Bataille’s notion of trash and Cinema Engagé (Harrow)

Read more on the aesthetics of African cinema (Harrow)

Refer to Chapter 6: African cinema and Nollywood for more on the occult