Cameroon-born, Berlin-based scholar Julien Enoka Ayemba traces the history of the African film industry from the 1960s and its decline as a result of reduced European financial support to the emergence of the locally financed Nigerian video films in the early 1990s. Nollywood “symbolises the hope for independence” of African film, he concludes. Since its existence, the African film production, …

Bic Leu* on how the Nigerian film industry is creating new distribution channels to circumvent the pirates, who deny practitioners of the revenue legally due to them. The domestic and international media have been buzzing about the emergence of a New Nollywood. A wave of recent features – including Kunle Afolayan’s The Figurine and Chineze Anyaene’s Ijé – flout traditional Nollywood …

The Masters of Nollywood are those powerful creative hands behind the scene who make it possible for the stars to shine. They are top-rated producers and directors whose works are celebrated around the globe. —————————————— TUNDE KELANI Interview with Tunde Kelani / Courtesy of NdaniTV The internationally acclaimed director Tunde Kelani is the standard setter in Nollywood. His production company …

While it is true that there is much to celebrate in Nollywood’s first 25 years, Aderinsola Ajao, a Lagos-based art critic and keen follower of the Nigerian movie industry, argues that the time has come to think more about the fate that awaits the industry in the years ahead. For the past two decades, almost everything about Nollywood has evolved …

The Nigerian film industry has been described as a phenomenon, an original African invention that has taken the world by storm. How did it all begin? Sunny Okim, one of the first set of Nigerian journalists to focus on Nollywood, traces the history of the movie industry.   Living in Bondage Some 25 years ago, a young Nigerian university graduate …

Femi Awoniyi on how the Nigerian film industry created a new popular African art form in only twenty-five years. “Africans are not banished to the margins of narrative or subsumed in landscape. Rather they become the movers of our story. Their humanity is not negotiable; it is not in the story teller’s gift to bestow, to withhold or to grant …

Thousands of people are fleeing villages in the English-speaking regions of Cameroon less than a week after President Paul Biya declared war against Anglophone separatist groups. Fleeing villagers complain troops are engaging in rape, killings, and harassment, but the military says they are out to defend the population. The number of people travelling along the Kumba Mamfe Road in the …

Nationals of African countries travelling to Kenya will no longer be required to apply for a visa before leaving for the East African country. President Uhuru Kenyatta announced the abolition of the pre-visa requirement when he took the oath of office for a second and final term on 28 November in Nairobi. “Today, I am directing that any African wishing …

Within a few years, the Sahel has become a region characterized by a dangerous entanglement of fundamentalist religion, terrorism and politics. From 13-19 November, the 10th edition of AFRIKAMERA – Latest Cinema from Africa mainly presented a selection of current feature and documentary films addressing the political and societal challenges of the West African region. AFRIKAMERA 2017, christened Talking about …

Germany wants rejected asylum-seekers to voluntarily leave the country and is offering incentives. The idea, outlined by Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere, is meant to help with reintegration once back at home. The German government wants to encourage rejected asylum-seekers to voluntarily return to their home countries with a cash incentive, Interior Minister Thomas de Maiziere told newspaper Bild am …