Abstract

This essay argues that the study of Nollywood stardom can expand the parameters of scholarship on southern Nigerian video films, primarily by showing how the Nollywood industry relies on its remarkably diverse performers to promote its products and politics. Nollywood star images circulate through a variety of Nigerian and diasporic venues, and stars themselves often express complex conceptions of race, class, gender, and sexuality, reflecting the polysemic qualities of the films in which they appear. At the same time, Nollywood stars, who daily juggle a variety of languages and accents and whose on- and offscreen activities routinely adopt an anti-essentialist stance, suggest the extent to which this polysemy is structured, recalling Richard Dyer’s classic argument about transnational, transmedia stardom. By calling into question racist/paternalist assumptions about Black African identities, Nollywood stars also combat the stereotyped renderings of their industry, its politics, and its peoples.

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