Black November (2012) and its social-change potential: reactions from the audience

Abstract

This article examines, through multiple film screenings and Focus Group Discussions, the potential of Black November (2012) to initiate social change in the 20th anniversary of Ken Saro-Wiwa’s death. Current research on African film is skewed towards broad representations of urban and rural lives, thus making the reception of indigenous popular films an understudied area. Virtually absent in African film scholarship is the reception of the films as agents of potential social change. The nexus between popular films and social change is examined here in the aftermath of failed formalized processes of conflict resolution. Recent popular film reception studies have transnational foci, which focus on African emigrants’ conditions of life in foreign localities. The paper, therefore, evaluates the impact of popular films on viewers and how they interpret the film as being instrumental in changing oppressive situations in the Niger Delta. It deploys the theory that the arts function as peace-builders and tools for social change among conflicting parties in the light of the Niger Delta struggles, particularly those championed by Ken Saro-Wiwa, which are revisited two decades after his internationally condemned murder. Findings include that Black November cannot function in isolation to produce social change but must work within a broad framework of strategies serving the same goal.