Drawing hearts in the air within new African diaspora spaces: selling Nollywood and consuming nostalgia in London

Abstract

ABSTRACT Nigerian video films circulate transnationally across various African diaspora communities, including London, England. This article explores conversations concerning the experience of both real and faux nostalgia regarding Blackness and the African diaspora as expressed through Nollywood cinema in London. Within these diaspora communities, Nigerian venders sell Nollywood DVDs as physical commodities from their homeland, triggering sensations of nostalgia and transporting audiences to experience pleasurable and painful emotions. By consuming these cultural products, Nollywood audiences may yearn for an actual African home or experience longing for a village life they have never truly experienced (Krings and Okome 2013, pp. 5–6). Nollywood DVDs serve as modern cultural artefacts containing a ‘record’, both literally and figuratively, transmitting a ‘‘communication’ of black nostalgia’ (Edwards 2009, p. 145) to consumers by providing imaginative sensory spatial representations of Nigeria and Africa. This article explores research from the liminal temporal space of 2013 London, where Nigerian consumption patterns shifted from a thriving market of Nollywood video-film consumers renting or purchasing DVDs – in ‘brick and mortar’ shops – to streaming these cultural commodities online. Viewer responses reveal the importance of physical and online movie distribution platforms as pan-African content providers, connecting virtual homeland spaces of nostalgia to the African diaspora. Thus, from the comfort of their homes, audiences conveniently accessed Black African representations of Nigeria. This investigation captures transnational socio-cultural exchanges in survey research, through questionnaires, and online social media research. Black venders and consumers reveal their experiences with Nollywood as a means to sustain nostalgic homeland bonds, cultural norms, customs, language, religion, and tradition (Krings and Okome, pp. 5–6). The findings elucidate the psychological importance of maintaining homeland connections through buying, selling, and consuming Nollywood experientially. Therefore, a social mechanism of nostalgia allows consumers and venders to retain and sustain Black African cultural identity abroad.