Ainehi Edoro reporting on a Binyavanga Wainaina video in Africa is Country:
More hereNollywood may be, for Wole Soyinka, an “unprepossessing monstrosity” or a sordid “thrill of the grotesque,” but for Binyavanga Wainaina it represents a powerful revolutionary impulse much needed in contemporary African literary culture. In a recent video posted by Writers Center Norwich, Binyavanga makes the claim that the salvation of African literary publishing lies in getting Africans hooked on African fiction. Nollywood may be trashy, “diabolically melodramatic thrillers,” but Africans are hooked on it.
image via Brittle Paper
African writers produce in literary prose — a language and cultural ethos in which they do not live. Nollywood, on the other hand, produce stories in the languages in which Nigerian life is transacted. They produce stories that are relevant to Africans, stories that capture the urgency of the African moment. “Chimamanda’s books are not going to build industries,” Binyavanga insists. “What will build industries are having thousands and thousands of romance books, of kids’ fantasy books, of transporting our children away, getting them hooked on these things…like Nollywood.”
