'Everything in Between': Gendered versions and subversions in Nigeria's Nollywood

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Published: Dec 31, 2019
Keywords:
Nollywood films, Africa, gendered discourses, essentialisms, versions and subversions, decoloniality

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Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju
University of Ilorin- Nigeria
Ajadi Rasaq
University of Ilorin-Nigeria

Abstract

The representation of gender in the Nigerian film industry, popularly referred to as Nollywood, is reflective of the country's multiple ideological and cultural heritages. The films' conflicts can often be delineated in terms of these heritages and their inherent versions and subversions. African gendered representations have often generated conflicting perspectives in Western and African gender scholarship especially regarding the philosophical foundations of gender in Africa. On the one hand, gender in Africa has appeared as mono discourses prior to the 'disruptive' influence of western colonialism. African gendered tales were largely seen as tales of gendered serenity, blissful hierarchism and unwavering heteronormativity. On the other hand, western disruption is seen as liberating latent African ideas of gender whilst contributing a few. This paper pursues the trajectory of Nollywood’s gendered discourses from the perspective of essentialist presentations and transformative subversions. The essentialism grid proposed by Oloruntoba-Oju and Oloruntoba-Oju (2013) is employed to reveal the epistemic founts of gendered representation in Nollywood and their relationship to decolonial discourses. The Nollywood film (Mr. & Mrs) is purposively selected for analysis.

Article Details

How to Cite
Oloruntoba-Oju, T., & Rasaq, A. (2019). ’Everything in Between’: Gendered versions and subversions in Nigeria’s Nollywood. International Journal of Multilingualism and Languages for Specific Purposes , 1(1), 26-41. Retrieved from https://revue.univ-oran2.dz/Revue/IJMLSP/index.php/IJMLSP/article/view/7
Issue
Vol 1 No 1 (2019): IJMLSP Volume: 01 Number 01/ December 2019
Section
Articles
Author Biographies

Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju, University of Ilorin- Nigeria

Taiwo Oloruntoba-Oju is a George Forster Scholar of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation. He holds a B.A. in English and Christian Studies, an MA in English (Applied Linguistics), an MA in TEFL, and a PhD in English (Stylistics and Semiotics). He has taught courses and supervised students in English Language, African Literature, and Applied Linguistics for over two decades, mostly at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria. He is a Catalyst fellow of the University of Edinburgh and had been a study fellow of the British Council and a research fellow of the Nordic Africa Institute. 
Oloruntoba-Oju’s teaching and research have largely been in Applied and Sociolinguistics (language, society and culture), with representations in: language and gender, ideology and class relations, style, urban and youth languages, communication skills pedagogy, multilingualism and language policy, contrastive rhetoric and comparative paroemiology. His research is rooted in Africanity and Applied Language, with a strong interdisciplinary perspective.  

Ajadi Rasaq, University of Ilorin-Nigeria

Razaq Atanda Ajadistudied English and Applied Linguistics at the University of Ilorin in Nigeria, where he obtained his PhD in English. He specializes in stylistics with special research interests in language and the construction of identity, language, trauma and life narratives, etc. He had been a lecturer at the Al-Hikmah University, Ilorin before his promotional move to the Federal University of Health Sciences, Ila-Orangun, where he is Head of the Centre for General Studies and Use of English. Ajadi has published internationally and was also the recipient of a junior fellowship of the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation in Germany hosted at the Techniche Universite, Chemnitz (TU-Chemnitz), Germany.  

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