African media and the corporate takeover: Video film circulation in the age of neoliberal transformations

Abstract

This article considers the economic effects of corporatization processes in Africa through an analysis of the intervention of French media companies in the economy of Nigerian video film distribution in French-speaking West Africa, and particularly in Côte d'Ivoire. In a global context that is marked by the price volatility of raw materials such as oil and copper, screen media have been described as the new 'African black gold', attracting the interest of a large number of both African and non-African players and setting in motion a process of the 'corporate takeover' of African screen media industries. Analysing this process can help us to understand wider economic transformations in Africa. This article examines what we might call the 'technopolitics' of Nigerian video films' circulation and their historical transformations by examining the micro-dimension of the experiences of a number of West African video film producers and distributors, and the macro-dimension of the...