A bracing form of political cabaret
'Neptune Frost,' written and co-directed by Saul Williams, knows that extraction is everyone’s problem.
20 Article(s) by:
Noah Tsika
Noah Tsika is Professor of Film and Media Studies at Queens College and the CUNY Graduate Center. His books include Nollywood Stars: Media and Migration in West Africa and the Diaspora (2015), Cinematic Independence: Constructing the Big Screen in Nigeria (2022), and the forthcoming Nollywood Geographies: African Media in an Age of Extraction.
Imagining new stories, new freedoms, and new joys
Lindsey Green-Simms’ book "Queer African Cinemas" explores the intersections of postcolonial thought, queer theory, and screen media.
Netflix Nollywood tackles political corruption in Nigeria
King of Boys: The Return of the King, a seven-part limited series of Netflix, is a sustained—if ultimately pessimistic—critique of Nigerian corruption.
The Cold War’s unfinished legacy
Journalist Vincent Bevins’ new book, The Jakarta Method, shows that some of the 20th century’s ugliest episodes are still unfolding.
Can an American TV sitcom get anything ‘right’ about Nigerians?
After having a heart attack, a white American falls in love with his Nigerian nurse in the CBS TV sitcom, Bob Hearts Abishola. It is also about Nigerian-Americans’ visibility on mainstream US television.
How Africa shaped Immanuel Wallerstein
Africa and its peoples were central to the great Immanuel Wallerstein's intellectual development and political activism.
A remarkable celebration of African cinema
At this year's New York African Film Festival, we saw films united by key thematic concerns, some of them quite unexpected.
Nollywood Tackles #MeToo
Director Dare Olaitan’s Knock Out Blessing (2018), is nothing less than a meditation on rape culture.
Sidney Poitier and Capitalist Decolonization
Poitier is a pioneer in Hollywood (the first black male actor to win an Oscar), but, like in most of his US acting roles, he also played it safe in African roles he took on.
The Gall of the West–On State Visits to Nigeria
Emmanuel Macron's Lagos visit came and went in a long tradition of diversionary state visits by Western politicians who condescend to Nigerians.
Nollywood 3.0
Dare Olaitan’s film Ojukokoro gets some room to breathe in New York, after being stifled at the box office in Lagos.
The making of a film empire
The book 'Nollywood: The Making of a Film Empire' takes a journalistic approach to that industry without falling back on the bombast of most popular accounts.
The golden age of the Nigerian short film
Nigerian filmmakers are embracing the short form as more than just a cinematic calling card.
Put some respect on Nollywood’s name
The American network VICE turns to Nigeria and its film industry as a further source of wonder for its mostly white correspondents.
Green White Green is a love letter to Nigeria’s youth
The film depicts the mutually transformative friendship of three “ethnically different” Nigerian young men in break with their elders' attitudes.
Nigeria’s ‘brain drain’
The tensions between young Nigerians eager to flee their country for a better life in the United States and those already exposed to US culture.
The Nigerians are coming
Nigerian cinema is finally being embraced outside Nollywood for its diversity and capacity to adapt to dramatic technological and infrastructural shifts.
Ousmane Sembene invented a new cinema for Africa
An interview with Samba Gadjigo, the late Ousmane Sembene’s longtime friend and official biographer about the resurgence of Sembene’s work.
This film is about revolution
Who, ultimately, can speak with authority on recent events in Egypt, and, more importantly, how?
Beasts of No Nation and the child soldier movie genre
The film is doubly removed from the West Africa in which it was made and in whose name it claims to speak.