Moral Publics: Human trafficking, video films, and the responsibility of the postcolonial subject

[en] This article analyzes the ways in which a Nigerian video film about human trafficking is received by Nigerian women who experienced trafficking in their migration itinerary to Italy. This radically contextualized case study is used as a methodological “lockpick” to open up new lines of enquiry into the relationship that southern Nigerian video films create with their audiences. The essay argues that, by virtue of their specific “addressivity” (Barber 2007), the genre of Nigerian video films that focus on female migration and prostitution participates in the creation of moral publics that are concerned with the definition of the postcolonial subject’s responsibility in shaping his/her own destiny.

Disciplines :

Anthropology

Author, co-author :

Jedlowski, Alessandro ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences sociales > Labo d'anthropologie sociale et culturelle (LASC)

Language :

English

Title :

Moral Publics: Human trafficking, video films, and the responsibility of the postcolonial subject

Publication date :

2018

Journal title :

Visual Anthropology

ISSN :

0894-9468

eISSN :

1545-5920

Publisher :

Routledge

Volume :

Pages :

236-252

Peer reviewed :

Peer Reviewed verified by ORBi

Available on ORBi :

since 29 December 2017

Statistics

Number of views

98 (5 by ULiège)

Number of downloads

1 (1 by ULiège)

More statistics

Scopus citations^®

Scopus citations^®
without self-citations

OpenCitations

Bibliography

Abu-Lughod, Lila, 1997 The Interpretation of Culture(s) after Television. Representations, 59: 109–134.
Adesina, Oluwakemi A, 2007 Between Culture and Poverty: The Queen Mother Phenomenon and the Edo International Sex Trade. Humanities Review Journal, 5(1): 28–46.
Adesokan, Akin, 2011 Postcolonial Artists and Global Aesthetics. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Adimora-Ezeigbo, Akachi, 2009 Trafficked. Ibadan: Lantern Books.
Ang, Ien, 1996 Living Room Wars: Rethinking Media Audiences for a Postmodern World. London: Routledge.
Appiah, Kwame A, 1991 Is the ‘Post’ in ‘Postmodern’ the ‘Post’ in ‘Postcolonial’? Critical Inquiry, 17(2): 336–357.
Arendt, Hannah, 2003 Responsibility and Judgment. New York: Schocken Books.
Barber, Karin, 1997 Preliminary Notes on Audiences in Africa. Africa, 67(3): 347–362.
Barber, Karin, 2007 The Anthropology of Texts, Persons and Publics. Oral and Written Culture in Africa and Beyond. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Beneduce, Roberto, 2015 The Moral Economy of Lying: Subjectcraft, Narrative Capital, and Uncertainty in the Politics of Asylum. Medical Anthropology, 34(6): 551–571.
Beneduce, Roberto, and Simona Taliani, 2006 Embodied Powers, Deconstructed Bodies: Spirit Possession, Sickness, and the Search for Wealth of Nigerian Immigrant Women. Anthropos, 101(2): 429–449.
Brown, Matthew H., and Nyasha, Mboti 2014 Nollywood's ‘Unknowns’. [Special Issue]: Journal of African Cinemas, 6(1): 3–9.
Campbell, Russell, 2006 Marked Women: Prostitutes and Prostitution in the Cinema. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.
Carling, Jørgen, 2006 Migration, Human Smuggling and Trafficking from Nigeria to Europe. Geneva: International Organization for Migration.
Clover, Carol J., 1998 Judging Audiences: The Case of the Trial Movie. In Reinventing Film Studies. Catherine Gledhill, and Linda Williams, eds. Pp. 244–263. London: Hodder Arnold.
Comaroff, Jean, and John L., Comaroff 1999 Occult Economies and the Violence of Abstraction: Notes from the South African Postcolony. American Ethnologist, 26(2): 279–303.
Derrida, Jacques, 1995 The Gift of Death. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Ekwensi, Cyprian, 1975 Jagua Nana. London: Heinemann.
Esan, Oluyinka, 2008 Appreciating Nollywood: Audiences and Nigerian films. Particip@tions, 5(1): 68–75.
Esan, Oluyinka, 2009 Nigerian Television: Fifty Years of Television in Africa. Princeton: AMV Publishing.
Fair, Laura, 2010 They Stole the Show! Indian Films in Coastal Tanzania, 1950s–1980s. Journal of African Media Studies, 2(1): 91–106.
Ferguson, James, 2015 Give a Man a Fish: Reflections on the New Politics of Distribution. Durham, NC, and London: Duke University Press.
Geschiere, Peter, 1997 The Modernity of Witchcraft: Politics and the Occult in Postcolonial Africa. Charlottesville: University of Virginia Press.
Gluckman, Max, (ed.) 1972 The Allocation of Responsibility. Manchester: Manchester University Press.
Haynes, Jonathan, 2013 The Nollywood Diaspora: A Nigerian Video Genre. In Global Nollywood: The Transnational Dimensions of an African Video Film Industry. Matthias Krings, and Onookome Okome, eds. Pp. 73–99. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Jedlowski, Alessandro, 2013 From Nollywood to Nollyworld: Processes of Transnationalization in the Nigerian Video Film Industry. In Global Nollywood: Transnational Dimensions of an African Video Film Industry. Matthias Krings, and Onookome Okome, eds. Pp. 25–45. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Laidlaw, James, 2014 The Subject of Virtue: An Anthropology of Ethics and Freedom. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
Larkin, Brian, 2008 Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure and Urban Culture in Northern Nigeria. Durham, NC: Duke University Press.
Levinas, Emmanuel, 1981 Otherwise Than Being or Beyond Essence. The Hague: Martinus Nijhoff Publishers.
Marshall, Ruth, 2009 Political Spiritualities: The Pentecostal Revolution in Nigeria. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Masquelier, Adeline, 2009 Lessons from Rubí: Love, Poverty, and the Educational Value of Televised Dramas in Niger. In Love in Africa. Jennifer Cole, and Lynn M., Thomas, eds. Pp. 204–228. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
Mbembe, Achille, 2002 African Modes of Self-Writing. Public Culture, 14(1): 239–273.
McCain, Carmen, 2013 Nollywood and its Others: Questioning English Language Hegemony in Nollywood Studies. The Global South, 7(1): 30–54.
McCall, John C., 2003 Madness, Money, and Movies: Watching a Nigerian Popular Video with the Guidance of a Native Doctor. Africa Today, 49(3): 79–94.
Mudimbe, Valentin Y., 1994 The Idea of Africa. Bloomington: Indiana University Press.
Okome, Onookome, 2004 Women, Religion and the Video Film in Nigeria. Film International, 2(1): 4–13.
Ricœur, Paul, 1994 Le concept de responsabilité: Essai d'analyse sémantique. Esprit, 206: 28–48.
Rose, Nikolas, 1996 The Death of the Social? Re-figuring the Territory of Government. Economy and Society, 25 (3): 327–356.
Ryan, Connor, 2015 New Nollywood: A Sketch of Nollywood’s Metropolitan New Style. African Studies Review, 58(3): 55–76.
Sanusi, Abidemi, 2009 Eyo. Nairobi: WordAlive Publishers.
Schechner, Richard, 2013 What is Performance Studies? Rupkatha Journal on Interdisciplinary Studies in Humanities, 5(2): 2–11.
Schulz, Dorothea E., 2007 Drama, Desire, and Debate: Mass-mediated Subjectivities in Urban Mali. Visual Anthropology, 20(1): 19–39.
Shamir, Ronen, 2008 The Age of Responsibilization: On Market-Embedded Morality. Economy and Society, 37(1): 1–19.
Sharp, Conni, Janet V., Smith, and Amykay, Cole 2002 Cinematherapy: Metaphorically Promoting Therapeutic Change. Counselling Psychology Quarterly, 15(3): 269–276.
Taliani, Simona, 2012 Coercion, Fetishes and Suffering in the Daily Lives of Young Nigerian Women in Italy. Africa, 82(4): 579–608.
Thomas, I. B., 2012 Print Culture and the First Yoruba Novel: IB Thomas’s ‘Life Story of Me, Segilola’ and Other Texts. Leiden: Brill.
Turner, Victor, 1987 The Anthropology of Performance. New York: PAJ Publications.
Unigwe, Chika, 2009 On Black Sisters’ Street. London: Random House.
Waliaula, Solomon, 2014 Active Audiences of Nollywood Video-Films: An Experience with a Bukusu Audience Community in Chwele Market of Western Kenya. Journal of African Cinemas, 6(1): 71–83.
Walkerdine, Valerie, 1986 Video Replay: Families, Films and Fantasy. In Formations of Fantasy. Victor Burgin, Cora Kaplan, and James Donald, eds. Pp. 167–199. London: Methuen.
Warner, Michael, 2002 Publics and Counterpublics. Public Culture, 14(1): 49–90.
Akynyemi, Toni D., (dir.) 2011 Streets of Italy. Eindhoven: Imani Productions; color, 103 mins.
Anyaene, Chineze, (dir.) 2010 Ijé, the Journey. Lagos and Los Angeles: Xandria Productions; color, 107 mins.
Ejiro, Chico, (dir.) 1997 Blood Money. Lagos: Ojiofor Ezeanyaeche Production; color, 93 mins.
Ejiro, Chico, (dir.) 2001 Outkast. Lagos: Grand Touch Pictures; color, 124 mins.
Ejiro, Zeb, (dir.) 1996 Domitilla. Lagos: Zeb Ejiro Productions; color, 106 mins.
Igwe, Amaka, (dir.) 1995 Violated. Lagos: Chrystal Gold; color, 112 mins.
Imasuen, Lancelot Oduwa, (dir.) 2008 Ebuwa. Lagos: Lancewealth Image; color, 133 mins.
Omoigui, Vincent, and Simone, Sandretti (dirs.) 2009 Akpegi Boys. Turin: GVK; color, 98 mins.
Onu, Christian, (dir.) 1996 Glamour Girls II—The Italian Connection. Lagos: NEK Videos; color, 114 mins.
Onukwufor, Chika, (dir.) 1994 Glamour Girls. Lagos: NEK Videos; color, 125 mins.
Piro, Tony, (dir.) 2016 Trip to Italy. Lagos: Paparaxy Creative Pictures; color.
Stallone, Silvester, (dir.) 1979 Rocky II. Los Angeles: United Artists; color, 119 mins.
Umeasor, Emeka (dir.), 2006 The Snake Girl I. Lagos: Frontmaster International; color, 146 mins.