ADAPTING NOLLYWOOD: ORALITY AND FOLKLORE IN AFRICAN CINEMA

Abstract

Cinematic adaptations of literary and oral texts have been on the rise in Nollywood in recent times. Using critical discourse analysis, this essay explores Nollywood adaptations and the centrality of orality and folklore therein, bringing a meta-theory discussion on adaptation to bear on its interrogation as well as drawing from theorists and filmmakers like Andre Bazin, Sergei Eisenstein, and Jean-Luc Godard. It focuses on The Figurine: Araromire (2009) to illustrate its position and then draws from some authoritative adaptations in film studies, like October (1928), First Name: Carmen (1983), and Adaptation (2002) to buttress its point. The essay argues that in rooting its storytelling in folklore that illustrates the ability of Nollywood to adapt contemporary cultural realities that are steeped in the belief in the supernatural and the fantastic, Araromire demonstrates how Nollywood adaptations primarily derive from oral tradition. Through adaptation, it contends, Nollywood continues to deconstruct oral traditions and then reconstructs them into "de-centered" frames for viewing and living in postcolonial Africa. The paper begins with contextualizing Nollywood adaptations within African cinema and, then, brings the meta-theoretical discourse on adaptation to bear on the subject. Afterwards, it examines the place of folklore in Nollywood adaptation, using Araromire.