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

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 Frenchspeaking
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 microdimension
of the experiences of a number of West African video film
producers and distributors, and the macro-dimension of the activities of
a French corporation, CanalPlus, which is investing in Nollywood’s distribution.
It argues that Nollywood has acquired a strategic function for
French enterprises that are investing in Africa, as evidenced by the transformation
of Côte d’Ivoire’s role in the economy of Nigerian video films’
transnational circulation. This suggests a new and transformed dimension
to France’s economic and political relationships with sub-Saharan
Africa, as well as a more nuanced assessment of the politics of African
neoliberalism.