Nollywood

"What Haynes accomplishes with his latest book, then, is not just a blow-by-blow account of the history of Nollywood, its inner workings, and some of its canonical texts, but a convincing rationale of why the films produced by the industry matter."--Pual Ugor "Dispatches from the Poetry Wars" "A superb work of scholarship--and of love. This is the very first book on Nollywood to give the needed detailed account of the genres unique to it. Haynes gives those genres a careful and convincing assessment, linking them to their sociocultural and political contexts in Nigeria's turbulent, chaotic, but ultimately buoyant and optimistic encounter with modernity."--Biodun Jeyifo, Harvard University "Nollywood has rightly been recognized as one of the most dynamic forms of cultural production in Africa, one that opens up larger questions about the emergence of new film platforms that are of interest far beyond Africa. But until now no book has described in cohesive form the basic genres, major directors, and structural conditions of this film industry. In Nollywood, Jonathan Haynes does exactly this in a definitive text that will establish the scholarly study of Nigerian film for a generation. Written in a clear, engaging style, this is a book that can be read by newcomers and specialists alike. Nollywood represents the distillation of twenty years of research that reflects Haynes' deep connections to Nigeria and Nigerian film. Its profusion of insights and comprehensive coverage promises that Nollywood will be the entry point for anyone interested in this innovative and vibrant film industry."--Brian Larkin, Columbia University

Jonathan Haynes is professor of English at Long Island University in Brooklyn. The recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, he is coauthor of Cinema and Social Change in West Africa and the editor of Nigerian Video Films.