Afropolitanizing the local: how cultural imperialism is rewriting the narratives of African entertainment industries.
In the last few years, Africa has emerged as a resurging force in global pop culture with artists from the continent and the diaspora working to bring African entertainment media to the rest of the world. While the rest of the world is now catching on, Africa and much of her diaspora were already pl...
| Published in: | Cultural Studies Vol. 40; no. 3; pp. 367 - 388 |
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| Format: | Article |
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Taylor & Francis Ltd
May2026
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| Online Access: | View this record in EBSCOhost |
| fields | @attributes: recordID: 1 pdfLink: plink: https://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&db=hlh&AN=193318058&site=ehost-live header: @attributes: shortDbName: hlh uiTerm: 193318058 longDbName: Humanities International Complete uiTag: AN controlInfo: bkinfo: jinfo: jid: 09502386 05G jtl: Cultural Studies issn: 09502386 maglogo: N pubinfo: dt: May2026 vid: 40 iid: 3 pid: 377 pub: Taylor & Francis Ltd artinfo: ui: 193318058 10.1080/09502386.2025.2469628 ppf: 367 ppct: 21 formats: fmt: – @attributes: type: T – @attributes: type: P size: 368KB tig: atl: Afropolitanizing the local: how cultural imperialism is rewriting the narratives of African entertainment industries. aug: au: Mohammed, Wunpini Fatimata affil: Department of Communication, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, USA su: Cultural imperialism Cultural industries Eurocentrism Cultural identity Cultural relations Diaspora Postcolonialism Africa sug: subj: Africa Cultural imperialism Cultural industries Eurocentrism Cultural identity Cultural relations Diaspora Postcolonialism keyword: afropolitan logics globalization Netflix New Ghallywood New Nollywood The Western Gaze ab: In the last few years, Africa has emerged as a resurging force in global pop culture with artists from the continent and the diaspora working to bring African entertainment media to the rest of the world. While the rest of the world is now catching on, Africa and much of her diaspora were already plugged in to music, fashion, food, film and other cultural products and trends from the continent. Despite this growth in the globalizing force of African pop culture, there is not much research on what this means for Africa's culture industries in the domestic and global front. Using postcolonial theory, I present analyses on the attention that Ghanaian and Nigerian entertainment media are getting globally. I argue that although African pop culture and entertainment media is being globalized rapidly than ever before, it is imperative to pay attention to the way that this trend is coloured by the Western Gaze, cultural imperialism, afropolitan logics and the displacement of African continental consumers and audiences of these culture industries. I draw attention to the broad trends in these influences while using specific examples to illustrate how this trend is unfolding. pubtype: Academic Journal doctype: Article src: R language: English refInfo: copyright: @attributes: flag: Y custom: Copyright of Cultural Studies is the property of Taylor & Francis Ltd and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites without the copyright holder's express written permission. Additionally, content may not be used with any artificial intelligence tools or machine learning technologies. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. item: Cultural Studies holder: Taylor & Francis Ltd dt: @attributes: year: 2026 holdings: @attributes: islocal: N |
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