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America in the Camera Obscura of Nigerian “Videastes”: A Study of Peters Roberts' 30 Days in Atlanta and George Kalu's Life is Hard in America

America in the Camera Obscura of Nigerian “Videastes”: A Study of Peters Roberts' 30 Days in Atlanta and George Kalu's Life is Hard in America

Floribert Patrick C. Endong
Copyright: © 2019 |Pages: 25
ISBN13: 9781522593126|ISBN10: 1522593128|ISBN13 Softcover: 9781522593133|EISBN13: 9781522593140
DOI: 10.4018/978-1-5225-9312-6.ch004
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MLA

Endong, Floribert Patrick C. "America in the Camera Obscura of Nigerian “Videastes”: A Study of Peters Roberts' 30 Days in Atlanta and George Kalu's Life is Hard in America." Popular Representations of America in Non-American Media, edited by Floribert Patrick C. Endong, IGI Global, 2019, pp. 81-105. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9312-6.ch004

APA

Endong, F. P. (2019). America in the Camera Obscura of Nigerian “Videastes”: A Study of Peters Roberts' 30 Days in Atlanta and George Kalu's Life is Hard in America. In F. Endong (Ed.), Popular Representations of America in Non-American Media (pp. 81-105). IGI Global. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9312-6.ch004

Chicago

Endong, Floribert Patrick C. "America in the Camera Obscura of Nigerian “Videastes”: A Study of Peters Roberts' 30 Days in Atlanta and George Kalu's Life is Hard in America." In Popular Representations of America in Non-American Media, edited by Floribert Patrick C. Endong, 81-105. Hershey, PA: IGI Global, 2019. https://doi.org/10.4018/978-1-5225-9312-6.ch004

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Abstract

This chapter argues that, as a popular culture and a reflection of the Nigerian society, Nollywood films remarkably relay the popular myths prevailing in Nigeria. Their representations of foreign countries – notably America – are bound to be both a product and a reflection of popular myths shared by the Nigerian populace on those countries. In tandem with this, Peters Roberts' 30 Days in Atlanta and George U. Kalu's Life is Hard in America, mainly relay most Nigerians' perceptions of America. They present America as a promised land and a heaven, as well as a land of gun-happy people and a country of questionable freedoms. Given the fact that the stereotypes mentioned above similarly abound in many – if not the majority of – Hollywood film productions, one is tempted to argue that many Nollywood film directors' representations of America are not so much different from the ones constructed by their Hollywood counterparts. In other words, it is not incongruent that many Nollywood film directors simply relay Hollywood films' representations of America, thereby naturalizing or endorsing myths such as the American dream.

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