Performing Nigerianness: Equivocal Identities and Digital Legibility of White Women Comedians
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Published:2024-05-13
Issue:
Volume:
Page:1-21
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ISSN:0002-0206
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Container-title:African Studies Review
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language:en
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Short-container-title:Afr. Stud. Rev.
Author:
Amaefula Rowland ChukwuemekaORCID
Abstract
Abstract
Sabina Yuhas (@Overszabi) and Juliana Belova (@juliewanderz or Oyibo Marlian) are Hungarian and Russian women, respectively, who are fascinated by Nigerian popular culture. Despite their successes in exploiting Black culture to attain wealth and fame in the Nigerian mediasphere, their works have hardly been studied. Close readings and nuanced analyses of their selected TikTok skits show a multiplicity of images that are neither fully European nor Nigerian—equivocal identities—mediating Otherness. However, the longstanding power asymmetries between Africa and Europe characterize their enactments as commodification of Blackness, accounting for why Nigerians who perform “Europeanness” do not attain corresponding success.
Funder
Alexander von Humboldt-Stiftung
Publisher
Cambridge University Press (CUP)
Reference69 articles.
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2. Constraints and Prospects of Audience Management in Abia State Council of Arts and Culture;Amaefula;COJOTH: COOU Journal of Theatre and Humanities,2016