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Performing Nigerianness: Equivocal Identities and Digital Legibility of White Women Comedians

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  13 May 2024

Rowland Chukwuemeka Amaefula Open the ORCID record for Rowland Chukwuemeka Amaefula [Opens in a new window]
Rowland Chukwuemeka Amaefula*
Affiliation:
Department of Theatre Arts, Alex Ekwueme Federal University, Nigeria
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Email: [email protected]
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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.

Résumé

Résumé

Sabina Yuhas (@Overszabi) et Juliana Belova (@juliewanderz ou Oyibo Marlian) sont des femmes hongroises et russes, respectivement, fascinées par la culture populaire nigériane. Malgré leurs succès dans l’exploitation de la culture noire pour atteindre la richesse et la célébrité dans la médiasphère nigériane, leurs œuvres ont été peu étudiées. Des lectures approfondies et des analyses nuancées de leurs sketchs TikTok sélectionnés montrent une multiplicité d’images qui ne sont ni pleinement européennes ni nigérianes – des identités équivoques – médiatrices de l’altérité. Cependant, les asymétries de pouvoir qui existent depuis longtemps entre l’Afrique et l’Europe caractérisent leur mise en œuvre comme une marchandisation de la négritude, ce qui explique pourquoi les Nigérians qui pratiquent l’« européanité » n’obtiennent pas le succès correspondant.

Resumo

Resumo

Sabina Yuhas (@Overszabi) e Juliana Belova (@juliewanderz ou Oyibo Marlian) são duas mulheres, uma húngara e outra russa, respetivamente, fascinadas pela cultura popular nigeriana. Apesar dos sucessos que têm alcançado ao explorarem a cultura negra para obterem riqueza e fama nas redes sociais da Nigéria, os seus trabalhos têm sido pouco estudados. Uma leitura atenta e uma análise das subtilezas das suas publicações no TikTok revelam uma multiplicidade de imagens que não são nem completamente europeias, nem completamemte nigerianas – identidades equívocas –, através das quais mediam o Outro. Porém, as assimetrias de poder que há muito predominam entre a África e a Europa caracterizam as suas atuações como mercantilização da Negritude, explicando por que razão os nigerianos que desempenham o “europeísmo” não alcançam um sucesso equivalente.

Keywords

comedysocial mediaskitwhiteoyiboEuropeAfricaNigeriannessperformancewomen
Type
Article
Information
African Studies Review , Volume 67 , Issue 2 , June 2024 , pp. 351 - 371
Copyright
© The Author(s), 2024. Published by Cambridge University Press on behalf of African Studies Association

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