Acknowledgments and Pr eface xiallowed me to photograph her collection of bin Laden posters; Johannes
Harnischfeger always shared firsthand information about Nigerian cur-
rent affairs with me; Jigal Beez brought the Titanic graphic novel and the
Omereme photo novel to my attention; Léon Tsambu Bulu helped me
clarify the history of events surrounding the Titanic video clip by Wenge
bcbg. I am indebted to all of them. Claudia Böhme, Uta Reuster-Jahn,
Vicensia Shule, and Solomon Waliaula helped me with translations from
the Swahili, which I greatly appreciate.
In addition, I acknowledge Sabine Lang and particularly Pauline Bu-
gler for their wonderful copyediting of the manuscript, as well as Dee
Mortensen and Sarah Jacobi of Indiana University Press for their generous
support during all preparatory stages of the book. Three of the chapters
are revised versions of essays which have been published previously: chap-
ter 2 appeared as “A Prequel to Nolly wood: South African Photo Novels
and Their Pan-African Consumption in the Late 1960s,” in the Journal
of African Cultural Studies 22, 1 (2010), and is reprinted by permission of
Taylor & Francis Group (w w w.tandfonline.com) on behalf of the Journal
of African Cultural Studies; chapter 5 was published as “Nolly wood Goes
East: The Localization of Nigerian Video Films in Tanzania,” in View-
ing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century, edited by Mahir Șaul and
Ralph A. Austen (2010), and is used by permission of Ohio University
Press (w w w.ohioswallow.com); and chapter 6 was published in German
as “Marke Osama: Über Kommunikation und Kommerz mit Bin-Laden-
Bildern in Nigeria” in Peripherie 113 (2009), and is reprinted by permission
of Verlag Westfälisches Dampfboot (w w w.dampfboot-verlag.de).
Financial support for my research and writing came from a variety of
sources. The German Research Foundation sponsored the bulk of the
resea rch t hat went i nto t he book , i nclud i ng fieldwork i n K a no i n 2 003 a nd
the Tanzania-related project from 2009 to 2011; Johannes Gutenberg Uni-
versity Mainz sponsored my initial two journeys to Dar es Salaam in 2006
and 2007, and also granted me a sabbatical during the winter semester of
2013–2014, which enabled me to make final revisions to the manuscript.
The German Academic Exchange Service sponsored a Hausa language
course I took at Bayero University Kano in1994. My parents, Christa and
Werner Krings, and my late-grandfather Wilhelm Krings sponsored my
first two trips to Kano, in 1991 and from 1992 to 1993. Their support, moral