dar 2 lagos 153pa r t ic u la r rel ig ious doc t r i ne (Uma r i Sem i ndu of t v t, persona l i nter v iew,
September 3, 2007).
One of the first Nigerian films to arrive in Tanzania seems to have
been Suicide Mission (1998), which was on the lips of almost everyone I
i nter v iewed. A not her fi l m ma ny people must have seen is Billionaires Club
(2003). Both are typical variations of two well-known Nolly wood plots.
Suicide Mission is about an innocent family man who falls prey to an evil
woman. Austin (R ichard Mofe-Damijo) becomes the victim of Monique
(Regina Askia), who acquires her secret powers through witchcraft. In
the end, the inevitable pastor appears and saves the day. Billionaires Club
(along with its two sequels—all starring Pete Edochie and Kanayo O.
Kanayo) is a rather late variant of the wealth-through-secret-cult story,
where Zed (Tony Umez), a poor pharmacist, offers to sacrifice his child
and his wife to the billionaire’s cult to get rich quick, only to discover later
that he is haunted by the spirit of his dead wife and members of the club
who insist on even more sacrifices.
Films displaying occult economies were of great interest in Tanzania.
It is a country in which a series of ritual murders involving the trade in hu-
man body parts (especially skin) has shocked its citizens since 1999 (Sand-
ers 2001). The most popular explanation for the success of Nolly wood
films in Tanzania was that Nigerian films, considered “African” films, re-
flect the social and cultural realities of everyday Tanzanian life. Nigerian
films were hailed for their “Africanness,” which means, essentially, black
characters on screen in settings similar to the Tanzanian environment
(although the huge mansions and luxury cars make a difference and later
become the marker for Nolly wood-like iconography of a particular Bongo
movies brand). Screen characters were expected to deal with problems
similar to those of their Tanzanian audiences. People were fascinated (and
thrilled) by the special effects, which render visible witchcraft, something
they—though they believed in its existence—had never been able to see
before (e.g., Suicide Mission has a double of Zed trapped in a bottle, and
other films show men being turned into animals). Videos in the romance
genre, with their various and well-established plots, were also popular:
lovers who meet with resistance from their parents (Tr u e L o v e , 2003), suf-
fer at the hands of their stepparents (Pains of Love, 2003; Super Love, 2003),
or are betrayed by a jealous friend who turns evil (Christ in Me, 2003).