dar 2 lagos 161while fishing for the next idea. Oral cultures encourage fluency, fulsome-
ness, volubility.” W hile the kind of redundancy Ong refers to exists in
Mukandala’s performances—the repetition of phrases while looking for
the right words to continue the story—if we consider the performance
context of video narration, redundancy dissolves when it takes the form
of images combining with the narrator’s commentary. Video parlors are
usually equipped with ordinary television sets only—tiny screens in front
of several rows of wooden benches packed with spectators. Hence, most
viewers are sitting too far away from the screen to be able to see the film
in any detail. The narrator—irrespective of whether he is performing live
or his voice is coming from a dubbed cassette in the video recorder linked
to the television set—provides a remedy to the visual constraints of the
video parlor. His remediation, the rendition from visual to acoustic signs,
makes it possible to enjoy a film without actually watching it. As a general
effect, the narrator’s commentaries and translations cause the images to
lose their governing, storytelling function. Mukandala’s voice takes the
upper hand over the preexisting moving images, which turn into mere il-
lustrations of his oral performance. The hierarchy of foreign original and
local copy is thus reversed.
At the end of the film, images of Obinna and Amaka, who are mar-
ried amid the cheers of an onlooking crowd of villagers, give Mukandala
enough time to deliver a moral message to his audience—a plea against
forced marriage. As a practicing Christian, he picks up on the insert, “In
God we trust,” which follows the final images of the film, translating and
elaborating on it:
Mzee Peter Edochie and his two daughters were arrested and jailed. The
king sentenced them to twelve years in prison. Baby A maka got her sweet-
heart easily. Remember, A maka wasn’t in a beauty contest. But Obinna
loved her soul. And this is good for a boy or a girl, to choose a sweetheart
to love. And this will be true love, super love.... In God we trust, and
everything goes by God. And now we say, thank you, Lord Jesus. Our film
Super Love finally has come to an end. (1:09:35–10:42)With the credits already running, this comment is immediately followed
by a hilarious self-advertisement and a caution about buying “original”
cassettes. Ironically, Mukandala’s words match the last line of the film’s
credits: “© O.J. Productions 2003”: