dar 2 lagos 171tionship of Swahili video films to their Nigerian templates became more
controversial. Critical voices accused local video filmmakers of a lack of
creativity and cultural authenticity, and that they were producing poor-
quality copies of foreign originals. The filmmakers answered by calling for
a “revolution” in Tanzanian filmmaking. Part of this revolution consisted
of the gradual emancipation from the Nigerian template. W hile some pro-
ducers, notably Mtitu Game, stayed close to the foreign model for a long
time, others were keen to exorcize Nolly wood from their films. Böhme
quotes a director who, when he discovered props on the set he considered
typical of Nolly wood movies, shouted at the film crew: “We don’t copy
the Nigerians” (327)!
The Tanzanian appropriation of Nolly wood began by remediating a
singular film as a serialized photo novel and by subjecting several films to
the process of video narration, which is a peculiar combination of trans-
lation and commentary modeled on oral storytelling. The printed photo
novel transformed the listening spectator into a reader who had to fill in
the “gutter” between the panels, opening up space for the imagination.
Video narration, the local variety of dubbing, did not change the basic
medium of video, but added another layer of meaning to the foreign audio-
visual original and in a way produced a parallel appearance of original and
copy. W hile the remediation as a photo novel did not meet with a favorable
audience and therefore was limited to only one film, dubbed Nolly wood
films were selling relatively well on vhs cassette (and later on vcd). How-
ever, even these could not really compete with films produced in Swahili
by the emerging Bongo movie industry. Unlike in other countries, where
pirated Nigerian video films constituted a serious threat to local culture
industries (Fuita and Lumisa 2005; Meyer 2010), the present Tanzanian
video industry has completely taken over the market niche once filled by
Nigerian films. Local filmmakers were able to achieve this by first imi-
tating Nigerian videos and later emancipating their own films from the
model of Nolly wood movies.