78 african appropriations
this historical context, a multipurpose black super–crime fighter makes
perfect sense. He not only contained crime within the fictitious nation
his adventures were set in but was regularly assigned to defend it against
aggressors from outside (“W hen the country’s existence is threatened its
leaders at once call in The Spear,” announces the cover of issue no. 118).
And as Africa’s answer to James Bond and Marvel Comics’ superheroes
alike, Lance Spearman, who not only saved his nation but the whole world
in many of his adventures, may have helped satisfy a deep-seated desire
for equality within postcolonial African readers.
AFRICAN FILM’S LEGACYThe period from the late 1960s through the 1970s marked the heyday
of the photo novel in Africa. The pioneering Drum look-reads served as
templates for a number of local adaptations, often in vernacular languages.
This is comparable to the pacesetting role of Nolly wood, which during the
latter part of the 1990s, spread across the continent, where it inspired sev-
eral local film industries. Tanzanians could read their first Swahili photo
novel in Film Tanzania, a magazine founded in 1969 by the Tanzanian
writer and publisher Faraji H. H. Katambula, himself an avid follower of
Lance Spearman.^7 During the 1970s, Film Tanzania came out every two
weeks and had a circulation of 53,000 (Reuster-Jahn, forthcoming). It con-
tinued to be published, despite several interruptions, until 2006 (ending
with issue no. 141).^8 Swahili Film, a sister magazine, was published by Kat-
a mbu la i n Kenya. Fi na l ly, a magazi ne ca l led New Film Azania, whose title
indicates aspiring to a readership of a liberated South Africa, appeared in
Tanzania in the early 1980s. Unlike African Film, these magazines were
rather didactically oriented and featured stories dealing with ordinary
people’s everyday problems. In terms of quality and style, they were a far
cry from the Drum look-reads. In Nigeria, however, the generic form was
appropriated by drama groups of the Yoruba traveling theater tradition,
who adapted their plays very successfully to the new medium. Famous
company leaders, such as Hubert Ogunde, Oyin Adejobi, Kola Ogun-
mola, and others, had their plays reshot as “photo plays” and published
by West A frican Book Publishers in Lagos.^9 These booklets, larger in size