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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Mass culture in sub-Saharan Africa
Author:Gankin, L.E.
Year:1988
Periodical:Africa in Soviet Studies
Pages:88-98
Language:English
Geographic term:Subsaharan Africa
Subjects:culture
cinema
popular literature
Abstract:The development of mass culture in Africa cannot be explained only by direct Western influence. Mass culture in Africa is a specific phenomenon that evolved in particular social conditions and that has its intricate and contradictory development trends. It is on the whole a spontaneous process, hardly regulated by the State. Its character, however, depends on the political orientation of a particular country. Mass culture in countries of socialist orientation is influenced by democratic and socialist ideas and is used to improve the cultural standard of the people. One of the earliest types of African mass literature evolved in Nigeria in the town of Onitsha, from where it spread to other Nigerian cities. Mass literature shows that bourgeois ideology was spontaneously emerging among the urban middle layers in Nigeria. In reflecting the life of urban middle strata, mass literature is strongly influenced by Western cinema. East African popular literature is distinguished from its West African counterpart by the use of the local language as a means of interethnic communication. Note, ref.
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