Digimodernity and nostalgia in new Nollywood

Nigeria’s new Nollywood traverses the globe in new and exciting ways through Netflix, Amazon, Africa Magic, IrokoTV, and similar platforms. By seeking out Nigerian films, Nollywood audiences express a longing for an African home, or perhaps a village life they never truly experienced. Virtually, Nollywood movies serve as symbolic vessels of the “record,” communicating Black nostalgia to audiences by delivering inventive visual representations of Nigeria and Africa. This article explores how speculative fiction allows audiences to engage with mediated nostalgia through what has been termed digimodernity. Nollywood viewers connect with a cultural identity or an imagined cultural heritage via cultural portrayals, often presented through an exaggerated lens. It is also possible to see a social mechanism of invented nostalgia that allows consumers to sustain Nigerian cultural identity at home and abroad. By analyzing three films—Jagun Jagun: The Warrior, Aníkúlápó, and The Woman King—this article demonstrates how movies on social media platforms evoke nostalgia within diverse African diasporas.