Turning Rice into Pilau: the Art of Video Narration in Tanzania

Abstract

This essay investigates the remediation of foreign films as it is currently practised in Tanzanian video parlours, by video narrators interpreting these films into Kiswahili. Video narration is a means to appropriate and domesticate foreign audiovisual material in terms of primary orality. Video narration reverses the hierarchy of original and copy insofar as the moving images of the original become mere illustrations of governing local narratives. Whether performed live or mediatized as voice-over on DVD or VHS cassette, video narration exposes the reality of film as mediated, heightens awareness of the viewing situation and fosters the critical inquiry of the audience.Cet article étudie la remédiation de films étrangers telle que pratiquée actuellement par les narrateurs vidéo qui interprètent ces films en kiswahili dans les salons vidéo. L’auteur argumente que la narration vidéo est une manière de s’approprier et de domestiquer le matériel audiovisuel étranger, en termes d’oralité primaire. La narration vidéo renverse la hiérarchie de l’original et de la copie, c’est-à-dire que les images en mouvement de l’original deviennent des illustrations de la narration locale. Jouée en direct ou encore médiatisée comme une voix over sur un DVD ou une cassette VHS, la narration vidéo révèle la réalité du film comme un produit médiatisé, force à prendre conscience de la situation de visionnement et encourage le questionnement critique de la part des spectateurs

Nollywood’s ‘Unknowns’: An introduction

“…Waliaula has produced a kind of participant observation analysis of the way in which a Kenyan video-hall audience uses a particular Nollywood film not as a text about Nigeria, or even as a 'substantively relevant' text, as Adejunmobi (2010) has phrased it, about its own postcolonial experience, but as a launch pad for new narratives of social enquiry. Similar to research that has been conducted on Nollywood video halls in Cameroon (Ajibade 2007), Uganda (Dipio in this issue) and Tanzania (Krings 2010), Waliaula illustrates that Nigerian video films are actively translated into the local social imagination, but he reveals a process that is multidirectional. Not dependent on the performance of an authorized translator or narrator, the Chwele Market video-hall is a 'stage', as Waliaula characterizes it, where spectators take turns responding to and generating new narratives based on the Nollywood source-text.…”

Audience pleasure and Nollywood popularity in Uganda: An assessment

“…It is through platforms such as Amakula that the reputations of Ugandan VJs have spread into neighbouring countries like Tanzania (see Krings 2010). Such public recognitions legitimize the VJs, whose activities ordinarily infringe copyrights and intellectual property laws.…”

“…He may challenge audiences by asking rhetorical questions and in live translations, he may briefly stop the movie in order to engage the audience in a brief participatory discussion before resuming the screening. He may slot an advert of some products suited to the class of his audience or even advertise himself as an excellent artist (see Krings 2010). When face to face with a 'boring' sequence, he may distract the viewer's attention by providing information on the private lives of the stars and many other antics that are more interesting and endear his audience to him.…”

Active audiences of Nollywood video-films: An experience with a Bukusu audience community in Chwele market of Western Kenya

“…These artists could be perceived in the light of the concept of video narration explored by Mathias Krings' (2010) andDominic Dipio (2008) in the Tanzanian and Ugandan reception experiences, respectively. Both scholars recognize the oral poetics that the translators bring into their practice.…”