Publications

(Under Construction)

On this page, I am slowly putting together a bibliography of my publications, both popular and scholarly. I hope to provide links where available. Until I remove “under construction” from the top of this page, please note that my list is not yet complete. Unless otherwise noted, all content listed and linked to on this page has been written and is copyright to me, Carmen McCain.

Books (someday!) and Book Chapters

(2012–forthcoming) “Nollywood, Kannywood, and a Decade of Hausa Film Censorship” in Daniel Biltereyst and Roel Vande Winkel eds. Silencing Cinema: Film Censorship around the World. Palgrave MacMillan.

(2012) “Chapter 24: Islam and Modernity” in Elias Kifon Bongmba, The Wiley-Blackwell Companion to African Religions.  Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012.

(2010) “Reimagining Gender Spaces in Abbas Sadiq and Zainab Idris’s video-film Albashi,” in Fictions, Factions and African Creative Imaginations. Ed. Toyin Falola and Fallou Ngom. New York: Routledge, 2010. pp. 163-189. (please note a correction to the bibliography on this page)

(2008) “Introduction.” Portraits of a Trip: A Journalist’s Glimpse of the United States of America, by Babangida Ahmadu Kakaki. Leadership Editors Limited: Abuja.

Articles in Journals, Magazines and Newspapers

Film Afrique

(2011) “The National Film and Video Censors Board Website Returns with Mountains of Information” December.

(2011) Anchor Babies in America…    June. (first published under the name “Anchor Baby and the dark underbelly of the American Dream” in Weekly Trust on 12 February 2011, reprint by permission)

IPS News

(2009) “Culture-Nigeria: Award-Winning Film Lands Director in Jail” 16 February.

Journal of African Cinemas

(2012),  ’Video Expose: Metafiction and Message in Nigerian Films.’ Journal of African Cinemas. (2012) 4.1: 26-57.

Journal of African Media Studies

(2011) ‘FESPACO in a time of Nollywood: The politics of the ‘video’ film at Africa’s oldest festival,’ Journal of African Media Studies 3:2, pp. 241-261.

Leadership

(2008) “Re: Most Gorgeous Nigerian Women (apparently live abroad…)” opinion piece published under the name Talatu-Carmen in the “Artville” column of Leadership Sunday. 19 October. (hard copy p. 53)

Next

(2009) “Hard times in Kannywood” Next. Sunday. 8 March. p.25

(2009) “We Didn’t do anything wrong: Interview with Sulaiman Abubakar.” Next. Sunday. 8 March. p. 26.

(2009) “Mallam Rabo Speaks” Next. Sunday. 8 March. p. 26. (See complete interview in my blog post of February 13, 2009)

Nigerianfilms.com/modernghana.com

“Interview with Sani Mu’azu, President of the Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria” NigerianFilms.com/modernghana.com. 13 February 2009.    (The interview posted here was initially taken without attribution from my blog by Nigerianfilms.com and then reposted by modernghana.com. After much badgering from me and various friends, they finally put my name on the interview. You can read the original at my blog here.)

Nigerians Talk

(2012) “Kannywood: the growth of a Nigerian language industry.” Nigerians Talk. 9 October 2012.

Sentinel Nigeria

(2011) translation of excerpt from Chapter 1 of novel, “Kaico! by Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino” February. Issue 5.

WARA (West African Research Association) Newsletter

(2009) “Kannywood: A Growing Hausa Film Industry Under Fire.” Spring. p. 20.

Weekly Trust

Since 16 October 2011, I have had a column in the Weekly Trust, published every Saturday. I also occasionally contribute to the weekend magazine feature for Weekly Trust. On this page, I provide a listing of the title, a link to the articles on the Trust website, a link to a photo of the hard copy, as published, and links to blog posts where I extend the articles with more commentary or photos. Occasional guest columnists are listed by name.

Features/non column Weekly Trust pieces

(2011) “Lawal Kaura: Exit of one of Kannywood’s most versitile” 17 December 2011. (hard copy)

(2011) “‘I’d Love to Tell More African Stories in My Films’-Julius Amedume”  12 November. (blog post version with links to films)

(2011) “The ‘Second Coming’ of Kannywood” 21 May.

(2011) “I left banking job to direct movies –Kunle Afolayan” 2 April. (hard copy pages 18 and 19, page 44)  (Extended version of longer interview, with more photos, on my blog)

(2011) “Sal Jide Thomas: We’ve distribution problem in U.S.”  8 January. (hard copy cover, p. 18, p. 19, p. 20)

(2010) “Why Nollywood is Important –Wanjiku wa Ngugi” 18 December. (hard copy cover, p. 18 and 19, p. 20)

Column: “My Thoughts Exactly”

(2013). “A Conversation with Jos Literary Activist Onotu David Onimisi (II).” 2 March 2013.

(2013). “A Conversation with Jos Literary Activist Onotu David Onimisi (I).” 23 February.

(2013) “The Nigerian Reading Culture and the Need for Libraries.” 16 February.

(2013) “Finding the Girl Next Door on Black Sister’s Street” [a review of the NLNG-winning novel by Chika Unigwe].  9 February.

[... Weekly Trust revamped their website and lost two articles written at the end of January. I will eventually upload hard copies. Bear with me]

(2013) “Aaron Swartz and his battle to give knowledge to the world.” 19 January.

(2013) “Reading Labo Yari’s Climate of Corruption.” 12 January.

(2013) “Vacation Reading.” 5 January.

(2012) “The Good things of 2012.” 29 December.

(2012) “Christmas in a Time of Massacres.” 22 December.

(2012) “The Silent North? Problems in Studies of Northern Nigerian Literature.” 15 December.

(2012) “Remembering Director Muhammadu Balarabe Sango.” 8 December.

(2012) “Imagining Another Country: Eghosa Imasuen’s ‘New Nigeria’ in To Saint Patrick.” 1 December.

(2012) “Journeying to the Seeds of Slavery in Ngozi Achebe’s Onaedo: The Blacksmith’s Daughter.” 24 November.

(2012) “Private Jets for Jesus?” 17 November.

(2012) “Lola Shoneyin’s Polygamist satire in The Secret Lives of Baba Segi’s Wives.” 10 November.

(2012) “Making History with Balaraba Ramat Yakubu’s Sin is a Puppy….” 3 November.

Dr. K.A. Korb. (2012) “Is Teaching a Last Resort Career?” 27 October.

(2012) “Revisiting the Kano Censorship Crisis in Iyan-Tama’s Kurkuku.” 20 October.

(2012) “My Thoughts Exactly, Year Two in Review.” 13 October.

(2012) “More Tips on Doing Internet Research in Nigeria.” 6 October.

(2012) “Tips on Doing Internet Research in Nigeria.” 29 September.

(2012) “Contextualizing Rage: Islamophobia, Anti-Americanism, and Everyone In Between.” 22 September.

(2012) “The Rhetoric of Hate in ‘Until we Do this we Labour under a Curse.” 15 September.

(2012) “Nollywood’s Incursion into African Cinema Studies.” 8 September.

(2012) “Stepping out into Mystery: the passing of Neil Armstrong.” 1 September.

(2012) “Navigating the Land of the Dead in Helon Habila’s Oil on Water.” 25 August.

[... Weekly Trust is missing a week here. I will find the hard copy and upload]

(2012) “Fragile Seeds of Hope.” 11 August.

(2012) “A Conversation with Director Andrew Osawaru.” 4 August.

(2012) “Diary of a Trip to Four Nigerian Cities.” 28 July.

(2012) “Nollywood greats Emem Isong and Lancelot Imasuen on Nigerian Language Films.” 21 July.

Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. (2012) “Eulogy for the Young Victims of the Sixteenth Street Baptist Church Bombing.” 14 July.

(2012) “Destroying History, Destroying Souls.” 7 July.

Alessandro Jedlowski. (2012). “Local Language films and the Reverse Side of the Production Crisis.” 30 June.

[.... Weekly Trust is missing another week]

(2012) “Young Love, Forty Years Later.” 16 June.

(2012) “For Those Lost Last Sunday.” 9 June.

(2012) “Walking around a Jos city block, a day after Democracy Day.” 2 June.

(2012) “Re-imagining Bala Muhammad’s ‘Raise a Child, Not a Voucher.” 26 May. (This article was in response to back page columnist Bala Muhammad’s column “Raise a Child, Not a Voucher” published on 19 May.)

[... Weekly Trust is missing a few more weeks here.]

(2012) “The Caine Prize, the Tragic Continent, and the Politics of the Happy African Story.”  12 May.

(2012) “Responses to ‘Fellini, Godard, and Training Nollywood.’” 5 May.

(2012) “Ridding Nigeria of Illegality and Giving Jos a Facelift.” 28 April.

[Missing another week]

(2012) “The Haunting Trauma of Buried History.” 14 April.

(2012) “Captured by Modern Day Slavery in [Abidemi Sanusi's] Eyo.” 7 April.

(2012) “Peace in Jos: Marching forward little by little.” 31 March.

(2012) “Learning How to Fight… Peacefully.” 24 March.

(2012) “The strange poisonous fruit of hate” 17 March.

(2012) “Taking Hausa films to the world with hausafilms.tv” 10 March.

(2012) “The Darkness Only Love Can Drive out” 3 March.

(2012) “Love Triangles and Other Complicated Things” 25 February. (a review of Unwanted Guests)

(2012) “‘Nollywood Hustlers’ and the celebrity elite’ 18 February.

(2012) “A Mixed-up People: When Wainaina Writes About Africa” 11 February.

(2012) “Politics of Hollywood’s Half of a Yellow Sun” 4 February. (hard copy)

(2012) “Praying for Enenche’s Country” 28 January.

(2012) “The Occupants of Nigeria’s Harmattan” 21 January.

with Gimba Kakanda (2012) “Cross of Crescents: Muslims around a church” 14 January. (hard copy)

Korb, K.A. (2012) “Splitting a Nation: Lessons from History” 7 January. (hard copy)

(2011) “Unity or Hell: Choices for the New Year” 31 December. (hard copy) (Republished in Vanguard)

(2011) “The Small Things of Christmas” 24 December.

Adamu, Abdalla Uba (2011) “Music Maestros, please: Freedom Fasaha championships”  17 December . (hard copy)

(2011) “Politics, literature collide at ANA’s 30th convention” 10 December. (hard copy)

(2011) “‘Across the Niger’ Rocks the Plateau International Film Festival” 3 December. (hard copy)

(2011) “Exploring Bridges Between Nollywood and Theatre” 26 November.

(2011) “I met an African Dream waiting to come true” 19 November. (hard copy)

(2011) “Equestrian Elegance at Sallah-time” 12 November. (hard copy)

(2011) “Duniya Juyi Juyi: Life from the eyes of the almajirai” 5 November.

(2011) “On the Precipice: the short dark films of Julius Amedume”  29 October. (hard copy)

(2011) “Mr Lecturer, Snoop Dogg, and Dbanj’s ‘Mr. Endowed’” 22 October. (blinged up blog version with links to videos)

(2011) “One Year of ‘My Thoughts Exactly’” 15 October. (hard copy)

Nwokeabia, Chidi Nuel. (2011) “Re: Champions of Our Time, The Figurine, and Nigeria’s Rebranding Project at FESPACO (II)” 8 October. (hard copy)

with Chidi Nuel Nwokeabia. (2011) “Re:  Champions of Our Time, The Figurine, and Nigeria’s Re-branding Project at FESPACO.” 1 October. (hard copy)

Korb, K.A. (2011) “The Stories we Share” 24 September.

Madueke, Kingsley (2011) “Why Christian, Muslim Jos youths should climb the ‘peace tree’” 17 September. (hard copy) (Please note that despite repeated requests to the webmaster, I am incorrectly noted as author of this piece on the Weekly Trust site. Guest columnist Kingsley Madueke, a journalist and peace activist in Jos, is the author.)

(2011) “September 2011, Ten Years Later” 10 September. (hard copy)

(2011) “Violence at a time of celebration” 3 September. (hard copy)

(2011) “Under the Mango Tree” 27 August 2011

(…)

(2011) “From Kano to Lagos, All for a Concert” 13 August 2011. (hard copy)

(2011) “Questioning Power Relations in Dani Kouyate’s Keita” 6 August. (hard copy)

(2011) “Nollywood and its Terminology Migraines” 30 July. (hard copy)

(2011) “Raoul Peck’s Lumumba and the Cannibals of the West” 23 July

(2011) “On a Nollywood Myth and the Rise of Nigerian Cinema” 16 July. (hard copy)

(2011) “Coming to terms with renewable energy in Nigeria” 9 July. (hard copy) (Extended version on my blog)

(2011) “Nigerian Copyright Commission vs Pirates: 5 Things that Should be Done.” 2 July. (hard copy)

Musa, Samdi Lazarus, (2011) “Torn Between” 25 June. (hard copy)

(2011) “In Kano, Goethe Institut goes off grid with solar power” 18 June. (hard copy)

with Ibrahim A. Waziri, (2011) “Found… in translation” 11 June. (hard copy)

(2011) “5 Ways to maintain privacy in Facebook’s open world” 4 June. (hard copy)

(2011) “Twenty Authors Who’ll Always Stick With Me (II)”  28 May. (hard copy)

(2011) “20 Authors Who’ll Always Stick With Me” 21 May. (hard copy)

(2011) “Hear Your Own Voices” 14 May. (hard copy)

(2011) “Osama bin Laden, the Matrix, and the fight for reality” 7 May. (hard copy)

(2011) “The danger of a single story and the Good Samaritans of Arewa” 30 April. (hard copy)

(2011) “Threat of hate, hope of Love” 23 April. (hard copy p. 48) (Extended version with more photos, on my blog)

(2011) “Honouring Kannywood: In Memory of Maryam Umar Aliyu” 16 April. (hard copy p. 48) (extended version with more photos, on my blog)

(2011) “From FESPACO 2011, inspirations for Kannywood” 9 April. (hard copy p. 48)

(2011) “Celebrating Africa’s film industries, building of pan-African cinema” 2 April. (hard copy p. 48) (extended version with lots and lots of photos, on my blog)

(2011) “Ouagadougou continued. Lessons from a Pirate” 26 March. (hard copy p. 48)

(2011) “Champions of Our Time, The Figurine, and Nigeria’s Rebranding Project at FESPACO (II)” 19 March. (hard copy p. 48) (an extended version of this column, with both parts of the essay combined, trailers to both movies, and a response by the producer of Champions of Our Time in the comments section.)

(2011) “Champions of Our Time, The Figurine, and Nigeria’s Rebranding Project at FESPACO” 12 March. (hard copy p. 48)

(2011) “FESPACO: Politics of video and Afolayan’s The Figurine”  5 March. (hard copy p. 48) (extended version on blog, with lots of photos and extra commentary)

(2011) “Makuwa and the beauty of detail in Aisha Halilu’s films” 26 February

(2011) “Celebrating with Egypt” 19 February

(2011) “Anchor Baby and the dark underbelly of the American Dream” 12 February. (hard copy) (extended version, on my blog)

Korb, Dr. K.A. (2011) “Grieving for Jos Again” 5 February. (hard copy p. 31)

(2011) “Ascending to cloud 9 with Hausa film Duniyar Sama” 29 January. (hard copy p. 31)

(2011) “The Sad Consequences of Hate” 22 January. (hard copy p. 31)

Korb, Dr. K.A. (2011) “Case of Mistaken Identities” 15 January. (hard copy p. 31)

(2011) “Anger and the revolutionary ideal of Love” 8 January. (hard copy p. 31)

(2011) “Peace on Earth… and bombs in Jos” 1 January. (hard copy p. 31)

(2010) “Peace on Earth… and in Plateau State” 25 December. (hard copy p. 31)

(2010) “Regarding Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani’s ‘The Laureate’s Curse’” 18 December. (hard copy p. 31)

(2010) “Sharon Stone in Abuja, Nollywood in New York” 11 December (hard copy p. 31)

(2010) “Crossing African Borders” 4 December. (hard copy p. 31)

(2010) “Saying Farewell to Mama Dumba” 27 November. (hard copy p. 31)

(2010) “Taking on Kantawaye with Hajiya Umma Ali” 20 November. (hard copy p. 31)

(2010) “In Conversation with Ali Bature (II)” 13 November. (hard copy p. 31)

(2010) “In Conversation with Ali Bature” 6 November. (hard copy p. 31)

(2010) “In Memory of Sazzy: the Music lives on” 30 October. (hard copy p. 31)

(2010) “Questioning Love of the Hausa kind” 23 October. (hard copy p. 29)

(2010) “Why the beginning is the best place to start” 16 October. (hard copy) (much extended version with lots of photos, on my blog)