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Reading Wealth in Nigeria: Occult Capitalism and Marx's Vampires

Reading Wealth in Nigeria: Occult Capitalism and Marx's Vampires Andrew Smith Reading Wealth in Nigeria: Occult Capitalism and Marx’s Vampires Jos is the administrative capital of Plateau State, Nigeria. 1 It was a town structured, during the colo- nial period, around tin mining and has subsequently sought to reinvent itself as a haven for tourism and conferencing in line with the familiar panacea held out to those areas left bereft by the sea changes of capitalism. And it was in Jos, in the summer of 1999, that I took part in a conversation which provided the seeds of this paper. In fact, it was more of a mono- logue, involving a young friend of mine explaining in some detail the plot of his favourite horror film. Or, to be accurate, horror video. The celluloid cin- ema industry in Nigeria became almost non-existent during the recession of the 1980s and 1990s. Cheaply produced video films, however, being both easier to distribute and shoot, have become immensely popular, encroaching on a new audience including women which the dubious reputation of cinemas as social spaces had inhibited. Sales for these often artisan productions range between thirty and one hundred thousand copies. Given the existence of large-scale pirating and the common http://www.deepdyve.com/assets/images/DeepDyve-Logo-lg.png Historical Materialism Brill

Reading Wealth in Nigeria: Occult Capitalism and Marx's Vampires

Historical Materialism , Volume 9 (1): 39 – Jan 1, 2001

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Publisher
Brill
Copyright
© 2001 Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, The Netherlands
ISSN
1465-4466
eISSN
1569-206X
DOI
10.1163/156920601760039177
Publisher site
See Article on Publisher Site

Abstract

Andrew Smith Reading Wealth in Nigeria: Occult Capitalism and Marx’s Vampires Jos is the administrative capital of Plateau State, Nigeria. 1 It was a town structured, during the colo- nial period, around tin mining and has subsequently sought to reinvent itself as a haven for tourism and conferencing in line with the familiar panacea held out to those areas left bereft by the sea changes of capitalism. And it was in Jos, in the summer of 1999, that I took part in a conversation which provided the seeds of this paper. In fact, it was more of a mono- logue, involving a young friend of mine explaining in some detail the plot of his favourite horror film. Or, to be accurate, horror video. The celluloid cin- ema industry in Nigeria became almost non-existent during the recession of the 1980s and 1990s. Cheaply produced video films, however, being both easier to distribute and shoot, have become immensely popular, encroaching on a new audience including women which the dubious reputation of cinemas as social spaces had inhibited. Sales for these often artisan productions range between thirty and one hundred thousand copies. Given the existence of large-scale pirating and the common

Journal

Historical MaterialismBrill

Published: Jan 1, 2001

There are no references for this article.