To God Be the Glory

Notes

• Shaun Moores, Interpreting Audiences: The Ethnography of Media Consumption (London: Sage Publications, 1993). The politics of media and audience(s) has been further discussed in such works as: Vincent Mosco and Kaye Lewis, “Questioning the Concept of the Audience,” in Consuming Audiences? Production and Reception in Media Research, eds. Ingunn Hagen and Janet Wasco (Creskill, N.J.: Hampton Press, 2000), 31–46; Graham Murdoch, “Peculiar Commodities, Audiences at Large in the World of Goods,” in Consuming Audiences? Production and Reception in Media Research, eds. Iengunn Hagen and Janet Wasco, 47–70; Karin Barber, “Preliminary Notes on Audiences in Africa,” Africa 67, 3 (1997); 347–62; Karin Barber, ed., Introduction to Readings in African Popular Culture (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 1997); Moradewun Adejunmobi, “English and the Audience of an African Popular Culture,” Cultural Critique 50(2002), 74–103.
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• See Onookome Okome, “The Character of Popular Indigenous Cinema in Nigeria,” Ufahamu 23, 2 (1995): 93–108.
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• Elsewhere I have discussed the methodological enigma that African churches' websites pose for the researcher as a new interactive space with enlarged audiences. See Afe Adogame “To be or not to be? Politics of Belonging and African Christian Communities in Germany,” in Religion in the Context of African Migration, eds. Afe Adogame and Cordula Weisskoeppel (Bayreuth: Bayreuth African Studies, 2005), 106–108.
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• For a more detailed discussion on the appropriation of new media technologies, see Afe Adogame, “African Christian Communities in Diaspora” in African Christianity: An African Story, ed. Ogbu U. Kalu (Pretoria: University of Pretoria, 2005), 494–514.
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• The question of whether and to what extent this medium has been successful in enlarging the clientele of these churches is a matter of conjecture.
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• See, for instance, Hyginus Ekwuazi, Film in Nigeria (Jos: Nigerian Film Corporation, 2d ed., 1991); Onookome Okome and Jonathan Haynes, Cinema and Social Change in West Africa (Jos: Nigerian Film Corp., 1995); Jonathan Haynes and Onookome Okome, “Evolving popular media: Nigerian video films,” Research in African Literatures 29, 3 (1998): 106–128; Jonathan Haynes, ed., Nigerian Video Films (Athens: Ohio University Center for International Studies, 2000); and Jonathan Haynes, “Political Critique in Nigerian Video Films,” African Affairs 105, 421 (2006): 511–533.
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• Haynes, ed., Nigerian Video Films. In his introductory chapter (1), Haynes describes video films as dramatic features shot on video and marketed on cassettes as sometimes exhibited publicly with video projectors or television monitors (xv) and as “something between television and cinema,” which does “not fit comfortably within the North American structures of either.” Brian Larkin, in the same volume (210) described video dramas as a new genre of fictional drama made specifically for video consumption.
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• Haynes, Nigerian Video Films, 4.
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• Wole Ogundele, “From Folk Opera to Soap Opera: Improvisations and Transformations in Yoruba Popular Theatre,” in Nigerian Video Films, 97.
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• See Birgit Meyer, “‘Praise the Lord’: Popular Cinema and Pentecostalite Style in Ghana's New Public Space,” American Ethnologist 31, 1 (2004): 92–110; Birgit Meyer, “Impossible Representations: Pentecostalism, Vision, and Video Technology in Ghana,” in Religion, Media and the Public Sphere, eds. Birgit Meyer and Annelies Moors (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2006), 290–312; See also Ruth Marshall-Fratani, “Mediating the Global and Local in Nigerian Pentecostalism,” Journal of Religion in Africa 28, 3 (1998): 278–315.
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• Okome and Haynes, “Evolving Popular Media.” 106–128.
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• Ibid., Okome discerns two modes of filmmaking within the indigenous tradition: the metaphysical film which hegemonizes the ethereal world (exemplified by the films of Hubert Ogunde) and the loose comic film dealing with social reality (of which Baba Sala is a master). Always present, in both types, is the psychological release, generated by the filmmaker's call on the audience to be part of a carnival. Okome, “The character of popular indigenous cinema.” 93–108.
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• For instance see Brian Larkin, “Hausa Dramas and the Rise of Video Culture in Nigeria” in Nigerian Video Films. Haynes (ed.): 209–41.
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• Obododimma Oha, “The Rhetoric of Nigerian Christian Videos: The War Paradigm of The Great Mistake,” in Haynes (ed.) Nigerian Video Films, 192–199. See also Obododimma Oha, “Yoruba Christian Video Narrative and Indigenous Imaginations: Dialogue and Duelogue,” in Cahiers d'études africaines 165, no. XLII–-I (2002): 121–142.
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• Oha, “Rheotoric,” 192–199, used the example of the video film titled “The Great Mistake” (produced by the Mount Zion Faith Ministries International) in his exposition of “The Rhetoric of Nigerian Christian Videos” to demonstrate the use of spiritual paraphernalia in an ensuing spiritual warfare projected in the narrative.
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• Oha, “Rheotoric,” 193.
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• See the MZFMI official website [http://www.mzfm.com/Mission%20Statement.htm (accessed 10 January 2007). The MZFMI started in Nigeria but now has branches in Europe and America.
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• In January 1991, the name was registered by the Federal Government of Nigeria as an Incorporated Trustee under the Land and Perpetual Act of Nigeria. [http://www.mzfm.com/History.htm]
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• [http://www.mzfm.com/tvout.html]
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• [http://www.mzfm.com/T.V%20Productions.htm].
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• See full details at: [http://www.mzfm.com/about.html].
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• See [http://www.mzfm.com/tvout.html].
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• The home video films produced by the MZFMI include: Ide Esu–-Devil's Bondage (1995); The Blood Covenant (1996); Ogun Atilewa–-Attacks from Home (1995); The Great Mistake–-Asise Nla (1995); The Story of My Life (1996); The Gods are Dead (2000); The Wounded Heart (2002); The Ark of God–-Apoti Eri (2002); Captives of the Mighty (2002); and The Storms of Life (2003) to mention a few.
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• See details of testimonies and views expressed in the Testimony Section of the MZFMI website at [http://www.mzfm.com/Testimonies.htm] and [http://www.mzfm.org/] (accessed on 15 May 2001 and 23 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by AO (pseudonym), Chemnitz, Saxony, Germany; Category: Testimonies; Date: 21 Dec 2000; Time: 22:05:41; (accessed 23 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by Captain (Rev.) BUA, London—United Kingdom; Category: Testimonies; Date: 02 Feb 2001; Time: 18:00:32; (accessed 23 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by EA (pseudonym), Austell Georgia. USA; Category: General Comments; Date: 07 Apr 2001; Time: 04:40:32; (accessed on 23 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by TB (pseudonym), Port Harcourt, Rivers State; Category: General Comments; Date: 15 Jan 2001; Time: 12:21:58; (accessed 23 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by RJ (pseudonym), Baltimore, Md.; Category: Testimonies; Date: 05 May 2001; Time: 20:58:49; (accessed 28 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by Sister in Christ, RI USA; Category: Testimonies; Date: 13 Jul 2001; Time: 23:03:39; (accessed 28 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by RJ (pseudonym), Baltimore, Md.; Category: Testimonies; Date: 14 Jul 2001; Time: 08:14:04; (accessed 28 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by Anonymous, Dallas TX; Category: Testimonies; Date: 06 Aug 2001; Time: 07:59:15; (accessed 28 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by Anonymous, Dallas TX; Category: Testimonies; Date: 06 Aug 2001; Time: 08:18:43; (accessed 28 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by Anonymous; Category: Evangelism in General; Date: 21 Sep 2001; Time: 19:06:54; (accessed 28 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by Anonymous, New Jersey; Category: Testimonies; Date: 21 Sep 2001; Time: 18:27:53; (accessed 28 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by RJ (pseudonym), Baltimore, Md.; Category: Testimonies; Date: 21 Aug 2001; Time: 19:54:15; (accessed 28 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by RJ (pseudonym), Baltimore, Md.; Category: Testimonies; Date: 22 Aug 2001; Time: 04:37:06; (accessed 28 January 2007).
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• Commentary posted by RJ (pseudonym), Baltimore, Md.; Category: Testimonies; Date: 21 Sep 2001; Time: 23:13:01; (accessed 28 January 2007).
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