Project Fame: Decolonizing African Celebrities Studies
This project extends part of my first doctoral dissertation, which is about bringing scholarly attention to African celebrities and celebrities' culture. I aim to study and galvanize others to study fame, celebrity, and stardom through the lens of African and African Diaspora perspectives while centering how gender, race, and sexuality, as well as transformations through time and space, have marked them. I deploy a lens of the indigenous Yoruba worldview and its epistemology and lived experiences through autoethnography, biography, autobiography, memoirs, ethnography, oral history, literature, proverbs, and archives to draw unity and discontinuities. I oscillate between the past and present of celebrities. I organized panels on Fame, Fandom, Celebrities, Politics, and the Economics of Attention in African Popular Culture for three consecutive years at the Annual Lagos Studies Association Conference.
Panel Organized and Chaired
2024
Author meets reader: Engaging Fela and Me by Sandra Izsidore. The 8th Annual Lagos Studies Association Conference, University of Lagos, June 25-29, 2024
Discussants
Msia Kibona Clark (Howard University) msia.clark@howard.edu
Oluwatoyin Olokodana-James (University of Lagos) olokodanajames@gmail.com
Jesse Weaver Shipley (Dartmouth College) jesse.w.shipley@dartmouth.edu
Micheal Veal (Yale University) michael.veal@yale.edu
Author/Respondent
Sandra Sandra Izsadore (Independent Scholar) sandraizsadore@yahoo.com. Book available online: https://www.sandraizsadore.com/onl.../Fela-and-Me-p152741940
2024
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Celebrity and Paternity: Reality Television Shows in Zimbabwe by Rekopantswe Mate(University of Namibia) rmate@unam.na
Labor, Performance, and Protest of James Brown in “Legend of the Underground” by Afolasade Ola (Bowling Green State University) olashadie@gmail.com
Popularity, Fame, and the Material Culture of Horse-Head Domestication in the Postcolonial Ikwo, 1960-2000 by Amiara Solomon Amiara and Paul Uroko Omeje (Ebonyi State University)solomon.amiara@ebsu.edu.ng omejepaul202@gmail.com
Virality as Horizon of Survival: Understanding the Moral Economy of Lagos Through the Lens of “Blowing” by Jaana Serres (University of Groningen) jaana.serres@gmail.com
2023
On the Fringes of Fame: Subaltern Celebrities in African Studies. The 7th Annual Lagos Studies Association Conference, University of Lagos, June 21-25, 2023.
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On the Fringes of Fame: Subaltern Celebrities in African Studies I
“Retweet is a drug”: Building Influence by Nigerian Twitter Celebrities by Muhammed Alakitan (University of Cambridge) mta31@cam.ac.uk
Role of Celebrity Capital on Youth Political Behavior: The Case of Nigeria 2023 Elections by Chidinma Elueze (Crawford University) chidinmaelueze@gmail.com
Decolonizing Laughter through Facebook by Lucky Mqoboli (WITS University) malebogomqoboli@gmail.com
Watch the panel recording here courtesy of the Lagos Studies Association
On the Fringes of Fame: Subaltern Celebrities in African Studies II
African Other Lives: Of Beer Parlors, Coffee Shops, and the New Street by Abubakar Muhammad (University of Wisconsin-Madison) amsulaiman@wisc.edu
“Chaitemura Chava Kuseva, Chadzoka zve Kutemura”: From Margins to Centres and Back to Margins: Disabilities, Gender, and the Society in Post-Colonial Southern African Communities by Amos Muyambo (University of Botswana).apmuyambo@yahoo.com
Charismatic Influencers in the: Celebrity Agency and the Dilemma of Social Change by Dare Leke Idowu (Bowen University) and Bolaji Ajakaiye (Obafemi Awolowo University). idowudarre@gmail.com, bolajielizabetha@gmail.com
Beatifying Difference: Subaltern Celebrities in Nollywood Movies by Kolawole Olaiya (Anderson University) kolaiya@andersonuniversity.edu
Watch the panel recording here courtesy of the Lagos Studies Association
On the Fringes of Fame: Confronting Ableism with Stories, Actions & Theories (SAT) The 7th Annual Lagos Studies Association Conference, University of Lagos, June 21-25, 2023.
Discussants
Tobiloba Ajayi (Chief Responsibility Officer, The Let Cerebral Palsy Kids Learn Foundation) letcpkidslearn@gmail.com
Blessing Mary Ochiedo (Director & Policy Adviser, Platinum Intervention) ocheidoblessingmary@gmail.com
Rita Ofili (Wheelchair model and public speaker) ron_40_joy@yahoo.ca
Dr. Soji Oyeranmi (Independent Scholar/Proprietor, Soji Carnegie Multipurpose Ventures) soji.oyeranmi@gmail.com
Watch the panel recording here courtesy of the Lagos Studies Association
2022
Of Fame and Fandom: African Celebrities in Historical and Contemporary Perspectives 6th Lagos Studies Association Conference, University of Lagos, June 21-25, 2022
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Part I
All Fandom is Local: How the Street Creates its Own Fuji Superstars by Saheed Aderinto (Western Carolina University) saderinto@email.wcu.edu
Tope Alabi and the “Oniduro” Controversy: Celebrity, Entertainment, and Piety in Yoruba Gospel Music by Vicki L. Brennan (University of Vermont) Vicki.Brennan@uvm.edu
Between Art and Business: Patronage Music and Yusuf Olatunji in Perspective by Odunayo P. Ògúnnáìkè (University of Ibadan) awodioke1@gmail.com
Iwuewu: The Life and Times of Simon Odo of Enugu-Ezike by Chukwuebuka Kenneth Ugwu (University of Nigeria) chukwuebuka.ugwu.250379@unn.edu.ng
Watch the panel recording here courtesy of the Lagos Studies Association.
Part II
· Courage, Wealth, and Royalty: A Generational Change in Perception of Celebrity Status by Uchechukwu Ifeoluwa Nnamdi (Crawford University) and Victor Ikechukwu Akazue (Crawford University) Viakazue@Yahoo.com, Nnamdi.Uchechukwu@gmail.com
Digital Shame: International Prostitution and Social Media Influencers in Benin 2015-2021 by Pat Iziengbe Ebuka-Onuoha (University of Benin) iziengbe.omoregie@uniben.edu
Child’s Rights and Celebrity Advocacy in Nigeria by Chidinma Elueze (Crawford University) chidinmaelueze@gmail.com
Watch the panel recording here courtesy of the Lagos Studies Association.