Migration, prostitution and the representation of the black female subject in Nigerian video films about Italy

Much contemporary images of black women in Italian media are marked by the legacy of colonialist propaganda and tend to perpetuate a representation of black women as passive eroticized objects of the white male gaze. In this sense, Ponzanesi’s call for ‘new and less biased representations, which could help to assess the multiple subject positions that black identities now occupy’ (2005: 179) is still relevant. This article responds to this call by analyzing two Nigerian video films that thematize migration and prostitution trafficking in Italy. By highlighting the complexity of the processes of ‘subjectivation’ taking place throughout the migratory process, these videos invite their viewers to look at the postcolonial subject’s responsibility in shaping the world in which s/he lives, and offer a representation of the black female subject able to go beyond the voyeuristic attitude that characterize much of the existing contemporary Italian visual culture about this topic.