Religion: Nigeria takes this one. Nigeria's "prophets" have global influence, much more so than anyone from South Africa. For better or for worse.
Bishop Desmond Tutu is one of the most revered Christian leaders in the world and has had massive influence across Christendom for his anti-apartheid activism and fight for human rights being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. Again, catapulting SA into global political conversations around the fight for human rights and peace. Not even gonna mention their current involvement within conversations around the Palestinian/Israeli conflict.
Nigerian "prophets" do not even come close.
And Nigerian Imams or other Muslim leaders are unheard of.
However, Nigeria has gained notoriety for Boko Haram.
Literature: Nigeria takes this one. No one is reading "Cry, the Beloved Country" anymore.
Long Walk To Freedom: Sold over 15 million copies and has been in circulation since 1994.
Sequel to Long Walk to Freedom will be released in 2016
www.independent.co.uk
Things Fall Apart: Sold over 10 million copies and has been in circulation since 1958.
And while you talking about Cry, the Beloved Country, it sold 15 million copies, before Paton's death in 1988.
en.m.wikipedia.org
Has been adapted to film, the first starring Sidney Poitier and Canada Lee.
The second starring James Earl Jones and Richard Harris.
You are not being serious.
Folk History: They're still speaking Yoruba in Brazil and Cuba. They are still worshipping Ogun, Shango and other deities from Nigeria in the Americas. Nigeria secret societies still function in the Americans despite hundreds of years of slavery and oppression (i.e. Abakua). Nuff said. Hausa is the most widely spoken and most spoken indigenous language in West Africa. Who is speaking Afrikaans outside of racist suburbs in Australia where they claim there's white genocide in SA?
I can agree with this. But this influence is passive being carried over by the Nigerian diaspora during the transatlantic slave trade.
It is not active influence.
SA's have had their pre-colonial Zulu folklore and history projected in film and tv shows internationally.
Shaka was being broadcast on American TV's on the AMC movie channel since I was a kid catapulting the Zulu's into the imaginations of international audiences as freedom fighters against colonial oppression.
None of Nigeria's pre-colonial folkloric history with respect to the Yorubas, Igbos, or Hausa's has been projected in this way.
The closest thing has been recently with the premier of The Woman King and even though it is fiction, Oyo was portrayed as the antagonist. And even still, not much on Oyo as the film focused on Dahomey.
And with respect to language, internationally, people will recognize Zulu/Xhosa with their recognozable "clicks" before they recognize any of the Nigerian languages.
Yes, Yoruba is spoken in the Americas. The SA languages are more recognozable.
SA has even influenced parts of Black American culture which is where we derive our BGLO stepping tradition from the South African Gumboot miners. Nigeria hasn't contributed this sort of impact to our culture in any way.
Film: Nollywood crushes South Africa. People are watching Nollywood movies from Zambia to Jamaica.
Fine, not going to debate you here.
I still will argue that certain SA films have been projected internationally in a way that Nollywood films have yet to do so.
Music: Afrobeats crushes your amapiano/house
Fine, not going to argue this.
Cuisine: Bunnychow is disgusting. Boer bbq isn't that good. Nigeria wins.
I agree. Can't argue.
Sports: Nigeria has 3 AFCONs. South Africa probably wins on an Olympic tally though.
This is fine. Can't argue this.
However, SA dominates in Rugby and Cricket which catapults their reputation especially throughout Asia.
I don't want to take away from Nigeria and it's massive current and future influence. But SA is neck and neck at this current moment in terms of international influence.
