When the popular video film debuted in Nigeria in the late 80s, filmmakers and critics sympathetic to celluloid perceived it as a fad that would soon extinguish. The cinematic culture, bequeathed by British colonialism, was thought to have generated a discerning film audience that would shun the video medium. This was not to be. The video film has grown from a few productions in the late 80s to more than 1000 features per year. Unlike celluloid before it, video is truly a popular medium. The same social and economic downturn that necessitated its rise as a direct alternative to celluloid is what ratifies video as a medium for dramatizing popular concerns. It is video's ability to enact and circulate –outside of the state's ability to control –that makes it fruitful for studying decolonization. More, the Nigerian popular videos have been able to break national boundaries and acquire a broader African audience, suggesting immediately that there is a commonality in the pain of popular experience across Africa's post-colonies. This paper outlines the categories of spaces for seeing video films –as sites for contesting self and other identities among popular masses –from Lagos to Douala.