The Learner

Director :         Aminu Saira Producer :       Mukhtar Young Boy Language :      Hausa Year :               2014 Company :      Kabugawa Production, Kano Background Only a few of the Kannywood productions, especially in these days, attract the attention of the audience and a fewer are awaited before their release. Sabuwar Sangaya scored both credits. This is however apparently connected to its title affinity with the famous film with a similar title: Sangaya, and whose song of the same name became a landmark success for both the Hausa filmmakers and the film-making industry. The ‘old’ Sangaya was produced by the recently revived studio, Sarauniya Production and directed by Aminu Muhammad Sabo, an erstwhile leading figure in Kannywood. But does this ‘new’ Sangaya satiate the thirst of the audience...

Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 (Twitter) Many people welcome April with playful pranks, but since 2012, the family and friends of Alhaji Muhammad Lawan (Alhaji Abba) of Gwale LGA, Kano, remember it differently. On 1 April that year, tragedy befell the family when his 20-year-old daughter, A’isha, was killed just weeks before her wedding. This is the first written tribute I have paid to anyone’s life. This is not because no one significant has died before—I have lost my mother, an elder brother, a sister, and others deeply dear to me. I miss them profoundly and never forget to beseech Allah to have mercy on their souls. However, A’isha’s death was unique because of how unnatural and preventable it was. Her murder demonstrates the uncertainty Nigerians live with daily, especially during the turbulent period of Boko Haram attacks. Whilst soldiers deployed as Joint Task Forces (JTF) were meant to protect civilians, they sometimes became predators themselves, incompetently and freely...