By Muhsin Ibrahim
The uproar over Sultan Abdurrazak’s Film House in Dorayi is astonishing, though, on reflection, perhaps not entirely surprising. There are several film houses in Kano, Kaduna, Jigawa, Gombe, and elsewhere. The films we watch and discuss, and sometimes quietly enjoy, are shot in those very houses. Why is this one different? Why is this one being rejected?
This is not, after all, the first time such a proposal has met with hostility. When the federal government under President Muhammadu Buhari proposed building a dedicated Film Village to serve as a production hub for the Nigerian film industry, the reaction in many Northern circles was swift and dismissive. Critics saw it as a government-sponsored gateway to moral corruption, a physical infrastructure for an industry they would rather see disappear. The Film Village never materialised, at least not in the form envisioned, and the opposition it generated revealed something important: many people’s problem is not with the location or design of a film facility. It is with the very existence of the film industry itself.
But that is precisely the problem with this kind of opposition. Frankly, our reproach, rejection, or condemnation of Kannywood cannot shut the industry down. We cannot wish it away. What can we do then? Look for ways to improve it.
Suppose Kannywood disappeared tomorrow; others would move in to explore — even exploit — our stories and tell them in ways we would not like. This has already started. Go and watch how Hausa, Fulani, and Muslim people are re-presented in what I call Abujawood, or what Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu calls “Nollywood films in Hausa.” Morally speaking, compared to a typical Kannywood production, these films are far worse. When we vacate a space, we do not sanitise it — we simply hand it over to others.
We should not, therefore, throw the baby out with the bathwater. Make room for diversity and dissent. People’s passions and visions can differ from ours, and that will always be the case. Some will make films, some will watch them, and others will write about them. That is the nature of a living culture.
If you are genuinely bothered about the moral upbringing of your children, then work harder to raise them as you wish, and pray. Kannywood is only one tiny distraction among the many competing for their attention in today’s world. It is neither the first nor the greatest.
May we understand and be guided, amin.
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