The Learner

  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 w...

No film was released this Eid for obvious reasons, of course! Last year’s Eid saw the release of the Hausa film KARKI MANTA DA NI . This is my short review of the film.   The movie, Kar Ki Manta Da Ni  is an intense love story presented in the style of the Indian romantic drama films. This is not a surprise, looking at the career of the film’s director, Ali Nuhu, who is well known for making Indianized Hausa films. Like in one of the ‘whiz kid’ director’s previous flicks, particularly Ni Da Ke Mun Dace , the male lead of this film is a musician who sings, plays instruments and always carries a guitar on his back. This is a typical romantic hero portrayal in Indian cinema.   The storyline focuses on Nasir (Shamsu Dan’iya) and his love, Fatima (Maryam Booth). They are genuinely in love with each other, but as Nasir doesn’t have enough to get married, he loses her to a wealthy scion Isma’il (Umar M. Sharif). Consequently, Nasir resorts to drugs, turning his highly pr...

Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com My book, Kannywood: Unveiling the Overlooked Hausa Film Industry , released early this week, was purposely titled so. For some socio-cultural and religious related reasons, many people that would ideally care about the embattled film industry snub it. Thus, Kannywood survives mainly in obscurity. Conversely, the recent scandals involving the famous actress, Hadiza Gabon and her colleague, Amina Amal over lesbianism allegation proved me slightly wrong. Moreover, as this rages on, the age-old feud between the ace actors, Ali Nuhu and Adam Zango  was taken to the next level. The former sued the latter for defamation and assassination of character. These topics dominate the northern Nigerian cyberspace all the more. Is Kannywood really “overlooked”? It’s indisputably true that the film industry and its members are ignored but, I believe, whenever they do ‘good’ or shun controversies and scandals. Once their scandals surface, everyone’...

Director :      Falalu A. Dorayi Producer :     Tijjani Asase Language :    Hausa Year :            2019 Company :    Dorayi Film & Distributions Nig. Ltd. Cast:            Halima Atete, Adam A. Zango, Umar Malumfashi, Hadiza Muhammad, etc. The widely advertised film, Wata Malama is finally out, more than a couple of years since the release of its trailer. It was earlier rumoured that the film was banned by the Kano State Censorship Board allegedly due to its explicit content. However, the film director, Falalu A. Dorayi debunked it and told me that it was only undergoing careful postproduction work. Although he didn’t say further, I think it’s for the same reason: the content. All that is over now. The film opens with tensed sequences of a hot-tempered police officer (Tijjani Asase) whose wife, a nu...

Production :    Famli Investment LTD . Producer:        Sani Mai Iyali Director :         Ali Gumzak Year:                2018 Length :           120 minutes (roughly) Cast :               Aisha Tsamiya, Ali Nuhu, Sadiq Sani Sadiq and others. Although Ali Gumzak-directed Laila Adam ’s release year reads 2018, it is released in early this month (January 2019). From some indications, one may argue that the new year looks auspicious for Kannywood. As per my assessment, there were fewer good films last year. Therefore, I had to struggle to find movies worthy enough for the BBC Hausa’s top 10. Admittedly, some that I included on the coveted list should not be there, but I couldn’t help it. Played by the talented Aisha Aliyu Tsamiy...

Production :    JS Inuwa International Ltd. Producer:        Alhaji Sheshe Director :         Ali Gumzak Year:              2018 Cast :               Ali Nuhu, Aminu Shareef, Abba El-Mustapha, Baballe Hayatu, Isa A. Isa and others. The biggest obstacle Kannywood filmmakers have to live with forever, probably, is all sort of judgement coming from a section of their audience. Naturally, people forget good behaviour and always recall the bad one. Anything wrong, unusual, sensational sells way more than the good, usual and ordinary does. It is, therefore, very rare to see a clip of a good Hausa film going viral on social media. Often, the video clip portrays something wrong about either the struggling film industry or the religion and ethnicity of its members....

Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com Kano is the commercial nerve centre of northern Nigeria, a region now known for its illiteracy and poverty, with millions of children roaming its streets in search of food. The rate of ethno-religious conflict rises side-by-side with kidnappings along highways. Boko Haram also still attacks rural areas of Borno and Yobe states. The ills bedevilling this one-time prosperous part of the country are too many to discuss in a quick, brief and, perhaps, poorly organised article like this one. Nigerian political leaders do not improve conditions for the populace. Corruption remains their frailty. Generally, though, bribery and corruption have been firmly instituted in the country. They have permeated our everyday life. An Al Jazeera English journalist interviewing the then-presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari in 2014 stated that Nigeria and corruption were synonymous. Disturbing as this may sound, it is true. Mr Buhari unseated a sitting pres...

Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin200@gmail.com Kannywood film industry faces an existential threat from many fronts. A leading Hausa film scholar, Prof. Abdullah Uba Adamu declared last year that “ by 2016, the Hausa film industry had literally crashed ” and, therefore, major actors in the production, marketing and distributing its films had pulled out and ventured into other more propitious businesses. His declaration was true. We are already in the middle of the year 2018. As an independent, casual promoter and reviewer of their films, however, I have yet to watch any serious movie  worth reviewing. Most of the few, released films so far are poor in many respects, while the good ones are still held for fear of the market. I don’t blame them for this. Love or hate them, the resilience of Kannywood filmmakers is what makes them survive this far, though, as mentioned above, many have already capitulated and closed shop. The reasons for this turn of the event are somewhat apparent. T...

By Muhsin Ibrahim University of Cologne   muhsin2008@gmail.com As I wrote elsewhere, the relationship between cinema and the orthodox religious institutions is often marked by uneasiness if not outright hostility. From its very beginning, the Puritans see the raison d’être of visual art as only to entertain, which means to distract people from their duty to God and ethical undertakings. Until today, the accusation is all the more raging. How filmmakers handle the questions of morality, culture and spirituality is under censorship. Kannywood, the Kano-based, up-and-coming motion picture industry of and by the predominantly Muslim Hausa speaking people in northern Nigeria, is not an exception. It is not news that Kannywood struggles with the culture-war message of several critics who see everything with them as corruption or dilution of the “prestigious” Hausa culture. However, with the ever-expanding rise (encroachment?) of globalisation, I think this feeling is, a...

Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com The word “culture” defies any simple definition, though attempts to do that have been made and continue to be. In response to a post I made on Facebook the other day, a friend commented that “ Hausa culture has nearly eroded to extinction ”, for, according to him, when one asks many young Hausa (men and women) about their culture, they will tell you, “Islam is my culture”.  Weak, if not erroneous, as I believe this view is, it makes me happy for several reasons. Culture, religion, and, to an extent, language are carriers of considerable value. The most valuable of them all is, to me, religion. Therefore, I would prefer a Hausa girl or boy to identify herself/himself first with Islam than with the culture, as the culture is not as perfect as the religion is. However, neither the culture nor the religion means anything significant to countless Muslim girls and boys in the 21 st century. This is one of the reasons why his argumen...

Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 Starting with an apology to the 19th-century great novelist, Charles Dickens, whose title inspired this piece, the contexts of the two texts cannot, however, be related. The article chronicles my short stays in Mumbai, India, and Lagos, Nigeria, comparing the two and contrasting them with my birthplace, Kano. This was motivated by the striking parallels I have discovered between the two cities. For instance, both are the commercial capitals of their countries; both neighbour seas; both are like convergent points for different ethnic groups; both have headquarters of one of the world’s leading film industries; both are lands of opportunity; both are populated by the posh and the poor, etc. This is a continuation of my Facebook status update from a couple of days ago, while I was still in Lagos. In response to the status update, some people said I haven’t seen anything in Lagos yet. Those people are only slightly wrong. I have, of course, seen somethi...

Muhsin Ibrahim  muhsin2008@gmail.com  Facebook, or any other social media, is no longer what it used to be: a mere, innocuous social networking site for friending, chatting, sharing pictures and the like. It is, today, a life-shaping platform. This and a whole host of other reasons, therefore, call for parents, guardians, and all to be (more) wary of how, and of course who, their children, wards, younger siblings, etc., interact with. I will give three (3) examples.  First, the Internet, in general, is a harbour for amassed pornographic content. Recently, the Indian government banned the viewing of pornographic content in its country. But under pressure and protest, they had to lift the ban. Currently, there are many pages for that on Facebook and in WhatsApp chat groups, etc. The children can be intelligent, but not necessarily smarter. Devise ways to curtail this through the most effective means.  While the first danger could easily be detected, the second o...

Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 I was at the renowned Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, for a 7-day internship in Radio and TV Production from 25th September to 1st October 2016. As a budding writer, critic, and public commentator, I have seen and observed many things sufficient to write a book on. I have already chronicled some of these on my Facebook page. This article consists of at least two such status updates. Here you go. On Self-Reliance There is a centre under the Department of Theatre and Performing Arts of the University called the Centre of Excellence. A lady sells snacks, soda and other fast foodstuffs at the entrance. She dresses well, smiles at her customers and other passers-by who care to say hi. I often did that, and she friendlily responded. However, I doubt if anyone among us, both the staff and the students, had ever bought anything from her, and that was where most of the internship lectures were conducted, as it houses the non-broadcast TV studio f...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com @muhsin234 (Twitter) “It looks foreign”, my Indian friends so often tell me while describing how scenic and highly developed a particular place is. It happened first while my wife and I were touring the capital, New Delhi, last winter. We were entering the subway system called the ‘metro’ when my friend, guiding us, said we would feel as if in a foreign country down there. It didn’t dawn on me then until I heard the same expressions time and again from more friends. They obviously forget that everywhere is foreign to me, as I am a foreigner , a Nigerian. My country is thousands of miles away. However, each time the incident occurs, it reminds me of a similar preconceived notion of foreign superiority back in Nigeria . In the same vein, Nigerians would quickly boast that their particular possession was made abroad, not in Nigeria ! Pragmatically speaking, the whole concept of “Ƙasar Waje” as we call a foreign country in my loca...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com As Nigerians, we don’t have to go to a far place like India to learn anything in politics, for two reasons. First, we get a model to learn from right below our noses. I am talking about the Niger Republic , yes, our poor, neighbour Niger . In their last general election of 2011, not a single soul was lost as a result of violence, and everything went on efficiently until the end. Second, India is, independence-wise, older, and, democracy-wise, much older than Nigeria . While our democratic government had been interrupted by several military coups after our independence on 1 st October 1960, theirs is never halted since 1947, when the country got independence from the same British colonial brutes that ruled us. But being here, I can’t help but to appreciate and commend their comportment and confederacy during and after the just concluded general elections. India is famously the world’s biggest democracy with nearly a billion el...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim Bayero University, Kano @muhsin234 (Twitter) Introduction As students of Theatre and Film Studies here in India, we watch drama and films from across the globe, and of all genres. We encounter no hurdle or trouble in getting the movies as the internet has today simplified much access to them, broken many boundaries to any nation, any community, and any film industry except in a few cases. I must, however, admit that only very little is known about Africa or the films produced therein. Despite this, I often ‘boast’ saying my country, Nigeria, is the most populous African country, and its film industry is the third-biggest in the world. But a snag comes up when asked to bring forward the films; I couldn’t, for I shouldn’t just give them any films, for Nigeria’s being a unique country due to its sharp cultural and ethno-religious divide between the North and the South. This becomes necessary because the perceived national films do have little or no bear...

Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 The political atmosphere in Nigeria, particularly in my state, Kano, is, with each passing second, becoming more tense and intense. Although I presently reside outside the state, one cannot help but see and hear this and that on air and online. I am not a politician, nor into politics; I had thought I was a very passive partisan, but even that was a long time ago. I am thankful to Allah that I have successfully quit, and wish to reserve any serious public commentary. Nonetheless, given things as they are, I couldn’t resist the temptation to break my earlier ‘promise’ not to comment. I believe my motive was well-generated. For, we need relative sanity in the polity, peace in our state and mutual respect among the populace, which are all that the current state of affairs sets out to disperse and replace with impurity, impudicity and perfidy. The incumbent governor of Kano state, Engr. Rabi’u Musa Kwankwaso and his predecessor, Malam Ibrahim ...