The Learner

By Muhsin Ibrahim University of Cologne muhsin2008@gmail.com     Once again, Kannywood is being dragged into the limelight for the same reason: moral issues. The story of the murder of husband, Bilyaminu Bello, by his wife, Maryam Sanda, has been trending in the news since it happened on 18 th November 2017. Domestic violence, which, if not tackled, leads to mariticide, is as old as marriage itself. Therefore, using a picture of an actress, Aina’u Ade, wielding a knife against an actor, Ali Nuhu, from a scene of a Kannywood film to show how Maryam got influenced is, at best, wrong and, at worst, absurd. Do we care to look at the context and the consequence of that act in the film? Let me digress a little. I had no intention to write this article for several reasons. However, some friends and acquaintances kept asking me to intervene. Let me clarify to them that being Kannywood an area of my study does not make me their mouthpiece, nor does it make it my respon...

Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com Almost every positive adjective one can think of has, today, been used to refer to Nollywood especially in places outside Nigeria. For those who perhaps don’t know, the film industry is the second biggest after Bollywood in the world; it is, arguably, however, the second largest employer after Agriculture in Nigeria; and is now regarded by many observers as not only a Nigerian film industry but a pan-African cultural phenomenon. Beside all these glories associated with Nollywood, the Northern part of Nigeria has its distinct and distinctive film industry, which is even historically older. Kannywood, as it’s tagged, nevertheless, still struggles for recognition and acceptance within and outside the country. This is, however, due to a number of reasons. The biggest of them all is what I bluntly call “hypocrisy”. Although not the main focus of this piece, this refers to the way and manner many people in the North disown the films and their m...

Production :    Sadau Pictures Producer:        Rahama Sadau Director :         Yaseen Auwal Year:              2017 Cast :               Ali Nuhu, Rahama Sadau, Hafsat Idris, Fati Washa, Zainab Booth, Rabi’u Rikadaw, Sadiq Sani Sadiq and others Introduction The mobile phone has, since its introduction and ensuing popularity, been playing double-edged functions in many cases and instances. The ‘conservative’ Hausa community of northern Nigeria is one of such a case. For years, some people, parents, in particular, have refused to let their female children use it, while some husbands have equally denied their wives any access to any Internet-enabled cell phone. It is, however, ironical as most if not all of those ‘deniers’ use the smartphones, yet they f...

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 a lot of 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 this 21 st century. This is one of the reasons why I find his argum...

Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com I attended a conference themed “The Other’s Other: Performance and Representation in Language” organized by, and held at, the University of Cologne, Germany, between 25-26 Sept. 2017. I presented a talk on the subaltern themes and motifs in the Nigerian film industr ies [emphasis added]. It is common knowledge, I guess, to all that “Othering” does not only exist in the film, but it also thrives. Thus, my paper argues on how the regional filmmakers in Nigeria have, consciously or not, been widening the existing binary and rivalry between the country’s diverse ethnic and religious groups. At the risk of sounding self-congratulatory, the paper generated a lot of discussions and debates. This article is a précis of the talk and the debates. The focus of the deliberations, particularly in the post-conference side talk, was surprisingly changed from “Othering” to the existence and peculiarities of Kannywood film industry besides the “Global Nol...

Muhsin Ibrahim @muhsin234 A few years back, I barely noticed the passing of my birthdays. A few years later, during my postsecondary school days, I began to get a lone reminder of the days: SMS from my bank. That is no longer the case. The day comes with a lot of buzz and fuss. A plethora of “Happy Birthday” messages trickle into my phone, email, Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc inboxes and timelines. Some close friends call; others walk into my office to express their wishes and prayers. What a change! I am heartily grateful, ladies and gentlemen. But that was not my (our?) culture. It gradually becomes so due to the “sameness” effect of globalization, which conjoins cultures. Today, people go to the extent of writing “Happy birthday to myself” on social media! Celebrating birthday that way is rather a new culture, at least so I believe. It is a novel culture we are willingly adopting today; it was not imposed on us by anyone, lest you think that. Therefore, I don’t outri...

Director :         Falalu A. Dorayi Producer :       Tahir I. Tahir Story:               M.M. Haruna Language :      Hausa Year :               2017 Company :      M.M. Haruna Film Production, Kano Introduction The film  Husna ko Huzna  comes with quite some novelties. Notably, it was not hurriedly produced, as were many movies in the Kannywood film industry. I remember being told of its pre-production and production phases almost a year ago. The post-production, too, took an unconventional period before it was finished. This is replete in handling the special effects (VFX) used in the film. The advertorial is yet another well-planned thing, for every now and then, listeners of different radio stations in Kano, and probably ...