The Learner

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 make things any better for the populace. Corruption remains their frailty. Generally, though, bribery and corruption have been firmly instituted in the country. They have eaten deep into our everyday life. An Al-Jazeera English journalist interviewing the then-presidential candidate Muhammadu Buhari in 2014 said that Nigeria and corruption were synonymous. Disturbing as this sounds, it is a truth. Mr Buhari unseated a sitti...

Production :    Maishadda Investment Ltd. Producer:        Abubakar Bashir Maishadda Director :         Ali Nuhu Year:              2018 Cast :               Maryam Yahaya, Umar M. Shareef, Baba Karkuzu, Musa Maisana’s, Alhassan Kwalle, Jamila Nagudu and others. I keep repeating to the level of monotony, perhaps, that 2018 is a different and challenging year for Kannywood filmmakers. The market is suffocated; some describe it as crashed, others say it is dead. Howsoever it really is, a few brave people still invest in it, producing quite costly films. The movie, Mariya (dir. Ali Nuhu) is a typical example. Moreover, the publicity it received, coupled with the popularity of its songs, heightened expectation in the minds of the audience. I am one of them. I waited...

Muhsin Ibrahim @Muhsin234 I posted a slightly different version of this article in two separate Facebook status updates lately.  I critique and criticise Kannywood. I, however, incidentally promote them that way. Many people, especially those who knew me years ago, find it hard to believe that I ‘defend’ immorality that is the synonym for Hausa film and its makers in the ordinary discussion circle. I laugh at this ‘reasoning’ and move on. No doubt the filmmakers are in the wrong in many ways. But they are not what most of us think. Moreover, we should not throw the baby out with the bathwater, as they say. I understand the burden on Kannywood as an entertainment industry in an Islamicate society. However, their filmmakers should wake up to the reality that film cannot always be didactic and moralistic. While I don’t subscribe to the school of using art for art’s sake, film, as a reminder, is intrinsically an art, a source of amusement. A filmmaker can, though, gloss...

Director :          Abubakar S. Shehu Producer :        Auwalu Sani Story:                Yakubu M. Kumo Language :       Hausa Year :                2018 Company :       3SP International Limited Cast:                Sadiq S. Sadiq, Al-Amin Buhari, Abubakar S. Shehu, Hafsat Idris, etc. Once again, a major Kannywood production attempts to avoid the clichés of forced marriage, a love triangle, intrusive music and dance routine, etc. in its storytelling. It, equally, tries to go back to the root to, of course, glorify the “good old days”. Above all, it proselytises Islam. Would the critics and the nativists alike ask for more? Titled Risala , an Arabic word meaning “message”, the Abubakar S. Shehu’s film is completel...

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...

Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com The North is stasis largely because of our doing. We are too disorganised, unorganised, divided, and disenchanted with one another. Almost everything is either sectionalised (remember the Northeast Development Commission saga?) or interpreted based on one's sectarian or political affiliation . Year in, year out, we debate on Maulud . In recent months, we argued over Sheikh Usman Bn Fodio, the dresses of Malam Kabiru Gombe and Bala Lau in Europe, the place of Stephen Hawking in the hereafter, and today on the-yet-to-be-interred, late Sheikh Isyaka Rabiu. How sad and unfortunate! Known to many, migration of discussion fora from physical to virtual space began in the mid to the end of the penultimate decade - 1995 to 1999. Haus a people of Nigeria are some of the first to utilise th e new platform in Africa with the creation of Ka no O nline , Dantata Online, Gamji, etc. websites. The South followed up a little later, I think, with si...

By Muhsin Ibrahim muhsin2008@gmail.com University of Cologne The Hausa version of this article, with a slight difference, was published on the BBC Hausa  website. According to numerous accounts and lived experiences, rivalry is natural among both humans and animals. It is barely, if at all, avoidable especially between contemporaries. It becomes more probable when one of the lots becomes way more successful than the rest. Mr A may begin to envy Mr B and question why he is luckier or more much-admired than I. In response, Mr B may start feeling pompous, declaring to all that he is ahead of Mr A. Therefore his accolades and achievement are due to his hard work and talent. Again, the people around the two are sometimes yet another cause of the enmity. For one reason or another, they do all it takes to plant a seed of dissonance as they profit by getting favour from either person. There are more causes for strife, but I guess these are very typical. In Kannywood, th...