Chasing scapegoats in the “Woods”: Aisha Umar Yusuf’s Kannywood

However, as an academic who studies Kannywood and as a woman who has occasionally acted in Hausa films, I was troubled by Hajiya Aisha’s claim that most women involved with Kannywood do so “at the expense of virtue and a decent life.” In making such a generalization, using only three specific examples to impugn an […]

However, as an academic who studies Kannywood and as a woman who has occasionally acted in Hausa films, I was troubled by Hajiya Aisha’s claim that most women involved with Kannywood do so “at the expense of virtue and a decent life.” In making such a generalization, using only three specific examples to impugn an entire industry, she merely rehashes the same old clichéd arguments and factual errors about the Hausa film industry.
Let me first address the errors of fact and omission in Hajiya Aisha’s article. She states that the Shekarau government started the Kano State Censorship Board (KSCB) after the Hiyana sex scandal. This is not true. Filmmakers and film marketers actually had their own internal censorship bodies from the late 1990s. With the coming of Shari’a law, film was banned in December 2000. The filmmakers brought to the attention of the government the vast number jobs the film industry provided—including film crew, film marketers, caterers, printing companies etc—and suggested a formal review board that became the Kano State Censorship Board in 2001, during Governor Kwankwaso’s first tenure. Formal bodies such as the Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN) and Arewa Filmmakers Association of Nigeria (AFMAN) and other professional guilds also provide regulatory oversight to their members, and all film stakeholders are expected to be registered with the appropriate associations.
Second, by omitting relevant information, Hajiya Aisha implies that the “scandal” surrounding the two year “ban” on actress Nafisa Abdullahi is the same sort of sex scandal Maryam Hiyana was involved in. However, this also is not true! FIM Magazine of July 2013 reports that AFMAN banned Nafisa when she did not attend a meeting in Kano to which she had been summoned, regarding rumours about a party she had planned. However, according to FIM, she had sent a representative who informed them that she could not come because she had a previous work commitment on a film in Abuja. My personal opinion when I heard the news was that the ban far exceeded any breach in protocol she may have committed. Nafisa has training from the Department of Theatre and Film Arts at the University of Jos, and, having interacted with her on several film locations, I have always been impressed by her professionalism. Aminiya of 26 July 2013 reports that on 22 July, the committee met with Nafisa and lifted the ban. That was over two weeks before Hajiya Aisha’s article was published.
As for Hajiya Aisha’s claim that actresses are devoid of “virtue,” now, of course, there are some women (and men) in the industry whose private lives violate their religion. Maryam Hiyana’s sexual encounter with the bureau de change worker Usman Bobo, which he recorded on his cell phone, (let’s not forget that a sex scandal involves two people—not just the woman) is the most notorious example. Yet, remember that the phone video was captured in Lagos in the early days of Hiyana’s film career, before she was very popular, by a man who had nothing to do with the film industry. It was a private affair. Unfortunately, the video came out at the height of her popularity, and the public blamed the entire industry rather than the two individuals involved.
Filmmakers themselves have acknowledged the bad behaviour of individuals associated with the film industry. Sulaiman Alubankudi’s Inda Ranka tells the story of an actress who has affairs with many men, including a Commissioner, and Saeed Selbar’s Kyalli portrays a “fake director” who takes advantage of a naïve girl trying to enter the industry. Both films warn potential actresses about unprofessional behaviour. Salisu Balarabe’s Yar Fim, on the other hand, shows the hard work involved in acting. The director told me he made it because he wanted to show people that filmmaking is a respectable profession. The media hypes up the glamour of the industry, but in fact, contrary to Hajiya Aisha’s perception that it is an “easy way to earn money,” it is hard work and involves long hours and a lot of dedication. I can add that having been on quite a few film sets, there is very little opportunity for “misbehavior” on film locations, as the cast and crew are like family, and you are almost always in large groups. 
Should all filmmakers be blamed for the actions of fakes and scallywags, anymore than all bankers should be blamed because there are 419-ers or bankers who commit fraud? Should we blame all university lecturers and say women should not go to the university because there are some corrupt lecturers who demand sex? Or that women should not work in civil service or journalism because some people in those fields take bribes and sexually harass co-workers? Or that women should not work for NGOs because sexual harassment also occurs there, as Lesley Agams, former country director for Oxfam in Nigeria, has so heart-wrenchingly described on her blog? Is it possible that abuses that take place in every workplace are highlighted in the film industry because of its high profile and the fame of its members?
If one is going to implicate every individual engaged in a profession because of the misbehavior of an individual, then perhaps we should look closer at the critics and censors of the industry. During Ramadan in 2010, according to Sunday Trust (August 29, 2010), Abubakar Rabo Abdulkarim, then director general of the KSCB, who spoke so vociferously about protecting women’s virtue, was himself allegedly caught by the police parked in a secluded location around 10pm with his teenage niece. When the police approached him, he led them on a car chase in which he hit a motorcyclist with his car and sped off. Yet, while the Maryam Hiyana scandal is invoked to this day, the Rabo scandal was hushed up. Why? Let me also pose this question: which body has done more harm to Nigeria as a whole? The film industry, which employs Nigerians in the millions, or the “unscrupulous politicians,” who drain Nigeria of naira in the trillions?
Here’s my opinion: I think that rather than saying women should stay away from certain professions, we should 1) Expose and prosecute those who engage in abuse, whether it is in censorship boards, universities, banking, civil service, journalism, politics, or film. In the absence of other robust bodies whose role it is to investigate, expose, and prosecute abuse, the film industry itself plays this role through fiction when they perform stories that expose “public secrets” about the hypocrisies of outwardly respectable but inwardly corrupt figures. 2) I agree with Hajiya Aisha that “parents and societal role models” should educate their daughters, but I would argue that rather than ostracizing certain careers, they should raise their children to be good moral people so that they can be assured of their character no matter what profession they choose. Raise your daughter to think for herself and to value herself so that she will not yield to those offering her wealth or prestige or promotion in exchange for her body. Give her reason to feel she can seek advice from respected elders if she feels she is being exploited. If there are no formal institutional systems in place for her to complain, when for example, a lecturer is demanding sex or a bank is demanding she date customers, women should at least have trusted community leaders from whom they can feel comfortable seeking advice. Hajiya Aisha gives a personal anecdote about the niece of a friend’s housekeeper who “ran away from home in Katsina just ahead of her wedding to join the Kano movie industry.” Why would a girl run away right before her wedding? Was she being forced to marry someone she did not like? Might the issue of forced marriage be more the issue here than the film industry that she supposedly ran away to join? Is the film industry, in fact, an easy scapegoat for a larger issue facing young girls?
Finally, I would emphasize the responsibility of parents in deciding what kinds of media they want their children to interact with. For the most part, Kannywood films are far more modest and “clean” than films from other parts of the world. Or do parents prefer for their children to watch the crop tops and hot pants prevalent in Bollywood or the almost obligatory sex scenes in most Hollywood films? Should parents not instead be investing in and supporting professional filmmaking structures and Kannywood stories they would like to see?  Un-nuanced scapegoating of Kannywood, over much larger problems that plague Nigerian society, does not help anyone.