Hausa Fim

[Dan-Borno]

the reservoir of knowledge has spoken!
Allah ya sa mu dace.

[bakangizo]

What comments do we have on IBRO'S films?

His films are good if you are the heavy-comedy fan. Generally hilarious, I can't help feeling he over-does it atimes. Da ba ruwan shi da wakoki, amma yanzu ya fara. And for some bizarre coincidence (astagfirullah), most of his co-stars (and I dare say those who make his films thick), are dying one after the other. You know Kulu, Katakore, Yautai, DanWanzan, Tsigai :o He's been forced to bring in new faces, unfortunately they aren't as good. Those who watch his films would know what I mean.

What is good for the core hausa muslims,
is also good for the transethnic hausa muslims.

Too true.

[Dan-Borno]

He is a real comedian, infact the best in recent times.
Even his music, despite the fact he is a full time copyright
violator - they are entertaining.  Take your time and check
on youtube.com search for ibro hausa music, zaka sha
dariya.  My favourite song is Ibro Ethiopia  ;D  ;D  ;D  ;D

[bakangizo]

Yeah, you're right he's a full time copy-right violator. But that "credit" goes to Sadi Sidi Sharifai. He's the one writing and singing the songs for Ibro, you know. I remember while listening to one of those radio phone-in programs on Hausa Films in Kano (Freedom Radio). Sadi was on the set, giving an insight on a recently 'copy-righted' Mamman Shata's song. I sent a text asking whether they/he usually get permission before "re-making" somebody else's song(s). You know the answer they gave me? - "Ba zan iya amsa wannan tambayar ba, saboda abin sirri ne" >:(  As if I don't know better ;D

Anyway, I will try the youtube search. I even have some of his films on CD.

[Bajoga]

You are right.

Sadi Sidi (as i saw in one mushakata cassette) he can be able to make anybody's voice while singing a song.

I don't know whether he was getting permission or not.
Kuma gaskiya in ba Sadi ya taimaki Ibron ba..............

Ai ido ko bai san dai-dai ba........................................

[HUSNAA]

Jama'a Sallama

In my fieldwork, I did not see a single producer willing to allow his own sister (and they have them), or the daughter of a friend of his, to appear in any of his films dressed in the skimpy western dresses they so readily dress transethnic girls. In one incident in Sakkwato, a producer wanted to make a film in a brothel, but was bluntly refused by the girls. Their exact statement as recorded was "ba za mu fito a fim ba domin mu ba 'yan iska
ba ne". Thus due to the way Hausa girls are depicted in Hausa films, even prostitutes think they are less respectable than them!



Allah Masani.

Abdalla

That is the most understated irony I have ever come across... kunji karuwan banza!!  mtssuii.. nonsense and ingredients!

Prof ka kashe bakin kowa with such heavyweight grammar and dissertation style expression... lol ;D ;D ;D ;D

When I refer to mode of dressing of girls I refer to all types that are considered 'unacceptable' religion wise. So all the ones that DB (he seems to know so much about it lol!) mentioned and more, that if u scrutinize them, are not strictly speaking  conforming to what the prophet SAW said should be the mode of female islamic dress code, to me come under the banner of the radical way our young girls dress. Might I add that in so far as I am concerned for as long as the girl will wear abaya as an outer garment in public, they are all acceptable since they were not condemned by the prophet either, being that they serve another purpose which is totally halal in itself.
So it is not only jeans and tshirts that are under discussion here, but all forms of dress that dont conform to what is acceptable in our religion. That is probably why prof Abdallah will be hard put to find a tshirt and jeans dressed female in gwale or thereabouts, but the other modes of dressing that are shape revealing all fall under the same category, and which the prof must surely have seen in his perambulations about town.

Oh BTW, I recently watched an Iranian film called LAILA, about a woman who couldnt give birth and consequently her mother in law badgered her into allowing her husband to take a second wife. I was interested in how the Iranian film approached the subject matter of tactile contact and other forms of interaction between ppl of the opposite sex that are not each other's mahrams. Firstly touching upon the issue of dressing, all the women in the film were in purdah (abayaed from head to toe). However their faces are exposed. There was absolutely no touching even finger to finger between men and women. There were no expressions of intimacy anywhere in the film unless if it be between two women.
To be honest films like that can only be supportd through with very good acting on the part of the actors which in this case happened, and the film was all in all enjoyable. What I found to my surprise was that it was difficult for me to relate the man and woman as man and wife because of the absolutely sterile manner they represented the relationship. It simply wasnt convincing enough for me, because subconsiously one expects  tiny tiny intimacies between a man and his wife for example brushing of the arm as one passes the other or some such. There was none.

[Abdalla]

 Prof ka kashe bakin kowa with such heavyweight grammar and dissertation style expression... lol ;D ;D ;D ;D [/quote]

Haba, Hajiya! Manya-manyan 'yan boko kamar ku?!  ;D


Just two things -- one on general issue but related to this thread, and the other specific to this.

If people can be annoyed about the way Muslim Hausa girls often dress, then they should avoid places like this town, Assilah, Morocco. The girls go around virtually NAKED -- tight jeans and tops, head uncovered, etc. In Kano only prostitutes dress like that; and even then, at night. Not so here, where you will see a Mum, Dad strolling around with Sister hanging by their side, looking insolent and bored, with a headphone stuck in her ear. Said Sister, of course, is proudly tightly clad showcasing her features for all to see. It seems the parents encourage their daughters to be as Westernized as possible. Sure one or two (about 1 in 20) might have the fashionable hijab -- but always with a blouse and ultra tight jeans; aikin banza, harara a duhu! It is also common to see young couple (about 17 yrs or less) hugging and kissing in quite corners, and no one bats an eyelid. Wallah observing these things happening makes BRIGADE Kano a virtually Makka!

And only OLD men and much older youth attend the prayers - you would not find any youth dead in the mosque; they are busy strutting around the town eating ice cream and generally pretending they are cool. A young guide I have, Imad, who is 21 and in the second year of a university degree (and speaks excellent American movie English) confesess to being ashamed of his people, who he said will claim they are Muslims but are un-Islamic in their dressing.

I have seen similar behaviors, but to a less degree in Cairo, Egypt; and yet these people have the nerve to question anyone's Islam. To Arabs that I have encountered in many places (especially Makka), Black Muslims are a curiosity -- they seem to equate inability to speak Arabic with degree of faith in Allah.  Yet they are disdainful of their Islamic identity because they don't want to be seen as "Islamicist". In the New World Order, Islam has become a self-imposed taboo for Muslims in countries like Morocco. Maybe there are other less weird places, but this one takes the biscuit! Allah Ya kiyashe mu.

I want to comment on the Ibro parodies which I also think are brilliant. Indeed if I have to support any Hausa film segment, it is the Ibro parodies I will focus attention on. In fact so much that I and some colleagues in Switzerland, South Africa and Germany have been given a nice grant by the Volkswagen Foundnation to do a research on Negotiations of Culture in African Countries. My particular segment will focus on 9-11 Incident and its impact on African popular culture. In particular I will be looking at IBRO SADDAM, IBRO USAMA films as markers of negotiating global political reinterpretation in an Islamicate society. This goes to show how significant Ibro films are. Not only that, series of researches can be done other "Ibros", such as Ibro P-Square, Ibro Bob Marley, Ibro Michael Jackson and others. They represent a fasctinating deconstruction of a globalised phenomana for a local audience, and show the extent media messages can be circulated to unintended audiences.

Which brings me to the issue of copyright that was talked about. Hausa artistes are often selfish. They can liberally steal other people's creative ideas, but they don't want someone making money at their expense. I remember how Hausa films are HEAVILY pirated in Ghana and Cameroon and the Hausa film industry was very upset about this "piracy" -- imagine, a case of the kettle calling the pot black; when the entire industry is based on the infrastructure of piracy and lack of creative input, they are complaining that someone is skinning them! So I am not surprised that Sadi Sidi Sharifai refused to disclose his methodology. In truth, he has none. He just receives money from an Executive Producer, who is usually a Nigeriene marketer, and sing songs that took the fancy of the marketer. The issue of creativity or respect for individual performance rights are readily ignored. It is this lack of respect for others' creative efforts that will prevent Hausa creative and performing arts from being exportable to other parts of the world.

Abdalla

[Al-Nazeer]

For me Icant say anything about this topic. I dont think in my life I watch Hausa Movies of to 7. I decided to stop when I undersatnd what they are up to. So my Brother the only way is to just forget about it as I do. I read Hausa Nobel of to 2000 before, but now I think since 1998 I had never read any Hausa Nobel too, because they are going almost the same way withe movies.


                                                                               Mohammed Nazeer Dayyabu Kazaure
                                                                               kazaure1@yahoo.com
                                                                               kazaure1@hotmail.com
                                                                               kazaure1@gmail.com

[Muhsin]

Kai! ::)I was out of my original board-General Board for a considerable time, I gather. I really missed a lot and would be probably be missing in the future. But I won't let this happen, by Allah's grace, again.

Prof. has spoken, as said ealier by anuty Husnnaa. Thus whatsoever mu yan kuci ku bamu are further going to say is of no or little importance. Allah ya bamu ilimi as........get it? Or even morethan......ko?

Sai anjima

[HUSNAA]

Yan Hausa film dinnan za su baiwa mutum kunya. Ni dai ina kare su ina basu suke bata al'ada ba kuma   gashinan za su je suyi wani abin da zai kashe wa mutum baki har abada. Wai naji a BBC yau an ce akwai wa'yansu da sukai pornographic hausa film da ya ke yawo a mobile phone. Yanzu an sa musu haddi a kan kowannen su kuma sun shiga buya.
Ni dai ban taba tsammanin akwai tsageru a cikin 'yan wasan kwaikwayon ba da za su iya samun karfin halin da zasu yi wannan abin alfasha din ba. Tir. Allah Ya Kiyaye mu.

[Mufi]

Aunty Husnaa, Haka na karanta a last edition na Magazine nasu na "yan film, har suka bada hint as to who was involved in the film-making. Allah ya wadaran naka ya lalace, Allah Ubangiji ya shirya su damu gaba ki daya Amin.

[bamalli]

Nigerian outrage over nude video
Nigerian video cover
Nollywood films are popular across West Africa
A video showing a northern Nigerian film actress in a sex scene has caused a public outcry in the Muslim north.

The outraged Kano State Filmmakers Association has expelled the actress and her lover, along with 17 others.

The 17 were not connected to the video but were thought to be involved in "immoral acts" such as drunkenness and fornication, a local newspaper says.

The un-named actress is now in hiding after the eight-minute mobile phone clip was circulated across the north.

"This was the first time such exposure involving Hausa-Fulani persons was witnessed in the country," reports the Leadership newspaper.

The Hausa-Fulani are the dominant ethnic groups in the predominantly conservative Muslim north.

Kannywood

Muslim clerics have condemned the video clip, while radio programmes have been full of complaints about immorality in Nigeria's film industry.

Nollywood, Nigeria's hugely successful home video industry, is mostly based in the country's less conservative Christian south.

map
In the past few years a Hausa language home video industry, known as Kannywood, has sprung up in the largest northern city, Kano.

Hausa is the most widely spoken language across northern Nigeria.

Kano is among 12 northern states that began enforcing Islamic Sharia law in 2000, increasing tensions between the Muslim majority and sizeable Christian minorities all over the north.

Thousands died in religious and ethnic violence across the region.
From BBC News

[Abdalla]

Yan Hausa film dinnan za su baiwa mutum kunya. Ni dai ina kare su ina basu suke bata al'ada ba kuma   gashinan za su je suyi wani abin da zai kashe wa mutum baki har abada. Wai naji a BBC yau an ce akwai wa'yansu da sukai pornographic hausa film da ya ke yawo a mobile phone. Yanzu an sa musu haddi a kan kowannen su kuma sun shiga buya.
Ni dai ban taba tsammanin akwai tsageru a cikin 'yan wasan kwaikwayon ba da za su iya samun karfin halin da zasu yi wannan abin alfasha din ba. Tir. Allah Ya Kiyaye mu.

Husna, ai kunya ma yanzu a ka fara jin ta. I am sure you are aware of the current furor generated by a private video of a famous Hausa video film star, Maryam Hiyana (after her starring role in the film, Hiyana) in sexually explicit pornographic mobile video film with another man. This video clip -- not a "film" really -- is as bad as it gets. The link to the story, and forum comments are here http://www.leadershipnigeria.com/product_info.php?products_id=10843.

It is very important to note that this woman did this to represent her desire. Her behavior should not be seen as reflecting the film industry. If every miscreant is seen to represent the professional group they belong to, then there would be nothing left to morality. In every strata of occupational category, you have weirdos and saints.

That said, however, it must be acknowledged that the film industry contributed to this stage in the following ways. First by encouraging nude-sexuality-tight dresses mantra in Hausa films -- what we have been talking about here. It got to a stage where unless a Hausa film has girls with tight dresses, singing and dancing suggestively, it won't sell, and filmmakers have been defending this by insisting that they are in the business to make money, not art. One of them -- one of the biggest among -- even told us bluntly, "to hell with Hausa culture; I am a filmmaker and I want to make money, if you people want a cultural film, do it with your own money". This was circa 2003. This marketing mantra led to more song and dance routines with girls dressed in tight clothes, shaking their body suggestively, EVEN IF THE STORY DOES NOT WARRANT A DANCE! The target was to titillate the audience.

This onscreen behavior of the girls was in fact what made a currency dealer, Bobo,  in Lagos, BET his friends that he could sleep with any of the girls in the Hausa video film industry because, as he unathoratively quoted, "kararuwai ne su". He bet that he could have any of them for N50,000.  They selected Maryam Hiyana for the bet. He lured Maryam with this money and recorded their sex act -- and those who watched it said was explicit penetrative sexual act in full video -- with the video camera of his  handset. He then showed it to his friends to prove that he could do it; one friend downloaded it on his own phone via bluetooth -- and the next thing, the video had started making rounds. I am sure now more than 50,000 might have seen it.

Secondly, WE the audience contributed to this state of affairs. WE buy these films and REFUSE to buy films that are artistic and had a focus on cultural interpretation. Thus WE encourage them to produce more films that titillate.

Finally, the MARKETERS are probably the biggest culprits because they provide the raw cash needed to produce the films -- the more sexually titillating the film is, the higher the marketers will pay to a producer. When we talked to them about this, they also ignored us.

We have been against emphasis on sexuality in Hausa films because if not only it is un-Islamic, it also degrades women. That is the whole essence of my contribution on this topic in this board. Again let us be mindful of the fact that many people have probably recorded as much as such lurid scenes privately with their own phones. I know for a fact that in Kano boys often send pictures of themselves naked to girls via text messages. What makes Maryam's case different is the fact that she belongs to an industry that is seen as representing cultural norms of a certain group of people through her art. It is always the case that those in public could not escape a close scrutnity of their lives. See the case of Pee-Wee Herman, a famous children's actor who was arrested for a personal sexual behavior, and almost ruined his career. Full story at http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/4653913/. Of course we are also mindful of the case of Michael Jackson -- he was tried by the public (and prosecution) not because of his inability to produce good music, but because of his behavior towards children which was considered indecent.

As the English saying goes, "if you can't stand the heat, get out of the kitchen". Those in media are seen as role models, more especially in Hausa societies. Their behaviors are seen as imitatable and copyable by generations of young. The Islamicate environment therefore places high premium on their behavior -- both on and off public. This is a common paradigm in any entertainment industry, not just Hausa societies. The moralists have been sounding alarm bells about the increasing use of erotica in the Hausa films for  along time. The argument given by the film industry is that "this is how your daughters behave". They are sending the wrong message, and it has started backfiring.

The latest update about the current sex scandal in Kannywood  that I call Badakalar Hiyana is that the Hausa filmmakers associations have banned the following actors from engaging in any Hausa film making for some time:

1.   Ummi Nuhu
2.   Ummi Ibrahim (Zee Zee)
3.   Kubura Dhacko
4.   Muhibbat Abdulsalam
5.   Sadiya Yarari
6.   Shamsiyya Habib (Kansakali)
7.   Maijidda Abbas 8. Farida Jalal
9.   Hannatu Umar
10. Ismuha
11. Hajiya Zainab
12. Safiya Musa
13. Zahiyya Ibrahim
14. Hauwa Rafin Dadi
15. Fati Slow
16. Mahe Ibarahim
17. Auwalu Isah West
18. Abba AlMustapha
19. Hassan Gigs
20. Baba Karami
21. Ibrahim Bauni

This decision taken by Filmmakers (and the Kano State Government has banned Maryam Hiyana from appearing in any film for five years) seems to be alittle too late. The LEADERS of the industry are in ALL the films made by these actors. What did the leaders do to prevent these actors from making the song and dance sexuality films almost all the critical establishment is against? I mean an industry Leader will happily appear as a "father" to an actress in one scene, while in the next scene she will be dancing in a tight jeans, and he will claim that "it is not my scene". Do you notice the contradition? Kasimu Yero was more choosy in his films -- which is why everyone keeps seeing his as the quintessential Hausa film hero.

If you read the July edition of FIM magazine, you will read the accounts of how proudly some of these actresses were relating how they have been having explicit sex with a boyfriend (they are fighting over the boyfriend, with each girl claiming she "had" him better) who is a Honda mechanic at Tal'udu in Kano (Nigeria).

I don't think it is fair to judge the Hausa film industry based on the behaviors of some of them. But it must be accepted that they have created contexts and situations where people see the girls as wayward, of loose morals and ready to do anything for money -- whether it is in the artistic potrayal of a  prostitute in a film, or being paid for sex in real life. Allah Ya shirye mu gaba daya.

Abdalla

[Muhsin]

I think, following this scandal that Prof. called Badakalar Hiyana, Hausa film should be banned at all. If this couldn't be done easily, as I suspect for it'll creat some more chaos, it should rightly be re-shaped. We need people like you Prof. to support such effort, so it can be achieved. What do you think about that people?

Off topic: (please my people, am sorry to talk about something like this.)

Prof. Abdallah, I've been to your office for a time morethan count, to show my computer paper printed novel that we've been discussing about in Chit-Chat. Hope things are allright with you. Are you please in the city or on trip?

[Dan-Borno]

Ikon Allah, ni kam har naji kunya, wallahi i have
been expecting this story for a very long time.
Muhsin, i hear you talk about banning hausa film!
its impossible, duk wanda yake son ya yada sharri
in these days, its as simple as ABCD, you have seen
how www.youtube.com in particular has been very
useful and the internet in general, all sorts of videos
you can find them easily, no charge for posting and
no charge for downloading.

As I have been always advicing, let everyone get
hold of his family, train your children according to
the dictates of Islam and through this, we can have
a pure society.  Let us not forget that, Iblis can
transform into the shape of Dan-Adam and do a
lot of things so that he will get followers.

Makin film is all about making money and nothing
else! so these producers can go to whatever height
to sell their products according to the dictates of
the market force.  The higher the demand the
higher the supply also.

Allah sarki, ina su -
Kasimu Yaro
Dan Wanzam
Yar Mai Albasa
Ba Hausa
Boka mai gani har hanji
Mai Aya
Samanja
Mutuwa Dole
Ba'are (Malam Mamman)
Mai Unguwa
Na kande
and lots of them, we appreciate you the more.


Prof. has said it, the fault is mainly from us, because
we dont patronise other hausa home videos where
cultural heritage is being displayed. 

Allah sarki duniya, where are;

Kasimu Yaro
Dan Wanzam
Yar Mai Albasa
Ba Hausa
Waziri (Magana Jarice 1, 2 & 3)
Sankira
Samanja
Mutuwa Dole
Kabani Kabaka
Boka mai gani har hanji
Malam Mamman (Ba'are)
Dabalo
and lots more.........