REVISITING THE KANO FILM VILLAGE

The Hausa Film Industry, popularly known as Kannywood, is one of the major youth employers in the Northern region. From the moment a writer put his pen on a paper, that power of the pen, creates a cascading chain of jobs ranging from, scriptwriters, artists, producers, directors, technicians, translators, editors, cinematographers, transporters, hoteliers, tailors, hawkers, marketers, distributors and even married women that rent out costumes and cook food for shooting locations. Hardly an industry is as rich as the film industry. The importance of this industry in creating jobs and generating wealth could only be understood by the realization that no less than 26 different professions are associated with it, directly or indirectly.

Kano city, since the early 1990’s had been the hub of the Hausa Film Industry, an industry that was created and sustained solely by its practitioners with neither an incentive from government nor patronage by local investors, yet the industry continued to thrive rapidly providing several needed jobs for our youths and serving as a platform to exhibit multitude of talents and showcase culture. I think it is high time for us to revisit the proposed Film Village project initiated by Hon. Abdulmuminu Jibril but was killed by the combined myopia of politicians like Ganduje and Kawu Sumaila with their cohorts in the clerical circle. Before I delve further into ways I think we should pursue in this direction, we need to understand the importance of the film industry towards our socio-economic prosperity and the need to put all hands on deck in taking it to a new dimension.

One needs to examine the success story of Korean films to understand the logic behind this move. Korean culture is very much similar to Hausa in many ways as the society is held together by the powerful traditional system and values where religion is very influential in setting the tone for their morality. Koreans had started their movie industry since 1903 but were not a force to reckon with in international cinema until 1999 with the release of “Shiri, which became a blockbuster as 5 million watched it, breaking the record of the film “Titanic” in the country. The “Korean fever” became a wildfire engulfing China and most part of Asia, substantially enhancing the popularity of Korean culture all over the world and at the same time saving the country from financial crisis. The Korean government, after realizing the source of revenue the film industry can generate left no stone unturned in providing legislation, promote the industry and export the films worldwide. In a few decades Korean culture was being sold in the international arena as a commodity and their film industry today is ranked 7^th in terms of revenue generation.

The proposed Kano Film Village could have given us the opportunity to turn around the Kannywood industry into a real money making machine, job creator and a commodity for export like the Koreans did. In the past, we had seen how rejection of western education, because of similar skepticism, is now making us pay. I remember during the Film Village imbroglio I was among the people that went to meet Kano Shari’a commission officials including their chairman in an effort to bring them up to speed about the project and find common grounds, but unfortunately they cancelled the meeting at the last minute but we had an informal chat with the chairman and Malam Abduljabbar Nasiru Kabara, who happens to be one of the commissioners for the commission. What I raised on that meeting, particularly to Malam Abduljabbar, was being a frequent visitor to Egypt, has he not seen how they allowed film village to operate? Did that not gave the religious minded government in Egypt the leverage to control the whole industry? Besides, a kind of film village already exist in Zoo Road, at the heart of Kano city, the center of Kannywood, where films are produced, consumed and exported elsewhere. Shouldn’t this be an opportunity for the moralist to seize? As the proposed film village in Kofa would have given them an easier way to offer meaningful contributions in sanitizing the industry? Or are they deluded enough to think that the Hausa Film industry could be wiped away by mere wishful thinking and limited moral rhetoric’s? For better or for worse, the Kannywood industry has come to stay and expert even predicted in the next few years to be the biggest investment in Kano city. Therefore no amount of criticism will make it go away, instead we need constructive criticism to move it forward to everyone’s advantage.

There is no industry I know of that has the potential of returns with minimum risk of loss, like the Kannywood industry despite the obvious fact that it doesn’t have the right infrastructure to maximize benefit. A teacher of mine in script writing from Hollywood once told us that in every individual there is a story to tell, therefore looking back into the history of our kings, it is notable that we could make several series with 52 episodes in stories like that of: Pagan life and worships in the Barbushe era, the Arrival of Islam as far back as the 14^th century (With the Wangarawa’s) during Rumfa’s reign, Al-Maghili and his influence on Kano scholarship and the jihadists destroying some Habe kings records. Among the most interesting stories of Kings that needs to be told to local and international audience are: The first king Bagauda, the twin rulers Nawata and Gawata who were the fourth kings, Tsamiya the 9^th and Zamnagawa the 10^th.  Yaji the 11^th King in whose reign the wangarawa introduced Islam to the emirate. The greatest of all our kings in terms of transformation, the 20th King Muhammadu Rumfa, and the twisting story of deposition and comeback during the reigns of Kukuna-Shekarau-Kukuna who happened to be the 32^nd, 33^rd and 34^th Kings. There is Alwali, who was the threshold between the end of an era (The Habe dynasty) and that of a new one (ushered by the Fulani Jihad and conquest). Sulaiman, the first Fulani ruler and the 44^th King, the last but by far not the least, Ibrahim Dabo the 45^th King, whose bicentennial event is unfolding.

There is the Documentary genre, which is virgin, that we could explore to the fullest which will serve as source of easier enlightenment to our illiterate population and an avenue to showcase our rich culture and potential to the world. Through documentaries we could attract investors and market for our arts and craft, agricultural potential and revive religious values just to mention a few. Making such movies, will showcase to the world (and revive and rekindle for us) the wonderful Hausa architecture, exotic regalia of our costumes, paraphernalia of war and peace, success and influence of Islam, superior moral values, power intrigues and struggle and also the Hausa identity, beside the entertainment of our music and musical instruments and the Romeo and Juliet like love stories found in almost every generation. Most of all, such production will revive the moribund industry, attract investment and generate the much needed foreign exchange the state and country desperately needed.

Kannywood certainly has the greatest potential at the moment to lead in creating new employments opportunities and appropriate commitment in reviving the film village will give us the platform needed to re-awaken our society towards making the right leap towards development. We have seen how the imperialist west in a space of few decades, using the Hollywood, has exported democracy, capitalism and western lifestyle across the world without the use of bullets and occupation forces. The eastern economic giants, especially China and Korea, are now using the same approach and it is working. We need to toe the path as soon as possible.