Presidential Debates: Shekarau on the Kano State Censorship Board and the Hausa-Language Film Industry

During yesterdays’ presidential debates Ibrahim Shekarau was asked about and commented on the Kano State Censorship Board and the effects of its policies on the Kano based film industry.

Video streaming by Ustream

Carmen transcribed the relevant bit (I did as well but she catches some phrases I didn’t).

[Time Code: 44:45]

Moderator: Now, you say that but in practical terms the impact of the hisbah in Kano has included killing a film industry that was providing employment, what is known in Nigeria as Kannywood. So there has been an exodus of filmmakers out of Kano, who get harassed when they are on shoots, who have been asked to submit their scripts for inspection, and a total disregard of the people’s rights to express themselves through art in that particular way.

Shekarau: No, I think that is totally wrong. The hisbah has nothing to do with the censorship. We have a full fledged censorship board, created by law through the legislation. And the censorship board has created rules and regulations that govern the conduct of any film industry. We have a right to decide what is right for the community. The government has the moral responsibility to protect the right, the interest, the instant transformation (?) of the society. (Clapping). So all we did, all we did, we said, if you want to register and run a film industry, you should comply with A,B, C, D, F, and we told anybody who feels any of these rules and regulations contradicts the provision of the constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria should challenge us in court, and nobody has done that anyhow.

Moderator: You seem to be very strong in terms of protecting the rights of the majority. What about the rights of the minority inside the state that you govern.

Shekarau: We are protecting. In fact it may interest you to know that Kano state today is the most peaceful state in Nigeria. If you ask any of the so-called minority or non-indigene, they are quite happy, they are quite peaceful. In fact, today, you will be surprised to find that those you call non-indigenes or even the non-Muslim prefer to go for settlement of disagreement within the community either to the hisbah court or to the censorship board. We don’t have any problem at all. The rules are working. The society has accepted it. The film industry is thriving very well. All we say is abide by the rules and regulations. And there is no community that will live without guiding principles, without rules and regulations and will think that there will be discipline and order in that community.

I am not knowledgeable enough to comment on Shekarau’s claims here in any detail. Let’s just say that the news sources I follow do not quite bear out the picture of peaceful co-existence of the Kano State Censorship Board and film makers the governor paints in the debate. There have been court cases and there is talk of prominent film makers relocating to Kaduna. I leave it to Carmen to provide you with further detail on the disputes and legal battles. She is more familiar with the Hausa-language film industry and has been blogging about ongoing developments here. I am confident she will also link to the responses to Shekarau's comments by stakeholders in Kano's creative industries if and when they are published.

More Beautiful Posters from Kano

Exciting find. If you are me that is. If you are me and terribly excited about the repeatedly mentioned religious posters from Kano. At Marifah.Net there are some gorgeously beautiful photographs. I’m particularly excited about the one depicting wall murals of Tijani sheikhs inside a house in Kano. I have some qualms republishing it here. I have been at this particular sheikh’s house in Kano with my friend Nura in summer 2008. I asked permission to photograph the murals but was politely asked not to take a photo. But I’m terribly excited about stumbling across it on the net. I’m amazed by the beauty of these murals. But instead, let me republish a photograph of a poster on the site which I too think is terribly fascinating. It's a poster made for sale so I’m more comfortable publishing it.

In this regard a short plea for help: Pls. I tried to contact the people behind that website but my messages via the contact page don’t seem to have gone through. If anybody has advice on how to get in touch pls. let me know. Basically, to get permission to publish the photograph of the wall murals here and to use it as an illustration in my PhD.

This aside, I should probably use this blog post as an opportunity to wish everybody ‘Barka da Azumi’ before I head straight back into proof reading and revising my thesis.

Kano Contemporary Arts Masterpieces

News from the Goethe Institute in Kano!

Dear friends of the Goethe-Institut Nigeria,

More than 1,100 visitors came to the Kano Liaison Office alone in the first two weeks to see the exhibition "Kano Contemporary Arts Masterpieces". Tomorrow will be the last chance to see the artworks: Sunday evening, 7^th February 2010, the exhibition will close its doors.

Quite a number of extensive reports were published in the Nigerian press about the exhibition. Read

* Adie Vanessa Offiong "Kano to see Northern Nigerian Masterpieces" in Weekly Trust, 15.01.2010

* Sadiq Abdullateef "Goethe-Institut Nigeria presents Kano Contemporary Arts Exhibition" in Triumph Newspapers, 16.01.2010

* Ruqayyah Yusuf Aliyu "From the Kano Arts Exhibition" in Sunday Trust, 29.01.2010

Sandar Kiwo or the Blessings of Facebook

Oh, the blessings of the world wide web and applications such as Facebook! – I just found Ado Ahmad of Gidan Dabina online! I met him last year in Kano and we had a rather long and lively discussion about the illustrations on the covers of Hausa novels. We met later again when he was planning to go to Germany. But since an email convesation some time in February we haven’t really been talking, so that was a really pleasant surprise.

Anyway, he told me about his latest project: A collaboration with the British Council that led to the production of a feature film that he is currently internationally promoting and so I thought I just post it here – just in case anybody who might be interested in screening the film might be reading this. In that case you can contact him via his blog Taskar Gidan Dabino or get in touch with me via the email on my profile and I'll forward anything.

SANDAR KIWO’S BACKGROUND

Sandar Kiwo film is one of the six carefully selected film scripts which was a product of Women in Shari’ah Video Project which emanated from a research carried out by Centre of Islamic and Legal Studies (CILS), Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria on improving the condition of Muslim women in Northern Nigeria. The research report identified practices relating to abuse of women’s rights under the pretext of Shari’ah through miscarriage of justice or in the name of tradition and culture. The identified areas of these practices covered in the film are:

• Girl child education

• Marriage and marital relations

• Divorce

• Custody of children [hadhana]

• Economic rights

• Inheritance

• Property ownership

• Access to health and reproductive services

• Access to justice

• Criminal justice

Sandar Kiwo film was produced by Gidan Dabino International (GDI), Kano- Nigeria to address the aforementioned women rights abuses; and to successfully achieve the said goal, an action plan was developed to address the major challenges facing the rights of women in Northern Nigeria by applying the principles of Shari’ah to promote and protect those rights.

The film project which Security, Justice & Growth (SJG), Kano initiated and supported financially in collaboration with British Council and DFID aims to support the production and distribution of Home video to address themes which promote the rights of women through Shari’ah. Hausa Home video films are very popular and watched by millions of viewers within and beyond Nigeria, which make them (films) potentially important medium of dissemination of ideas in addition to being an established source of entertainment.

Under the terms of reference of this project, SJG will support the development, production, and distribution of six Home video films by professional Home video producers based on themes from CILS Shari’ah booklet. Through competitive process 8 scripts developed by script writers who have been familiarized with content of the CILS Shari’ah booklet will be selected. SJG will then subsidize the elected Home video producers to develop the scripts into home video films of good quality. In addition to assisting the producers to distribute the films, SJG will organize weekly public shows of the films at two selected locations in Kano and Jigawa states. Each show will be followed by a focus group discussion with the viewers over the women right issues raised. At the conclusion of the organized public shows, an evaluation will be conducted at each of the locations to assess the films impact on awareness and attitudes of the viewers.

And as part of Gidan Dabino International’s effort to give Sandar Kiwo the desired wider international attention, we advertise the firm on the Internet, local media and reach out to International students studying Hausa in Universities in Africa and across the world especially in USA, Germany and United Kingdom.