Since its formal creation in 1990, Hausa cinema, with its roots in Kano has acted as a major soft power influence on other ethnic cinemas, not only in Nigeria, but throughout West Africa. Soft power is a concept in international relations that refers to the ability of a country or entity to influence others through attraction and persuasion rather than coercion or force (hard power). It involves shaping the preferences and behaviors of others by appealing to shared values, culture, ideals, or policies.
Hindi cinema, for instance, exerts a strong soft power influence on the evolution of Hausa cinema because of perceived commonalities between Indian and Muslim Hausa societies (e.g., in cultural behavior, dressing and food – biryani, for instance, is really jollof rice (dafaduka) with a fancy foreign name).
The monolithic, and often suppressive power of Hausa has enabled it to penetrate into spaces where even in households, it supplants the languages of the household owners. This created a sociolinguistic situation where non-ethnic Hausa speak the language even among themselves in their home zones. Think about the ethnic Fulani who can’t speak Fulfulde; or Yemeni Arabs who can’t speak Arabic, and you have a perfect picture of the soft power of Hausa language.
The infusive spread of the language led to a distorted utterly wrong historiography of the language that created a narrative that says there is nothing like Hausa people – only Hausa language, as any person who speaks the language is Hausa. Simply because it has supplanted other languages. Of course, this is part of the “cancel culture” that seeks to eliminate the cultural identity of the Hausa. Thanks to John Paden’s creation of “Hausa-Fulani” (1973), the picture becomes muddled.
The evolution of Hausa cinema created a vibrant industry that is a critical ambassador of Hausa culture and traditions from the establishment of first TV shows on NTA and CTV to Turmin Danya feature film, covering 1979 to 1999. That it became dominated by non-Hausa from 1997 who nevertheless use the language to popularize themselves, instead of their own primary languages, revealed a glaring lack of concern for other languages, particularly in northern Nigeria. Enter Northern Filmmakers Association of Nigeria (NFAN).
I was privileged to be a guest and participant at a NFAN roundtable on November 16, 2024 at Ni’ima Guest Place Hotel, Kano where Association held its 5th Annual National Convention and Awards Night. To be frank, despite this being the fifth annual convention, this was the first time I was even aware of the Association, but I was extremely happy to be part of the roundtable, for it enabled issues to be raised. These issues were perfectly captured by the theme of the convention: “Celebrating the Rich Cultural Heritage and Diversity of the Northern Nigeria through Film.” It was moderated by Lonny John Lohnan, the national Director of Events, Training and Film Enterprises of the Association.
The focus of the roundtable session was to explore how filmmakers in northern Nigeria can use cinema to preserve and promote the region’s diverse cultural heritage. Discussions focused on the balance between modernization and tradition, the portrayal of local stories, and the challenges of maintaining cultural authenticity in a globalized world. The key questions the panelists answered included how can filmmakers ensure their work reflects the rich traditions and values of northern Nigeria? How can films strengthen cultural identity and pride in the northern Nigerian youth?
Proudly swirling his oTárók dreadlocks, Lonny John lohnan an independent film maker, an actor, director and a script writer brilliantly moderated the session, firmly. That his personality and filmmaking from Jos have not suffused northern cultural spaces is precisely the point of this posting. Lonny speaks the Hausa language, but is more comfortable in his iTárók language of which he is very proud of and has made a film, Nga Npayal in his language. Also, that many of the officials of NFAN are filmmakers subsumed under essentially dominant Hausa film culture precisely proves the need for Northern Filmmakers Association.
Interestingly, many of the directors that can be considered NFAN are already hugely successful in Nollywood, streaming their films under that banner on platforms like Netflix, Showmax, Apple TV, Amazon Prime). These included Ishaya Bako (I Do Not Come To You By Chance), Kenneth Gyang (Blood Sisters), Abba T. Makama (The Lost Okoroshi), 93 Days (Steve Gukas), Nadine Ibrahim (Beyond the Veil) and Atiya Dimbo (The Plan). These filmmakers do not consider themselves ‘Kannywood’, despite being northerners, precisely because first they have only one or two mainstream Hausa performers.
Additionally, their films were in English, the virtually agreed preserve of Nollywood. Further, their storylines do not mesh with Kabiru Jammaje’s Kannywood English genre; theirs have a definite film theory underpinning their stories. Yet despite being in the NFAN geopolitical zone (‘Middle Belt’, with Plateau dominating), they are essentially caught between being ‘north’ and ‘Nollywood’. I just call them ‘Northern Nollywood’.
NFAN is a platform that hopes to give ‘minority’ language filmmakers voices and enable them to be heard above the rising cacophony of Hausa voices dominating the industry in their zones. Instead of subjugating themselves to Hausa cinema for small roles, or going hog all the way to Nollywood, they are now realizing that just like any other ethnic group in the north, they have voices, stories to tell and culture to be proud of which they can showcase to the world through the visual medium. This is significant because it will enable exploration of the diverse cultural, religious and linguistic ecosystems of northern Nigeria. It will also encourage bonding and inclusiveness to enable us to understand, appreciate and honor our differences, removing baseless bigotry and jaundice about each other.
The question that would arise, though, is whether there is a need for another filmmakers’ association in the north of Nigeria? Afterall, MOPPAN (Motion Picture Practitioners Association of Nigeria) is the umbrella organization for all Nigerian filmmakers (and taking ‘Nigerian’ with a pinch of salt). In reality, it is an umbrella body providing guidance and capacity building for the development of the industry not only in Kano, but in the northern part of Nigeria. Its Kano center of gravity apparently pushes out filmmakers in Taraba, Bauchi, Plateau, Benue, Niger, etc., in decidedly non-Kano languages, and again further justifies NFAN.
True enough, there have not been other language (beside Hausa) films in sufficient quantity to attract even regional attention. That was because of the overarching shadow of Hausa cinema. This was made clear by Evans Ejioju, the Head of the Original Drama and Film Division of Arewa24 as well as the Executive Producer of Kwana Casa’in, a hugely successful TV show about political corruption that resonates at least with northern Nigeria, its domain. He was also the representative of Africa Magic cluster of African film channels was present at the meeting and explained why even if there are non-Hausa films, they will have to be screen under the Hausa channels at the beginning to gauge their popularity (after all, he is a marketer). In my view, this only supplants the originality of the NFAN indigenous films under the general ‘Hausa’ rubric. Perhaps that’s why filmmakers like Abba T. Makama opted out for cultural identification under Nollywood.
The Kano NFAN is curated by Mahmoud Mukhtar Daneji Chairman Kano, Sani Ahmed Kankarofi, National Secretary, with Shuaibu Idris Lilisco, all well-known Hausa filmmakers. Lilisco, in particular, served as a strong motivator for me to attend the convention due to his significance in my ethnographic researches on Hausa cinema when I started sometimes in 2000. I was humbled to be made a Patron of the Association at the event. The struggle, as they say, continues!
- Adamu is a professor at Bayero University Kano (BUK)
