140 african appropriations
how the Censorship Board performed its task as well as to commission a
number of writers and filmmakers to produce suitable scripts, and even
finance the production of sharia-compliant films itself, the program’s im-
pact on Kany wood remained marginal for the time being. This was despite
the Censorship Board’s May 2005 ban on mixed-gender dancing and the
wearing of tight-fitting clothes by actresses with straightened, uncovered
ha i r i n fi l ms produced i n K a no (Ada mu 2 008: 1 4). A lso effec t ive f rom M ay
2005, and likewise without any significant effect on Kany wood during
the following two years, were the guidelines proclaimed by the Kwamitin
Ladabtarwa da Daidaita Sahu (Disciplinary and Moral A lignment Com-
mittee), newly founded by the Kano State Filmmakers Association. As
Adamu (2008) points out, these guidelines remained recommendations
without any mechanism for enforcement. Moreover, constituting some-
thing like a code of conduct for actors, directors, and other filmmaking
personnel, the ban addressed the social practices surrounding film pro-
duction rather than the content of the films as such.
A SCANDAL AND ITS AFTERMATHAlthough always on the verge of being banned, Kany wood filmmakers
had managed to sustain their industry until August 2007, when a private,
pornographic cell-phone clip was leaked to the public. The clip of about
eight minutes shows actress Maryam Usman, commonly known by her
stage name Maryam Hiyana—after the title of her breakthrough film,
Hiyana (2006)—having sex with her boyfriend, a Lagos-based Hausa
businessman. Despite the fact that the clip was of a strictly private na-
ture, taken by the boyfriend with his cell phone and never meant to be
circulated (it was made public almost two years later), it served the critics
of Kany wood as ultimate evidence of the industry’s alleged immorality.
Since 2000, rumors had been spreading about “blue films” sooner or later
to be produced in Kano; now the subject matter of such rumors seemed to
have materialized. All in the span of a few days, the clip was uploaded on
the internet, passed on from handset to handset, and literally downloaded
by hundreds of thousands of people. The public outcry focused on the girl,
blaming her alone, despite the fact that two people could be seen in the