vice and videos 145the governor, who was wearing the same striped garment described by
the lyrics (Sanusi 2008).
Faced with harassment by the censors whose dubious actions seemed
to be backed by the state government, Kany wood practitioners began
to fight back. More than once moppan and individual filmmakers sued
the chief censor, Abubakar Rabo, for defamation: in August 2009, for
example, Rabo was sued in a sharia court in Kano after calling filmmak-
ers “a bunch of homosexuals and lesbians” in a radio interview (Sheme
2 009c); a nd i n Ju ly 2 010, he wa s sued i n a mag ist rate cou r t i n K adu na a fter
accusing Hausa filmmakers, in a television interview, of producing por-
nographic movies and calling upon the citizens of Kaduna to chase them
out of the state (Sheme 2010). A lthough summoned by the courts, Rabo
never appeared before any judge. Instead, the intimidation of Kany wood
practitioners by the Censorship Board’s task force, raids on shops and of-
fices, and arrests and convictions by the board’s mobile court continued.
Kany wood singers and composers fought back, using their music as
weapons. Adam A. Zango, Rabo’s first victim, took revenge with his music
video Oyoyo (2008), in which he calls on God to deal with those who jailed
him (McCain 2013). The video shows him in a prison environment “pump-
ing iron” with fellow inmates. Members of a group headed by Aminu A la
jointly produced the song “Hasbunallahu” (2009). The title refers to a
well-known Islamic prayer which is used to implore God’s help in troubled
times. In the song, “God is exhorted to destroy the enemies of the artists,
who are opposed to their art and the people” (Liman 2010: 56). Other
musicians turned to irony. Rapper Ziriums (Nazir Hausawa) addressed
the government restrictions on singing and dancing in Kano in his song
“Girgiza kai” (Shake your head, 2008): “Hey, don’t dance, you know they
banned it / The governor of our city here. He banned it / If you hear a
good beat, just shake your head” (quoted in McCain 2010a). Although
the Censorship Board dragged Aminu A la and some of his fellow mu-
sicians involved in the production of “Hasbunallahu” before its mobile
court (Sheme 2009c, 2009d) and banned the song along with ten others,
it became famous and spread from handset to handset.
The battle between the censors and the filmmakers took an unexpected
turn when Abubakar Rabo became involved in his very own sex scandal.
On August 22, 2010, the police in Kano arrested him after a late-night car