90 african appropriations
upper-class American bachelor. The Hausa popular imagination is am-
bivalent toward a ’dan mai ku’di, who may be admired and envied for an
affluence that affords him an easy lifestyle but who may also be regarded
with suspicion for the potential breach of Hausa social norms implied
by his Westernization. In Masoyiyata, this latter aspect combines with
Zay yad’s rude behavior toward Binta and therefore gives Zay yad an evil
air. Evilness then becomes associated with the world outside Nigeria or,
more prec isely, A mer ica. A bdu l, Z ay yad ’s r iva l, is consequent ly por t rayed
as a country bumpkin—less sophisticated than globalized Zay yad and al-
most rustic in his manners—but of good character and with an unspoiled
heart. Titanic’s class distinction is translated topologically: a spoiled rich
kid and globetrotter versus a poor young guy who has never left Nigeria.
Since gambling is considered a sin among the Muslim Hausa and would
have cast the character in a bad light, Abdul cannot win his ticket “in
a lucky-handed poker,” like Jack Dawson. A “lottery” has to serve this
purpose—an allusion to the American Diversity Visa Lottery that offers
up to 6,000 American immigrant visas (but without any financial support
for traveling) each year to Nigerians who are otherwise ineligible.
Binta and Abdul express their love and yearning for each other in song-
and-dance sequences. Such spectacular interruptions of the narrative are
a stylistic device borrowed from Indian film and a common feature of
Hausa videos. This musical approach seeks to bring social and religious
acceptability to on-screen male-female romantic encounters that would
otherwise be frowned upon if expressed diegetically (see chapter 4). Since
these musical numbers are also important in selling a film, producers
spend a considerable part of their budgets on the choreography in and
editing of such sequences. Masoyiyata has three musical sequences. The
first is a faint reference to Titanic’s Irish dance party transposed from
steerage to first class. In this rather unspectacular, almost diegetic se-
quence, Abdul shows up at Zay yad’s party and sings a song to Binta. The
second song-and-dance scene is considerably more elaborate and looks
like a hybrid of Indian film and mtv video clip. Binta, clad in various
costumes ranging from American college dress to Indian sari, is super-
imposed on changing backdrops—a waterfall, a beach, fireworks, a cloudy
sky. The tune is borrowed from Céline Dion’s song “My Heart Will Go
On,” whose melody appears in Cameron’s Titanic as a musical theme for