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Vice and Videos

KANYWOOD UNDER DURESS

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I n M a r c h 2 0 0 5 , an ultraorthodox Muslim group organized a public
burning of hundreds of videotapes to protest an awards ceremony for
Hausa video film stars, to be held in Bauchi state, in northern Nigeria.
In his speech, the leader of the group justified the symbolic act as pious:
“We are gathered here to repent to Allah and to demonstrate our disgust
at all those sinners, immoral people and hooligans who broadcast sins, and
who are trying to do the same in our part of Nigeria. We are gathered to
burn these video tapes, set them on fire because they are paths to hell-fire”
(quoted in Adamu 2007: 90). The public burning of videotapes, carried
out repeatedly in the ensuing years, was the most visible sign of the public
controversy that surrounded moral corruption and the alleged un-Islamic
nature of Hausa video films in northern Nigeria. This chapter traces the
history of that controversy in the city of Kano, the center of a Hausa video
film industry dubbed Kany wood.
Early on, many Hausa video films were inspired by Indian movies. The
most evident marker of this inspiration was the frequent use of song-and-
dance sequences in Hausa videos. This stylistic device in particular—
showing women and men dancing together, singing about their love and
yearning for one another—sparked public debate. Against the backdrop
of religious revival, epitomized by the reintroduction of sharia law into