vice and videos 141clip and that it was her boyfriend who had captured the amorous scene
on his cell phone. The video was discussed in a session of the Kano State
House of Assembly, and “Maryam [was] roundly condemned” (‘Yarshila
2007). Likewise, the chief imam of Zamfara state called for a ban on cell
phones for girls and expressed the opinion that possession of cell phones
by girls “is leading to a total collapse of morals” (quoted in ‘Yarshila).
The fact that it was not a properly produced and edited film but a cell-
phone clip of very poor technical quality, and linked to the video film
industry only through the woman seen in the clip, was of little help to the
members of the Kany wood film industry, who were held collectively re-
sponsible for the immoral act one of them had committed. A lthough lead-
ing Kano filmmakers reacted immediately, announcing a three-month
moratorium on film production (beginning on August 13, 2007) and ex-
pelling seventeen industry members (mostly actresses) notorious for their
immoral behavior, they were unable to prevent an official ban on film-
making, however, which the Kano State Government imposed (Sheme
2007a). In an open letter dated August 16, 2007, A Daidaita Sahu called
the attempts of the Kano State Filmmakers Association at self-regulation
insufficient and advised filmmakers to stop shooting for a full year to
gain enough time to set up solid rules and regulations for sharia-compli-
ant filmmaking. Consequently, the three-year celebration of A Daidaita
Sahu’s founding, which took place in Kano on September 11, 2007, fea-
tured a public immolation of Hausa video films. This demonstrative act
was presided over by the emir of Kano, the grand khadi of Kano State, the
majority leader of the Kano State House of Assembly, and an assistant to
the Kano state governor (Sheme 2007b).
The Task Force Committee on the Sanitization of the Film Industry
was formed, and the directorate of the Censorship Board was exchanged.
W hen the new director, Abubakar Rabo, formerly deputy commander of
the hisbah (religious police), announced on September 21, 2007, the condi-
tions for future filmmaking which the board had drawn up (Sheme 2007c),
it became clear that the control of Hausa video filmmaking was about
to become far more rigid than ever before. The new guidelines included
compulsory registration of film production companies and any individual
involved in the industry (producers, directors, scriptwriters, actors, and
production and postproduction workers), as well as the approval of scripts