A Historical-Analytic Perspective on Islam and Cinematic Culture in Northern Nigeria

Abstract

This article reviewed the intricate relationship between film/cinematic culture and Islam in northern Nigeria and more importantly, the reception of film as a culture in Hausa Muslim societies. Various media ethnographical studies have revealed that since the introduction of cinema, the acceptance and consumption of film and other cinematic products are to a large extent influenced by the Sharia (Holy/ Islamic Law), which serves as a guide for northern filmmakers and a corrective measure for the media representations of the happenings in their societies. The belief of northern Muslims is that films and cinema are harbingers of immorality and should be eschewed. Indeed, and arguably so, this is the general disposition of the northern Muslims to western ways. The overwhelming exertions of the Kano State Film and Video Censors Board (KSCB) make this claim evident. This study considered the mobility and survival of cinematic culture in the heart of Nigeria’s most Islamic centre, Kano, otherwise known as Kannywood. It adopted a historical-analytic approach to the study of the development of cinema in northern Nigeria and examined the cinematic culture vis-à-vis Islam in northern Nigeria. The paper contended that globalisation and the advent of advanced technology are yet to influence film contents from the region or mass acceptance and consumption of modern films by its populace. It concluded that the Sharia and the involvement of Islamic scholars/clerics have inhibited the growth of Kannywood.