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Hausa Home Videos: A Reflection of the Society By Umar Bello There are nowadays many complaints about the Hausa film industry which border on their immorality and the need for them to preserve the real Hausa identity and culture. The more we probe further into this phenomenon the more we see our faces in the mirror. While we point an accusing index finger, the rest of the four fingers are pointing at us. Hausa films have timelessly given us mirror with which to see ourselves and define our present looks. If what we see is unsightly or incongruous, it is not the mirror that is at fault but ourselves. The reflection is not at all designed on purpose for that is beyond their intellectual purview but an accidental fluke from which discerning minds could make an intellectual capital. To the artistes,theirs is all about moral education but reverse is certainly and obviously the case. There is no gainsaying the fact that Hausa film artistes do not just leap down from space or are some mutants, they are part and parcel of our society. Their behavior or misbehavior is all a product of a society that is fast collapsing morally. First there is the need to look at the fact from an economic viewpoint. These youths mostly from poor homes have taken to acting as a way to make ends meet in a society where nearly all means of livelihood have been totally eclipsed and a handful few are those controlling everything. The industry has become a means of making fast buck. One may say that 'acting a Hausa Film is not a morally upright profession, but so are a deluge of professions in today's Nigeria. Without being necessarily cynical, you can hardly find any profession in Nigeria that is totally bereft of one corruption or the other. At the moral level, Hausa films only offer a pinch of the debauchery and depravity that take place in our society today. One need only venture the streets of our hitherto traditional Hausa society and see the transformation it has undergone via hip-hop culture. Youths go in dreadlocks with faded denims and over-sized sweat shirts singing the latest pop songs from the West. The dressing, the mannerism, the moral bankruptcy have all been totally imbibed from the West especially among the semi-educated youths. Once one complained about a film where someone slaps his father-in-law, it is not impossible in our today's Hausa society. Worse happens. We are living in a society that is increasingly becoming lecherous. Sex has become so liberal both overtly and covertly. Incest, homosexuality and pedophilia, highly foreign to us, have also become the order of the day. Our sense of morality has become d epraved and religion is only a facial expression. Go to our citadels of learning and see how students have today become. The Sani Danjas are only a fleeting reflection of the nearly 'madrigas' state of youths. Female artistes can not hold down marriage just as millions of women in our society can not. It is only by coincidence that marriages of female artistes break up. That is only a whiff of the magnitude of broken marriages in our society. People go into this serious institution without the slightest idea of what it entails. Marriage, to them, is just about partying, colorful nuptial procession and the arrangement of bridal chinaware! The moment the razz-matazz wears off then the starry-eyed couple are faced with the reality of the institution of marriage. After the honeymoon, the real moons start counting. Lastly, any work of art, be it writing or drama, should be able to serve as a beacon of morality to the society or should be able to be didactic. Our traditional folktales are moral teachings that have the functionalist role of moral socialization of our children. Hausa films have not been able to perform a functionalist role for obvious reasons which again boil down to an ugly reality. For one to make a meaningful film, he must be educated but education has become totally unattainable and unaffordable. Many masses are only looking for how to biologically survive at the moment not even the issue of projecting for the future through education. The educated ones who should perform this role are competing for the few white-collar jobs that exist. Everyone troops to Abuja, the cornucopia of the proverbial black gold. To compound the problem, the largely uneducated audience do not care at all about films on moral teaching and cultural preservation; these are for a trifling University egg-heads to enjoy, all they want are the singings and dancings, the saccharine love themes and the latest in couture from the female artistes. Here again lies another great tragedy in our society. If the audience are educated these slap-and-case films could certainly have been edged out by market forces. But it is a happy marriage of convenience where the uneducated artistes churn out their films for the consumption of the largely uneducated audience. Little wonder that 'Gamji' film which clearly depicts a traditional Hausa Islamic society has not made an in-road but 'Bakar Ashana' which is a morally bankrupt film has been totally sold. The producer of 'Gamji' not knowing the ropes is there lamenting. The producers have complained that serious films devoid of music never make any commercial impact.They will have to strike a balance between economics and ethics and between pandering to the satisfaction of a few film connoisseurs or critics and to that of an overwhelming majority which translates into a swelling bank account for them. They elect for the latter, their reward should be here in cash, for all they care, not hanging up in heaven or in a University's role of honour. Umar Bello JUBAIL, K S A
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