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[Appeared in SARARI Bayero Journal of Theatre and Performing Arts, Vol. 1, Aug. 2020, (pp. 16-34). Kano: Department of
Theatre and Performing Arts, Bayero University.]
Reconstructing the Muslim-Hausa Cultural Ideology: A Reading of Kamal S.
Alkali’s Sumayya
Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim
Institute of African Studies and Egyptology
University of Cologne
muhsin2008@gmail.com
Abstract
Despite many attempts and debates, there is yet no consensus concerning the definition
of culture or that of religion. However, several scholars see no difference between the
two. Other scholars believe that although culture and religion are not the same, they
go hand in hand in many respects. Either way, religion has been essential in the life of
millions of Africans and much more significant in that of Hausa people across West
Africa and beyond. Hausa and Islam are considered synonymous in that part of Africa
as Arabic and Islam are in most parts of the world. Therefore, numerous Hausa cultural
ideologies do largely overlap with Islamic faith and principles. The continuous rise of
globalisation introduced yet another strand to these cultural ideologies, thereby making
it more complicated for Hausa filmmakers to choose themes that are possibly
acceptable to all. This article, thus, studies a ‘provocative’ Hausa film, Sumayya (dir.
Kamal S. Alkali, 2018) that challenges a more accepted, established Muslim-Hausa
belief in Ruqya (exorcism) and attempts to (re)construct another.
Keywords: Culture, Hausa, Ideology, Identity, Islam, Kannywood
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Introduction
It is necessary to attempt a definition of “Hausa”, in order to situate the overall argument of this
paper. The word “Hausa” refers to both a people and a language, which, according to Ethnologue’s
2019 projection has more than 60 million speakers across West Africa, with northern Nigeria as
its heartland. Several jigsaws related to the linguistic diversity of the country, particularly the
northern region, make it difficult to establish what might be called “Hausaness” (Furniss 1996;
Lange 2008; Sutton 2010), and the precise definition of who is Hausa, a contentious issue (Ahmad
2004:143). Today, as Haour and Rossi (2010:24) conclude, “‘Hausaness’ involved considerable
negotiated and situational aspects”.
In Northern Nigeria, Hausa people are especially dominant in Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Zaria and
Daura and beyond. Lambu (2020:1147) opines that “[t]he boundaries of Hausa ethnicity and Hausa
culture are language, religion, social values, dress, and historical status” (my italics for emphasis).
Religion is essential in the life of millions of Africans (Palmberg 2011) and much more significant
in that of Hausa people. Islam has come to define a Hausa man’s identity. Haour and Rossi
(2010:14) note that “Islam has certainly been influential in all spheres of social and political life
in some of the major Hausa centres since at least the fifteenth century”. Paden (1973), as cited by
Lambu (2020:1148), traces that “Christianity has its initial history in Kano beginning in 1905 with
the advent of colonialism.” As Kano is one of the densest Hausa-speaking societies in the world
(Mortimore 1975), the interval in the coming of Christianity and Islam shows how established the
latter was before the arrival of the former among Hausa people.
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In many instances, religion becomes and is an identity marker. “[t]he relationship between religion
and culture is an old and an on-going debate (Beyers, 2017:1)”. As mentioned above, the religion
that characterises and even defines Hausa religio-cultural identity is Islam – for apparent reasons.
For hundreds of years, Hausa culture and identity are tied with Islam. For this reason, McIntyre
(2010:86) correctly argues that “while the assumption in West Africa that, if you speak Hausa you
are a Muslim, is, strictly speaking, inaccurate, it is not unfounded. Only a small percentage of
Hausa are Christians, and an even smaller percentage are ar̃na or maguzawa (‘pagans’).” In other
words, Hausa and Islam are considered synonymous in that part of Africa as Arabic and Islam are
in most parts of the world. But, Hausa people had their traditional religions before Islam and
Christianity.
According to Mu’azu and Shehu (2016:291), “Traditional religion is one of the oldest practices of
the Hausa people that has a strong place in Hausa culture, ditto superstitions”. Other scholars such
as Bunza (2006), Chamo (2006), Gobir (2011), among others, have written quite extensively on
Hausa traditional religion and superstitions. These works and more corroborate the saying that
religion, before the advent of both Christianity and Islam, has always been vital in the life of Hausa
people. Thus, religion becomes one of the most recurrent themes in many Hausa films.
Nevertheless, traditional religion is hardly if ever promoted or propagated in most of these films
as Islam forbids its faithful from fusing it with any other religion. However, the makers of
Sumayya, as critically analysed later on in the article, come with a difference. The filmmakers
have, thus, entered the race in the construction, reconstruction and deconstruction of Muslim-
Hausa cultural ideologies.
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Construction of Hausa Culture
Palmberg (2001:199) points out that “culture is by nature complex”. Given the evident breadth of
the term ‘culture’ (Baldwin et al. 1999), it is a Sisyphean task to attempt defining it here. Still, for
this article, Raymond Williams’s definition is relevant. The legendary cultural analyst sees culture
as “a particular way of life, whether of a people, a period or a group, or humanity in general”
(Williams, 1983:90). On a cultural perspective, Hausa people are easily identified in places far
away from Hausa land through their farming and Islamic practice (Paden 1973). In other words,
what people do, their way of life, becomes their culture. In relation to Paden’s view, notably his
mention of Islamic practice, Adamu (2001) summarises the codes provided by Kirk-Green (1974)
and Alhassan et al. (1982) as what constitute “tarbiyya” (good upbringing) of Hausa people into
eighteen canons, thus:
Table I: The English Translation
Kirk-Green Alhassan et al. Common
1. Trust (also referred to as
strict friendliness
7. Sociability, friendliness 15. Truth
2. Open-handed generosity 8. Solidarity 16. Bashfulness
3. Patience 9. Religiosity, Piety 17. Scrupulous
4. Good sense 10. Gentle, Sensitive 18. Courtesy
5. Self-esteem 11. Tactfulness
6. Wisdom 12. Reserved, serious
13. Industrious, gainfully employed
14. Fortitude, Courage, Bravery
Source: Adamu (2001)
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Although culture is dynamic, one thing is manifest from the above table; the binding relationship
between Hausa culture and religion (Islam). It is so as the religion deals with both the spiritual
and the material life of its adherents. As no culture is an island, therefore the mixture of Islamic
and the traditional Hausa culture is not a surprise. Ibrahim (2019:116) points out that “Northern
Nigeria has been a melting pot of transnational cultures more especially from the Arab and Western
world”. Several reasons bring about cultural changes such as contact with people from other
cultures through trading, migration, conquest and other forms of voluntary or forceful mobility.
These agents of change are everywhere, and their impact or effect can be profound. Baldwin et al.
(1999:15) explain that “cultures adapt, change and mutate into new forms”. For good or otherwise,
the aphorism that no culture is an island remains as valid as ever. Hausa is no exception in
undergoing such cultural changes.
As mentioned before, Islam has permeated into the life of Hausa people for centuries. As cited in
Lambu (2020:1148), Islamic religion arrived into Kano as early as 999 and became significant
around 1380 (Adamu 1999 in Adamu, 2018:3). The religion has since then been accepted by a
large percentage of the population of Hausa people far beyond Kano. Hashim and Walker
(2014:128) remark that “Hausa ethnic identity is intimately tied to being Muslim; the non-Muslim
ethnic Hausas are identified by another label – Maguzawa”. Further, the 1804 Jihad of Sheikh
Usman Dan Fodio instituted Islam as a state religion in most of Hausaland, which eventually
brought about a lot of changes to the Hausa kingdoms and people (Last 1967).
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Although Hausa and Fulani are entirely two distinct ethnolinguistic groups, the two are often put
together and hyphenated as “Hausa-Fulani”. The Jihad, led by the Fulani leader (Sheikh Usman
Dan Fodio) and his commanders, most of whom are also from the same Fulani clan, resulted in
the Fulani conquest of the ancient Hausa States and brought about the establishment of emirates
in today’s northern Nigerian states, each headed by an emir descended from the Fulani conquerors.
This changed not only the feudal system that was in existence before the Jihad but also the entire
cultural system, including religious and social landscape in the whole region. Presently, many
people identify as Hausa-Fulani due to prolonged intermarriages among them. Fulani people are
not the only ones who interact and marry to, and from Hausa people, other Nigerians and West
Africans have also been in close contact with them due, chiefly, to their trading and hospitality.
Therefore, as the appellation changed, many other identity-related constructs have been changing.
Ibrahim (2019:116) succinctly associates the genesis of this change and other ‘foreign’ influences
in Hausaland to globalisation, thus:
The impact of globalisation and media on the culture of people in this region cut across all
aspects of human endeavour – religious, political, economic, and social. Media as
facilitator of globalisation allows transregional flow of religious ideas and ideologies which
saw the emergence and proliferation of socio-cultural and politico-religious movements
with moderate and extreme ideological agenda borrowed from ‘outside’ with profound
impact on the people of northern Nigeria, particularly the Hausa population.
In several ethnographic surveys, audiences and critics of Kannywood (Maikaba, 2004; Larkin,
2008; Ibrahim, 2017; Ibrahim, 2018; Adamu, 2018; among others) ‘accuse’ the struggling cinema
of copying, appropriating, even plagiarising the Indian Bollywood films’ motifs and practices such
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as song and dance sequences, forced marriage, love triangle, and so on. Kabiru Maikaba, the past
president of the Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN), declared that
“[a]bout 80 per cent of the films we produce in Kannywood are (sic) all based on love and
relationships, which is not supposed to be.” (Premium Times, 2019). He added that the industry
should instead make films about the rich history and cultural heritage of Hausa. The leadership of
the association further threatens to sanction any filmmaker that makes a film on love.
In what looks like a response to that warning from the MOPPAN chair, the filmmakers of Sumayya
chose to draw inspiration from what used to be a famous and widely patronised cultural practice.
In the Senegalese socio-realist and Marxist-secularist filmmaker, Ousmane Sembène’s style, the
thematic preoccupation in Sumayya demonstrates the potency of traditional, arguably paganistic,
medication to cure the sick and the powerlessness of Islamic medicine to do the same. Beyond this
‘return-to-roots’ portrayal, the film, among other issues, raises a philosophical question about the
power of God over His dominion and creatures, if not His existence in general.
The Film, Sumayya
Like many Hausa films by Kannywood, Sumayya looks like a typical love, (soyayya) story.
However, a critical analysis reveals that it is a film filled with a provocative message on the
supremacy and potency of traditional medicine over the more conventional, the more sought after
Islamic one. In the same vein, it throws a philosophical question on the power, if not the whole
existence, of Almighty God whom Muslims are enjoined to turn to for worship and assistance (cf.
Qur’an, 1:4).
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Directed by Kamal S. Alkali, the film tells the story of Sumayya (Hauwa Garba) who is possessed
by a powerful, deadly demon (called “baƙin aljani”, black spirit, in Hausa) that kills whoever
marries her or even dates her. Everyone in the neighbourhood except an only friend, Sadiya (Nafisa
Abdullahi), shuns her. Many children, including some adults, run away from her whenever she
comes to pass by. The djinn’s power is overwhelming enough to withstand several Islamic
exorcists and even harm some of them. Her mother then requests the service of an influential
scholar, Malam Moddibo Mai Abun Mamaki – the nickname “Mai Abun Mamaki”, literally who
possess wonders, tells that the scholar is a specialist in what he does. Nevertheless, the jinni resists
his supplication as well and remains with Sumayya. The situation is exacerbating; hence, the
townspeople report it to the village head who eventually banishes her from the town.
Sumayya flees to a neighbouring town where nobody knows her. The head of the new village
grudgingly accepts her and offers to help her. He asks the influential leader of the town’s hunters,
Sarkin Dawa, Baushe Mati (Shehu Hassan Kano) to cure the poor lady. Sarkin Dawa, literally the
“King of the Bush”, refers to the leader of the hunters. Hunters are among the category of people
generally believed to have specialised knowledge about illnesses and diseases, some of which are
bizarrely believed to occur as a result of contact by victims with evil spirits in the forest or bush.
(Abubakar, Musa, Ahmed & Hussain, 2007). Also, “the black spirits are held to be pagan and live
in the bush” (Greenberg, 1966:20). Even though that is not very clear, Baushe also doubles as a
Bori practitioner, according to the film’s director (Alkali, personal communication, November 27,
2019).
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Coincidentally, she meets Baushe’s son, Sale (Adam A. Zango) while fetching water at a borehole
and it is love at first sight. He insists on knowing her story. She tells him how she meets the demon
that has now made her life miserable. She promises to marry Saleh once he helps her get rid of the
devil. Following dramatic encounters, Baushe and Sale succeed where the Muslim scholar fails
and defeat the devilish demon. On multiple occasions, the duo brags that no creature can challenge
and win a battle against their family. In the end, Saleh and Sumayya marry and live happily ever
after.
The Film, Sumayya and Reconstruction of Muslim-Hausa Cultural Ideology
Generally, many critics dispute, others dismiss, any existence of philosophy in film or film’s ability
to philosophise (Wartenberg, 2007:1-14). If such contentions were raised about Hollywood or
other more globally, perhaps more nuanced, movies what does one expect from a film industry so
young, so small and whose films are no more than for “mere entertainment” (Adamu, 2018:10)?
It will surely shock people who know Kannywood to hear or read someone trying to link its film
with philosophy, African or more traditional one. But, as Wartenberg (2007) argues, films are
capable of doing philosophy. He further explains that “there are differences between films and
traditional philosophical texts [such as Plato’s Republic]. At a minimum, the former are visual and
seek to entertain their audiences, while the latter are written and aim at establishing the truth of
their contentions” (ibid. 2).
The Hausa film industry tagged “Kannywood” was born in Kano, the largest northern state in
Nigeria, in 1990 (Adamu, 2018:10). Kano is the most populous state in Nigeria and a regional
nerve centre of commerce and Islamic scholarship for several decades. The philosophical question
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Sumayya raises may not necessarily be a deep one. One may argue that it is peripheral or quasi
philosophy. Considering the domain Kannywood operates in, any issue that directly or indirectly
challenges the existence of God, and exposes His possible impotence, is but a serious topic and
can, therefore, be regarded as both deep or peripheral philosophical concept.
Islam or any religion, for that matter, does not joke with God’s existence or His ability to control
everything in the universe. However, to borrow Wartenberg’s (2007:8) words on another film,
Sumayya “reveals itself as having a deeper agenda that cannot remain hidden from an audience
that is primed to think of films as more than mere entertainment”. For instance, Islamic exorcism,
like that of Pentecostal-Charismatic Christianity, is considered the only way to cure anyone
possessed by any demon. In films after films in Nollywood, the Nigerian ‘national’ cinema, for
example, Okome (2004:8) notes that “[t]here has been a spate of
[
hallelujah video films] and the
main motive is to use the power of the visual medium to drive home and sell religious truth”. In
such films, the solution to any problem or cure for any illness, misfortune or magic is always found
at the church. In Kannywood as well, Krings (2005:197) proposes a name, “conversion genre”, to
refer to films that attempt to sell Islam. However, due to the ‘sensitivity’ of Hausa people on almost
everything bordering Islam, these films, too, are never free of criticism concerning their handling
of Islam.
Nigeria’s return to democracy in 1999 brought an unprecedented change to the socio-political and
religious sphere of its northern region. Twelve of its nineteen states, including Kano, of course,
implemented Shari’ah between 2000 to 2001. Since then, filmmaking remains one of the most
affected practices under the law. The Kano state government established a censorship board in
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March 2001. The Board, in conjunction with the dominant religious establishments, banned and
then negotiated film practices again and again. Some Kannywood producers, directors and artists
were arrested and prosecuted on different charges (McCain 2013 and Ibrahim 2018). It is today a
common knowledge that Kannywood is “locked in tense negotiations with various cultural
authorities about what is permissible”. (Haynes, 2007:5).
On top of the challenges mentioned above, the Hausa identity of many actors and actresses in
Kannywood is deliberately contested by several Kannywood critics to, yet again, raise a speck of
dust on the embattled film industry. This remains a ‘frailty’, which some nativists capitalise on to
disparage what they perceive as anti-culture and, by extension, anti-Islam in Kannywood films.
On many occasions, a disparaging word “kabila” or “yare” is used derogatorily to refer to anybody
other than Hausa. Adamu (2005:23) quotes the April 2000 edition of a film magazine, Mumtaz
whose investigation reveals that:
Whenever you mention Hausa home video it is assumed these are videos made by true
ethnic Hausa. Surprisingly and annoyingly, in an investigation, we discovered this was not
true, only few of those involved in production of Hausa home video are true ethnic Hausa.
The ethnic tribes that overrun the Hausa home video industry include Kanuri, Igbos and
most significant of all, the Yoruba. In a table we drew, about 42% of the Hausa home video
producers and artistes were of Yoruba extraction, 10% were Kanuri, 8% were Igbos. Thus,
only about 40% are true ethnic Hausa, and yet these videos are called Hausa videos.”
(“Hausawa sun yi k’aranci a shirin fim”. (There is a dearth of true ethnic Hausa in Hausa
video films), Mumtaz, April 2001:12).
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The question of identity was more significant in 2001, which was the time Mumtaz magazine
conducted the above survey. It was a period when, as Adamu (2001:23-24) adds, according to the
industry’s insiders, “‘experimental’ and bold home videos (especially the dance routines) had to
be necessarily made by non-ethnic Hausa because they are not restricted by the Hausa conservative
cultural and religious mindset that often frowns at such displays of exuberance, particularly in
alien format.” Adamu, among others, argues that a typical Hausa-Muslim girl can barely dance,
shaking her body in a mostly skimpy dress without any inhibition as those “acculturated
Hausanized Muslim and non-Muslim non-ethnic Hausa” (ibid. 23).
Interestingly, the director of Sumayya, Kamal S. Alkali, argues that he believed in and had always
wanted to promote neglected Hausa cultures, hence his resolve to direct the film (Alkali, personal
communication, November 27, 2019). Alkali further told this researcher that the central character,
Adam A. Zango, almost rejected to act the movie after reviewing the script for fear of being
criticised on religious (Islamic) ground. He, thus, had to convince him that he would add a scene
where the actor would be shown to be praying at night, as a proactive measure to tackle possible
criticism bordering Islam in the story. That was, however, not done in the end.
Regardless, the Kannywood film actors and actresses represent, and act as, Hausa people. The
filmmakers of Sumayya were equally conscious about the possible reaction of their audiences.
Therefore, they attempted to ‘Islamise’ their encoded message in at least two instances. One, upon
being told about the demon that possesses Sumayya, Baushe vows to exorcise her body by all
means. He, however, adds that except if God wills otherwise. Which God? During the exorcising
process, neither Baushe nor his son, Saleh calls upon God for help. They, instead, vocalise some
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mumbo-jumbo as against the Islamic scholar’s recitation of the Qur’an and other related
supplications. Also, the Sarkin Dawa instructs his son-protégé to exit their house with backsteps
and movements, which include swinging his buttock. While this is not a forbidden act, it is not
proper etiquette to leave one’s home in such a manner in Islam. There is an ongoing debate on the
permissibility of dancing (Sacirbey, 2012). Going by this, Baushe and Saleh do, at best, syncretise
Islam and Bori. It is still problematic as per general religious belief and practice. Sheikh Usman
Dan Fodio fought against such syncretisation, hence called Mujaddadi, the revivalist. Since then,
Bori, among other ethnoreligious and trado-medicinal methods are dismissed as paganish or fetish
belief system.
Bori is not only about curing the sick, but it also involves worshipping spirits. Abdalla (1991:40)
reports that “Religious ritual and bori practice were closely intertwined in pre-Islamic Hausa
society”. Other scholars also describe bori as the first religion in Hausaland before the coming of
Islam. In an interview with a journalist, Dr Muhammad Tahar Adamu aka Baba Impossible, perhaps
the leading authority on Bori, remarks that “Bori is a form of traditional religion. Before the advent
of Islam, the world over, every people had a deity they worshipped” (Daily Trust, 2017). He goes on
to conclude that:
The advent of Islam in Hausaland virtually abolished Bori the Religion, but Bori the Cure
still exists. We have among Muslims in Hausaland people practising Bori the Cure, declaring
the oneness of God, Allah, saying their five daily prayers, going on pilgrimage to Mecca,
marrying according to Islam, but they are ‘Yan Bori. But among the Hausa people, the
Maguzawa (heathens) still exist practising Bori the Religion, worshipping the spirits (Daily
Trust, 2017).
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Hunters (like Baushe and Saleh in Sumayya), Bori practitioners, Wanzamai (barber-surgeons),
Maɗaura (bonesetters), Boka (magician-healer), among others (Stock, 1981:365-367), were
almost the only healers in pre-colonial, pre-Islamic Hausaland. More often than not, they do mix
their skills with some spiritual-related activities. Therefore, they were, first of all, discouraged by
the spread of Islam, which enjoins its adherent to use other methods that have nothing to do with
spirits. The general perception is that the spirits are God’s creation, only that there are evils among
them who ask anyone seeking their assistance to disobey Allah in return for their favours. They
reportedly request blood offering, abstinence from obligatory daily prayers, etc. The alternative to
these healers and their medication, especially on issues related to spirit possession, black magic
and evil eye is Ruqya (Sameer 2015), special supplications from Qur’an and the Prophetic sayings.
The second attempt by the filmmakers of Sumayya to ‘Islamise’ the movie is by using religious
text on the screen. Krings (2005:190) points out that Kannywood producers “justify the moral
legitimacy of their video films [by recasting] their work in religious terms”. Sumayya also ends
with a text line that reads “Alhamdulillah”, meaning “Thanks to Almighty Allah”. This will, at
least, douse the audience’s tension that may ‘discover’ the secret message of the film, which
contradicts the usual presentation style and thematic portrayal of Kannywood productions. For
instance, in many movies such as Macijiya (dir. Hassan Giggs, 2012) and Husna Ko Huzna (dir.
Falalu A. Dorayi, 2017), Islamic scholars use the Qur’an to get rid of ferocious demons. The
Muslim clerics do mostly add that Qur’an is a cure to all illness and further lament that the Muslims
have only abandoned that; else, much of their problems would have been solved. In other similar
cases to discourage the practice of Bori, the ‘Yan Bori meet their tragic end like in Nafisa (dir.
Kamal S. Alkali). Ironically, the same director and producer made this film.
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Conclusion
The debate on God’s existence remains an unresolved philosophical question. In this article, I
attempted a reading of a film, Sumayya, against the grain. I found out that its makers contend the
effectiveness of using the Qur’an for exorcism and lend credence on the potency of what is mostly
obliterated Hausa traditional practice (Bori), which means a deconstruction and the reconstruction
of Muslim-Hausa cultural ideologies. That is, arguably, a provocative portrayal and a complete
departure from what is a norm in the film industry that struggles with the hegemonic religious and
cultural establishment of its domain. It is so much more significant as several other filmmakers
merely rip-off foreign, mainly Bollywood, films for their stories, plots and other filmic elements.
As per my extensive consultation and research, there is no other film in Kannywood that openly
promotes Bori and relegates Ruqya practice. Therefore, Sumayya is, arguably, a bold production
beneath which there are deep nuances and daring messages.
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Filmography
Alkali, K. S. (2018). Sumayya, Kano: Magarya Production.
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Interview
Personal Interview with Alkali, Kamal S. via WhatsApp, on 27
th
November, 2019.
