Abstract

The Hausa Home Video industry, popularly known as Kannywood is growing at a faster rate, producing, circulating and gaining prominence not only in its base, the northern fringes of Nigeria, but also, in neighboring Hausa speaking communities of West Africa, such as Niger, Ghana, Chad, Cameroon, and the Sudan. But the industry, despite the seeming promise of bright future and popularity like most of its peers and contemporaries in the African continent is facing numerous challenges bordering on lack of professionalism, funding,   adoption of foreign cultures and values and lack of equipment. Using textual and documents analysis this paper looked into the history and development of the Kannywood industry, issues of censorship crackdown, professional and technological breakthroughs, and its socio-economic contributions. The paper recommends that the industry could only compete favourably with its peers if members are adequately educated, hence, the need for artists and other members to improve in their educational qualifications in line with their guild of practice, government should provide an enabling environment for investors to invest in the industry to make it more vibrant and self supporting. It is also recommended that film makers in the industry should desist from adopting foreign and alien cultures that tend to corrupt and pollute our emerging youths.  

Key Words: Hausa Home Video, Kannywood, Growth, Transformation, Challenges

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*Balarabe Maikaba, Ph.D. is an Associate Professor, Department of Mass Communication, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria.

^JCMRJournal of Communication and Media Research, Vol. 9, No. 1, April  2017, 96 – 104