By Hadiza Abdulkadir
A new book examining the cultural and religious forces shaping the Hausa-language film industry, Kannywood, will be released on 5 December 2025 by Springer Nature.
Titled Kannywood: Film, Faith and Identity in Northern Nigeria, the work critically explores how filmmakers navigate religious expectations, cultural norms and language ideologies while appealing to a diverse audience.
The author, Dr Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim, teaches Hausa Studies at the University of Cologne and is an expert in Hausa media and cultural production.
The study employs audience reception theory and a close analysis of selected films to reveal tensions within the industry, including the dominance of the Kano dialect, the marginalisation of others, such as Sokoto’s, and the commercialisation of “broken” Hausa.
The book also highlights the pressures of global influences and conservative religious forces, presenting Kannywood as a contested space of identity and representation in northern Nigeria.