Of film, immanence and TikTok in our homes

BY SULEIMAN IBRAHEEM OCTOBER 12, 2021, 4:05 PM

My point of departure to many societal occurrences is at the approach of analysis and critique. In my chosen discipline of economics, there are many approaches to critiquing a society, an institution or an individual. Even to the classical Laswellian Principles of the Functions developmental economics, there is always the dysfunctional aspect lurking around.

In relation to the above, there are many other technics of criticising the society. These include religious, cultural, critical, moralist, immanent and literary approaches to critiquing events. Academically, there is no harm in adopting any of the above mentioned techniques in critiquing whatever you chose to criticise. However, problems begin to surface when you insist on the sole appropriateness of whatever technique you've chosen, for in social scientific parlance, we are always mindful of axiological principles which remind us of value laden nature of public discourse.

Then, finding solace in the above prologue, I will tell you that most of my acts of critiquing societal events are from the immanent Approach. What it simply means is that, I pick a society, an institution or an individual and criticise such based on the normative ideals my subject of cricism holds to esteem. In this act of critiquing, bringing in some outside ideals as parameters are seen as imposing one's values on his subject of criticism.

As such, I always try to see the values upon which film industries are globally and locally built upon, after which I try to analyse the activities of individuals within the industry. It is only when the actions of such individuals are at variance with the in-group values that I may hold them to blame.

Then, the next thing to consider is, what are the values and principles of the global and local film industries, Kannywood inclusive? One, film industries are capital intensive and profit maximization ventures. They are culture industries that conventionalize, commodify and massify everything for profit maximization. Everything including religion, culture, women and sex. Anything that can be produced for a price and profit can be gained is a product to be pleasingly packaged by the film industry.

So, use the above scenario to analyse the happenings in Kannywood or Hausa film industry and understand where they are coming from and where they are heading to. As far as globalization is concerned, there are more than the Sadaus and Nuhus in the pipelines; they're currently at our various homes perfecting and honing their acting skills, within their rooms with their camera phones. We may use other approaches as our points of discourse on the culture industry but evidences and data at my click indicate a trend comming on us, a trend of maximization of profit from everything. To have a peep into that trend, please take a sojourn into what our daughters are doing on TikTok.

All across the Hausa societies, ladies from the rich and poor families have become pro bono celebrities on TikTok. The formula is simple; they set their camera phones on pre-existing memes and dance away to the camera. In suggestively sexual dance steps, now our northern ladies, in their thousands, twerk to the glare of billion of global spectators. One magic formula on TikTok is that people don't need to be friends or following any lady to view her videos. TikTok is global stage where the more a lady's dance expose her feminine contours, the more she receives likes/followers and the higher she becomes a global dance star.

Also, on TikTok, another formula for our ladies to become popular is to engage in continuous but unnecessary online verbal fights with other ladies. In such verbal outbursts, it is not abnormal for our ladies to openly come out to expose their sexual escapades and even abnormal sexuality. In highly sexualized language, with no pauses, such ladies explain to the world how amorous lifestyles guide their lives, and the global audience of TikTok listens, watches and even share such videos for wider reach. On TikTok, the innocent rich girl being chauffeured to and from school and the innocent lungu-area girl aren't that innocent; they are wild tigers twerking and conversing in over sexualized tunes to the amusement of global screens.

Immanently, TikTok is a free club for twerkers, narrative of sexual escapades and a free global sphere where ladies are free to do whatever they want. On TikTok, our ladies are subliminally trained to supply row, untamed human materials to our growing film industries to tap from. In Kannywood, we abhor the Sadaus while TikTok is deep in our homes training ladies that even Sadau will preach to on need to be decent.