This film was shot in Kano (Nigeria), Niamey and outskirts (Niger Republic). It is a story of two different cultures; one, Hausa and modern, the other, Zabarma (A tribe in Niger Republic) and rural or nomadic, but both are Islamic. Another common characteristic between the cultures in this story is their strict adherence to cultural and religious rites and injunctions. Directed by Nura Sheriff, the word Sanafahna, from which the film derived its name, is a corruption of an Arabic expression, Sa-nafham, which means, with time, we would understand. It was later changed by Mudassir Kassim (a playback singer of the main song in the film, Sanafahna dini), to Sanafahna, (with time truth shall dawn), through poetic license. The film has English subtitle, and carries four “hit” songs (two merged), and none appeared in the First Act of the film.

This is an excerpt from Ali Liman Abubakar, who completed his MA thesis: Storyline Structure in the Hausa Home Videos: An Analysis of Mai Kudi, Sanafahna, and Albashi (The Salary), in the Department of Mass Communications at Bayero University. He kindly allowed Hausa Home Video Resource Centre to upload this in depth analysis which you can read here (Pages 74-86) and we thank and credit them both!