In May 1959 West African Review wrote at length about Giant in the Sun. While highly praising the film – ‘the film has been generally acknowledged to be the finest example of superb colour filming yet to come out of Africa’ – it also outlined aspects of the film’s production history. It noted the role of the London-based production company, Victor M. Gover and Co., which as well as assisting ‘the local units in many ways’, also ‘makes special films at the request of the various governments concerned, of which “Giant in the Sun” was one’ (West African Review, May 1959, 384). An earlier report had explained that regional self-government was to be marked by the ‘world-wide issue’ of colour films about Northern Nigeria, such as Giant in the Sun, and stated that these were produced by a ‘British team assisted by Regional Information Service men’ (West African Review, January 1959, 26).

Giant in the Sun was directed by Sydney Samuelson, now a well-known name and established figure within the British film industry. Samuelson had founded Samuelson Film Service in 1955, which would become the largest film equipment rental service in the world, but he had also previously worked for the Nigerian Film Unit on some of their earliest productions, such as Smallpox (1950). He therefore had some experience of filming within Nigeria, although the production here was on a larger scale. For example, the Sallah spectacle in Katsina Town, involving 900 charging horsemen, camels, drummers, trumpeters, and thousands of spectators was specially staged, under the direction of the Emir, for the film. Samuelson described this staged event, which was intended ‘to show the world the colour of Northern Nigeria’, as ‘the most spectacular thing’ he had seen in his career (West African Review, January 1959, 26). He further explained that ‘the film (together with another “Our Land and People” to be shown soon) was shot in just over nine weeks’, during which time, ‘the team travelled about 10,000 miles, 6,000 of which were by road’ (West African Review, May 1959, 384).

The report in West African Review noted that the film ‘is delighting Northerners’, but that it would also soon be seen ‘on a British circuit’. Film historian Brian Larkin offers further insights into the film’s distribution. He explained that the film was a shortened version of the aforementioned Our Land our People, and noted that while it belongs to a ‘genre of films that seems aimed at introducing Northern Nigeria to an unfamiliar expatriate audience’ its main use was for ‘domestic consumption at mobile cinema shows’ (Larkin, 2008, 101). The film did though also play internationally. It was released in Britain in the autumn of 1959, but had been screened earlier at a party in London given by the Commissioner, Alhaji Abdulmaliki, on the eve of self-government before a group of 600 people associated with Nigeria (West African Review, May 1959, 343). The film was also advertised for hire from libraries across America and amongst its public screenings was a performance at the Washington County Museum in 1966 as part of a series relating to Africa intended for younger audiences (Hagerstown Daily Mail, 10 November 1966, 8). Film News, published by the Educational Film Library association in America, commented that ‘it is a fine thing about this film that, though made by the British as a report of accomplishment over the years of Britain’s protectorate, its approach is not “see what we have done,” but rather, the Nigerians have done this to prepare themselves for independence and membership in the Commonwealth’ (Film News, 1960, 18). In Britain, Kinematograph Weekly praised it as an ‘informative and interesting study of the way Northern Nigeria is being groomed for self-government’ (KW, 1 October 1959).

Northern Nigeria attained self-government on 15 March 1959, following the Western and Eastern regions which had achieved this in 1957. As well as producing and sponsoring films, the Northern Nigerian Information Service marked the occasion with the publication of an illustrated history of the region also entitled Giant in the Sun. The book features images from the film, references the same events and industries – indeed it opens with a description of the Sallah - and emphasises the industrial and social development within the region. It contains a foreword by the Governor, Sir Gawain Westray Bell, in which he praises ‘the British gift for empiricism and improvisation’ and notes ‘the trust and friendship which over half a century has held European and African in a common bond – a bond which is not to be severed at Self-Government’. The book praises the historical role of the British and concludes that ‘self-government will not bring any lessening of friendship between the North and its old masters’ (Baxter, 1959, 5, 62).