TAGAR DUNIYA

OPEN LETTER TO THE NEW ZAMFARA STATE GOVERNOR

2011-06-03T13:13:00.000-07:00

Dear (Hon) Alhaji Abdul’Aziz Yari,

I wish to start by congratulating you for winning the 2011 gubernatorial elections. I am sure, it was very challenging. Your success is a testimony that Zamfara people for different reasons wanted a change. There are many expectations, some genuine, some ridiculous. There are people who feel that the State was in the hands of some cabals and needed to be saved from them. There are people who feel that they have been marginalised and want to be involved. There are people who feel that the out-going PDP government is too stingy and longed for the return of father-Christmas.

I have decided to write you through this medium because it is the only sure medium that you will know and other people will bear us witness. As an indigene of the State, I have the responsibility of advising you because I am a stakeholder. You may or may not be aware of the article I wrote entitled The Stakes in Zamfara State which was published by many newspapers (including this paper) in July 2009 and the subsequent debates that ensured. Early this year Hajiya Bilkisu Aminu published another article which she titled the Tragedy of Zamfara Politics. She raised some important issues which are fundamental and I agreed with all the issues raised.

It is unfortunate that the intellectual movement for the rebirth of Zamfara State which I thought Zamfara academics will spearhead was not as successful as expected. I made efforts to reach as many academics as possible, but the idea of having academics into politics still seem very strange to some colleagues. Some of us rather lament and watch things happen because they lost all hope for reform. Very few bought the idea, and so the idea is not dead. I and other indigenes of Zamfara, some academics and non academics are still keen on seeing that our precious State is back on course. This moment is another beginning for the State; a new government is in place.

Although some of us ask whether your government will really make any difference from those that ruled the State in the last twelve years, yet, we should be optimistic and give you the benefit of the doubt. This notwithstanding, we must raise some of our fears and fundamental questions and later express our expectations.

There are people who feel that you do not really have the capacity to govern the state considering your past antecedents in the National Assembly, which and this gives way to fears that some people from the background will be doing the governance and you will be doing the show. This fear is critical and not baseless. However, I am sure you can prove these sceptics wrong.

Another fear from some people is that your first year will be devoted to ‘politics’ or so they said your mentor. Although some sources claimed that you promised to give the state a new lease of life even at the risk of head on collision with your political mentor. Yet the fundamental question here is how can you insolate yourself from the negative influences of your mentor(s) in order to fulfil your mandate?

Our expectations are many. I am sure your transition committee must have done some groundwork on the state of affairs in the State, by now you must come to face the reality of the enormous problems facing the State. To be honest and blunt, your Excellency knows that the State is backward and lost focus. Zamfara records low in all indices of development, just as it is last alphabetically, so it is in development in Nigeria. Therefore, the task ahead of you is daunting; it requires courage, honesty and dedication.

I cannot say everything in this small article, but I feel you should pay attention to the following. First agriculture, it is the most important resource of the State, by improving agriculture (I do not mean just giving farmers fertilizers), the people of the State will be prosperous. Education must receive attention and action. Zamfara is backward educationally; its primary education up to tertiary is in shambles. You must be serious on education by providing funds and ensuring that the funds are used accordingly. Remember Zamfara State has no State library, what a shame.

You should pay a lot of attention to rural development. It is sad to see the abject poverty in rural Zamfara, a younger brother of mine who is a historian describes rural Zamfara as “a past in our present, when you visit rural Zamfara you will feel like travelling back in time to the period of the Jihad”. Sir, this is unacceptable. Rural areas need roads, schools, portable water and health facilities and services. If you are focused you can transform rural Zamfara within four years as late Abubakar Rimi transformed rural Kano.

Your government in collaboration with other elected officials must also work hard to ensure that Zamfara people are placed appropriately in all Federal ministries and agencies. We do not fill our quota.

You also have the task of doing a lot of re-orientation of the civil services and the general public to face the stark realities facing the State. Leadership is about making a difference to the life of the led. Do not spend too much time and energy on negative politics, be focused, set goals and targets and pay attention to meeting your set goals and target. Politics will bore you a blind child as Hausa people said.

Lastly but not all, be cautious in your appointments. Do not appoint people just because they supported ANPP, Zamfara State belongs to all Zamfara people not ANPP supporters. You must appoint credible and capable people in all positions so that they can help you achieve your goals and targets. You must also have the guts to question and remove anyone whose actions go contrary to your mandate. I pray, Allah will help you and your tenure be a new positive turning point in the politics of the State.

Dr Yusuf Adamu is an Associate Professor of Geography at the Bayero University Kano.yusufadamu2000@yahoo.com

LIBYA AND GAZA: BUSH AND TAYLOR

2011-03-09T15:24:00.000-08:00

I use to wonder when some people talk of international community whenever they want to justify their agenda. Look at how NATO and the US government is shamelessly talking and pressing for intervention in Libya, even a military one, while these same groups were silent throughout the onslaught on Gaza by Israel.

I wonder where international justice has gone when George Bush is walking scott free and Charles Taylor is under detention.

Doublespeak and doubleaction.

MARUBUTA A AL’UMMA

2010-11-02T14:14:00.001-07:00

Kasancewarta makala da aka gabatar a Taron Sanin Makamar Aiki na Marubutan Hausa na Kasa wanda Kungiyar Marubuta ta Nijeriya Reshen Jihar Kano da hadin gwiwar Hukumar Dakunan Karatu ta Jihar Kano suka shirya. Yuli 1st -2nd, 2004 a Dakin Karatu na Murtala Mohammed, Kano.

Wannan take da nake son yin Magana a kansa take ne mai ma’ana a taro irin wannan saboda sa ran da ake yi zai nunawa marubuci ko marubuciya matsayinsa a cikin al’umar da Allah ya halicce shi. Take ne da ake san ran zai fadakar da marubuci ko marubuciya hakkoka da suka rataya a kansu da kuma manufar tasirin abubuwan da suke rubutawa.

Babu al’uma da za ta ci gaba matukar bat a da marubuta. Marubuta sun eke tattara tarihin al’umarsu su adana shi ta hanyar rayayyen adabi. Wasu daga cikinsu ana haihuwarsu ne da baiwar rubutu, wasu kuma kan same ta saboda kokarinsu da kuma dagewa. Duka wadannan rukunai na marubuta bas u iya yin rubutu har sai suna da baiwa ko sun samu baiwa. Amma duka za mu kira sun e marubuta.

Marubuta sun banbanta da sauran mutane ba wai domin sun fi sub a, sai don kawai Allah ya huwace musu wata hanya ta tunani wadda wanda ba marubuci ba, ba shi da ita. Marubuta na yin tunani ne na daban tare da kallon rayuwa da al’amuran da kan je su komo da wata fahimta ta daban. Su kan yi amfani da haruffa zuwa kalmomi da jimloli zuwa shararori domin bayyana tunaninsu wanda zai iya zama tamkar tafsiri ne na rayuwar da suka kalla suke aiki a kan ta.

Marubuci ya banbanta da masanin tarihi domin shi marubucin tarihi na bayyana hakikanin abubuwan da suka faru ne bayan ya tabbatar da afkuwarsu. Masanin tarihi kuma bay a maida hankali a kan kowa da kowa, face wadanada suka yi fice. Saboda haka hanyar da akan bi domin fahimtar yaya al’uma ta rayu a wani zamani shi net a yin nazarin kirkirarrun ayyuka da suka yi a zamaninsu. A nan marubucin zube ko wake ko wasan kwaikwayo kan rubuta wani abu da ya shafi mai mulki da talakansa, mai arziki da mara shi, kyakkyawa da mummuna, mai addini da mara shi, mai azama da malalaci, samari da ‘yan mata, tsofaffi da kananan yara, dabbobi da aljanu da dai sauransu. A cikin irin wadannan ayyuka na adabi ne za a iya fahimtar yadda wani ko wata suka rayu . Misal ga wani wake nan da wani Fir’auna ya rubuta na yabon Ubangiji fiye da shekaru 3000 da suke shude:

Ayyukanka suna da yawa matuka

Ya ubangiji tilo, babu wani tamkar sa

Kai ka hallici duniya yadda ka so

Da kai kadai ne tilo,

Duk mutum, duka dabbobi na gida da na dawa

Duk hallitta mai tafiya bisa dugaduganta

Duk abubuwan dake sama da halittu masu fiffike suna tashi

Kai ka halicci kasashe har da kasar Masar

Ka ajiye kowane mutum a wuri nasa daban

Al’umomi suna harsuna daban daban

Siffarsu ta jiki da launi sun banbanta

Domin ka banbance tsakaninsu.

Daga wannan wake na yabon Ubangiji za mu iya fahimtar yadda Misrawan Dauri a wancan lokaci suka fahimci Ubangiji da yadda tsarin addininsu yake. Ba wannan ne kawai misali ba, akwai misalai da dama da za a iya kawowa daga rubuce-rubucen al’umomi daban daban na duniya. Ko nan in muka dawo gida, za mug a cewa in mun karanta littatafan su Abubakar Imam muka hada su da na su Bashari Farouk Roukbah muka kuma karanta litattafan su Hafsatu AbdulWaheed da na su Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino, za mu iya bada bayani akan yadda rayuwar Bahaushe ta sauya dangane da al/ada da kuma ma harshe. Idan kana nazarin harshe, babu yadda za a yi ka ga an yi amfani da wasu kalmomi ko an bas u wata ma’ana sai dai-dai zamanin da aka soma hakan. Misali in kana karanta Ruwan Bagaja za ka ga ana amfani ne da famai-famai in ana maganar kudi. Idan ka zo ka na karanta littafi na zamani za ka ga an yi amfani da wata kalma wadda a litattafan baya ba za a bata ma’anar da aka bat a a littafi na yau ba. Alal misali;

“Ka share ta kawai” ko

“Ta na ja masa aji”

Marubuci kan iya jawowa al’umarsa ci aba ko dakushewa kuma matukar ba a fahimci manufar marubuci ba, to ka jahilci fahimtarsa, sai dai kuma shi abu na adabi da zarar marubuci ya fito da shi ya zama mallakar duniya ba tasa ba. Wannan ya sa kowa zai iya fassara rubutu da iya tasa fahimtar wadda ba lallai net a zama ta dace da ainihin abinda shi marubucin ke nufi ba. Babu ja a wannan fuska. A wasu lokuta kuma akan yi dace wurin fadar ainihin manufar marubuci. Ta kowace hanya muka duba dai, rubutu na fita daga ma’anar da marubuci ya ba shi da zarar an fitar da shi. Wannan ya say a zama wajibi marubuci da ke yi wa al’umarsa rubutu ya yi kokarin yi ta yadda manufarsa a ta fito karara kuma a fahimce ita.

Shin wai wanene marubuci? Zai yi matukar wahala a bayyana a bayyane ma’anar ko wanene marubuci. Sai dai wannan ba zai hana mu jarraba bada ma’ana ga kalmar marubuci ba. A tawa fahimta wadda tsukakkiya ce ana iya cewa marubuci mutum wanda kan yi amafani da basirar da Allah ya ba shi ta hanyar kirkirar wani yanani na gasket ko na almara ko wani tunani ko fahimta ta domin gina wasu mutane ko ma’anoni domin isar da wani sako ga al’uma ta zamansa da wadda za ta zo bayansa. MArubuci kan tsara wanann sako nasa ta hanyar mai jan hankali da kuma dadin lafazi tare da cusa kwarewar harshe da yi masa adon da zai sa mai karatunsa ya kusanta da shi ya so shi ya kuma sa mai karatunsa ya rika jin kamar abin da yake karantawa hakika ne. Wannan yana faruwa ne saboda marubuci kan yi amfani da mutane da wurare da ta’adodi da harshe da fahimta irin ta mutanen da ake rubutu dominsu.

Marubuci kan iya yin rubutu domin dalilai masu dama ko wani hali da ya samu kansa ko dai wata manufa. Don haka, marubuci kan iya yin rubutu domin nishadantarwa ko ilmantarwa ko wayar da kai ko farfaganda ko zambo ko neman kudi ko neman suna ko tada zaune tsaye ko yada wata akida da ya yarda da ita ko gina wata manufa ko rusa ta ko domin tabbatar da al’uma a wani tabbataccen ra’ayi. Ko kuma ya yi rubutu wai don rubutu kawai. Marubuci kan yi iyaka kokarinsa wurin shawo kan mai karatu ya yadda ya amince ya kuma hakkake cewa wannan sako nasa gaskiya ne, amintacce ne kuma dauwamamme mai farin jinni.

Wannan ya say a zama wajibi ga al’uma ta dage ta yi tasiri mai kyau ga marubutan da ke cikinta domin yin tasiri ga tunaninsa ta yadda shi kuma zai sarrafa tunaninsa wurin yin rubuce-rubuce da za su dace da al’umarsa su kuma ciyar da ita gaba ba tare da an rika samun tangarda ba. Shi rubutu tamkar kashi ne ko amai, in ka ci zogala sai ka yi kashi bakikkirin in ka ci doya sai ka yi aman kura-kuran doya haka in wake ka ci.

Shi kuma marubuci ya zama lazim ya fahimci cewa zama marubuci al’amari ne babba domin kuwa yana tatatre da hakkoki da nauye-nauye. Na farko marubuci a kodayaushe kokari yake yi ya fahimci al’umarsa. Na biyu duk lokacin da yake tunani dole ne ya rika sanya tunaninsa da mutuntakarsa a ma’auni. A cikin rubutunsa zai iya zama na kwarai ya kuma zama baragurbi, ya zama namiji ya zama mace, ya zama yaro ya zama babbaa da dai sauransu. Wannan na faruwa ne aboda duk lokacin da ya so rubuta wani abu game da wani jinsi ko ajin mutane sai ya yi tunani irin nasu. Abu na uku ba zai san iya tasirin da rubutunsa zai yi ba bayan ya fito da shi. Wannan ya say a zama wajibi marubuci ya tabbatar da cewa al’uma ta tsira daga dafin alkalaminsa ta kuma amfana da rahamar tawwadar alkalaminsa. Duk abinda mutum zai rubuta ya yi tunanin irin tasirin da zai iya jawowa ga al’uma mai kyau ko mara kyau. Wannan ya say a zama dole marubuci musulmi ya yi fancakali da manufar nan ta cewa wai marubuci na da ‘yancin rubuta binda ya ga dama kuma ana yin rubutu ne kawai don rubutu. Ana yin rubutu ne da manufa, kuma ga marubuci musulmi dole ta zama manufa Islamiyya.

Marubuci kan iya zama tamkar dan liken asiri saboda dole sai ya yi bincike mai zurfi akan abinda yake rubutawa in dai har yana so ya rubuta adabi mai rai kuma ingantacce tabbatacce. Idan wani ya gamu da marubuci a wani wuri da yake ganin bai dace ba, zai iya zarginsa da batanci, amma ba lallai bane cewa batanci yaje yi, kila bincike ya je yi. Idan ka ga marubuci a mashaya ko gidan karuwai ko kuwa tare da ‘yan kwaya ko ‘yan daba, bincike na iya kai shi. Da zarar ya fahimci yadda rayuwar wadanda yake so ya yi rubutu a kansu in ya yi maka rubutu sai ka ranstse shi ma dan cikinsu ne. Idan muka karanta littafin Bala Anas Babinlata Sara da Sassaka sai mu rantse Bala ya zauna a Afirka ta Kudu. In ka karanta Karshen Alewa na Marigayi Bature Gagare sai ka ranste tsohon dan tawaye ne, haka in ka karanta ‘Yar Tsana na Ibrahim Sheme sai ka rantse tsohon dan dandi ne. Bincike ne ya bas u wannan dama.

Ta yaya basirar kirkira marubuciya ko marubuciya ke zuwa? Basirar marubuci kan z one ta hanyoyi da dama. Wasu daga zurfin tunani wasu daga karanta ko ganin wani abu wasu kuma daga faruwar wani abu. Ko dai yaya basirar ke zuwa tana samo tushe ne daga al’amuran dan adam na yau da gobe. Gina labarin ko wasan kwaikwayo ko wake kuma kan samu net a hanyar tattara manufar jigon wuri guda tamkar yadda mai zane zanen gine-gine kan yi dan karami. Wasu tun farko su kan san inda labarinsu ko wakensu ya nufa, wasu kuma sai a hankali suke gina shi ta hanyar ba shi kansa labarin dama ya sauya ta yadda al’amura suka kasance. Misali lokacin da na yi tunanin rubuta Idan So Cuta Ne, tun farko na san yadda zan gina labarin da yadda zai kare. Labari ne na wani saurayi da wata budurwa da suka so junansu matukar so amma ba za su yi aure ba, sai dai diyansu za su yi aure. Wannan shine dunkulalliyar manufar Idan So Cuta Ne amma warware jigon ya dauki lokaci. Na dauki lokaci ina ta gina labarin a a kaina ina rubuta wasu abubuwa ina Tarawa. Na dauki lokacin wurin tunanin a wadanne garuruwa zan gina labarin? Su wa da w azan sa a labarin? Wadanne sunaye ne za su dace da kowane tauraro, babba da karami? Yaya ta’ada da salon maganar kowane daga cikinsu za ta kasance da sauransu. Bayan duk na gama wannan aiki na zauna cikin mako guda na rubuta Idan So Cuta Ne.

Wannan ya kawo mu maganar lokacin yin rubutu. Da wane lokaci ake yin rubutu kuma tsawon wane lokaci ya kamata marubuci ya kamata ya dauka kafin y agama wani aji na rubuitu? Ta wannan fuska babu amsa guda daya. Lokacin yin rubutu ya dangantaka ya kuma bambanta daga marubuci zuwa marubuci. Wani kan yi rubutu duk lokacin da ya ga dama, wani sai rubutun ya zo masa don kansa wani kuma kan fara rubutu daga ganin faruwar wani abu ko kuma wani abu ya harzuko shi. Amma dangane da lokaci na rana ko dare, kowane marubuci na da lokacin da yake rubutu. Wasu kuma kan yin me kawai duk lokacin da abin ya zo musu. Dangane da tsawon lokacin da ya kamata a dauka kuwa shi ma ya bambanta da abubuwa da dama. Na farko kaifn basirar marubuci da kwarewarsa. Na biyu sanin abinda zai yi rubutu a kai ciki da waje. Na uku mutuntakarsa, kodai ta zumudi ce ko jirgin dankaro ko kuma madaidaiciya.

A nan ya kamata in yi kira ga al’umarmu da bat a dauki marubuta da muhimanci da da su sauya ra’ayi. A karshe zan iya cewa dan abinda na iya kalatowa kalilan ne daga kalilan dangane da taken wannan makala sai a yi hakuri. Amma zan rufe da tunatar da mu cewa rubutu tamkar shuka ce wanda in hart a girma za ta baka inuwa kuma ka ci ‘ya’yanta. Yana kuma iya zama tamkar dan kunama ko abinda Hausawa ke kira “kaikayi koma kan mashekiya. Rubutu rayyayyen al’amari ne wanda kan wanzu matukar wanzuwar duniya.

Assalamu Alaikum.

Re: Intellectual mischief in Zamfara politics

2010-06-08T07:32:00.000-07:00

Re: Intellectual mischief in Zamfara politics

Written by Bilkisu Aminu Gusau

Saturday, 25 July 2009 03:43

I read an article in the Weekly Trust of July 18, 2009, where one Adamu Bungudu responded to an article written by Dr. Yusuf Adamu of the Bayero University Kano. The tone of the article encouraged me to get the original article written by Dr. Yusuf Adamu and after reading his original and what it generated I decided to respond to Adamu Bungudu because he seemed to misunderstand the article of Dr. Adamu.

I don’t know either of the writers in person, but I have the privilege of reading Dr. Adamu weekly in his Sunday Trust Column, I have also read many of his works on the web and I have also read some of his academic books when I was doing my MBA. I have also made some inquiries about him online and from friends that knew him. Like Dr. Adamu, I am from Zamfara State even though I stay in Kaduna with my husband.

Dr. Adamu raised some fundamental issues on what is going on in Zamfara State and in the whole article he did not say Shinkafi has not done well in Zamfara, all he was saying if honestly understood is that Zamfara was not lucky with Yerima as governor and Shinkafi’s vision is now blurred by politics. He calls for reforms; what else should a citizen do better than what Dr. Adamu has done? His article was not about the government of Shinkafi, it is about the politics of the state.

Bungudu questioned Dr. Adamu’s claim of being an intellectual and said that he is ignorant of Zamfara history and politics. Haba Bungudu! Dr. Adamu is an intellectual of standard if you know what an intellectual means. He has captured Zamfara politics aptly and his thesis shows great understanding of what is on the ground.

When Bungudu said that Dr. Adamu is “hardly known outside the BUK ivory tower much less in the rank of popular or prominent citizens of Zamfara State” I find this claim baseless, ignorant and a blatant lie. If Bungudu didn’t know who Dr. Adamu is, he should please shut his mouth. Dr. Adamu writes a weekly column in the Sunday Trust newspaper (formerly PLACES and now LANDSCAPES) since 2007. He is very regular in Nigerian newspapers since 1992, how can you say he is not known? Do you read newspapers at all Bungudu?

Dr. Adamu is an established scholar, poet and writer. I also learnt that he was the first northerner to earn a PhD in Medical Geography and is a leading authority on Maternal Mortality and Maternal Health in Nigeria. Dr. Adamu I have no doubt is known internationally, his works are taught not only in Nigerian Universities but also in US and European Universities especially in Germany and Norway. Therefore to say he is not known outside the BUK campus is despicable and silly. Bungudu should know that Dr. Adamu is more widely known in the world than any member of Zamfara State Executive or Legislature, go and google his name, you will be surprised to see his calibre. So stop making baseless claims like that please. Zamfara State should even be very proud that he associated with it.

When Bugudu alledged that Dr. Adamu is planning to contest for governor in Zamfara State 2011, I think we Zamfarawa should be happy and prayerful that he did not change his mind. He is the kind of people we need to pull our state out of political quagmire and give us HOPE. Therefore, if Shinkafi cannot maintain the tempo he began with, people like Dr. Adamu should be encouraged to join Zamfara politics.

Bungudu is also afraid that Dr. Adamu has concentrated on calling his colleagues, the academics to help the state out at the expense of other sectors of Zamfara society. Why should Bungudu be worried when he claimed to have knowledge of Zamfara history and Politics? He knows that all the other sectors have failed the people. In any case, Dr. Adamu may be right if he starts his CHANGE with the help of his colleagues, even Usman Danfodio started with an intellectual revolution before the revolution proper. I see nothing wrong in all these.

Dr. Adamu did not say he wants to govern Zamfara Sate and he did not say that he wants the state to be governed by university teachers and there is no where in Dr. Adamu’s write up where he said he wants to head the intellectual movement. What he said was he wants intellectuals of Zamfara origin teaching in Nigerian universities to form a nucleus of a body that will start the rebirth of the State.

If Adamu Bubgudu understands the English language very well he should understand what Dr. Adamu was saying. Is change not usually started by intellectuals? If you don’t know this, go and read your history books. Let me recommend Ibrahim Sulaiman’s A Revolution in History, a book of the Sokoto Jihad. Go and read, you will probably understand where Dr. Adamu got his ideas or I think he got his ideas.

Bilkisu writes from Barnawa Quarters, Kaduna

Source:

http://weekly.dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=685:re-intellectual-mischief-in-zamfara-politics&catid=1:comments&Itemid=109

STILL ON THE RETURN OF GEOGRAPHY

2010-06-04T13:44:00.000-07:00

By Tijjani Abubakar

The piece written by my Lecturer Dr. Yusuf Adamu on ‘’For the Return of Geography’’ on Weekly Trust of April 10, 2010 has prompted me to write on this subject-matter. Geography as a discipline has been relegated to the background at the early school days in the past few decades. The repercussion of this, has manifested on our national life in a negative way. Yet the rudimentrics of geography at the Primary School and Junior secondary is sacrosanct both in developing our economy and the corporate existence of our dear country – Nigeria.

Geography will help to expose the Primary School pupil to the economic potentials that can be found in the various mineral resources that abound in large quantities at different locations of his/her country . This knowledge will tickle the child’s imagination and thought and ultimately lay a solid foundation for a rigorous research at higher level on how to harness these resources for a virile economy. Obviously, this will set the pace for revamping the quest for studying science courses at the higher level by our young ones – a development that has the propensity for more scientific creativity that will put Nigeria’s name among the best producer as opposed to consumer nations of the world. A viable economy cannot thrive in an atmosphere of confusion, lack of respect for one another and chaos. Human geography from onset is a viable tool for integrating well over 250 ethnic groups in Nigeria cum offer panacea to the ethnic chauvinism that has recently became a major cause of violence in this country.

The disappearance of geography from the Primary School and Junior Secondary School syllabus in Nigeria in recent times have played a salient role in producing graduates and intellectuals who despise against their fellow colleagues that hail from the other part of the country and regard them as second class intellectuals or citizens. This stereotype is obviously a bad omen for our nascent democracy as well as the corporate existence of our great country. It is a common knowledge that when the learned amongst us despise one another, the common man (who are the vast majority) loses focus and be plunged into confusion and despair. This is corroborated by the popular saying ‘’when two Elephants fight, the grass suffers’’.

The Creator of Mankind and the Universe Has told us about the importance of geography more than 1400 years ago in the Holy Qur’an when He said ‘’O mankind ! Lo! We have created you male and female, and have made you nations and tribes that ye may know one another. Lo! the noblest of you in the sight of Allah, is the best in conduct. Lo! Allah is knower, Aware. Qur’an 49:13

It is interesting to note that almost all the five themes on which geography can be understood featured prominently in the verse mentioned above, namely; Location, Human/Environment interaction, Movement, and Region. Location provides answers to the question ‘’where is it’’? both in terms of absolute location of a place which can be explained both by latitude and longitude of a place, as well as relative location which seeks to describe a place relative to other places. Place (as a theme) provides answers to ‘’what is it like there’’? both in terms of physical features and economic activities that characterizes that area. Human/Environment interaction provides answer to ‘’what is the relationship between people and their environment’’ ? in terms of exploitation of the resources such as rivers, lakes, forests sunshine etc and other interactions with their environment. The theme ‘’Movement’’ offers an explanation to ‘’how are people and places connected’’’? in terms of both migration and daily movements in search of jobs and other means of livelihood. The theme ‘’Regions’’ provides a detailed explanation on ‘’how is a place similar to and different from other places’’ ? both in terms of tribes or ethnic groups dominating the area or the physical characteristics such as soils or climate of the area. Geography can make us understand that no place on earth is an island, in other words everyone of us cannot live independent of the other, just as the places we live.

Let us teach geography to the Primary school child to promote development of Science and Technology in Nigeria. Let geography set the pace for Space exploration and Space sciences in Nigeria. Let the Primary school pupil in Ijebu Ode (Southwestern Nigeria) know that the harmattan dust prevailing in the plains of Kano, Kaduna and Zamfara (Northwestern Nigeria) is good for the flourishing of wheat and many other crops in Nigeria. Let the Primary school child in far away Maiduguri (Northeastern Nigeria) know that the palm oil his mother use in cooking comes from Onitsha, Enugu etc (Southeastern Nigeria). Let that child growing in Ekeremor (Bayelsa in the South- South) know that fish, also abounds in large quantities in River Niger and Benue as well as Tin in Jos (North – Central region). Let our younger ones in Ganye (in Adamawa), Gboko (in Benue) and Hadejia (in Jigawa) know that most of their Clothes, Shoes as well as the Cars they see around them were imported through the tin can island Ports in Apapa (Lagos) and Onne port in Port Harcourt (Rivers State). Let us inculcate sound Environmental Management techniques in the minds of our younger ones through geography so that we can create a safe haven for living through sustainable development in all facets of human endeavor.

Let the Federal Ministry of Education and other stakeholders strive to ensure that geography is taught at both Primary and Junior secondary school level in Nigeria. let us refrain from alienating geography at these levels because the land we live on, the sea that dominate our planet as well as the air around us are better understood through geography.

Tijjani Abubakar is the Managing Director, Wholesome Environments Limited Gwarzo Road, Kano.

tijruu@yahoo.com 08029096035

The Demolition Of Kofar Na Isa And The Challenge Of Re Constructing History

2010-05-18T16:49:00.000-07:00

NOTE: This article is not written by me, but I agree with its contents totally and I decided to re-publish it on my blog.

Attahiru Muazu Gusau

attamuazu@yahoo.com

All around the world, modernity has found a way of co existing with the historical. That way is simply called common sense, which is couched in various terms like, Sustainable Development, Conservation and Protection of Cultural and Natural Heritages etc. A drought of this basic ingredient in Nigeria led to the demolishing of the invaluable 200 years old Kofar Na Isa, in the ancient city of Kano. This unfortunate act of negligence and recklessness was perpetrated against Laws protecting historical monuments in the country i.e. The National Commission for Museums and Monuments [NCCM] Act. This action, besides undermining the Laws of the Nation also constitute a major drawback to the efforts of concerned individuals like Dr Yusuf Adamu who spent over a decade campaigning for the restoration of the dilapidating Historical Monument[ the Kano Wall]. Above all it was a fatal blow to the quest of Nigeria for the inclusion of the ancient wall in the list of World Heritage Sites by UNESCO. How could the international community under the auspices of UNESCO consider Nigeria’s bid as serious with the constant violation of the integrity of the Wall and the complete absence of state policy for its protection, which is one of the principal responsibility agreed to by signatory countries , i.e.” to adopt a general policy giving cultural and natural heritage a function in the life of the community and to integrate the protection of that heritage into comprehensive planning programmes “ and also “to set up services for the protection, conservation and interpretation of such heritage”.

The World Heritage Convention dedicated to the protection of World Cultural and Natural Heritage was adopted by UNESCO in 1972 and was signed by over 180 countries, Nigeria inclusive. It is ironic that a nation that is signatory to this convention would be caught in outright violation of its spirit while still hopeful of enlisting its heritage which it considered to be of Outstanding Universal Value among World Heritage Sites.Is four decades not good enough for the protection and restoration of the Kano Wall? Yet for God knows why both the government and the civil society have failed to protect the Wall.

There are only two World Heritage Sites so far recognised by UNESCO in Nigeria; the Sukur Cultural Landscape in Madagali Local Government Area, Adamawa state ; a spectacular cultural landscape with fortified palace of king atop the hill overlooking the village below. The other one is the Osun Osugbo grove-the shrine of the goddess of fertility, a deity in the pantheon of Yoruba cosmogony and religion. Both sites were authenticated by the World Heritage committee, a body Saddled with the responsibility of identifying and authenticating nominated sites for World Heritage List and identifying and listing endangered Heritage sites. The Kano wall would stand out as a better qualified than most sites that managed to scale through as world Heritage Sites in terms of its antiquity, grandeur and majesty and also its spiritual and temporal significance.

The Kano Wall was said to have been built by Sarki Gijinmasu son of Warisi son of Bagauda [1097-1134] who was the third king of Kano. He was said to be a shrewd king who won his opponents through good diplomacy laced with lavish gifts. It was said that he slaughtered a hundred cattle on the first day that the wall construction began. The Kano Wall is 14km long and about 50ft thick with 15 gates all around. Governor Lugard was said to have been overawed when he first saw the wall because he had never imagined that Africans have attained such level of civilization and sophistication. In a report in 1903 Lugard wrote about the Kano wall: “I have never seen or imagined anything like it in Africa”. Reading this made Dr Yusuf ashamed of relaxing his campaign for saving the wall as he indicated in one of his many writings on the Badala. In the Black Man’s Burden, Basil Davidson describes a similar experience saying that his first real contact with Africa was when he first set eyes on the Kano Wall and that was what motivated his deep interest on the continent.

Equally interesting and awe inspiring is the story behind the construction of Kofar Na Isa as carried by Weekly Trust. A prince, Abubakar son of Sarki Suleman dan Abahama [1807-1819] the forty fourth king of Kano, was sent by his father on a mission of justice; specifically to apprehend and arrest a gang of robbers that had been terrorising the nomadic Fulani of the country side. The gallant prince came back victoriously only to be met with a rude and harsh reception from the custodian of Kofar Dogo who slammed the gate in the face of the prince and denied him entry in to the city. Furious, the prince broke through the thick wall after which he spent five days constructing a new gate entirely. This gate was to be christened Kofar Na Isa.

Why on earth would a subordinate officer deny entry into the city to a prince who could be an heir apparent to the throne? That was the first question that flashed in my mind as I read the story. Could there be some rivalry between the prince and the custodian of the gate? Was there a conspiracy somewhere along the line- say, perhaps, some rival personality within the palace bent on humiliating an obviously favoured prince? Kano historians must dig up this story of the prince and the pauper for a full appreciation of the genesis of Kofar Na Isa. My guess, however, is that the escapade was a reaction of the Habe original residents of kano who only recently Lost the throne and the town to the jihad of Usman Dan Fodio and the new Fulani overlords. Sarki Suleman was the first Caliphate King having fought and sacked Sarki Muhamma Alwali dan Yaji. By humiliating the prince the gate keeper was simply registering their opposition against the status quo. Alternatively, this incidence may have occurred at the height of the intrigue and conspiracy playing out at the palace between Sarki Sulemanu and Galadima Ibrahim. History has it that Sarki Suleiman sent Galadima Ibrahim to fight Zazzau, a mission that was very successful for the Galadima who came back with a lot of booty. This made Sarki Suleman extremely jealous and he began plotting against the Galadima. Sarki Sulemanu died before he could execute his plans. It is worth noting that Sarki Sulemanu was not succeeded by his son or brother as tradition provides, but by Ibrahim Dabo dan Muhammadu who could be the same Galadima that sacked Zaria and had problems with the king.

The very praise Na Isa- I am worth the mettle-or in Obama’s campaign slogan of change-yes, we can- challenges the resolve and determination of the individual and the people at large to overcome obstacles that impede their path to progress and development. In these difficult times in the country that is in dearth of role models and heroes the tale of Kofar Na Isa and the Hero behind,Abubakar Mai Unguwar Mundabawa, is indeed refreshing, thanks to Weekly Trust.

Edifices like the Kofar Na Isa should’nt have been demolished under any circumstance. Besides destroying the glorious legacy of our forbears we have obstructed the path of reconstructing the past by researchers and completely effaced the tourist value of the ancient city. Moreover, by demolishing a 200 years old monument we have successfully depicted ourselves to the world as a nation of fools who have no respect for their History and culture. What else that we call ours are we willing to spare? We have sacrificed our indigenous languages for the glory of exoglossic languages of colonialists; we have succumbed to the mighty force of globalization which actually means westernization without the slightest effort to improve and build on our own. And now without any colonialist or slave master directing us we are busy effacing our history. It is ironic that the only gate the colonialists demolished deliberately without any necessity in the course of their campaign against the Sokoto Caliphate was kofar Taramniya at Sokoto after the fall and subsequent flight of sultan Attahiru Ahmad in May, 1903. What happened to the entire wall and all the gates of Sokoto should be blamed on the people and the Government. It is unfortunate that all the gates and walls of the pre colonial cities of the Hausa land have either been completely eroded or are facing serious danger of encroachment and neglect.

What could have informed the resolute decision of the Italians to leave the coliseum standing in central Rome 3000 after? Don’t they construct roads in Italy? I wonder what construction work would take the place of the Stonehenge of Salisbury or the Hadrian Wall both in England. The Islamic Iran intends to construct ten more Nuclear Enrichment Facilities in defiance of America. Would they hide them beneath Pasargadae, Susa or Persepolis? Do you foresee a situation where the Forbidden City shall give way for the Beijing Metro in the near future? Or the Sphinx and the Pyramids of Giza to give way for the construction of a much needed Cairo thoroughfare? No, sadly it is only in Nigeria that a History of a thousand years can be mowed down in split second with impunity and complete disregard for the values and sentiments of the people.

The Kano Emirate Council must do all within its power to redress this monumental loss. Kano must re build the kofar Naisa using the traditional material that was initially used and the traditional masons across the Hausa land. Sarki Bayero should go down in history as the King that rebuilt the Kofar Na Isa and made it the greatest monument in the Hausa land. Yes, since it is Kofar Na Isa it must be seen to be Ta isa. The Physical Planning Authority of Kano must up the ante and work closely with the History Bureau and all relevant bodies to safe guard the wall from encroachment by developers and guide Government development drive in a sustainable way that sees the complete protection of this invaluable heritage. Recent visit by the Minister of Culture and Tourism and his call for restoration of the gate is a very big morale booster. The visit has paved the way for Nigeria to rebrand her image internationally. The state government need to ensure the implementation of the suggestions of the Minister and the professionals in this regard.

My commiseration goes to the great people of Kano; to Aliyu Abdu, the Curator Makama House and to Dr Yusuf Adamu whose effort and concern must be acknowledged and to all those who grieved and felt deprived by this act of irresponsibility.

Duk wanda ya rusa Kofar Naisa

Sai muce masa Allah Ya............

Attahiru Muazu Gusau,

Ministry of Housing and Town Planning, Gusau.

Secretary, Gusau Educational Development Association [GEDA]

A Case for the Return of Geography

2010-04-03T06:56:00.001-07:00

I am a Geography teacher. If I talk in favour of the discipline, it won’t surprise anyone. Geography is too important to be ignored because if there is no Geography, we surely are nowhere. The discipline of Geography, beside studying man in relation to his environment, is a bridge between physical and social sciences. This makes Geographers the most informed citizens of the world.

When we talk of Geography, many people think of places, rocks and rainfall, but as a discipline it is much more than rocks and rainfall. It is a very broad subject that many see as a jack of all trade. Traditionally, we know that Geography is divided into, Physical and Human.

While Physical Geography looks at our worl as a planet in the Solar System, paying attention to its workings as a planet, Human Geography view our world as our home; as a home of human. Under Physical Geography we study landforms (Geomorphology), weather and climate (Climatology) Water and river action (Hydrology) Soil and soil distribution (Soil Geography) Spatial patterns of flora and fauna (Biogeography) and so on. In Human Geography we study man’s economic activities (Economic Geography) Population distribution and dynamics (Population Geography) Settlements patterns (Settlement Geography) Spatial expression of politics (Political Geography), Man-environment relationship of disease and healthcare (Medical Geography), and so on.

The academic discipline of Geography is classified into Regional and Systematic Geography. While regional geography study regions as a whole, holistic study of a given region where its physical and human features are studied in detail, systematic geography studies each sub-discipline (like medical geography, geomorphology, spatial organisation of societies, climatology) separately.

With the changes the discipline has passed through from the 1960s to date, ranging from the quantitative revolution to radical geography, the discipline became a plural-paradigm discipline with many traditions. Broadly geography has four traditions, namely Man-land tradition (view the discipline from environmental determinism perspective), Area study tradition (view the discipline as a study of regions) the Spatial Analysis tradition (views the discipline from quantitative and scientific perspective), and Earth Science tradition (view the discipline with the physical geography bias). All these have impacted on the discipline and how it is being taught and studied in Nigeria.

I took the trouble of giving these introductory details in order to put into perspective my case. In the past, pupils in elementary and primary school have Geography and History (Geo/His) in their timetable. Therefore, from primary school, children would learn about their immediate environment and their country. Some of us, not too long ago have read books like Zaman Mutum da Sana’arsa, Ikon Allah (Duniya Sama da Kasa), Wakar Najeriya ta Shehu Shagari and so on as supplementary texts. That has helped us a great deal.

When children learn Geography and History at primary school level, they learn about their immediate environment, the nation and different countries of the world. That makes them open minded, tolerant and wise. That understanding about one’s country diversity helps to create strong awareness of the different parts of a nation and the implications for that.

However, at a point, Nigerian educational policy makers (I learnt) decided to dump the teaching of Geography for something called Social Studies (because the US does so). That was the beginning of our problem in Nigeria. Children have to wait for another ten or more years (during NYSC) to learn about their country. That gave rise to many stereotypes between the different regions of the country. While southerners think that the north is a desert and people move around with daggers, northerners believe that southerners are cannibals that corps members have to be introduced to communities as ‘government property’ or else be eaten.

All this outburst resulted from our recent visit to Niger republic. During our stay in Niamey we paid a visit to their Educational Resource Centre known as INDRAP and to the Museum. The visit was not only an eye opener but also a triggered to my outburst. At INDRAP, we have seen how an educational organisation is supposed to work. When we visited the Geography section, we learnt how important regional geography of Niger republic is. Children learn from primary school about their country, they become well informed about the different peoples living in the country, their natural resources and so on. The same day, at the museum, the uranium gallery attendant after taking us round was asked about the discovery of oil in Niger by a student. In his explanation, he said ‘we are sure that our country must have oil, how can you explain lack of oil in Niger while we are bordered by Nigeria, Chad and Libya, all oil rich nations. All of us, geographers were impressed with his simply logic that is also geographical.

Social Studies, no matter how much we like it, cannot be a replacement of Geography and History in our primary school. It is unfortunate that, we start the teaching of geography from SSI. Students are expected to study physical, regional and human geography in addition to map reading within three years. This is neither helpful nor realistic. When a student goes to the University, nobody pays attention to teach him regional geography anymore. There may not be more than three courses to cover regional geography syllabus. In the end, we produce geographers that don’t know about places. We teach systematic geography because it is the vogue. Our students know the stuff but are poor when it comes to places like the Americans.

With the happenings in this country, it is very important that our children learn from the foundation about what made up the country not just talking about ethnic groups. It would do us no harm, if the teaching of geography is re-introduced in the curriculum even if social studies will be retained. I hope, other geographers will write and educate the public, let us join this debate.

Ganuwar Birnin Kano: Matsayinta A Tarihin Wayewar Kan Bahaushe

2009-12-21T05:21:00.000-08:00

An taba bugawa a http://www.kanoonline.com/yusufadamu/

Ko’ina mutum ya kewaya a birnin Kano yanzu zai lura da wani abu guda da mamaye birnin a lokuna da lunguna. watau shaguna. Kano ta zama ko’ina shago. Kila a iya cewa ci-gaban harkokin kasuwanci ne suka kawo haka, tunda Kano cibiyar kasuwanci ce tun shekaru aru-aru. Ba za a ki hakan ba. Za a kuma lura da cewa a halin yanzu mafi yawancin masana’antun dake Kano a rufe suke, saboda haka a halin da muke ciki yanzu ba na kera abubuwa a Kano kamar yadda ake yi a da, amma ana ta gina shagunan sayar da kayayyakin da ake kerawa a Legas da Onicha.

Akan yi wa Kano kirari iri-iri ciki har da cibiyar kasuwanci, cibiyar addinin da al’adu ko ace gari ba Kano ba dajin Allah, yaro ko da me ka zo an fika. I, babu shakka Kano gari ne mai tsawon tarihi kuma wadanda suka gina Birnin Kano shekara da shekaru ba ragwaye ba ne ba kuma mutane ne masu son zuciya da hadama da kuma rashin kishi ba. Mutane ne hazikai, masu kishin birnin Kano da son kyautata bayansu. A yadda na san mutanen Kano ‘yan shekaru kadan da suka wuce, a halin yanzu sun zama kanawawa ba kanawa ba domin kuwa Kano ba ta ransu. Abin da ke ransu abin da zuciyarsu ke so. Duk wannan shimfida ce na ke yi dangane da yadda aka sa ido ganuwar birnin Kano ta zagwanye ta lalace ake kuma kokarin shareta daga doron kasa duk da irin kimbin tarihin da ta ke da shi.Saboda haka, za a lura da wani abu guda, an kusa share Ganuwar Birnin Kano daga doron kasa. Wannan shi ya fi damuna matuka gaya.

Tarihin Ganuwar Birnin Kano

Duk tsoffin birane a kasar Hausa wadanda aka kafa kafin dauloli da ma wadanda aka kafa bayan kahuwar dauloli ko bayan jihadi suna da Ganuwa. Tsofaffin birane kamar su Kwatarkwashi da Birnin ‘Yandoto da Birnin Katsina da Birnin Koga da kuma birnin Kano suna da Ganuwa. Akan gina ganuwar gari ne kuwa domin a kare gari daga hare-hare da suka yi yawa a wancan zamani. Birnin Kano ko ace Daular Birnin Kano ta sha karawa da Daular Katsina da ta Zamfara da ta Zazzau kai har ma da su Damagaram.

Domin a kare birnin da kuma jama’arsa ne a cikin karni na 12 (kusan shekaru 800 da suka wuce) aka fara gina ganuwar birnin Kano. An fara gina Ganuwar Birnin Kano a karni na goma sha biyu a zamanin Sarkin Kano Gajimasu wanda ya yi zamani a tsakankanin shekarar 1095 zuwa 1134. An kammalata a zamanin sarkin Kano Jusa. Kamar yadda Dr. Adamu Tanko na sashen labarin kasa na jami’ar Bayero ya yi bayani, katangar a zamanin ta kewaye ~angaren Dala da Gwauron Dutse ne. Har yanzu in aka je wurin kofar Mazugal za a ga burbushinta.

Daga nan sai ganuwar ta yi arewa ta bi ta Kofar Ruwa/Linkwi ta kofar Waika da kofar ansakali. Daga nan sai aka juya ganuwar ta yi gabas ta bi ta wajen kurkukun Gwauron Dutse. Ganuwar ta gangaro tayo wajen Masallacin juma’a na birni sannan ta yi wajen Asibitin Murtala ta mike ta kofar Wambai. An zagaye birnin lokacin kenan. A karni na goma sha biyar, saboda yawan jama’a da ha~akar harkokin kasuwanci, birnin Kano ya kara ha~aka. A sakamakon haka ne Sarkin Kano Muhammadu Rumfa wanda ya kara fadada ganuwar Kano. Dr. Tanko ya bayyana cewa Sarkin Kano Muhammadu Rumfa ya kara da’irar ganuwa da kusan kashi 51 kuma ya tayar da gidan masarautar Kano ya matso da ita dai-dai inda take a hali yanzu ta yadda ya shiga sabon birni, tunda kafin ayi hakan, inda gidan Sarki yake a halin yanzu a lokacin wajen badala ne. A wannan karon ne aka sami kofofi kamar su Gadon {aya da Dan Agundi da kuma kofar Na’isa har ganuwar ta tarar da kofar Kansakasli.

Lokaci na karshe da aka kara fadada ganuwar birnin Kano shine a karni na goma sha bakwai a zamanin sarkin Kano Muhammadu Nazaki, sarki na 28. Wani masani ya yi hasa- shen cewa Wambai Giwa shi ne ya yi wannan gagarumin aiki a lokacin da Sarki ya tafi yaki da kasar Katsina. Ganin cewa shi wambai Giwa bashi da lafiya a lokacin da aka tafi yakin, sai ya yi tunanin me zai yi ya burge Sarki in ya dawo! An ce a lokacin da aka yi wannan aiki sai da aka yanka shanu dari. To ganuwar birnin Kano da muke gani yanzu, a wannan lokaci ne aka ginata. Ba za a ce ba a kara yi mata komai ba tun daga lokacin har zuwa lokacin Jihadi. Babu ko shakka ana yi mata ya~e ana kuma kyautata ta. Wannan dalili shi ne ya sa har ta kawo yau muke ganin sauranta.

A taron Cikar Kano shekara 1000 da soma mulki, Dr. Tanko ya yi tambayar cewa da anci gaba da fadada ganuwar birnin Kano ina za ta kai a halin yanzu? Har yana cewa da kila yanzu ta kai Kura.

Ba sai an yi dogon bayani ba. Kowa zai iya fahimtar dalilin gina ganuwar gari. Kuma kamar yadda aka fada a baya, ba birnin Kano ne kawai ke da ganuwa ba. Manyan biranen kasar Hausa kamar su Katsina da Zazzau da Sakkwato duk suna da ita, to amma in anje yau kila sai dai a tarar da kaofofi kawai ba ganuwa. {anana garuruwa ma kamar su Kausani a karamar hukumar Wudil suna da ganuwa. Ana kyautata zaton cewa kafin zuwan turawa akwai garuruwa fiye da dari masu ganuwa a kasar hausa, amma yanzu duk sun zama tarihi saboda sakaci da rashin kishin tushen da mutum ya fito.

Inda za a iya nuna mana majigin yadda ganuwowin birane suke a kasar Hausa kafin zuwan Turawa da an burge mu da kuma mun fahimci cewa kakanninmu wayayyu ne kuma masu basira da fusaha. Ku duba yadda Turawan Mulkin mallaka suka dauki bakar fata a matsayin koma-bayan halitta, amma da suka zo cin Kano da yakI sai da suka sara wa kakanninmu.Lord Lugard a 1903 da ya zo Kano, ga ruhoton da ya aika Ingila dangane da Badalar birnin Kano.“lokacin da dakaranmu suka iso Kano sun iske wata babbar Katanga mai matukar kwari wadda ta kewayen birnin. Wannan Katanga ta kwancewa hafsoshinmu kai domin ba su yi tsammanin ganin wani abu kamar haka ba. Ni kai na ban ta~a gani ko tunanin zan ga wani abu irin wannan a Afirka ba. Ganuwar ta kai mil goma sha daya tana da kofofi guda goma sha uku (13). Daga bisani an auna ta an ga cewa tsawonta ya kai kafa 30 zuwa kafa 50, fadinta kuma kafa 40 ne. Akwai kududdufai a gabanta da bayanta”

Makomar Ganuwar Birnin Kano

Tun daga farko-farkon shekara ta dubu biyu na fara rubuce-rubuce akan matsayin Ganuwar Birnin Kano a halin yanzu, an buga wasu a jaridar jihar Kano watau Triumph. Ba komai ya sa na soma rubuce-rubuce ba sai don ganin muhimmancin yin haka, a matsayina na malamin Jami’a kuma marubuci, ina ganin ta hanyar rubutu ne hanya mafi sauki a gareni in isar da sako ga wadanda abin ya shafa, wadanda za su iya yin wani abu da kuma wadanda ba za su iya yin komai ba.

Duk wanda ya zagaya birnin Kano yanzu zai lura da cewa akwai alamar cewa a wani zamani da ya wuce tsohon birnin a kewaye yake da ganuwa. Ita wannan ganuwa tana daya daga cikin muhimman kayan tarihi da Kano ta dauri ta bar mana. Sai kuma abin takaici shine gani yadda aka yi sakaci har ganuwar ta zagwanye. A wasu wuraren ma babu ita babu alamarta, misali daga kofar Nassarawa (ta inda Nasara suka ci Kano) zuwa kofar mata babu ganuwa. Amma daga kofar Nassarawan zuwa har kofar Waika da sauran alamunta. Abin tambaya anan shi ne laifin wanene?

Zuwan masu Jihadi Kano bai sa an wulakanta badala ba, zuwan Turawan Mulkin mallaka bai sa an yi watsi da kula da badala ba. Lalacewar badala ya somo ne bayn tafiyar Turawan Mulki, bayan mulki ya dawo hannunmu. Wannan ba karamin abin bakin ciki ba ne. Ta kai yau kowa na da ikon sare badala ya yi bulo da kasar ko kuma ya yi gini a bisanta kuma babu wanda ya isa ya ce masa me yasa. Ta kai cewa harabar badalar ta inda mai wucewa zai iya hangenta akalla ya tuna cewa kakannin mu sun yi abin a zo a gani hukumomin Jihar Kano, wadanda hakkin kare martabar mutanen Kano ke hannunsu sun rabe wurare an yi manya-manyan gine-ginen shaguna da wuraren ajiye ko sayar da motoci. Duba daga kofar Nassarawa zuwa kofar Kabuga. Abin tambaya anan shin me Masarautar Kano ke yi akan wannan barnatar da kayan tarihi da ake yi? Me hukumar gidaje da wuraren tarihi ta kasa take yi? Kuma me hukumar tarihi da al’adu na jihar Kano ke yi? Sannan kuma me mutanen cikin birnin Kano wadanda kakanninsu ne suka gina ganuwar, suke yi akan hakan?

To, ba za a ce ba a yin komai ba, domin na sadu na shugaban hukumar gidaje da wuraren tarihi ta kasa na kusa tattauna da shi akan matsalar. Malam Musa Humbolu ya yi mani bayanin cewa Masarautar Kano, musamman mai Martaba Sarkin Kano suna yin iya bakin kokarinsu, sai dai an fi karfinsu ne. amma ya koka akan cewa wane da wanen Kano ne abin bai dame su ba kuma sune ke daure gindin ~annata badalar Kano.

To a gaskiya da sake. Bai kamata mutane su zuba ido ana kasha mana tarihi ba. In dai har za a rika cika baki ana cewa gari ba Kano ba dajin Allah, yaro ko da me ka zo an fi ka kuma Kano Jallah ce babbar Hausa, amma a kasa kare mata kayan tarihinta a gaskiya an ji kunya. Duk manyan mu sun zagaya duniya sun kuma ga abubuwan tarihi da al’umu suka bari, sun kuma san muhimmancin adana kaya da wuraren tarihi, amma a ce sun kasa cewa uffan akan kyautata badalar Kano. A kasar Hausa gaba daya fa ba mu da wasu muhimman kayan tarihi da ya wuce badala. Bayan Rijiyar Kusugu da Hubbaren Shehu da marina me muke da shi wanda zai nuna ayyukan kakanninmu?

In har Turawa duk da wayewar kansu ta zamani za su rika adana kayan tarihinsu don me mu ba za mu yi ba. Lokacn da na je Ingila a 1998 na je wani wuri da ake kira Stonehenge. Na sha karanta tarihin wajen a littatafai kuma Allah Ya nufe ni da zuwa wurin. Duwatsu ne aka yi a zagaye, sai masana sun ce an gina wurin ne shekaru 5000 da suka wuce. Duk da cewa an dan ta~a tsarin duwatsub har yanzu wurin na nan a killace kuma mutane daga ko’ina cikin duniya suna zuwa kullun suna gani. Ana kar~ar kudin shiga da kudin kuma ake ci-gaba da kyautat wurin, bayan gudunmuwar hukuma da masu kudI da sauran jama’a.

Kammalawa

Saboda haka, lokaci ya yi da mutanen Kano za su fara tunanin dakatar da rushe ko kare badalar Kano da kuma fara shirye-shiryen tada ita. Misali, in an yi niyyar tada badalar Kano ba abinda zai hana. A fara daga kofar Nassarawa zuwa kofar Ruwa. Daga bisani a tada sauran ~angaorin. Wannan ba abu ne da zai gagara ba sai dai in ba a yi niyya ba. Rashin niyya kuma mun san ba zai kai mu ga nasara ba.

Idan da gwamnatin Jihar Kano tare da Masarautar Kano da mutanen Kano za su daura niyya tada badala, na tabbata Gwamnatin Tarayyar Nijeriya da Majalisar Dinkin Duniya da wasu kungiyoyi da hukumomin kas ashen waje ba za su kI taimakawa ba.

Amma mu kan mun yi kudurin ci gaba da fafutukar kare badala da kokarin tada ita matukar rayuwarmu kuma ko ba wanda zai yi wani abu a halin yanzu mu, mun fita hakkI tunda mun fadakar mun yi nasiha mun kuma ilmantar. Saura da me kila a wasu shekaru masu zuwa za a sami wani Sarki Gajimasun ko Jusa ko Muhammadu Rumfa, ko ma a sami wani Wambai Giwan da zai tada badalar Kano, daga nan kuma a tada na sauran biranen {asar Hausa. Muna fatan daga wannan rubutu mutane za su fara tsumuwa.

INTERVIEW WITH SULAIMAN IBRAHIM KATSINA

2009-10-19T13:41:00.001-07:00

This interview was conducted in London on the 11th November 1998 when I was in the UK.

ADAMU: Mallam Sulaiman, would you please tell us a brief about yourself?

KATSINA: I was born in Katsina in the Northern Nigeria over 40 years ago. I had my primary education over there, after that I went to a school at Lagos and the school was not approved by government and I left it. I started working at a very young age as a typist, but seeing that education was not enough at that time so I registered for home studies. I did GCE O level after that I went to Katsina Polytechnic as a staff and then they started Diploma courses. Because I have these GCE papers I joined in and did National Diploma in Accounting. After that I came to BBC and while working here I also register foe MA in Communication Policies Studies and I did it and finished in 1994. I have a wife and five children.

ADAMU: Thank you. What influenced you to start writing?

KATSINA: Well, speaking honestly, it was the situation that I was seeing around me, even though Nigeria was wealthy at that time, there were a lot of things that were going wrong, and the seed of corruption in Nigeria was being planted. So a lot of things were going wrong though less wrong than now. That was the main influence.
The other influence was the competition that was organised by northern Nigerian Publishing Company. Even though I had the hope to write, I didn’t put pen on paper until that competition came up.

ADAMU: So that was in the1970s?

KATSINA: That was around 1978. I wrote most part of MALLAKIN ZUCIYATA at Katsina Oil Mill where I worked for a brief period of time. We were working there but there was no groundnut there so we were virtually doing nothing. So instead of wasting our time doing nothing in an air-conditioned environment, I found it was very easy to write there and it was pleasurable experience.

ADAMU: How did the idea of the story came about?

KATSINA: As you can see, if you read MALLAKIN ZUCIYAT, it was a story of a …….there are multiple stories. There is the story of Usman and Sakina, the girl he loved and a rich man as it happens in our society. He wanted to get the girl instead of this young man who had nothing. It is the story of that young man. It is a struggle to see that he did not participate or help in embezzlement or a short of corruption, Because a gentleman was asking him to fill- if I can remember a tax form for him and to do shady things for him, and he refused to help him. So it was that story. It was also the story of his father who was not educated in the western sense. He wasn’t even educated in the Islamic sense. He didn’t have much education, but still realised that it was a good thing for his children to have Islamic and modern education, so that they will be able to help themselves, when he was away. It was also that struggle, so it wasn’t just one story but many stories in one.

ADAMU: Can you remember how old you were at that time?

KATSINA: Well, at that time I wrote the book I would say I was in my early 20s.

ADAMU: How did you come to know about the competition?

KATSINA: The competition was advertised in gaskiya ta fi kobo and ,ithink the new nigerian. But I saw mine in gaskiya ta fi kobo and I started writing immidiately. And it was only a day yo the closing date ,that I was able to find some body who was going to Zaria. That mean I didit even know him I gave him the maniscript and lockily enough he delivered it before the closing date. And I was happy the book selected among the rest for a price.

ADAMU:You second book ‘Tirmin danya which also mean competition, seemed to take a new dimention. That was taking about smuggling and corruption in and more detail way, perhaps because katsina you decision to write on that ?
KATSINA: yes and seeing what was hoppening in katsina at that time, in terms of smuggling , that was the greatest influence. And I was very close to some of them (the people who are paticipating in the smuggling) some of them even leave close to my area and I wouldn’t he sitate to say some of them didn’t take smuggling to be a crime. But may be because they saw that most of the customs officers who were there to protect the borders usually perticipate in this illegal act.
So, having come from katsina as city near the boeder of niger republic actually inluenced that novel.

ADAMU:Your third novel.’ Tura ta kai bango ‘ is a political novel poblished in a era what informed that decision.
KATSINA:That decision as yo were probably a were there was the 1979 hand over from military to civilian regime and I participated in politic at that time and the amount of rigging and colloboration between the politians and the polio was the main reason for the book. Iwas thinking that may be if I write on how such a thing were taking place and yhow the people can stand up and avert to it that could influence what happened in 1983. But unfortunately if Icould remember the book came out later ,but idon’t think even ,if` it come out ealier it would have been able to avert that because not every body reads hausa novel but it was a small attempt from my on part to see things change and people take steps to see that their ambition were realised or the people they voted for are those who came to power at the end.

ADAMU: So to what extent have you participated in the politic in the second repoblic

KATSINA : I participated to extent of standing for election for katsina North – west consituecy but unfortunately we were rigged out of victory, but I didn’t regret participating

ADAMU: So it seems from your starty ‘ Tura ta kai bango ‘ you political ideology is progress, what I mean by progressive , in the nigeria since , Iam al right ?
KATSINA : Well, if you mean progressive….if by progressive you mean being so much revotionary I Will say that I you’re correct . Because when I participated in politic I was with were calling for change from what was happened at that time to new silvation where by those who were exploiting the people were stopped from doing so. If that is the what you mean by progressive Iparticipated on the progressive side of politic and I will continue to do so.

ADAMU: So can I guest you’re in PRP?

KATSINA: Iwas in the PRP and you know there was an alliance between the PRP and the GNPP and even with UPN so I stood for election on the ticket of GNPP at that but later when, we were defeated I departed my PRP.

ADAMU : So if you had mean, how would you cope up as a writer whose ideals may go contrary to that of your political associates or party at the time?

KATSINA: I know it would ve bean very tough especially what would happen at the end and though even if I had won and money people like me had won may be the kaduna stee house assembly would be a different place.but unfornutely becuose of the messive rigging that took place it was the npn that donated the house . if that situation ifound. Myself in, I could do much but to contribute as much asi could . what I mean by that is that the impact of what I will be able do wouldn it be much because they control the house assembly and they stopped all the progressive steps that balarabe musa , the first ciuilian govornor of kaduna state was trying to take to establish the industries in all the local government of kaduna state .
If were elect, still we didn’t here the majority in the house, I did’t think the impact would be much with the majority of the NPNand their determinationto stop progress.

ADAMU: after reading your 3rd book in 1985 we haven it read another one, we just heard your on BBC, what happen /
KATSINA: yes you didn’t read another book because when I came to BBC I though the work would be light and the I would be able to write because I had at that time the intention to continue with my education and that was the reason for coming here to work for the BBC and at the same time to do my MA. I found the job very hectec and there wosn’nt much time to write but all the same I was writing on and off and I was writing poems as well as the hausa novels and some of the english service . And some of the hausa peoms I wrote and I read, kwazon mata’ with I wrote and read over the BBC some years ago but I didn’t stop writing live been writing only that what live been writing has not yet been published. I hope it will be soon published in sha allah

That means must have written some other book if yes, how many/
I’ve one completed hausa novel but I am going over it to see I’ve made correction here
And there
Apart from that I’ve translate something into english and that too Iam going over it to see that I’ve made correction here and there and see that it is as readable as possible. And present iam writing another one, Ive just started writing a new novel and that too… I don’t know when that will finish for it is being writing now.

KANO: can we here an idea about the novel you’re complete?

KATSINA: Well I don’t want to talk about it now I don’t want to talk too soon about it – until it comes out.
KANO: What of the on- going one?

KATSINA: The on-going one is a political novel is about a president an africa president a military and you know we here many military president and many military despots in the past. It is in that area that iam writing in the moment , it would reflect the amount of corruption that happen under such military and how the arrested democracy and they arrested development in their countries. An how african is suffering all because of that.

ADAMU: And now let us go back to the character in your novel, it seems you here given your charecter may be the character in your peotry book, for example ; usman in ‘ mamallakin zuciya ; mukhtar in turmin danya ; hassan in ‘ tura ta kai bango’ are very strong , What informed the decision to make these character very strong?

KATSINA: Well the character here to be strong to fight the battle that they were fighting, a battle against the forces of evil and the forces of evil usually very strong in order to be able to fight against them you here to be strong, very strong it was not unconcious decision on part to make them very strong, it was the circumtances they made them very strong.

ADAMU: You fewer character are also very strong or rather supporter for example the wife of hassan in tura ta kai bango ‘ is it also not deliberate?

KATSINA: Of course that was very deliberate because I want show those who doubt our woman really do a lot in their effort to liberate their children and those women who felt reluntant or those who felt they don’t here role to play that it is a sort of example to them and that such women can do as hassan wife did there fore it is a sort of encouragement to them. It was a deliberate decision to show that women too can participate and help in the way that they can. That they (women) should’t be passived.

ADAMU: It seems you share the idea of punishing the guilty in your books right even if it is right.
KATSINA: Well it is right, although people are saying that in realirty , guilty people usually or in some cases go cut free but in my case I don’t want to see guilty people going to cut free expecially if they are very guilty and so it really my intention to see that in the end a guilty person gets punished. And with our lack of development if guilty people do not get punished then the development can hardly come our way I think, the main punishment of a guilty in our society is the main reason why we are left behind.

ADAMU: You must have earlier read Hausa fiction who and who here you read and which among them influenced you must?

KATSINA: Yeah, you’re right ire read many hausa novel writted by hausa writers. The first one that comes to mine is the late abubakar imam ire read most of his writing and ire also read one book .. or few books of writers like amadu ingawa who wrote ‘iliya dan mai karfi ‘ abdullahi kawuji who wrote dare’ dubu da daya ‘ and many othae
I would say the influence is from most of them that help me writing today I cant say a particular author was main inpiration but all of them.

ADAMU: What of english writers.

KATSINA: Yes; ire read many book writing by english writers and nigerian writers like ; chinua achebe and late like labararu and muhammad sule and many others also african writers like gwaigwawa obinti and out side; charles dinkens and geoge bannershow and shakespare and gabreil garcia so I have read many books writted by english writers both poet and playwhrights.

ADAMU: Has that also influenced your style of writing generally .

KATSINA: Well you can not read all those books with out being influenced by them. They here influenced my style of writing a lot. I can not say they’re done in one respect or the other, but for instance the revolutionary out look of NGUGI has great influence on my writing. And the revenve in the poems of Christopher okigboh has also a great influence because I read and I like his poems even now. And gabreal gaga …I like his style, so can’t pick one author and say the author influence me more than the others. But I enjoin the I will continue to enjoin them and I think what I read would usually influence what I write.
ADAMU: can we say that your explosive to general literature may be more than the hau8sa literature so you’re read English literature and Africa literature and this might’ve influence your style of chosen thing instead of writing about what was the dominant things to the period; writing about jinns and empires, you decided to write about contemporary things ?
KATSINA: yes, that is true ready these contemporary novel had really influence the way I write and the other thing was the theme I was writing on thought a very good writer can write them in the way that the previous HAUSA writers were writing but for me I found it easier to make things as contemporary as they can be so that my readers would be able to understand what I’m writing and the message I am trying to deliver. And reading these contemporary writers books really influence me and I think I can write the same way as HAUSA writers are writing.

KANO: may people consider the generation if we may call those writers as revolutionary but it is a revolution which has momentarily failed because you decided not write again and that has given rise to the new style of writing is rather taken us back instead of taken us forward. What can you say about that?

KATSINA: when you say my generation, you make me feel very old. But in my own case , I haven’t stopped writing and I hope to continue to write . and as I have told you earlier I am still writing and I hope most of my books will be out soon. I am more emphasatic on the HAUSA ones and specially this literature that you said is existing at HAUSA land in this moment, and if it is not satisfactory I don’t think it will be our own part , because we’ve written that we could write and if that we wrote is good , those who read it will be able to improve upon it and the standard will be more than our own standard, I believe that what ever ones needs, should be able to improve upon it not to give up for seeing how far many have gone ahead of him or her.

Re: Intellectual Mischief in Zamfara Politics

2009-07-15T14:05:00.000-07:00

This is a response on my article on Zamfara State, Nigeria.

I read with great interest an article published in the Leadership Newspaper of July 9, 2009 titled Intellectual Mischief in Zamfara Politics, which is a response to my earlier article The Stakes in Zamfara State published in Daily Trust of July 1, 2009. The article by one Adamu Bungudu was much anticipated. Ordinarily I would have dismissed it because it plays the same music that write ups like mine attract. But the writer who to my expectation is a ghost has raised some fundamental issues that I need to respond to in order to put records straight. I will not respond to all he raised because he does not seem to have a good grasp of what my article is all about. He is blindly defending the governor of Zamfara State with such vigour of an intellectual mercenary and a seasoned sycophant.

In the beginning of his article he said “It is perplexing to hear people saying things that cannot stand the test of truth or simple logic and yet laying pompous claim to being an ‘intellectual’” he went ahead to question my academic position and argue that as a geographer I am ignorant of Zamfara Political Science and history. What I want to tell Bungudu is simply that the issues I raised are clear, every right honest person knows that there are enormous political problems in Zamfara State and they have distracted its leadership from performing its duties. It is as simple as this.

He argued that I am “hardly known in the rank of popular or prominent citizens of Zamfara State.” Mr. Bungudu I don’t have to be popular or prominent in Zamfara State to express my views on what is happening there. I am an indigene of the State but not a local champion. Go to http://www.google.com/ and type my name you will see what you will see. Your arguments that only those academics that are concerned with the socio-political affairs of the State are known and recognised by the masses and the elite are familiar with and accorded recognition is understood very well and that’s fine.

The fact that you don’t seem to know me and no one is obliged to accord me any recognition being him an elite or the man on the street did not change the fact that I hailed from Zamfara State. But it may interest you to know that I have probably contributed more for the development of Zamfara State than you have done.

I may not be humble to tell all I have done, but it is good to tell you a few things I have done and allow you to do some investigations and find for your self. Before I give you some insights, it should interest you to know that Zamfara State did not spend a kobo in my education. Kano State funded my primary education. Sokoto State funded my Secondary education, my Bachelors and Masters degree. When I registered for PhD Zamfara State was created and I applied for support and not a single kobo was given to me despite several visits and reminders to the scholarship board. Go and look at the records.

After Yerima came to power in 1999, I sent him several proposals that may advance the State, what I can’t say is whether he got the proposals or not, but I did. By doing that I have done what I am supposed to do. In 2001 while in the US on a Fulbright fellowship at the heat of the Shariáh debates a colleague (Salisu Danyaro) and I opened a website for the State free of charge and we used it to improve the image of the State, http://www.zamfaraonline.com/ is still running even though we have not updated it for a while. We received many inquiries which we responded to and many other things which we forwarded to the State Government that has no time to respond. We have done enormous public relations work for the State and its people that would have costs the State millions of naira for free.

Go and ask people who have passed through Bayero University Kano and students who are still there, in fact go and ask ZAMSA what role I have been playing for the development of education in the State. Take some time and visit http://www.hausa.aminus3.com/ and see something promoting Zamfara State. Ask the director press of the governor about an offer I made to the State. Ask the DGs and commissioners of the Ministries of Agriculture, Lands, Environment about the offer for training Zamfara civil servants on Environmental Management and Land Resources I made to them, and ask them if they have utilised the opportunities. Ask them what they told me. I mentioned these to show you that I do care about Zamfara State even though I stay elsewhere.

There is much more, I shouldn’t be the one telling you. If you are really the serious type do your homework well and please ask Professor Saídu Gusau and Dr Bawa Gusau about me. You would probably hang yourself out of shame.

The guy that is not prominent, not recognised (that’s me) is “recently been sounding his friends out about his new found interest not just in politics but even in becoming governor in 2011” what an absurd and narrow-minded reasoning. Your effort to impress Governor Mahmuda Aliyu Shinkafi will end up making him angry because you are talking like a street political thug. In any case if I want to contest for any position in 2011 in Zamfara State can anyone stop me?

Mr. Bungudu questioned why I focused on Zamfara intellectuals and even among them I addressed those teaching in the Universities. But it is a very simple thing. I am a University teacher and that’s my constituency and there is nothing wrong if I start with them. It is as simple as this. But most importantly, you don’t seem to know your history lessons well and if you’re a Political Scientist, may be you just got a degree and left the knowledge in the classroom. Otherwise how can be so naive not to know that change is usually initiated by a few and implemented by many. If you have read your history lessons well you must have learnt about the few intellectuals that have initiated the Sokoto Jihad and the role Zamfara masses have played.

Mr. Bungudu went on to blindly defend governor Shinkafi as if my article is about Shinkafi. I know what Shinkafi has done and I admire him for what he started. If Mr. Bungudu understood my article well, he would not have wasted his energy but it is understandable. My thesis in my article is that while Shinkafi has started on a good footing, political problems have distracted him and that has affected the State, he need to come back on tract. QED.

I did not spare any segment of the society in Zamfara State; I blamed the political class, the Ulama, the bureaucrats and the intellectuals. If you are honest enough, I did not spare Yarima or Mahmuda as governors because they must take responsibility for whatever happens in the State under their stewardship. If you like Mahmuda ten times, I like him a hundred times more, if you don’t know this, he knows it. . I want you to please visit http://tagarduniya.blogspot.com/2007/12/commending-zamfara-state-government-on.html (also published in Sunday Trust) and see what my views were on Shinkafi’s government in 2007. I cannot remember Mr. Bungudu sending a commendation response to hail me for supporting Shinkafi’s educational policies.

Therefore it is not about liking or hating anyone, it is about helping them to come back on track. If any other person is not aware that Shinkafi is distracted by the political problems of the State, you truly do and why can’t you tell a simple truth Mr. Bungudu? What’s wrong with you?

In the end Mr. Bungudu accused me of ‘undue radicalism’ which I am so happy about because he is busy being a tested toady. Before I conclude I want to tell Mr. Bungudu that in this rejoinder I have tried so hard to be considerate because I clearly understood his dilemma. Man must survive.

I wish to reproduce a few of the responses I received on my article in question so that you understand what we are talking about. All the comments are anonymously published to protect the confidentiality of their authors. But I want to assure you that these responses are from across all segments of Zamfara Society. They are reproduced unedited.

”We must salute you,for your patriotic contribution on today’s daily trust all the honest patriotic citizen of Zamfara are proud of your courage... we are solidly behind you we will participate in Any way you need us. Good luck”

“The feud between Mamuda and his former boss will not come to light Zamfara with good news. It is recorded that history gives a devil his due. Our young and raising state suppose to be a child dreading from the fire that engulfed other states: Adamawa, Sokoto and other states. I believe that now I am not along that Mamuda started well but, now some projectss still assume no beginning, while others are running stagnantly. The call from Dr Adamu, for an umbrella of Zamfara state intellectual indigenes teaching in universities is a giant effort, which need a broader perspective of all intellectuals in the academia not only universities.”

“…. On the other hand the 1year of GOV,Mamuda is better than 8years of SEN. Yarima. Because of the 1st year of GOV. Mamuda he faced the challenges of infrastructure and developmental projects towards the transformation of the state.But the problem of GOV. Mamuda administration are, his 2nd term ambition to retain his power. As up now nothing is going on all the developmentals projects has been stoped. The only things remain is political thugry crisis and tensions.At this juncture let me use this golden opportuanity to advise GOV.Mamuda you should continue with the projects that you ignore. Because is the kind of administration people of Zamfara are yearning for now, not 2nd term.Further more DR YUSUF ADAMU, sir its my honor and previllaged to notified you that on behalf of myself and entire members of grassrot , soliderity movement [ G S M ] We are together with you sir.”
“Good morning. You made an interesting write-ups about Zamfara State political imbroglio and its docile people. The issue is, the paper has drawn the attention of concerned zamfarawas. It seems the intellectual community carry the most blame, forgetting that this communty is few and insignificant in proportion compared with the larger society.”

Prof. we have done our best towards sanizing political rascality existing in the state. Remember our words are not counted because we are not involve in messy politics that has no room for vision, mission, rationality or sense of direction.

As you rightly observed, Dallatu has started his political tenure well, but along the way the political gladiators in the state hijacked the political structure to serve their own ends.”

“I read your article on Daily Trust of Wednesday 1st July 2009. The article is very interested and I support your views 100%. Please go ahead with contact of people of cited minds. I assure you of my support for anything that will move our state forward.”
By way of conclusion I wish to call on people like Mr. Bungudu to be reasonable when they react to criticisms. We are partners not enemies and we are always willing to dialogue with people who share different opinions from us. I look forward to meeting you in person one day so that we can debate one on one.

Finally, I wish to use this medium to inform Zamfarawa that it is the responsibility of every Bazamfare worth his salt to be concerned with what is happening in the State, Shinkafi cannot work under this atmosphere and so there shall be no progress. Lets all join hands together and pull our State out of the political mud it is in now. So help us Allah.
July 10, 2009. 1:20 am

Published in LEADERSHIP newspaper of July 15, 2009 (But edited version)

The Stakes in Zamfara State

2009-07-01T15:05:00.001-07:00

From 1999, Zamfara became a household name in the world because the State government has re-introduced the Shari’ah legal system, an act with caused a lot of uproar within and outside the country. Zamfara did not go off the news eyes, because it became the only State where a deputy governor succeeds his governor, it did not stop there, soon it dawn that the new governor Alhaji Mamuda Aliyu Shinkafi is soon to be in conflict with his former boss Yariman Bakura.

That conflict became too complex that it nearly ground the State, instead of that to be the end of the conflict, the governor, to the disappointment of many decamped to PDP. Now, the internal conflict within Zamfara PDP and pressure of the opposition ANPP has grounded the State. Zamfara is now grounded, and we as citizens of the State must face the challenge of taking the State out of this doldrums. We can’t afford to sit down and watch our State wasted in the hands of reckless politicians who have no focus and no conscience. In this article, I am ready to bare my mind and I know many people will not be happy or like what I have to say, but I have to say it.

When Yarima was in power, there are many things I did not like in his style of governance because I feel they will not help the State rather stagnate it. Yarima had the chance of history, he had the blind support of his people, he had the goodwill of politics and he had a lot of money from the federation account to ensure that the infant State got the right infrastructure and capacity for economic development, but Yarima misused his chance. He is a great politician in the Nigerian sense, because he knows how to use the resources of the State to buy his way, he bought everybody.

During his time the assembly was muted and almost useless, his executive council was a puppet, religious leaders were bought and elders became toothless bulldogs. Yarima was principally the only man standing in Zamfara State and he misused his opportunity by spending all his time and resources politicking instead of building solid infrastructural foundation for the young State. Supporters of Yarima will tell you that he is generous and is a giver. What else has Yarima got to show in Zamfara after eight years in office? Politics, and that’s all.

I had no hope when Mahmuda Aliyu Shinkafi became governor that he will have the capacity to inject the much needed substance in governance to move the State forward. His first six months almost proved me wrong. I was surprised to see how he faced the challenges of infrastructure and Zamfara seem to be transforming.

But from the beginning, I sense a danger. The first danger was his inescapable confrontation with Yarima. Despite Yarima’s failure, he cannot be under estimated, because he commands a lot of respect among politicians (whose concern is only about money), and Yarima can harm Mahmuda politically if the confrontation continues.

The second danger I sensed was the madness of second term fuelled by opportunistic politicians. How can a government that is less than a year in office start thinking and investing on a second term? That ultimately lead to a serious conflict and distraction and Shinkafi hurriedly decamped to PDP, an act that bought him unpopularity among the masses (even though politicians all decamped to PDP; that’s where the money is). It was shameful how things turned out, but it happened in Zamfara.

Since Shinkafi decamped to PDP there is so much conflict between the aboriginal Pidipeans and the migrants Pidipeans, on power sharing and resource control. Nothing is going on in the State the only thing that is going on in the State is politics, just like in the Yarima days.

What's happening Shinkafi? Your vision is now blurred, all your will and desire to build a solid foundation for the State is unstable. It is dramatic how Zamfara was turned from a project State to a State where politics is the only business of the day. The State is broke and all the great and giant projects started are there hanging and no body knows what is going to happen, what a tragedy.

Every citizen of Zamfara (those in the State and those in the Diaspora) now live with the fear of uncertainty. The State is now high jacked by some visionless politicians who have no concern for the State or its people but their pockets and political career and no one seem to be doing anything. We have no elders in Zamfara State; we have no bureaucrats who have the guts to confront the excesses of the political class. Our intellectuals don’t seem to pay attention or be interested on what is happening in the State and this is a great disservice on their part.

We have now reached a state that we must remember what Frantz Fanon once said “Every generation must out of relative obscurity discover its mission, fulfil it or betray it” and that “Every onlooker is either a coward or a traitor” and my challenge to Zamfara intellectuals is this: we have a stake in what happens in Zamfara, and we have the responsibility of taking Zamfara out of this mess, we must rescue Zamfara State from the hands of political kidnappers who have hijacked the affairs of our State. Closely, we should refer to the Malam Abdullahi Fodio’s, commentary on Lubab which he said is a summary of Al-Madkhal of Muhammad b. Muhammad al-Abdari of Fezz in order to realise our duty to our community as intellectuals. By this I wish to extend invitation to Zamfara State indigenes teaching in Nigerian Universities to form the nucleus of a body of intellectuals that will start the rebirth of Zamfara State. The revolution must begin now.

This article is published today in DAILY TRUST (July 1, 2009)

TUDUN YOLA ROAD: MATTERS ARISING

2009-06-29T13:49:00.000-07:00

[This is about a road constructed in Gwale Local Government of Kano State, Nigeria]

When we heard that a road is to be constructed that will link up Kofar Kabuga and Tudun Yola Village, the residents of Tudun Yola layout were delighted. We were so happy that development is coming to the area. When the work begins, we began to foresee some problems. There were place that were too narrow and were left like that. It means at such points only one car can pass at a go. Secondly when they started constructing the drainage patterns they realised that they are just too narrow to adequately manage the sewage of the area. We tried to draw the attention of the contractors, the chairman of the Local Government and the Managing Director of the Urban Development agency, but were simply ignored. But the worst came when the road was said to be completed.

The road is 2.5 kilometres; it looks like a draft to us. It does not look like a completed road, so we asked about how much it costs, someone told us it is worth over N90, 000,000 (unconfirmed) and that the contractor is a politician. Our concern about the quality of the road was dosed by some people who said that’s how local government build their roads (that’s LGs do a bad work always). But after going through some local governments within the metropolitan we realised that that’s not true.

What makes me surprised was when I went to Karaye town on a research assignment, I saw the roads constructed by the chairman and was impressed because it looks like the roads constructed by the State Government. I also saw another one at Rimin Kebe constructed by the Nassarawa Local Government Chairaman, it looks good. What came to my mind immediately then was whether the chairmen of Karaye and Nassarawa ‘masu akidar Malam ne’ because they built roads that looks as qualitative as those constructed by the Shekarau administration. If so then, is the chairman of Gwale following a different akida?

But on a serious note, I wish to call on Governor Shekarau to send his monitoring and evaluation team to examine that road. If the 2.5 kilometre Tudun Yola road is completed as it is, it should not be accepted because it is poorly and shabbily done. It will be degraded after this coming raining season and all that has been spent would have been a waste. I am sure Dr Shekarau and the Emir of Kano have seen the road on May 1st when they open the darul hadith Jumaá t Mosque. The State government should also investigate the cost of the project, if it is indeed over N90, 000,000, it should be investigated before EFCC come and do theirs.

It is our hope that the road still be completed to match the quality Kano roads are known for under Shekarau.

This article was published in Sunday Triumph Newspaper and the Leadership Newspaper (All Nigerian Newspapers)

Below are copies of the letters we wrote to the Chairman of the Local Government and the Managing Director of the State Urban Planning and Development Agency.

July 22 2008

The Honourable Chairman,
Gwale Local Government
Kano State

Dear Sir,

Construction of 2.5 km Kabuga-Tudun Yola Layout Road: An Observation

The Tudun Yola Advancement Association wishes to commend you for the important road project you embarked upon (Kabuga-Tudun Yola Layout). This is a historic and epoch making project that will stamp your name in sands of history.

In view of its importance, the Association wishes to make an observation which it feels would not only improve the work but also make it worthwhile considering the huge amount of money being invested.

There are some areas at the opening of the road from the Kabuga to Tudun Yola layout that are narrow because some people have erected structures on the road. Those places need to be expanded even if it means demolishing some structures. Sir, if this is not done, all the efforts put in this historic and gigantic project would be lost to the chaos those areas would create as soon as the Darul-hadith Jumaát mosque and Islamic school start operation.

While wishing you all the best in this important work, we pray, you would use your good office to ensure that the work is done properly.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Dr. Ali Tijjani PhD
Chairman
July 22 2008

The Managing Director,
Kano Urban Planning and Development Agency
Durbin Katsina Road
Kano

Dear Sir,

Construction of 2.5 km Kabuga-Tudun Yola Layout Road: An Observation

The Tudun Yola Advancement Association is delighted with the historic and epoch making road project being undertaken at Kabuga-Tudun Yola Layout by Gwale Local Government Council. In view of its importance, the Association wishes to make an observation which it feels would not only improve the work but also make it worthwhile considering the huge amount of money being invested.

There are some areas at the opening of the road from the Kabuga to Tudun Yola layout that are narrow because some people have erected structures on the road. Those places need to be expanded even if it means demolishing some structures. Sir, if this is not done, all the efforts put in this historic and gigantic project would be lost to the chaos those areas would create as soon as the Darul-hadith Jumaát mosque and Islamic school start operation.

While wishing you all the best in this important work, we pray, you would use your good office to ensure that the work is done properly.

Thank you.

Yours sincerely,

Dr Ali Tijjani PhD
Chairman

Binta Salma Mohammed (1969-2009): A tribute

2009-05-17T13:23:00.000-07:00

I don’t know where to start. We lost Malama Binta as she is popularly known by writers Kano. The last time I went to visit her, she was very hopeful that she will recover and me too. Although I was deeply troubled by her condition, I was prayerful that when she recovers, we shall continue with any of our many projects, we have many literary projects, just like those I have with her husband Ibrahim Sheme, he calls them ‘one of those projects’ Although we cannot stop her death, we are saddened by her demise. She was a nice person, a brilliant writer, a generous mother and inspiring teacher. Allah ka jikan Binta Salma Mohammed.
I first met Binta sometimes in 1995 after I joined the services of Bayero University Kano as an Assistant Lecturer. My good friend (then) Adamu Idris Tanko and I were into writing and ANA activities. In our search for fellow writers we stumble upon Binta and from then on we became not only fellows but almost as brothers and sister. We became her brothers, she became our sister. We move together all the time, we eat together, we close work together because then we all live off campus. Tanko has a yellow Toyota Corolla we named ‘old faithful’, he drops her at her home in NNDC quarters and I drop at Gadon Kaya while he drives to Jakara where he lives. We attend her lectures, she attends ours, she attends our seminars we attend theirs. She almost became a Geographer. When we went to the Jos Plateau with her on our annual field course, she walked with us to Pankshin scarpland, Kerang Volcanic Plug, Kurra falls and was greatly inspired and wrote a number of beautiful poems. In fact, it was our influence that decided the title of her first published collection of poems ‘Contours of Life’.
In 1997, when ANA Kano proposed to start its bilingual creative writer’s fora, it was Binta that I turned to for support and advice. While I contacted (then) Dr Saleh Abdu about the possibility of starting Bayero Poetry Society which was suggested by Rajiv Bendre (then director of the British Council, Kano), Binta and I were discussing the possibility of starting a joint forum between ANA Kano and the Department of English and European Languages (then) of the BUK. She was able to convince her department to partner with ANA to submit a proposal to the British Council. Two of us wrote it and sign, she representing their department, I representing ANA, and we became the co-founders and first co-ordinators of the now famous Creative Writer Forum. I can remember vividly how it all began. The first meeting has few of us, Binta, Maigari Ahmed Bichi (then Kano State Deputy Librarian) Tanko and me. We met and read to ourselves what we had. Subsequently we continue to meet on monthly basis, sometimes only three of us, but we still read to each other, after about six months, we were able to attract our friends, students and colleagues and by September 1998, we were a full house. All of us will remember and very much appreciate her contributions to the monthly proceedings.
Binta continued to mentor young poets like Ismail Bala Garba, Aisha Zakari, Zaharadden Kalla Muhammad Kabir Muhammad, Badsha Muktar, Aliyu Abubakar, Umma Aliyu, and a host of others. We attend ANA conventions together and one day while going to Abuja, we branched at Kaduna where we met with Sheme and travelled together to the convention. On the car we started writing a poem which continue to grow as each of us (Tanko, Binta, Malumfashi, Sheme and I) contributed. It was published on New Nigeria’s WriteStuff. It as after that meeting with Sheme a new chemistry was started. We realised that someone is going to rob us. But because he was one of us, when he said to me “I am interested” I said try your luck, he did and he took her hand into matrimony. I can remember that we had a special reading at Royal Tropicana hotel. I compiled the poems and give them a title Contours and Potions combining their two books ‘Contours of Life’ and Sheme’s “Malam’s Potion”‘ Some of the poems are presented below:
‘Contours and Potions’
Edited by Yusuf Adamu

Creative He & She
Yusuf Adamu

Poetically they declared
‘I think I love you’
Like FICTION it seem
To the he & she
Meeting like a SHORT STORY
Making it appear like a PLAY
Stranger than FICTION
It finally became
The creative Sheme
Has taken the Creative Binta
Into a literary voyage
With a social face
A romantic soul
Let’s wait and see
What kind of children that will be
Whether they be just smiling babies
Or wordy babies or both
Muna murna

April 8, 2000 Gandun Albasa

Contours of Life
Adamu Idris Tanko

Contours of life
That’s from the poet’s bride
Yes she caught it right
She caught his
Malam’s portion in good time

Indeed a hopeful beauty
He the gentle kind
I ever know
I pray for a peaceful
Home, a blissful
One for both of you
So many golden seeds
The soil is fertile now
And the season is rainy too
Great you ‘re through
With the downs of life
Now the golden moment begins
8/4/2000 Royal Tropicana Hotel

SALAMATU
Isa Ibrahim

“Love is the fate which draws
Two people together”
So she said in her Contours
And marriage?
“that fate that seals semblance”
So she might say
As her fate brings not
A shame but Sheme
And not a sigh but Salma.
What a well-paired couple!

Literati Knot
Nura Ahmad
(for Sheme & Salma on their wedding day 8th April 2000)

It’s not a meet’s
between egg and stone
Rather between paper and pen
Whither the pen without paper
Paper without pen?
What a literati knot

The Bride on her wedding Day
Isma’ila Bala Garba

Poetry so bold like April Sun
It flashes across the room
A ball of light in the night
Leaving behind a trail of words:
Confetti of poems showers on every head
It patches every face
Like a perpetual smile
Of a bride on her wedding day
It whirls loudly in the room
And we all rise up chanting
Singing
Laughing
Oh, marriage is nothing
But the poetry of the mind
Being read at
A wedding day

Happy Wedlock
Obinna Ezenwanne

Beauty accompanied Brains.
Icon of Knowledge and feminity
Nourishing us-comforted in our gains
Thawing up our icy mentality
An inspiring you are our minds

The D-Day
Aisha Usman Bugaje

I have to be there
I got to be there
Sun and rain will not stop me
Neither do chemistry
The wedding of the millennium
The literary union
I cannot afford to miss

The charting and laughing
The eating and drinking
The congratulations of
Friends and well wishers
I have to be part
Part of the celeberation

8/4/2000.

TWO OF A KIND
John Jekpe

Wedding bells for a duo tolls
Two of a literary kind they are
The malam’s Potion reacts
With the Contours of life

“Richard Burton Weds ‘Liz Taylor”
An “Hassan-Tom” marries “Fatima Usara”
A dramatist takes on a poetess
To plaugh and to plunder?
To date and dirt
Almighty has joined
Woe unto him who undo
Union of literary titans

OUR BINTA
Kabiru Umar Gano

Our fear, our pride
Our jewel in the dust
Our choice

Our poetess
Our love
Our Bint

The sea you light
The heart you light
The throat you clear, are you the tea?

This day forever
Ogbu S. Ode

This day your beauty
Has found a home
This day your joy forever
Is born
This day I wish
You all I want
This day I give nothing
But dry leaves, dead wood
And words
But
This day, these are to me
Mightier than the General’s smite
This day was my first, I ask
To share elegance
This day, this scribbling nightingale
Perched on Sheme
This day, will mean HAPPINESS
For you BINTA and SHEME evermore
As the ALMIGHTY GOD hear us

A LOVE FULFILLED
Jibrin Baba Ndace

Today, Beauty, Intelligence
Nobility, Tolerance, Aura
Melting into a soul
Today a soul is reaching
Out to a soul
Today, a spirit is reaching
Out to a spirit
Today, she is drawn to
Him like a bee to a flower
Today, innocent beauty,
Unique beauty, holy beauty
Is bewitched by a soul
Today, an Oasis in the desert
Is discovered by a thirsting traveller
Today, the beauty spot of the
Jungle is discovered by a
Brave hunter
Today, a healthy palm tree
Is discovered by an acute
Observer
Today, a pleasure dome is
Discovered by a conquering emperor
Today, love is manifestly
Consummated

A NIGHT TO THE WEDDING DAY
(for Binta & Sheme)
by
Aisha Zakari

Fourteen hours to the wedding
It was then I reached a painful decision
That is when I made a final decision
After long duration of prayers and analysis
After hectic hours of long discussion
After painful discussions
Now my thinking is at its zenith
No going back I promise myself
Binta’a wedding is such a marking stone
In her life and in my life
On her part ‘cos its her wedding day
On my part ‘cos I reached certain decision
Decision of what I really want
I stretch my hands for I am taking it
It has been waiting for me for quite sometime
Now I am here to claim it as mine
I thank the lord for showing it to me before it is late
I bow down to the Most High for making it mine

BEHIND THE VEIL
IBRAHIM DAUDA ALI

BEYOND PROFANITY
UNSPOKEN REALITY
BEHIND MORTALITY
UNWRITTEN ACTUALITY

CANT EXPLAIN
ALOOF THE MUNDANE
CAN EXPERIENCE
WITHIN THE MUNDANE

BEHIND THE VEIL

BENEATH THE UNVEIL

GOLDREN SCROLLS
GLOWING SOULS

WISDOM NAY NUDE
WHELM TO THE TIMULTITUDE

I am unable to publish this collection until this day, but am glad that I kept it for all this while. During her life time we shared knowledge and creativity and I always respect her as a person because of her humility, open mind, friendship, maturity, modesty, chastity, purity, brilliance, consideration, and humanity.

When ANA Kano members visited her a few days before she left for Cairo, I was introducing some of the members to her and then introduce her to some of them saying ‘kin san wadannan sababbi ne’ she smiled and said to me ´Yaya Yusuf (as she fondly call me) most of the new members do not know me, especially those who write in Hausa’ we joked about her only short story in Hausa which she wrote in 1998, about the death of a head of state, which she said we discouraged her from publishing, saying, it was her only work in Hausa language. We enjoyed visiting her as a group and she was so happy to see us. It was a memorable visit. We prayed for her and present some gift from the Association.

When I received the news of her demise, I was confused and saddened, so was and is everyone who knew her. We posted the news on the writer’s yahoo groups (josana and dandalin marubuta). Instantly members send their condolences, some called me and hundreds emailed and text Ibrahim Sheme, her husband. I produced a selection from josana below;
Salam,May the Almighty lord ease and relief her soul of this world's burden. Shower her with bliss, forgive her and bestow her eternal peace ameen.May her husband, Dr. Sheme, her three children, her family and friends be blessed with the fortitude to bear the loss ameen.When our time comes may we go in peace and be remembered as those members of the society who works hard and be positively productive like her ameen.Aisha Zakari

Yusuf,Pls extend my heartfelt condolences to the family and friends of Binta. She was one of those who genuinely love the arts and displayed so much to the best of her abilities. I can’t recall all the great and memorable encounters I have had with her: she remains very fresh and evergreen as an honourable woman.
Remi Raji

Dear Ibrahim, pls accept my condolence. Allah gave and Allah takes. Who are we to question the timing, or even the decision. May the departed receive pardon and the coveted prize of paradise. Amin.
AHMED MAIWADA
I am sincerely sorry to learn of Binta's passing. We were together in a writers' workshop years ago (I believe 1995?), and we never met again. I didn't even know she was married to Sheme, like Binta a distinguished friend I came to know many years later. My heartfelt condolences go to her husband Ibrahim Sheme, their children, and their entire family members. May Allah in His infinite mercy grant her eternal rest.
Obiwu
We have lost a gem, a friend, a mother, a wife, a teacher, a mentor, a poetess, a generous human being and a dear colleague. What we must do is to continue to pray for her and her kids. We hope, Sheme will ensure that all her unpublished works are published and as fellow writers ensure that we keep her memory alive. I will finally close with one of her poems I love very much.

GRANT, GOD

Grant, God
A clear release from pain
From enemy and from those that envy
And destroy while they build success
Over our misfortunes
Grant, too, friendship and love
Grant, God
A release from this anguished cry
From this loneliness and helplessness
From wild winds crying out against us
From life’s stillness and stones without juice
From robbers who strip us of our laughter

Hausa Literature and the City

2009-03-19T16:30:00.001-07:00

Introduction
City as an entity and as a process and phenomenor has fascination forvarious disciplines as it provides a basis and framework for theunderstanding of human achievement. This has prompted Haider todescribe the city as "a school without walls, a library withoutbookshelves, and a classroom without desks, blackboards and chalk.There are no identifiable teachers, no uniformed class of students".He further sees the city as an anthropological manuscript with all itsmisspellings and torn pages, but also an abode of a society's saintsand sinners. Thus, the city is also an honest expression of society'sbeliefs and values. This indicates that a city in its self is enough ateacher and its citizens are its students, as Haider further said citycitizens never graduate. The city always has something to offer. It istherefore not surprising when a city becomes a meeting point betweenall kinds of writers and critics.For the writer, the city is his laboratory but also a text from whichhe receives inspiration for his writings: because the writer mustwrite out of what he sees around him and he must write truthfullyabout it, or he must come to terms with what is ugly in it, andpretend that it is not bad. This might be the reason why some citizensof the city must make their voices heard through the medium of writing.Literature is a clear reflection of societal happenings. He furtherargued that writers as custodians of literature do not exist in avacuum. Rather, they write out of their cumulative experiences derivedfrom the existing social framework and reality operating in thesociety in which they live. Thus, the writer's (the creative writer inparticular) output is to a large degree a product of his personal orsocietal experiences.The critic on the other hand is not there to create stories but tostudy them. Writers' expressions in terms of stories, poems or playsneed to be studied carefully in order to understand their meaning andascertain their relevance to the society. This has become necessary asthe society has its own measures of checking excesses. Writers likeother citizens can do good to the society and can as well do harm.Therefore, writers can sometimes get into trouble when critics refuseor fail to appreciate their work.

The City: By all standards Kano is a city. It is an old city datingback to over one thousand years, the largest inland port south of theSahara, and a major commercial and industrial centre. It is adual-city centre. These features have given it the capacity to pullpopulations from far and near to its two city structure (traditionaland modern) existing side by side. Kano-City, therefore becomes anactive centre of culture, learning, commerce and what have you.Kano offers a lot of activities and services to keep the writer andthe critic very busy. It is enough a laboratory and a library as wellas enough a market for the writer to develop and propagate his ideasand sell his books. It is enough a landscape with all its highlandsand valleys to allow the emergence, growth and cultivation of allkinds of ideas and criticisms.One is bound to find all kinds of tastes and inclinations fordifferent literary themes, styles, and languages in a heterogeneousand cosmopolitan place like Kano. It was therefore not surprising whenin the 1950's and 1960's as well as the late 1970's Kano producedstrong poetic voices that greatly influenced the politics of protestand the progressives. In the 1990's, Kano-City led the bandwagon ofneo-religious singers, whose traditional roles were earlier restrictedto places of worship but extended into other social segments of thesociety. Writers and other producers of art over the years entertainedthe citizens, but also interpreted and documented happenings in thesociety at a point in time.

The Literature: Kano did not produce a large number of novelists untilrecently, but it has produced a good number of prolific and importantpoets. Perhaps poetry is an easier and quicker medium of expressionthan the novel. However, from the mid '80s, Kano pioneered there-emergence of the new Hausa novelist. One may ask why Sakkwato,Katsina or Zaria have not pioneered it. It is only right to argue thatKano-City was more a fertile ground for this re-emergence than otherHausa cities for the reasons already provided.The new Hausa novelist emerged in Kano somehow out of circumstances,and this can be reflected in his themes, plots, characterization,style and language. First there was a sort of gap or vacuum created asestablished writers no longer got their books published. Secondly, thepublishing firms publishing indigenous creative works (notablyNNPC/Macmillan, Evans, Oxford University Press, Huda-Huda, Albah,Triumph etc) have been unable to sustain the publication of creativeworks for so many reasons.They emerged without publishers, without good distribution system andwithout financial backing. Even if the existing social order is notinterested in promoting literature, creative writers see to it thatcreativity survives.Young people who became very interested in creative writing began towrite one manuscript after the other, at the same time looking up toestablished authors and publisher for help. When the help was notforth coming they began author-publishing. This gave birth to the newHausa novel and writing. The availability of computers, printingpresses, as observed by Abdallah Uba Adamu, encouraged the phenomenaof the new Hausa writing in general and novel in particular.The new Hausa novelist turned out to be a young person whose interestin politics is minimal, perhaps due to prolonged military rule thatdominated his inner vision and experience. The Hausa novelist of todayseems to be more comfortable in raising social questions thanpolitical ones at the initial stage. This explains why the earlierbooks became very interested in love stories.From the mid 1980s the new Hausa novels started to be published until1990 when they became stable and markets were flooded with all kindsof books. One important book that influenced these writers was AdoAhmad Gidan Dabino's In Da So Da Kauna. This novel is so romantic andso radical that adolescents liked it so much. Among the things thatmade this novel appealing to adolescents is the romantic words used inthe novel, but also the radical option it gives to its adolescentreaders when they are faced with forced marriage proposals.When the final hour approached, she finished her preparation fortaking her life. She went straight to an old well renowned for itsdepth, but now out of use due to technological advancements. Drowningwould be quicker and she was not likely to be spotted before the act.

Besides, the water was bound to be cold and comforting, especially toan eternal visitor.She opened the cover, which had become rusty due to its age, withdifficulty and peered inside. Ah, the water level was high. Therefore,she needed not bother. Sink she must. No fear of floating on the surface."Well, darling I have been true to my words. You alone; none else.Well, I will be here waiting for your arrival. With luck, we will behappily married to each other there and live a life of ouraspiration", she said.She took a deep breath, and then flung her legs down into the emptyvoid of the well. Slash! Sumayya's journey through the dark void ofthe old well came to an end. She became violently sprawled onto a bedrock.... (Pages 42-43).The novels that emerged after this novel provided similar difficultoptions. They also had bias against the rich in the sense that in mostof these books are struggles between love and power. Between the poorand the rich and in which the poor (love) always triumphed over therich (power). Certainly, these options are contrary to what the Hausasociety would consider as being an informed and rational option.Romance forms the framework upon which most novels in Kano are based.This is manifest in their plot, style, language, characterisation,settings and cover designs. Love is always of primary importance andits triumph over any other thing is assured even if it makes the novel'irrational'. What are the determinants of this trend? Well there aresome basic reasons, which can be seen as the major determinants of theromantic trend.i) Age: Most of these young novelists are very young.

Their age rangedfrom 15 to 35 years when they started writing.ii) Marital Status: Majority were single when they started writing andtheir major preoccupation was love.iii) Level of education and exposure to variety literature: Althoughcreativity is a natural gift and does not necessarily depend on levelof education, the more educated a writer is, the more polished andmost likely the wider scope of thinking he will have. In our case,majority of the new Hausa novelists had up to secondary educationwhile some had no formal education at all. Few had post secondaryqualifications with some having higher degree qualifications. Most ofthe novelists also had not exposed themselves to a variety ofliteratures. These reasons may have some influence on how theyperceive things and how they judge and write.iv) Cinema and Television: Because most of the young novelists also goto cinema very often as well watch video movies, their thought isgreatly influenced by romance movies (Indian movies). In fact, most ofthese writers were more interested in making movies than writing. Theyonly settled for literature because they could not afford movieproduction. This is manifested in the trend of adopting books intohome videos nowadays.v) Readership and Market: Since majority of these books are romanticthere is little doubt that adolescents and/or young people would formthe bulk of the readership, hence the market. Novelists in thebusiness have to conform to some requirements in order to sell. It hasbecome a bottleneck to those authors who wish to radically changetheir themes. The only few novelists that are now able to break awayfrom this readership grip are those that are established and have madenames.Why The Media?: The phenomenon as a whole can be seen as an attempt toexpress alternate views by young people on some aspects of our sociallife (especially marriage). However, the novel as an entity has itsgood side and bad sides. Its good sides for example from the mid 80sto date is that the level of reading culture have tremendouslyincreased; so also the literacy level particularly among married womenin Kano.Although cosmopolitan areas with heterogeneous population compositiontend to be liberal, Kano as a city is not. Kano as a twin-city isalways witnessing the struggles between tradition and modernity in thesense that Islamic culture is deeply rooted in the social andpsychological superstructure of city life. On the other hand, thepower of modernity is seriously becoming an influential process tryingto modify that city superstructure. Thus, one cannot easily dismissthe dominance of culture and religion in the values shaping city life.The implications are that things that would otherwise be accepted orignored in a cosmopolitan setting become bare in Kano as traditioncompetes with modernity.As regard the appreciation of literary works, producers of works ofart always seem to have explanation for what they produce. The critichowever will always have questions to raise and perspectives topresent on a particular work of art. The critic can praise or condemna work of art. The critic can be objective or subjective. Depending onwhat the critic wants, he can review a work of art using the rightperspective or the wrong one. However, the relationship between say awriter and a critic is symbiotic as each depends on the other.The situation in Kano is more or less a funny one. The Academia (untilrecently) has not shown interest in the new writing. It was passiveand nonchalant to the emergence, growth and implications of the newliterary culture. But the city, being what it is, provided analternative to the academicians in form of Muslim clerics, the stateowned media houses and indeed some self-appointed moral crusaders toappreciate this new writing. The academics might see the wholephenomenon as a process of transformation but the urban-based criticstake it and measure it on the scale of social morality.This has given rise to many forms of criticism. The new Hausa novelistliterally comes under fire. Alarm was raised about the new writing.Arguments were forwarded that the new novel was an antithesis to theculture and religion of the city. The novel was dismissed as a child'splay and full of immorality as well as a threat to education. The useof the media was intensified from articles in the newspapers to publiclectures and sermons, radio drama and television programmes. They havenot seen any good about the new Hausa novel.Thus instead of appreciating and encouraging the new Hausa novelistthey condemned him and redefined him and his work as amoral,irresponsible, and an enemy of tradition. The public was made todespise, ridicule, and intimidate him. Reading these books becomes ahobby of only the young, particularly secondary school students. Thenew Hausa novelist comes face-to-face with the wrath of the city. Thestate owned media was effectively used in this offensive. For example,Radio Kano (which ironically read these books twice a week) was usedto condemn them through dramas and discussions. The state ownedtelevision station (CTV 67) did the same so also the state ownednewspaper -The Triumph.Creative writers in Kano became weary. The Association of NigerianAuthors, Kano state branch, officials made efforts to contact thesemedia houses so that they could be given a chance to defendthemselves. The electronic media unfortunately refused to allow them achance to air their views. The Triumph was used to publishanti-literature articles and when writers wrote rejoinders, they werenot published. Writers in Kano had to use the New Nigerian Weekly toexpress their views. This made them to raise some vital moral andsocial questions with regard to the use of state owned media tocastigate them.One cannot deny the fact that the new Hausa novel has its parculiarproblems that emanated from the circumstances surrounding theemergence of Hausa novel in colonial Nigeria. Some of these books aremere pulp literature and cannot be taken seriously, but there arethose that are to a large degree serious and promising. In this way,it is the responsibility of the state to look at the whole issueobjectively and then sift the good from the bad and the ugly, thusencourage the good. However, the city and the state unfairly condemnedall without reservation. This has serious implications for the city'sfuture.Al-Farabi argued that the city should show friendliness towards truthand truthful people and condemn falsehood and those that are inclinedto falsehood. Therefore, in our own case, both the accuser and theaccused should be given equal chance to defend their views.It is now interesting to note that the theme of the new Hausa novel isbecoming widened. Now you read love but crime, thriller, fantasypolitics, polygamy and much more. What do we have in the next millennium?The new hausa novel in the next millennium: Hausa novels are publishedin series (book 1, book 2, etc). The cover designs are of beautifulyoung girls. The stories are about love. The writers are secondaryleavers etc. The new Hausa novel has come a long way. In just a decadeand a half, it has increased in number and variety. More young andvibrant writers have emerged. The love stories, adventures, detectivestories, political satire, fantasies are all with us.The young writers are growing with their art. The readership is alsogrowing with time, the story lines, styles and plots are becomingoutdated, and the film industry is taking away the established writers.However, the computer is also more readily available and accessible,the knowledge of publishing and printing has increased, and thewriters have also grown up. The society is facing more problems andthe century is at its end.There are some good indications. Hausa novelists are now prepared topublish single novels, their cover designs are now improving, andinstead of having young, beautiful girls on the cover, we now haveabstract drawings. Writers are now becoming aware of their relevanceand responsibilities, are becoming more committed to improving theirsociety. With these, one can be very optimistic that the nextmillennium will bring some positive changes in the new Hausa novel.On the other hand however, the new Hausa novel is being threatened bythe growing film industry in Kano. This threat is in two ways: firstof all good writers are leaving writing for film production and booksas observed by A. U. Adamu are written not as novels, but as screenplays. Secondly the film production business is more profitable andappealing; this will attract more writers into the industry. By this,the flourishing book industry in Kano may suffer some setbacks.However, more profoundly, it is hoped that the new Hausa novelistswill re-direct and redefine their focus in the next millennium. Whenthe time comes, the state machinery will be fighting it not because ofthe kind of immoral and immature stories published, but because of thesubject of their stories. They will certainly challenge the status quoand social injustice prevalent in the city.

Conclusion: We have tried to examine the ideal city in relation toKano-City. We have examined how a new literary culture has emerged andhow the city and its citizens treated it. We have also argued that thecity and its citizens have not done justice to its literature and callfor redress. Finally, we examined the future of this new literaryculture in the next millennium. By way of conclusion, we wish tosuggest that the new Hausa novel is a product of the city and itsintegral part and that it should be supported by the city for thecity's survival and future.

Being a paper presented at the Kano International Millennium Seminarby Yusuf M. Adamu Department of Geography, Bayero University, Kano,May 10th-14th 1999.

WAKE UP ARAB WORLD

2009-01-21T14:05:00.000-08:00

The Gaza Genocide is over. As I predicted Israel will leave Gaza empty handed,(http://www.africanpublicpoet.blogspot.com/2009/01/gaza.html) they have -oh sorry they left with their hands with blood soiled hands-and Arab moderates have lost their face. Shame!

Obama has been inaugurated. Congratulations Mr Obama, I wish you success, good health and the will power to stand for change-positive change.

Many in the Arab World are not happy that in his inaugural speech, Obama did not talk about the Gaza Genocide. Why should any one be annoyed? The truth is American policy in the Middle East will not change to favour the Arab world. Even if it will, this is not the time.

Why? Because the Arabs are sleeping and snoring and above all deceiving themselves and shying away from their responsibility. America is unfortunately under siege. Americans cannot change America. You have probably seen how powerful people like Israel’s Olmert are. Remember how he literarily instructs BUSH on the UN resolution issue and how RICE abstains. Isn’t that a shame for Americans and those who are waiting for a CHANGE.

The only thing that will change American policy in the Middle East is for the Arabs to change their shameful attitude of waiting for other people to change their awful situation. They must face the challenge of Zionism. They don’t have to use military weapons to fight their way and help Palestinians to get their State and help the Muslim world to have a focus. They have many bottoms to touch if they desired doing so. They must abandon Arabism because it has failed them and will always fail them.

Wake up and face the challenge, let Obama face the dwindling US economy.

Gaza: Why Arabian Monarchs and Emperors Keep Silent!

2009-01-10T10:47:00.000-08:00

Dear Arabian Monarchs and Emperors,

This is a very short letter. It is just to tell you that you have disgracefully abandoned your responsibility to protect unarmed civilians from Israeli war machine in Gaza. We can understand your silence and inaction. We can understand your reliance on the UN, a robot organization in the hands of world oppressors. You are fully aware that countries like the US and Israel can at any time refuse to abide by UN resolutions and you know getting a UN resolution is just a waste of time. Yet you went to New York while unarmed civilians are being killed and maimed in Gaza.

We very much understand that you also see Hamas not a resistance force but a terror organization which you have promised Bush and the Neocons to fight. You feel that if allowed their idea will expand and ultimately challenged your powers. You are therefore happy that Hamas is being hit along side unarmed civilians, women and children in Gaza. This you think you will serve as a lesson to civilians who may challenge your authority. That is why you are silent. The 19th century revolutionary in Hausaland Sheikh Usman Danfodio has said “A state can survive unbelief, but cannot survive injustice” this is a message for you.

Everyone knows that you know what to do, you know what buttons to press and yet you decided to do nothing. Frantz Fanon once said “Every onlooker is either a coward or a traitor” You are both, unfortunately. Shame on you the Arab world leadership. Keep keeping silent.

But the Arab on the street must not remain passive. They must engage their sold-out leaders. They must confront them or else pay the same price Gazans are paying today.

TAWAYEN HAUSAWA A BRAZIL

2008-10-19T13:18:00.000-07:00

Na rubuta wannan makala ne tun wajen 1999, kuma an taba bugata a jaridar Al-Mizan

Kusan shekaru biyu da suka wuce wani abokin aikina a Jami’ar Bayero ta Kano watau Malam Bala Muhammad wanda a halin yanzu yake aiki sashen Hausa na BBC London ya taba ce mani ai Hausawa Musulmi da aka kama aka kai nahiyar Amurka lokacin cinikin bayi sun taba yin tawaye bayan da suka ji labarin cewa an soma jihadi a kasar Hausa. Tun lokacin sai na yi sha’awar ya gabatar da makala akai domin na tabbata mutane da yawa ba su taba jin wannan labari ba. Allah dai bai sa an sami yin haka ba.

Har na manta da abin sai kwatsam ranar nan ina karanta wani CD a na’ura mai kwakwalwa mai suna Encarta Africana sai kawai na ga bayanin a ciki. Sai na yi murna na kuma godewa Allah. Kenan da rabon sauran `yan uwa su karanta wannan labari. Mun sadu da Danjuma Katsina nake ba shi labari, shi ma sai abin ya burge shi sosai, shi ne na ce masa zan rubuto maku labarin domin duka mu amfana.

Wannan bayani da zan baku wani Joao Jose Reis ya rubuta kuma Encarta Africana suka samar da shi. Ni abib da kawai zan yi shi ne kawo maku bayanin da harshen Hausa. A cikin karni na goma sha tara an kai bayi daga Afirka ta yamma kasar Barazil domin yin bauta a gonakin rake. A cikin bayin da aka kai mafi yawanci Hausawa ne da kuma Yarbawa wa]anda mafi yawancinsu Musulmi ne. A kwai kuma Nufawa da Fulani da kuma Bare-bari sai dai yawansu bai kai na Hausawa da Yarbawan ba.

Wannan birni na Bahia kusan shi ne kan gaba wurin cinikin bayi musamman wadanda aka kawo daga yammacin Afirka. Akalla an kai bayi 354,100 daga 1791-1850 mafi yawancinsu Musulmi ne.

Bayi musulmi a Barazil ana kiransu male daga kalmar imale ta harshen Yarbanci saboda daga shekarun 1820-1830 Yarbawa Musulmi sun fi yawa a bayin dake Bahia. Akwai kwararan dalilai da ke nuna cewa Musulmi Hausawa da Yarbawa sun yi manyan bore guda biyu sun kuma kulla shirye-shiryen yin tawaye kwarara biyu. An kuma hakikance da cewa suna da hannu a bore fiye da ashirin da aka yi a yankin a kashin farkoana karni na goma sha tara.

A watan Mayu na 1807 Hausawa sun shirya wani gagarumin bore wanda masu bincike suka ce shiri ne da ya nuna kwarewa domin an tsara ne hawa-hawa na shugabanci. Ma’ana akwai jerin shugabanni da za su aiwatar da shirin a mataki-mataki. An shirya ne cewa za su kewaye birnin Salvador su hana shiga balle fita. Ta haka, sai su hana shigar da kuma samar da abinci a garin har na tsawon lokaci. Idan mutanen garin suka galabaita, sai su nemi gudunmuwar Musulmi bayi dake bangaren yammacin yankin Pernambuco ta haka sai su kafa tasu daular (tun da sun yanke tsammanin komawa gida). Sun shirya cewa za su kame dukan coci-cocin birnin su rusa dukan gumakan su kuma kona na konawa a tsakiyar birnin. Sun kuma shirya yin kaca-kaca da fararen fatar birnin (tunda su ne sanadin shigar su wannan hali) su kuma bautar da sauran. Cikin rashin sa’a sai a ka samu labarin ya bulla Turawan Mulkin Mallaka suka ji, saboda haka abin bai yi nasara ba.

A shekarar 1814 kuma sai suka sake yunkurawa. A wannan karon mafi yawancin wa]anda suka yi boren bayi ne `yan su, tare da taimakon wasu gudaddun bayi dake zaune a manyan birane da kuma `yantattun bayi. Sun kai farmake a wasu kauyuka dake bias hanya a kokarinsu na isa manyan gonakin rake da zummar kai boren ga bayin da ke wa]annan wurare. Sun kasha fiye da mutane hamsin. An kuma gwabza da su sai da aka kawo rundunonin soji sannan aka ci karfinsu. Bincike ya tabbatr da cewa jagororin wannan bore Hausawa ne musulmi da kuma Yarbawa da Nufawa da Bare-bari `yan kalilan. An bayyana cewa jagaban wannan bore sunansa Malomi wanda aka ce limami ne amma an amince da cewa kalmar ta samo asali ne daga kalmar Hausa ta Malam. Babban abin da ya kara tabbatar da cewa Hausawa ne suke ta shirya ire-iren wadannan bore shine takardun da aka kwace daga hannayensu masu rubutun arabiyya kila ma da ajami. Bayan watanni uku kuma sai Hausawa Musulmi suka kara shirya wani bore na shirya da taimakon wasu gudaddun bayi a kewayen birnin Salvado. An gano cewa wannan Limamin dai da ya shirya wa]ancan boren ne ya kara shirya wannan. An ce al’umomin Indiyawa da sauran `yan Afirka da bakaken fata sun bada goyon baya ga boren da Malami ke shiryawa.
Cikin rashin sa’a, daga baya gwamnati ta ci karfinsu.

To amma sai bayan shekaru goma sannan wani babban bore ya balle. Wannan tawaye da Hausawa suka yi ranar 25 ga watan Janairu 1835 (wanda ya dace da ranar 27 ga watan Ramadan na hijirar manzon Allah S.A.W ta 1250-daren laylatul Kadari kenan) ana yi masa lakabi da Tawayen Malamai a inda Hausawa 600 suka fi fito-na-fito da farare `yan mulkin mallaka. A wannan karon battar ne Hausawa 70 suka yi shahada. Wasu na kyautata zaton cewa wannan tawaye da Hausawa da sauran Musulmi ke yi kamar isar da kokarin Jaddada Musulunci da ake yi a kasar Hausa a lokacin (watau Jihadin Shaihu Usmanu Danfodiyo). Kodayake wasu na ganin ba haka ba ne, ana ganin cewa Jihadin dai ya yi tasiri a dukan tawayen da Musulmi suka yi koda kuwa ba su da niyyar kafa daular muslunci a lokacin, ana iya ganin cewa sun yi tawayen ne domin nemarwa kansu `yancin yin bauta da kuma `yanci daga bauta.

Gwamnatotocin fararen fata sai suka tashi haikan suka tarwatsa Musulmi suka kuma yi wa hudu daga cikin jagororin kisan gilla. Saura kuma aka ci gaba da azabtar da su da wasu kuma aka kulle su. Sauran bayin da aka `yanta kuma aka dawo da su Afirka. Daga nan duk Musulmin da aka gani musamman ma da wata takarda ta larabci sai a yi zargin dan tawaye ne. Aka kafa muyagun dokoki na kara gallazawa bayi har ma da hukunci kisa.

Wannan ya nuna kenan cewa duk inda aka kai Musulmi bauta ta an ce kada a zauna lafiya kenan. Wannan kuwa ba komai ya kawo shi ba illa kasancewar Musulmi masu ilmi kuma wayayyu. To amm me za mu iya koya daga wannan bayani na Joao? Na barku ku tattauna. Allah Ya sa mu dace amin.

Barka da Sallah!

2008-09-28T15:55:00.000-07:00

Barka da Sallah

Eid Mubarak

Happy Sallah

Happy Eid

Allah ya maimaita mana amin.

Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria. (Where I teach)

2008-09-03T18:40:00.000-07:00

Sun set at Kwatarkwashi inselberges, Zamfara State, Nigeria

2008-08-30T05:06:00.000-07:00

2008-08-28T16:56:00.000-07:00

ANA members at the Kano State Deputy Governor's Office after paying the later a courtesy call in relation to the Censorship saga.

Photo credit: Maryam Ali Ali

WRITERS vs CESORSHIP BOARD:CEASE-FIRE REACHED

2008-08-28T06:19:00.000-07:00

The national executive council of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) in conjunction with Kano, Sokoto, Katsina and Zamfara branches have met with the Director General of the Kano State Censorship Board for a dialogue last Monday, August 25, 2008. After extensive discussions, which lasted for over five hours an understanding has been reached. The Censor's Board, realising that there is a lot of pressure on them and that they are loosing public symphathy decided to agree with a cease-fire.

The two bodies have identified loofholes and contradictions in the lawa which was the guiding light of the board and call for a review. A workshop would also be organised to be sponsored by the Deputy Governor will hold sometimes in October. The Board has also accepted the invitation to attend the 27th annual convetion of ANA taking place in Gusau Zamfara State.

As at the moment, writers are left free and the path of dialogue would continue. It is gratifying to note that the DG truly has finally understood that the pen is indeed mightier than the sword.

Hausa Literary Movement & the 21st Century

2008-08-02T16:52:00.000-07:00

This article was written in 1999 and was published online in 2002 by www.kanoonline.com. it is being reproduce here in the light of the crisis between writers in Kano, Nigeria and the Kano State Censorship Board. It is a pointer. Enjoy reading.

******
The story of Hausa literature is a long one and it can be said to have come a long way. In the modern sense and in this write-up, our concern about Hausa Literature is not all encompassing rather restrictive. Creative writing in Hausa language started as soon as the Hausa people accepted Islam in around fourteenth century or much earlier. Arabic scripts were used to write Hausa in what is called Ajami form of written Hausa. That form of writing was used for scholarly works, communication and creativity up till today by millions of people. Up to the 1960s and early 1970s Ajami was in used by a large number of people. Although today its use has declined due to the rampant use of roman script and some socio-historical circumstances, the use of Ajami is still common. All Nigerian currencies carry Ajami form so are a number of commercial products like the Swan Water. There is also a whole newspaper in Ajami published weekly by the Triumph newspapers company called Alfijir. Recently Dr. Abdallah Uba Adamu of the department of Education Bayero University, Kano is initiating and leading a campaign of Ajami revival. The essence of Ajami is that our literature was first written in it. There is no doubt that Islam and Arabic civilisations have a propound influence on Hausa language, culture and literature. Thus the earliest genre of creative writing was poetry. There were many evidences on the use of poetry for scholarship, mobilisation, enlightenment, campaigns and revolutions. However the peak of poetry usage came with the Jihad of Usmanu Danfodio in the 19th century. The Jihad leaders used the medium of poetry to educate, mobilise and enlightened their followers; the Jama'a. A quick peep in the Jihad literature provides hundreds of examples of poems composed by the Jihad leaders especially Usman Danfodio, his brother Abdullahi and his children Muhammadu Bello and Nana Asma'u. Poetry continued to dominate Hausa literary scenes until recently. Other genres of creative writing particularly prose and play were virtually non existent before the coming of the British colonialist in the early 20th century. This may be attributed to religious position which do not encourage fictional stories because of the fear of making them to appear real and authentic. The introduction of roman scripts saw the emergence of the new Hausa prose-fiction and plays. Abubakar Imam and his colleagues under the guidance of Dr. Rupert East gave birth to what we may consider modern Hausa literature. Thus from 1933 when the first set of Hausa novels were published, we have witnessed the emergence of second and third generation of Hausa novelists and finally in the mid 1980s the fourth generation emerged. Hausa play and poetry has declined it is the novel that lives on as even the short story genre has declined. What we call fourth generation of Hausa writers is what some call Soyayya writers or market literature while some others call them millennium generation still some call them the new Hausa writers or contemporary Hausa novelists/writers. Whatever name they are called, there is no doubt that they have generated a lot of controversies more than their predecessors have. Some of the major criticism labelled against these writers are that - They are immature and not well educated - They are corrupting the minds of youth (their target readers) by introducing anti-cultural plots and styles in their writing - They are low quality books (because they are self published) - The books aremere love stories most of which are adaptations of Indian movies and many more. Thus from around 1990 debates ensured on the pages of newspapers and magazine (the broadcast media inclusive) for and against these books and writers. One thing though is certain these books have survived. Whatever negative thing is said about these books and writers in the last few years. it will be imperative to see the positive side of this new literary movement and its implication to Hausa language and literature as we step into the21st century. This is for a number of reasons the most important of which this new literary movement has earned Hausa language the position of the fastest growing literary language in Africa in a time when Arabic and Kiswahili are becoming increasingly important contenders as Africa’s lingua franca. The new literary movement which was and still is dominated by youth has contributed in no small measure in increasing literacy level among Hausa speakers particularly women. This singular achievement alone is enough to commend these young writers who despite unfriendly economic and technical environment were able to write and publish. Secondly, the movement has brought forward Hausa literature for the very first time into the main stream of Nigerian literature. Until 1996, Hausa writers were not recognised as writers in the Nigerian literary circles. The formation on a branch of the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) in Kano between 1992-1995 and attendance of some ANA Kano members to the 16th Annual Convention of ANA in Kaduna brought Hausa literature to the forefront. Thanks to Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino, Dr. Adamu Tanko, Malam Bala Mohammed, Dr. Saleh Abdu and Yusuf Adamu who represented Hausa writers and mounted an exhibition during the convention. Now we have two Hausa writers (though equally English) as members of ANA national executive council. Thirdly, the movement has contributed in no small measure in inculcating reading habit and culture among Hausa youths. One young people acquire this culture, it prove essential throughout life and a people that doesn’t read is doomed. Next, the movement has produce for Hausa literature fine writers who will form the background of Hausa literature in the next millennium. This also implies that without this new literary movement Hausa literature would have been certified dead. Reasons: when the major Hausa publishers (notably NNPC Zaria, and Huda-Huda) declined Hausa literature was threatened, had this new movement not started, we will today have no new Hausa writers thus no literature. Look at what is happening to Hausa poetry and plays. Hausa poetry is today restricted to political campaigns periods and Hausa plays relegated to TV dramas and Home videos. Another important attempt (though now abandoned) made by this movement was that of inventing new scripts for Hausa. Notably Dan Azimi Baba Cediyar `Yan-gurasa and one Sadiya Lawan have attempted inventing new Hausa scripts and were put to use by a few followers. This is implying that since the British Imperialists have helped in killing the Ajami form of written Hausa by introducing Hausa in Roman scripts, young Hausa men and women are trying to show that they can abandoned the roman script for an original Hausa script. This attempt is worth studying by our scholars in the Universities especially the Centre for the Study of Nigerian Languages of the Bayero University Kano and Centre for Hausa Studies of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto. What hope for the millennium? Despite all these achievement, Hausa literature is far from being ready for the 21st century world. There are a number of reasons that militate against it some of which are follows: - Stereotyping of the whole movement by some section of the population, the media and academia. - The state structure has yet to take the whole movement seriously in that The Kano State Library Board (the custodian of Kano state collections on Arts and Literature) does not have a collection of the new Hausa writing. So also most other libraries in Hausa speaking places. -Lack of organisation and strong economic base in the publishing industry. - The emergence of Home-videos (a more profitable business) is threatening the booming book industry. - Lack of interest from the State, Hausa elites and academia on the progress of Hausa literature. - There is a clear neglect by the State and the writers community in writing for children. Notwithstanding these problems we can say there is hope as there has always been. Thanks to Allah that those chosen to be writers are always conscious of their responsibilities and are not relenting. For now the Kano ANA is now organising a monthly literary forum it called Dandalin Marubuta that brings together writers, critics and readers monthly to discuss and exchange ideas on how to go about improving Hausa literature. This is yielding fruits. It is also publishing an anthology of Hausa short stories for the first time in the history of Hausa literature. It is also trying hard to find a sponsor for a prize to be administered by ANA national for Hausa novel. The leading writers in the movement have also indicated their interest and willingness to improve the literary and production quality of their works as we entre the 21st century. An educationist with Bayero University (Dr. Abdallah Uba Adamu) is putting together a book of readings on the new Hausa literary movement in book form. This will serve as a teaching and reference text for the students of Hausa literature, culture and sociology. A Kano based publishing firm (Adamu Joji Publishers) that publishes books for children in English will also start a new series next years in Hausa for school children. This is to address one of the major areas of weaknesses of Hausa literature of neglecting children. Conclusion By way of conclusion, I think it is becoming evident that the next century is a century of information. Coupled with what is happening to the Hausa-speaking peoples in the current time, there is every need on the part of all stake-holders to come together and re-focus Hausa literature by identifying with its producers and assisting them. Our literature is our history. If we let our literature die just like we let our great historical monuments (the city walls)in Kano, Katsina, Zaria, Sokoto and other Hausa City-states die, we will do more disservice to our children and to history. We will not be forgiven for siddon-look but may be forgiven for making mistakes. We as writers would continue to do our best for our society, if the society fail us, history shall still say good of us.

BETWEEN THE PEN AND THE SWORD: DRAWING THE BATTLE LINE IN KANO STATE

2008-07-15T11:05:00.001-07:00

“A society can endure kufr but it cannot endure injustice”
-Shiehk Usmanu Dan Fodiyo

The Nature of the conflict
Sometime in June 2008, the Kallabi Writers Association, a Hausa female authors association was launched. The Director General of the Kano State Censorship Board was invited. He attended but did not stay up to the end of the occasion was finished he left. There were insinuations as to why he left before the even is concluded, but the information we received rightly or wrongly was that he was angry with the organisers, (being a literary event), for not ‘taking permission’ from him to organise the event and that he even made some statements that made authors jittery.

Later, the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) and other Authors Associations operating in Kano State were invited for a meeting with the Board. The meeting started well but later it turns out to be something else. The board requested that all Associations must give details of their membership and that all books published from the time the Board was established must be registered before they are “legal” and sellable within the borders of Kano State!

What actually made the writers angry was this rather awkward proviso that every member must register with the board individually. This means that every author in Kano State must be licensed by the Board to be able to write, this is despicable indeed. Remember Orwell’s 1984? This is in addition to the one month ultimatum given for all authors to register and also register their books otherwise; the board will start raiding the market and arresting authors, publishers, booksellers who are not licensed by the board or whose works were not registered.

After the meeting the chairman of ANA Kano State Branch gave interviews to the Hausa service of the BBC, Deutschewelle (Voice of Germany) and Radio France International protesting the position of this powerful DG of a Kano State Government Agency. The authors met and discussed the issue trying to find a middle ground, (because authors are law abiding but not idiots). So, they wrote under the umbrella of ANA Kano State Branch using its letterhead (being the mother Association of Nigerian Authors), to the board requesting the board to send to them in writing what they really want from them instead of verbal commands and instructions (as if the military is controlling some agencies in Kano State)

The bias and injustice that characterized the response from the Board is what prompted this article, as argued Man Ray (1890-1976) “Each one of us, in his timidity, has a limit beyond which he is outraged.” The DG replied some of the Associations in the league, deliberately excluding ANA arguing that ANA is not registered with the holy Censorship Board and so not recognised by “Kano State Government?”

The reply to our letter which is circulated to ‘registered association” read as follows:

Pursuant to your letter dated June 5th 2008 on the above subject matter being registered associations with this Board, I am instructed to communicate to you that, the laws and regulations of this Board are public documents accessible to our stakeholders and general public. These documents are strictly guiding the activities of this Board over its stakeholders hence provides the do’s and don’ts for compliance.
Further to remind you on the joint meeting held on July 3rd 2008 between this Board and your associations which was purposely conveyed to:
i) Guide your association and individual members on the impact and virtues of literary works
ii) Educate you on the powers of the Kano State censorship Board on the registration of members of literary works through your respective associations. As primary agency the board finds it Cogent to have comprehensive data, contribution in the literature and the society and the likely benefit/incentive from government to the registered members.
iii) Obtain comprehensive membership strength of each association.
iv) Re-emphasis the importance of censoring your projects with Kano State censorship Board as mandated by the law
More over, the meeting was meant to educate you and your members on respect to law and order (regulations), constituted authorities and professionalism of literary works.
Find attached partial extract from the laws for guidance, please.
Best Regards

The letter was signed by a senior officer for the grand Director-General,

The over personalisation of civil service, raw over zealousness and brute lack of civility by the refusal to reply ANA is outrageous. Since we wrote, we deserve a response, but this is a DG of a powerful government agency refusing to reply a registered and respectful Association simply because he thinks it is not registered with his agency. This makes no sense to any sensible and trained bureaucrat, one wonders what the seasoned civil servants in the agency are doing. Perhaps, they are working under instructions.

In the first instance, as Nigerians, the 1999 constitution has given us the right to associate enshrined as a fundamental human right. ANA being a professional Association has no business registering with any kind of Censorship Board, if any one needs to, it is publishers and not authors. Yet the current chairman of ANA Kano State Branch Ado Ahmad Gidan-dabino has compromised and registered ANA with the Board, he has paid the required money at Afri-bank for the registration. He made another compromise by submitting to them a list of ANA Kano State Branch registered members and also encouraged ANA members to individually submit their books for “puritanical certification” even without consulting the national body; wai duk don a zauna lafiya, yet, the Association he heads was denied a reply simply because he insisted that writers do not need a license to work as writers.

Why we respond

We as authors have deep respect for a couple of people who are in the act of Governance of the State among them is the SSG, a fellow writer, who has always been supportive of ANA whenever any national activity is taking place. Yes, the SSG has supported ANA Kano State Branch to host the best annual convention of the Association ever in 2005 which re-affirms Kano’s adage Ko da me ka zi an fika. We have respect for Alhaji Bashir Othman Tofa a brilliant author, who happens to be one of my literary mentors and an ardent supporter of ANA and literary activities in Kano State. We also have respect for Malam Bala Muhammad the DG of A Daidaita Sahu; he is a friend, associate, colleague, comrade in arms a great mentor of ANA. He is a great friend of writers being a writer himself. Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa, a fine scholar and scientist is also admired and respected in our midst. All these people are greatly respected in our midst and because of them compromise and are open to dialogue on literary matters. Despite our respect for them, in a situation like this we as writers and authors cannot look the other way; because their colleague is all out to suppress creativity and kill the many years of hard work and dedication recorded so far in this beloved State of ours. We are sorry the battle line is drawn between us and the DG of the Kano State Censorship Board. George Bernard Shaw (1856-1950) said “A man never tells you anything until you contradict him.”

The Board verbally, told us that they want to censor vulgar and obscene language (batsa) from our works. Fine, it is good to ensure that the public read only that which is good. In any case we see ourselves as Muslims before becoming writers (see my article Faces of Islam at www.tagarduniya.blogspot.com for details). As Muslims and Hausawa we want our writings to be sane and safe for our kids to read. As authors also, we want to have good editors that would edit our works. But the questions begging for answers about this ghost called censoring that are not answered about censorship include among others the following:

What guaranty do I have that if tomorrow I or any author writes a satire about a fifth columnist politician who betrays the trust of those who supported him when he was nobody only to bow to his enemies and eulogies and even worship them, that my manuscript will pass the many hooks and nails of the uncompromising DG.

What would happen to a manuscript that exposes the immorality, decadence and contradiction in an institution that claims Puritanism and decency?

What would happen to a play that criticizes the corruption that characterised a polity that claims transparency and prudence? This sledge hammer has no modus operandi.

Does the almighty DG have competent hands to censor good works of art?

Isn’t it funny that the boss of the censorship board employs his wife to censor books and he would unashamedly tell an author that “wallahi matata ba ta gama dubawa ba” or when an author goes to collect his certificate he would be told “Ka yi hakuri yaran da suke duba littafin ba su zo ba yau” and other nonsense of this sort.

Has he done his homework? Has he read his history books well or has he studied his papers to know about ANA’s internal censorship mechanisms (let him refer to the first draft of the censorship edict prepared under the military at the Ministry of Information and their encounter with ANA then) before beating the drums for war?

Not until these questions are sufficiently answered, ANA is left with no option than to conclude that His Excellency the DG has a level to score and only the Agency provides him with a platform to launch his attack. But the innocent Agency is a wrong place for this.

Why is the censorship board confronting the writers now?

What are the reasons for the Censorship Board’s recent outburst? I spoke to a number of people and a couple of authors about the probable reasons for opening a new frontier by the over zealous Censorship Board. Many opinions were expressed among them, three are outstanding. Whether these reasons are correct or not, they are opinions held by a number of people and authors especially.

The first opinion is that the Director General wants to remain relevant because he wants maintain his chair that is why he must remain in the news, the easiest way is to open a new front, this time confronting those who can really make noise. It is noise he thinks that could help him remain there perhaps without end. Those with this view support their view by saying the DG of censorship board has said in public that “na gama da ýan film saura marubuta” Just like the proverbial “After communism what next?

The second opinion is that the outburst was part of a master grand plan of a foreign government who is looking for ways to gag Muslim scholars by censoring what they teach or preach, that is why censoring began with filmmakers where the players feel big, rich and influential. After them they would tackle writers. Perhaps after writers, malaman zaure or malaman makarantar allo would come next.

The third view is that the DG has failed his employers some how, he is now confused and wants buy time by distracting the attention of his employers and the public elsewhere, so the best target and presumably the softest one are the writers. “why do you think Bush wants to attack Iran while his country is stuck in Iraq and Afghanistan?” someone opines.

Whatever is the reason or motive for the this approach, it is ill timed and ill conceived and I am afraid, your Excellency might not be in torch with history, a war between the sword, and the pen always leave the former in disarray. In any case, Robert Rubin once said “Doing nothing is the wrong thing to do if there is something to do that is clearly the right thing to do. But doing something that is not sensible...is a very bad idea.”

Possible Scenarios
Writers are like any other human being in their nature, however, their predictions sometimes come true because they almost all the time put their situation into the framework of a fictional story. We are now at crossroad, how would our story end? Assuming we are putting our scenarios into the fabric of a story in progress. There are many possible scenarios on the dimension the conflict will take. The first is that the censorship board would use the ‘divide and rule tactics’ which they have already shown indications. It is possible that some writers might be tempted or forced into recognition the Board’s infamous licensing requirements and even go public in support of the action. It is also possible that ANA might be polarised if the ‘Kano emotion tactic’ is invoked. This tactic would lure some writers into believing that ANA is an Association of ‘the other’ (to be modest) so writers who are Kano State indigenes should have their own independent Association.

A group of renegades might be enticed into believing that those who support the board might be rewarded with money, because as their letter and actions shows government has some money to dash out. After all it is political era, an era of ci-mu-ci, there are many Toms, Dicks and Harrys that are willing to auction their conscience for some coins.

But the above scenarios are the soft options, there could be others options. The censorship Board has a lot of power and its boss is known to be thorny and uncompromising aficionado neglecting the fact that “Extreme trends are breeding grounds for equally powerful countertrends” as argued Stephen S. Roach.

The Board which has already begun a census of books in the market may enact a decree that would make the sale of all “uncensored books” a crime as the case with filmmakers. Anybody found selling “uncensored books” can then be jailed just like it happens to some film marketers in Kano State . This can work for a while and it can prevent book sellers from selling “uncensored books” therefore, forever closing the pages of the flourishing literary market of Kano, after all who is really interested in making Kano State prosper again as a center of industry. Can’t you see that Kano State no longer produces any thing, isn’t Singer Market the only symbol of Kano’s industrial past, the only thing that we do in Kano State , tireda!

The board may also decide to arrest authors, publishers and distributors of all “uncensored books”, and within weeks, Kano central prison would be celebrating having tens and tens of authors as inmates. They have the power the State government is behind them 101%, what else do they need?

Another scenario can be covert, the Murtala Mohammed Library Board supports ANA, in fact, our office is located there and we meet once every month there free of charge. The board can ensure that our office is revoked. The hall we get to meet once in a month may also be charged, that can put us in a difficult situation.

Possibly also, is that the support we enjoy from the State government during major events may cease. ANA Kano State Branch was given the mandate to organise the 2nd Northern Nigerian Writer Summit in 2010. The powerful DG may convince Kano State Government not to support it. Up north, Katsina is on standby, Jigawa is also on standby not to talk of Kogi and Benue States down North-Central. If this happens who lose, we as authors, or and its people?

There could be other scenarios which we are thinking about but which we also making plans for, but until then, every author living in Kano State, every publisher, every book seller, and in fact every intellectual is in danger.

Conclusion

Censorship Board is supposed to be diplomatic, polite and people oriented and not a battle ground of anti-creativity. The DG is playing with a fire that could consume him, and his chair, Luo Guanzhong, a 14th century Chinese author and playwright once said “Anyone using fire depends on the wind. This is now winter and only west winds blow...I am on the northwest and the enemy is on the south bank. If they use fire they will destroy themselves. I have nothing to fear.”

The militaristic attitude of the Censorship Board DG is capable of eradicating the remaining sympathy the state have in the heart of intellectuals in the State and outside, he is capable of turning the friends of the government into its foes. I am sure the State Government is not a bunch of fools that would simply sit down and fold their arms and watch this disoriented figure marring its name. He is miscalculating and wants to take other reasonable people with him into a voyage on a ship that is destined to wreck. If the State Government and other responsible citizens of Kano State decide to take a siddon look attitude,we want to warn that this battle is a battle without end. ANA would not fold its arms and watch this bully destroy its membership nor any writer resident in Kano State. Despite this well deserved stance, we want to let everyone know that we are open to dialogue.

This article is a preamble and because the battle line has been drawn, our pens are sharpened and we would use every media local and international at our disposal to fight this oppression and madness. This article is already on my blog www.tagarduniya.blogspot.com and we shall soon dedicate a whole blog for this battle. I want to appeal to all writers, fellow journalists and blogers wherever they may be on this Earth and in the cyber space to put their weight behind us. If the pen is mightier than the sword, it shall certainly be mightier than injustice. The struggle has just begun.

It will be nice to conclude with an excerpt of a poem by Hafsatu Ahmad Abdulwahid, (an unlicensed poetess) the first Hausa female novelist and author of So Aljannar Duniya from her unpublished collection of poems Ancient Dance:

Crossroad!
Cross road, I know I have come
One laced with thorns
The other bare and safe
And although the choice is mine
I dare walk the thorny road
For the yearning of my heart
A desire so potent
I crave to follow my wretched heart.

Dr Yusuf Adamu, former ANA kano chairman, is a Senior Lecturer in Geography at the BUK, a blogger and columnist with Sunday Trust Newspaper.

July 11, 2008.

BANGON DUNIYA. Where are we in the Cosmos?

2008-03-03T09:45:00.000-08:00

I was re-reading one of my favourite Science books; COSMOS by Astronomer Carl Sagan, when I came a cross a section that reminded me of my search for God as a small boy. In this book, Sagan was narrating how he developed interest in Astronomy telling us “I would look at them (the stars), twinkling and remote, and wonder what they were. I would ask older children and adults who would only reply ‘they’re lights in the sky kid’ I could see they were lights in the sky. But what were they? As soon as I was old enough, parents gave me my first library card… I asked the librarian for something on stars… she smiled and found another book---the right kind of book. I open it breathlessly and read until I found it. The book said something astonishing, a very big thought. It said that the stars were Suns, only very far away. The Sun was a star, but close up... So I decided that I would be an astronomer”.

So, I told my younger brothers about it and narrate to them how I also develop interests in Astronomy but without deciding to ‘become an Astronomer’. Just then, one of them asked me about Bangon Duniya (the wall of the world?) Trying to argue that he was told that when you pass the Great Wall of China, you have reached the end of the world and that you would just disappear. I wonder the source of that strange idea. They encouraged me to share the very little I know of the planet Earth and the universe with more people. I feel the idea is just right so I set to compose this article, (the last time I published an English article on the stars was in the defunct newspaper Democrat, 1989) which I hope would make more people aware of our place in the Cosmos.

This article is going to begin with some personal narrative. Therefore, this time around, we are leaving literature and history to make a short trip to Astronomy. Lately I went to greet my mother when my young son Abdulrashid asked her about the moon. While replying she said ‘like father like son. When your father was a kid he will always insist that I lift him up to touch the moon or get him one of the stars”. I then realised that my interest with the skiy has been a very long and intimate one.

Now to my journey. Like any other Muslim child in Hausaland, northern Nigeria, my first school was the Makarantar Allo later I joined Islamiyya School to be taught the Qur’an, Hadith, Seera, Fiqhu, Arabic and so on. Two incidences happened, the first, while I was in Qur’anic school and on holidays with my grandma ma in Tsafe (then North Western State, now Zamfara State). Whenever it was time to prayer, she insist that I pray, but like any other child, sometimes I rather continue with my wasan kasa or something else. She would admonish me saying “if you are not praying, Allah would burn you in the hell fire in the hereafter” and I would reply innocently “Allah would not find me, for I would run away to Maiduguri and hide”. The reason for saying Maiduguri was that I heard that it is a town very far, far away and I thought God might not be able to find me.

When I start attending Islamiyya School I came to learn more about the attributes of Allah, some of which I began to learn with a Malam in Kankia (Katsina State) when I visit my maternal grand parents. Thus, I learn that Allah has no beginning nor will He ever had an end, He created time and everything and that He knew everything. The lines to justify that Allah has no beginning are still fresh in my memory and they read:
“Domin kuwa lokaci halitta ce ta Allah
To yaya za a yi halittar Allah ta riga Allah
Saboda haka, ashe Allah bas hi da farko, kuma ba shi da karshe”
(Translation)
Because time itself is a creature of Allah
How then can Allah’s creation comes before Allah
Therefore Allah has no beginning and has no end”

Thanks to my teachers, may Allah reward them abundantly with the best of rewards. From then on, the idea of running to Maiduguri seem untenable, therefore abandon. The next great challenge was with an idea of paradise taught to us by our Yasayyadis. I learnt that Paradise is the opposite of hellfire and that it is a beautiful place that we never could imagine. Whatever good or beautiful thing we thought of is abundant in paradise. We were told what to do to be admitted in the paradise and what to do or not do to be in hellfire (God forbid).

All these are conceivable to a small child of my age. What was not conceivable or acceptable or even comprehensible was the idea that this paradise is consisting of very big and mighty houses/palaces. Their sizes are the bone of contention between my imagination and the Yasayyadi’s pronouncements that the poorest inhabitant of paradise would be given a house that is seventy thousand times bigger than the world. This is a very difficult idea for me. I reasoned that we were living in Kano, I have travelled as far as Katsina and Sokoto and have seen how vast the land mass was and I know that places like Makkah and Madina and even Ingila (England) were very far way. So how could only one person (the poorest for that matter) get a house 70,000 times bigger than the whole Earth? Where would the space be found? Yes the key question was where would the space be found?

I see the sun rise every morning and sets every evening. We see the crescent moon grow to be full only to wane back again. Of course I see the stars in the night, but it never occurred to me that they have any link with the problem at hand. That ‘powerful doubt’ kept confusing me. The only consolation was the belief that Allah is able to do all things. That being the case, the material world could not answer or clear my doubt.

One day at the primary school, I begin to learn that the Earth (world) is a planet in the solar system and that there are other planets beside the Earth. By the time I was in form three, my first lesson in Geography was about the Solar System. From then on I realised that some of the planet out there are bigger than our planet and that those tiny lamps in the sky that we call stars are mighty bodies of gas. For the first time, I came to learn about galaxies. From then on I began to understand that the spaces to be allocated to ‘yan aljanna are actually available.

I set out to understand the mystery of the night sky I see every night. Every book that talks about the sky or the universe became my good friend and Geography my twin brother. We had a library at the senior secondary school I attended (Science Secondary School, Zuru, now Kebbi State) and I made it a point to read all the books that talk about Astronomy. At the university, the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Library provided me with all the basic books that I needed to learn about the universe. It was through Astronomy that I personally discovered God and had a conviction about His existence and His powers of creation and love for mankind. This was my personal discovery and not something I have been taught by my Malams. It is in astronomy that one would hear Astronomers declaring their weakness in knowledge and simply saying ‘we do not know’. My further studies into Islam and Science through books notably by Maurice Baucille and others strengthen my belief in Allah, the Creator and Sustainer of the Universe.

Now let us go straight to our topic by starting to discuss briefly the planet Earth. The simple thing we are going to do here is to describe it and provide some facts and figures about it after which I would lead you into a journey across the Solar system.

The Planet Earth

The Earth is a planet, one of the nine planets orbiting the Sun. Scientist have told us that it is about 4.5 billion years old. The mean distance of the Earth from the Sun is 149,503,000 km (92,897,000 mi). Like all other planets, it orbit round the Sun. the length of its orbit round the Sun is approximated at 938,900,000 km (583,400,000 mi). This is the distance we all travel each year as the Earth revolves round the Sun. The more interesting thing about this long journey is the speed at which we travel which is 106,000 kilometres per hour which means, we travels at a speed of 260,805.5 kilometres every second. The Earth is spherical in shape as shown on the accompanying photograph. Its diameter is about 12756 km (7926 mi) at the equator and about 12713 km (7899 mi) — 43 km (27 mi) at the poles. Water covers most of the Earth about 71 percent.

This means that countries are located at different locations. To make it easier for us to know our world, Geographers use some imaginary lines to divide the world. They are called longitude and latitude. Longitudes move from North to South, the upper part always been the North. We use them to know time. Since the Earth rotates on its axis (East to West), it means that while one area is facing the Sun, the other is backing it. This is why we have variations in terms of day and night. Some areas particular those in the East see the Sun before those in the West. The other imaginary line is called Longitude and this one runs East-West, right hand being the East. This helps us know our location, i.e. where we are on the planet Earth.

Geographers use this line to divide the world into two, the line called equator divides the world into two equal halves, north and south. We also have areas tagged as Tropical regions; these are the areas lying immediately north and south of equator. We also have Temperate areas as well as the Polar region. We do not have to bother ourselves with their exact degrees here. What we are particularly interested in all this is the issue of the amount of solar radiation each section receives. Because the Earth is tilted, the angle in which Sun’s rays hit the Earth varies from region to region. Whereas in the Tropics, the Sun is almost overhead, they receive a lot of solar radiation and that is why it is hot. As you move up north/south the angle’s slant increases thus the temperate latitudes receive less amount of solar radiation compared to the tropics. That is why countries in those areas are always cold.

At the poles, the Earth are relatively flat, the story is interesting. But before then, let us examine and see if the poles may be considered as Bangon Duniya, because literarily, it is the end of the world. Although I personally did not know much about Hausa pre-Islamic cosmology, the idea of the world having a wall (bango) among the Hausas might be an old belief. It is obvious that the idea is associated with the belief that the Earth is flat. Hausa people’s culture of making city walls might have helped in this idea. It also means that when you reach the walls of the world and dig through it, you may fall down (to God knows where). However, the Islamic belief in Yajuju wa majuju (Gog and Maggog) might have strengthened this belief of Bangon Duniya. Now we know better that the Earth is not flat but spherical. What we may consider as Bangon Duniya should be the Poles, north and south poles that are within the Arctic and Antarctic Circles.

The most interesting thing about the Polar region is the fact that, at the poles, there is only one day and one night. That means they have six months of continuous daylight and continuous night. Their seasons are opposite, when it is summer in the Arctic (north pole), it is winter in the Antarctic (south pole). The area is extremely cold and is covered with ice and snow. There are rivers not of water but of ice, there are hills and mountains of ice. In fact, the people that live in the polar region use ice to build their houses, which they called igloo. The picture below shows two Inuit people building an igloo (house).

Now, we have said something about our planet, although we did not say much, the very little we have said, I hope, would help those of us that are not Geographers like me. The next thing to do now is for me to lead you. We are making a trek within the solar system. Hope you are ready.

Measuring Distances in the Universe

This journey we are going to make was influenced by my personal experience in the London Planetarium. In November 1998, I was in London on an Academic Exchange programme with the University of Sussex at Brighton. A friend of mine, who now abandon me in the classroom and “start working” Malam Bala Muhammad (formally of Mass Communications Department, Bayero University, Kano), took me to the London Planetarium. There, we experienced a journey across the Solar system and beyond. It was that experience that influenced this one. The only difference in this case is that you would only be reading the article without experiencing the journey (no visual effects). In any case, I think, it would be exiting. Most often I think about things like Planetarium becoming available in Nigeria. A planetarium would not cost us as much as we spent extravagantly on hosting Commonwealth whatever or the COJA extravaganza. But as you all know, what is important is always not a priority in Nigeria.

A Planetarium

Although we are not travelling any far away, we must note that distances in the sky (space) are enormous that the use of kilometres or miles may be meaningless. Instead we use the speed of light to measure distance. For example light travels 300,000 kilometres ever second. How long does it travel in a year? It travels an enormous distance of Ten Trillion Kilometres (10,000,000,000,000 km). Those when we say One light year what we actually mean is 10,000,000,000,000 km. In astronomical sense we do not say the distance between the Sun and the Earth is 150,000,000 kilometres rather 8.5 light minutes. At greater distances that remotely into the ream of the known universe we use even higher measures like kilo per sec to Mega per sec. These units are far greater than per sec or common light year. Nearby galaxies like The Andromeda galaxy 1,063,072,000,000,000 kilometres (One Septillion, Sixty three Trillion, Seventy two billion Kilometres) and is in the local group. The ream of the known universe detected by radio telescopes is about Forty Billion Light Years away. Think of that colossal distance in miles or kilometres.

NASA/Liaison Agency
Galaxy M100
The spiral galaxy M100 is located between 35 million and 80 million light-years from Earth. The Hubble Space Telescope captured this image of the core of M100 after repairs were made to the telescope in December 1993.

Time may not permit us to travel outside the Solar System to go to the galaxies. But for those of us who do not know, a galaxy is a star system, which constitute of thousands of billions of stars. Just as we have cities on the planet Earth, galaxies are like cities of stars in the universe. The Milky Way galaxy is our home galaxy, i.e. where the solar system belongs. Its diameter is 100,000 light years across and its thickness is about 20,000 light years. It completes a single revolution in every 225,000,000 years. The Milky Way Galaxy is just one of the uncountable galaxies that litter the universe. We live at the backwaters of the Milky Way (on the arms)

A trek through the solar system

Let us now make an attempt to travel just around the neighbourhood. I said neighbourhood because comparing the vast distances in space a traveller in the Solar System is a non-starter. Our travel must be aided by our imagination and accumulative knowledge gained through reading and watching educational documentaries. Just imagine yourself as a member of a space travel team. You are already in your astronaut’s suite and are fully aware that we are going to travel at the speed of light, thus it will take us roughly 50,000 years at the speed of light, this indicates that time will stop working on us as we approach the speed of light. Fasten your seat belt and let move on a spaceship of imagination. As your captain I shall be informing you of where we are whenever we arrive.

Our first point of call is the moon. It is about 375,284 kilometres from Earth and thus will take us roughly 1 minute to reach it and we have. We are now on the moon, as you can see from the window it is very quite and lifeless. You could see rocks and soil boulders and a number of craters. Its gravity is too small that we can lift 300 kg worth of material without feeling it. If you look up, you could see the planet Earth. How beautiful it looks plotting in space. For the remaining planets we will just hove around and view it from above. This is because their atmospheres and surfaces are not friendly to our technology.

It took us just two minutes to our next point of call, the planet Venus. It is over 40 million kilometres from the moon. It is a very hot planet because of its nearness to the Sun with up to 450OC. It is about the size of the Earth as you can see. It takes just 225 days to complete one revolution. Thus a person that is 10 years old on Venus will be just Six years three month (6.3) old on Earth.

Mercury, the closest planet to the Sun (just some 55,000,000 km away) is even hotter as you can feel despite attempts to protect yourself. It took us three minutes and we could not stay more than some second, we have to move further. I know you are still trying to spot it, it is hard to spot because of the dense lightening of the Sun. Anyway, and it takes about 88 days to complete its revolution.

Now you have to put on the dark curtains on your windows we are approaching the Sun. This is the powerhouse, the energy source of the Solar system. The Sun is a medium star. It is over 300,000 times bigger than our Earth with a surface temperature of 6000 o C (water boils at 100 o C, this means the heat on the surface of the Sun is just like the heat of boiled water times 60) and an internal temperature of 15,000,000 o C. Its diameter is about 1.5 billion kilometre. We must leave now towards the planet Mars.

It is relatively far as it took us 12 minutes thus nearing about 227 million kilometres. Some of us have read several fantasies about this planet fondly called the red planet. Observers from Earth view a number of landforms misunderstood as irrigation canals. This made many to believe that there is an intelligent being there who till the soil as we do. There are so many stories about the Martian invading the like and us. But as you can see from your windows Mars is as lifeless as the Moon. Indeed you could see some landforms looking like drainage systems some of which as if artificially made. Our knowledge is still inadequate to say exactly what they had been. I hope you are able to spot its two moons Phobos and Deimos. Lets move.

We are passing through the asteroid bet. This is as you are watching comprised of small rocks the largest (Ceres) about 936 km radius. This belt is what is considered as the boundary between inner and outer planets. I know some of you have spotted the biggest planet in the Solar System: Jupiter. We are heading towards it.

It will take us 41 minutes to traverse a 752 million kilometres to Jupiter’s atmosphere. We are now in its atmosphere and some of you have seen some of its 16 moons as we cross. You can see it is really big. It is 1,300 times bigger than our planet. Because of its distance from the Sun it take 12 years to complete a revolution. Therefore a one year old on Jupiter is 12 years old on Earth. The strangest thing about this planet is the fact that it has no surface like the inner planet. It is mainly gaseous. Look up, you could spot a tiny blue ball, it is our planet, some 100 million kilometre away. We have come far.

Saturn, the beautiful planet with a ring is about 42 minutes away and shall be there soon. It is 750 million kilometres away. Some of you are fast asleep, please wake up, the beautiful planet is here. We have arrived Saturn. You can see that there are six beautiful rings surrounding it. Look carefully; you will see that they are not smooth but made up of rock particles. How marvellous it looks. It has 21 moons and I know you have spotted Lapitus, Rhea, Titan and Mimas. It takes 29.5 years to complete a revolution. One year on Saturn is therefore 29.5 years on Earth.

Uranus here we come. We have spent one hour fifteen minutes to arrive Uranus’s atmosphere. It is about 15 times bigger than the Earth and has 19 thin rings. Hope you are counting. It has five moons, could you spot Ariel and Miranda? Because of it vast distance from the sun it is very cold and takes 88 years to complete a revolution. We have to move on.

Now we are going to travel in darkness. We are getting farther and farther away from the Sun. The temperature is drastically falling. In the next 84 minutes we will cover a distance of four billion, 370 million kilometres. Aha! You have sighted two celestial bodies. They are Triton and Nereid, two main Neptune’s moons. It takes 164 Earth years to complete a revolution.

Finally our journey is nearing end as we approach Pluto. After covering 950 million kilometres in one hour 41 minutes we arrived Pluto. It is a small planet that is at the extreme from the sun measuring about 5 billion 952 million kilometres from the Sun. This great distance means that its orbit is wider. It has one moon and completes a revolution in 248 Earth years. A one year old on Pluto will be 248 years on Earth, thus if any of us can be left there to spend the next three years on the planet Pluto, when we come back he will be 744 years older than we left him.

We have reached the edge of the Solar system. It is not wise for us to go beyond it. We must therefore turn back home, to our planet Earth. Well, I am also tired; I think we shall all rest here. See you another time, Insha Allah.

Conclusion

From this short trek we had into the Solar system, we can appreciate our position in the scheme of things at least within the Solar system. Our planet is understandably the only one that favours life form, as we know it. Being at a distance not too close (to be too hot) like Mercury, or not too far away like Pluto, (to be too cold) or even with a harsh atmosphere (like Mars) or without a surface like Jupiter, the Earth is the most suitable place in the solar system. Scientists have been searching for life in the solar system and beyond. They are yet to find any even though thy have found other planetary systems around other Suns. The feeling of loneliness is at times tempting. When Voyager was sent out to space, it went with a number of things about us, including our music, language and astronomical position in the Universe.

Are we alone in this vast universe or are there ‘others’ somewhere far away, at the realms of the known universe? This is a question that would take many years to be answered. In any case, we must use our loneliness in the universe to poster unity and love among our kind. This planet Earth is would have been a better place if had we not been making plans to destroy ourselves. Countries that have Nuclear weapons (and maintain the right to own such weapons, yet prevented others from having, for the advantage in terrorising others of their kind) are the harbingers of our destruction.

But when the Earth is weigh down by a Nuclear Winter (God forbid) none of our kind (mankind) would survive. Better we uplift the spirit of this space faring civilisation with love and unity of our kind than by amassing Weapons of Mankind’s Destruction.

FACES OF ISLAM

2008-02-15T08:56:00.000-08:00

It was in the month of October 2003, that Abdullahi Ismail, of ANA Niger and then National Assistant Secretary called me and informs me that Mr. Nduka Otiono (ANA National Secretary) has asked him to inform me that I am slated to give reading at the Goethe Institut Lagos. The Goethe Institut will be celebrating a photo exhibition tagged Faces of Islam. The exhibition is on Ethiopian Muslims; they therefore in collaboration with ANA decided to match it with a reading by northern Nigerian authors (presumably because many are Muslims). I was glad to hear about it, but I began to ask myself what am I going to read that will match the occasion? What other details are there. I called Mr. Nduka ha gave me some briefs and said when we meet at the then forthcoming convention of ANA holding at Makurdi he would give more details. I waited until we met at Makurdi, unfortunately, it was an election convention, we are all too busy to talk, and I however saw the news on ANA Review. After the convention, I got my date. Mrs Rachel Attah of Kogi ANA will be attending also to read from her works.

On Saturday morning, November 8, 2003, my younger brother Usman took me to the airport. There I had two options, there were two flights to Lagos each costing Eleven Thousand Naira only, one IRS taking off at 10:00 am, the other Bellview, at 11:00 am. I had travelled with IRS in the past so I opted for Bellview. I went there and paid and waited. While IRS passengers were boarding, I felt like I should have joined that flight. But I have no business in Lagos before 5:00 so I remained till our time. When our plight landed we board and took off.

On the air, I was busy doing my favourite thing, watching the land from the air. It is always an excellent and exiting view how hour houses are well laid, how our farmlands are properly demarcated, the water bodies, the hills and so on. As our altitude increases we pass through the clouds and we move above them. I remembered my Climatology course realising that we have just passed through the troposphere and up to stratosphere where it is safer for flights. I can see the clouds spread as a land with some undulating surface. Far away I can see some hills or mountains of clouds.

We arrived Lagos on time. I was holding only my bag and have not to wit to collect it. When I can out of the arrival hall, Tijjani Abubakar who was my student and supervisee at Bayero was there waiting for me. I was so glad t see him because the problem with Lagos is not arriving, but getting to where you want to be. He was with his cousin Baba who drove us to Goethe Institut at Victoria Island where I was booked to read. There was traffic hold on as usual, but we made it around 2:30 pm, I text Nduka Otiono, ANA national secretary that I have arrived. He replied informing that he was in Ibadan to take Mrs Rachel Attah. That we should meet at 4:00 pm. When I arrived there at the Goethe Institute, at the gate, I saw a banner with Mrs Attah’s name and mine and I said to Tijjani jokingly ‘so I am this important’. There are pamphlets at the reception reading thus:

Goethe-Institut Lagos would like to invite you to a special event in collaboration with the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANA) Exhibition and Readings. On the Road-Faces of Islam-A Photo Exhibition
Readings by Rachael Attah from Kogi State and Yusuf Adamu from Kano State.

None of the officials are there because the activity begins at 4:00pm, so we went to Dolphin Estate (Tijjani’s residence) I prayed and took a bath, rested foe a while. We left Dolphin estate some twenty minutes to four and arrived just on time and as Nduka was arriving, what a coincidence. We greeted and moved to the reception. The director Mr Michael Muller-Verweyen, and Mr Sunday were there to welcome us. Mr Nduka arrived with Mrs Attah and other ANA members from Lagos. We made copies of our submissions and distribute to the participants. We were fully introduced by Mr. Nduka and the director of Goethe Institut gave a background of the exhibition.

Mrs Attah was the first to read her short story. It was as if we arranged that she would be reading prose and I poetry. Her story was a folkloric one about one young man called Aduga who happens to be a son of a woman not so favoured by her husband. He has to pass through many huddles to succeed in the end. One of the huddles was when his father gave him a cock and his brothers hens and ask all to bring eggs after sometime. Aduga was clever enough to realise that the hens could not have made eggs without his cock and therefore used that opportunity by asking his brothers to give him an egg each so that he can allow his cock to meet with their hens, they have no options by to oblige. It was an interesting story that clearly shows her culture, issues of polygamy, favoured and unfavoured wives ad so on and so forth.

After she finished her short story I was asked to read my collection. Among my collections. Earlier I thought of what kind of selections I am going to make at the occasion, which seem to reflect Islam. As a Muslim I know I must have written some poems that may be seen as ‘Islamic’ but I also know in Islam, life itself is all Islamic in as much as poets will see life as poetry. In any case, I have no doubt that my poems will always manifest my Islamic faith, so I made a careful selection that I feel may be relevant and may summarise my poetic works in some sense. When I told Nduka and the director about my deliberate selection, they seemed impressed. The poems are categorised as, Religious, Social, Political, Place, Historical and Personal. However among the poems I was to read was Global Village, for this poem it was a homecoming because it was published in a German English High School text title Across Cultures (2002) published by Cornelsen, Berlin. The poem was published on pages 156-157 in the part three section of the book, which was discussing Globalisation. It may interest readers to reproduce how the poem was presented and the questions raised, at least it would show us how poems are appreciated in another part of the world.

Global Village
Yusuf M Adamu
In this poem Yusuf M Adamu offers his view of the impact of globalisation.
* Before reading, write down what you think the poem might be about based on
- the title (What is a ‘village’? How does the adjective ‘global’ go with it?);
- your knowledge of the topic;
- the poet’s name (Where do you think he comes from?).
* Discuss your notes in class, then save them for your analysis and final evaluation of the poem.

Global village

though we are all human
we are made to be different
by forces beyond our clout

yet they want remake us
in a new image of their choice
in a village too big to be safe

the world they now call
a single village in the globe
with a big brother to match

as long as we are second class
within that large village fashioned
we should not be subjected to
someone’s standards
someone’s culture
someone’s technology
someone’s understanding
someone’s world view
someone’s theories and concepts

they try hard in harder ways
to make us part of that village
but we know we are different
and shall strive to leave outside
that fashioned unsafe village

Read the poem and jot down your first impression of what it is about.
Now look at the style and form of the poem and describe them as precisely as possible. Compare notes with a partner and discuss to what extent your information is of significance for the poem’s central message. Keep your notes and ideas ready for further reference.
with a partner or in groups of three, go through the poem and make notes on the following:
-Who is the speaker? Who might he be speaking to?
-Who/and what is he speaking about? (What key words are there to indicate this?)
-what is the speaker’s attitude towards ‘global village’? (how does his attitude come out in the poem?)
-What development do you see from the first to the last stanza? Look for clues such as similar words and phrases, and echoes within the poem.
-Which aspects of the poem’s form are connected with the overall message (look again at your notes from task2)
Decide as a group what the message of the poem is and write down your conclusions. Compare your conclusions with those of the other groups and discuss in class the overall message and your differing interpretations of it.

I gave most of the participants a photocopy of this and the selections below.

Religious poems

The selection below are considered and presented as ‘purely religious’ poems.

prayer time

when i feel uneasy
worried and confused
inattentive to other things
prayer time has elapsed
i am busy doing something else
the moment i pray
happiness abound in my heart
serenity engulfs my frame
i can do other things now
nothing hinders my way
from then on

faith

smoothness of affairs
freedom from wants and worries
promises of the day break
gives us a peace of mind
but
the conviction
that God exists
gives us permanent peace

9/10/1999

extremes

two extremes in the terrain of
human behaviour lie oblique
on one extreme the beast
on another stupidity
in between lies reasoning

October 11 1999

living in peace

you live in peace
when you are peaceful with yourself

you will live in peace
when your intentions are good

you will live in peace
when you always think good about others

you will live in peace
when everyone his rights you give

you will live in peace
when every trust in your hands is safe

you will live in peace
when other peoples’ business you did not interfere

you will live in peace
when your activities do not harm others

you would indeed live in peace
when you do your job properly

you would certainly live in peace
when you forgive mistakes

you will always be in peace
when you trust in God

Political poems

Saints

A tradition it is becoming
When power is snatched from your hands
When your influence is gone
When you no longer have a say
When you are no longer acting on stage
You are accused of all wrong doings
‘past administration’ you are labelled
Any little mistake is yours

Those in power think they are better
In fact they want to be seen as saints
But saints are made by their actions
Saints never accuse others to hide their weaknesses
Saints are careful not to blow their trumpets

They are judged by prosperity
Never define their sainthood
Their good deeds tell who they are
Those that now call themselves saints
Will not remain as saints when they leave office
Nay they will also be like their predecessor,
sinners!

October 21 1999.

I don’t care
I value my way of life
It is the best life can give
I eat what I want
Wear what I chose
Go to where I wish
Sleep in a nice house
Do whatever I want
Without fear of anyone
For I’m secured

I am rich and beautiful
I am powerful and proud
Tall I stand among others
Why should I care about any one
So long my way of life is protected

I waste a lot no doubt
I consume too much I am sure
But that is because I’m powerful
That’s why others envy me always
That is why I’m the best

Why should I worry about others
It is not my business to care
The way of the rich is not the way of the poor
The lifestyle of the strong does not look the weak’s
Civilization is what I think it is
I should care only about me

Who cares if you are hungry
Or have no roof above your head
Who mind that you are diseased
Or insecure poverty-stricken
Why should I be concerned
If you are oppressed and cheated
I care only about myself
I always feel I’m more civilized
I am a human being but not like you

Shhhhh!
It is a matter of time
The day shall come when
Everyone must care
About every other one
By the dare need to be truly human

January 20, 2002
SOCIAL POEMS
The following poems were presented as poems of our social reality.

Gsm palaver

suddenly it rings
and away its holder
moves trying to catch
the incoming call; hello!, hello!

away by the side
to make conversation inaudible
yet very audible is all said
those left disturbed by loud voice

why move away
when all said is heard?
stay there and talk
let everyone hear!

Pakoto, 18/11/02

career beggars

old, frail, disadvantaged
some of them are
able-bodied and sound
most others are
“for Allah’s sake
for prophet’s sake”
they lobby for alms
as if Allah permitted them
ignorance- misled they think
the prophet also enjoys it
they made a career in begging
despite being fit
their minds are enslaved
by false-belief and ignorance
chained by laziness and broken heart
their minds may never be free
until the society decides to free them

professional beggars

leper
blind
paralysed
amputated
limping
rejected and dejected
their society certified
that they don’t fit in
they took to the streets
with blinded eyes
damaged fingers and toes
amputated fingers and legs
paralysed hands and legs
manifested in each disability
a distinct professionalism

fuel scarcity
long queues
hectic days
frustration
price hike
congestion
time waste
alfarma1
cuwa-cuwa2
fire out-breaks
smuggling
embarrassment
chaos
black market
surface tanks
jerrycans
task force
purchase card
police
military
press war
fuel scarcity
has arrived.

motor cyclist

acaba
okada
kabu-kabu
going
express1
describing the motorcyclist
who emerged
not by design
or scheme
but by necessity
to get employed
to send away idleness
to safeguard dignity
keep together body and soul
maintain family bonds
meet him in cities
meet him in suburbs
even in villages
he has a mental map
can locate whereever you suggest
streets and drives
nook, corners and roads
cannot be mistaken
always in a haste
reckless and speedy
`let’s make the balance,
before the day runs out’
1. acaba, okada, kabu-kabu, going and express refer to commercial motor cyclist.

Place poem

Sokoto

(for Salisu Yakasai)

protected by two arms
of rivers sakkwato and rima
forming base for
islamic reformers and saints
establishing a state
so just
an empire
so vast
a people
so honoured
sakkwato
the city of the shaihu.

Lagos

traffic jams
sky crappers
overhead bridges
area boys
bar beach
beggars
mobile preachers
affluence
destitution
this
is
lagos.

(lagos, oct. 1998)

Historical poem

ancient revolutinary

(for akhenaten, c.1388-c. 1358 BC)

when the then civilised world
was engrossed in polytheism
every man, house, village, city
with its god
every aspect of life
with its god
Ptah, Anubis, Sekhmet, Osiris, Hathor
with Amun-Re, the major god

a child was born
he was deformed,
they said
he was weak,
they said
he was eccentric,
they said
but queen Tiy, his mother knew
his mind must be strong
his psyche great
for one day
he shall be pharaoh

and the day came
amenophis IV became akhenaten
he declared aten, his new god
the god of all egypt, syria and nubia
the boy king declared monotheism
aten was a sole god,
shall be worshipped alone

the boy king refused been called a god
prepared to be seen as a man
he knew, he was only that
he showed love to his family publicly
not as pharaoh should do
he revolutionised art
amarna art, they called it
to his name he added
`ankh em maat’1

the high priests of amun annoyed
sad and determined
to see the end of this new faith
is a must

akhenaten realised
left thebes
established akhetaton
a new abode for aten
propagated his new faith
built more and more temples

they called him a heretic
they called him all sorts of names
in c. 1358 BC
this revolutionary died
akhetaton was abandon
so also aten
thebes welcomed a rebirth
polytheism was strengthened again
but for akhenaten
the glory of monotheism
that appeared on the horizon
shall re-appear again
monotheism became the new faith
for the whole world.

Personal

The Mirror Never Lies

The mirror tells me that
My face is full of valleys and crannies
My chin as bare as the Sahara

As the Sun winked again and again
The moon smiles and grin
The seasons exchanged fortunes

The mirror told me something new
All the valleys and crannies gone
As if it has been different ever since
My chin has turned into a bush

The mirror showed me a total stranger
This morning!

She

She came into my life
After my mind had been conquered
She waited and observed
Patiently, waited and studied
Then she casts her web
Soon I came under her spell

I showered her with my love
I pampered her so much
Held her like an egg
Not even a crazy wind could touch her

Like an occupying force
She had been resisted
By the earlier conqueror
“It is a territory not to encroach”
So said the empress in situ

She carved niches after niches
But they could not expand
Despite my admiration and protection
Will she ever be satisfied?
Or will I ?
I wonder ..
I am confused…

Makurdi (2/11/03)

I read the poems one by one without explanation or any brief on why the poem was written. This is not to pre-empt what the participants would want to say, for I am sure there would be comments and observations and indeed critical criticism, particularly because it is a northern poet presenting in Lagos.
One poem attracted applause even before I finish reading the rounds; that was fuel scarcity. It is one of our social reality and no Nigerian, not even OBJ would disagree with the issues raised.

After I finished my readings, as usual I got applauses and I recognised their applauses by saying (as usual) thank you, thank you… Mr. Nduka came forward and try to say he is vindicated that our presentations are superb, discussable and of interest and relevance.

The time for questions and comments came. All questions were noted and we latter responded. A summary of the questions and comments made are reproduced below. One Mr. Chuks was the first to comment and his comment was that although he agrees with the substance of the poems I read, they are too prosaic and did not tally with the mainstream of Nigerian Poetry.

I responded by also asking (like typical Nigerians) what is Nigerian poetry like and latter explained why my poems are simple and ‘prosaic’ if he thinks they are so arguing that I think many people in Nigeria and elsewhere feel that what I am writing is poetry as my poems have been published in Nigeria by journals like Okike and a review of them in Glendora Literary supplements a part from many anthologies and newspapers. I however stressed that my poems are simple because it is a matter of style and I am writing for the common man, the man on the street. I am not writing for critics or fellow poets. I have the conviction that all should enjoy poetry; the only way that can be achieved is by writing in a simple and accessible language. Many participants seem to like my response and commented in favour of poetry for the common man. Victor Okhai in particular was strongly against obscure poetry and poems that are too loaded just to be seen as poems. Many other young poets supported my style after the reading.

Olayiwola a.k.a Layi a literary columnist, now with Chevron raised the issue of influence, i.e. do religion influences poetry or is it the other way round, in other words he wanted to know whether Islam influences my writings. He latter raised the issue of Almajiri (the beggar) and asked about the cultural significance of the Almajiri and its social nuisances ad ask about the way out.

My response there was that as far as I am concerned, I am a practising Muslim and Islam as my religion actually influences my literary works, in fact it actually guides it. I informed the gathering that there is no way I can separate myself from Islam and that I cannot write anything that would go contrary to Islam. That means many deduced I am not a believer in the concept of Literature should be independent and Art is secular. The discussion even after the formal reading was interesting and rewarding.

On the issue of Almajirai, I told them about its cultural roots and my personal
opinion about it all, I use the three poems earlier presented (almajiri, career beggars and professional beggars) to buttress my points. At least many were able to differentiate between Almajiri (the Qur’anic school pupil) and alamajiri the beggar.

Austen Njoku (ANA National Treasurer) was more captivated by the first poem I read: Global Village. He commented at length about globalisation and its benefits citing examples of myself as a beneficiary of globalisation (otherwise how can I be published and taught in German secondary school?) in the end he asked this important question “Who are the we in the poem?”

I believed that globalisation has benefits, that is, if we view it from the point of view of communication, shrinking the world and making information accessible and cyber communications easier. It is now easy for me in Kano Nigeria to communicate with someone in Iceland or in Mangolia.

However, globalisation is not just about communication, it is about exploitation and domination. The Encarta Encylopaedia defines it as “integration and democratization of the world’s culture, economy, and infrastructure through transnational investment, rapid proliferation of communication and information technologies, and the impacts of free-market forces on local, regional and national economies”. This definition is loaded and meaningful. Globalisation is about ‘one state’ remember George Orwell’s 1984? I explained these to the audience and to their dismay I said, the we means Third World. This was an issue well discussed and everybody now get better information about the notion or concept of globilisation.

Victor Okhai, commented in my defence at two angles, first on globalisation citing the issue of Cowboy diplomacy and asking who determines what is right. On the other hand he argued that simple poems are the best form of poetry, as long as its goal is to communicate. Layi also argued that poetry must be allowed to flow without much complication. Readers enjoy poetry only when they understand what it is saying.

Flora of Comets said the poems are very simply (not simplistic) and raised an observation about American poetry. Here, I agreed with her the my poems are naturally simple for reasons earlier given. I also inform her that while in the United States as a Fulbright Fellow at the School of Public Health, University of Alabama at Birmingham, I attended poetry sessions and have published in their journals. If our poems are said to be prosaic, the poems I listen to or read in the US may be seen as simply PROSE not even prosaic poems.

This is a summary of the discussions and in the end the irector Goethe Institut and Mr Nduka Otiono thank us and the participants and we went out to drink. There also, a new phase of the discussion starts. I was pasting and there was only Coke and water for me and Tijjani, but there is plenty of beer, the Lagos guys are doing what they know best.

The Director, I found to be a gentle and intellectually sound and seem to be well mannered and cultured. I remember when one of the participants suggests that the photo exhibition should have been that of Nigerian Muslims (northerners of course), the Director’s response impressed me, he argued that exhibiting Ethiopian Muslims and superimposing Nigerian Muslim poetry made the magic. It means that Islam is the same everywhere and that Islamic culture is transnational and across man-made and natural boundaries.

I have to thanks everyone exchange addresses and emails and take my leave. In the afternoon, I left for Kano. I met my younger brother Usman waiting for me at the airport. The Goethe Institiut experience is one experience I will cherish for a long, long time to come. Many thanks to ANA (especially Mr. Nduka) and the Goethe Institut (especially Mr Michael Muller-Verweyen).

FIR'AUNONIN MASAR TA DAURI

2008-02-15T08:48:00.000-08:00

Na gabatar da wannan makala a bikin bikin Makon Hausa na Jami'ar Bayero ta Kano ranar, 11/9/2000
GABATARWA
An nemi in gabatar da makala akan Fir’aunonin Masar ta Dauri. Wannan a gaskiya ba karamin aiki ne a gare ni ba. Na farko dai wannan abu ne da ya shafi tarihin wayewar kai mafi tsawo da dadewa a duniya. Ita kuwa Masar ta Dauri gidan tarihi ce. In aka ce za yi lakca akan Masar ta dauri a kullum, za shekara guda ba a kare ba. Don haka, kada a yi tsammani zan iya yin bayani da zai zama mai gamsarwa game da Fir’aunonin Masar ta dauri, zan dai tsakura kadan daga kalilan da na sani game da taken jawabina na yau. Kafin mu shiga harkar bayani akan Fir’aunoni bari mu fara da yin sharar fage akan wasu ‘yan bayanai da suka shafi ita Daular /Daulolin Masar ta Dauri dangane da tarihinta, tsarin rayuwa da addini.

MASAR KYAUTAR NILU
Kufakar kogin Nilu (Nile Valley) na daya daga cikin wurare na farko na wayewar kan dan adam. Masani Herodotus dan kasar Girka, tun lokaci mai tsawo ya kira Masar a matsayin kyautar kogin Nilu saboda dalilai kamar haka; kogin Nilu ne mafi girma a kogunan duniya, tsawonsa ya kai kilomita 6671. Ya taso ne daga tafkin Victoria ya malalo ta Uganda ya biyo ta Sudan sannan ya shigo kasar Masar ya malala ya fada tekun Mediterranean. Idan an dubi Masar za a lura cewa kusan dukanta hamada ne ba don kogin Nilu da ya ratsa ta cikinta ba. Ratsawar kogin Nilu ne ya sa kufadar kogin ta zama mai matukar ni’ima ta fuskar shuke-shuke da noman rani. Duk shekara, mutanen wannan wuri kan dogara ne ga turbaya mai taki da kogin kan amayar ta hanyar yin ambaliya ta yadda bangarorin kogin biyu za su wadatu da taki domin yin noman rani da na damina. Ta haka mazauna wurin ke samun wadatuwar abinci har ma su sayar ga wasu kasashe. Wannan damar ce ta bada samuwar wayewar kai a wurin tun lokaci mai tsawon gaske.

ADDININ MISRAWAN DAURI
Misrawan dauri mutane ne masu addini. Ma’ana suna bin dokokin addinsu sau da kafa. Sai dai su ba mutane masu bautawa Ubangiji guda ba. Suna da iyayen giji da dama, duk da cewa suna daukar shi kansa Fir’auan a matsayin Ubangiji. A kowane babban birni akwai mabautu. Kowane birni na da ubangijinsa, haka kauyuka da gidaje, sai dai akwai ubangijin da kowa yake bi. Wasu daga cikin Iyayen gijin Misrawan dauri sun hada da;
Amun-Ra Ubangiji-Rana
Osiris Ubangijin Matattu
Isis Matar Osiris
Horus [an Osiris
Anubis Ubangijin Jana’iza
Ma’at Uwargijiyar Gaskiya
Thoth Ubangijin Rubutu
Sekhmet Uwargijiyar Yaki.
Ptah Ubangijin Halitta
Mut Uwargijiyar Sama’u kuma uwar Fir’auna
Tunda suna bautar Iyayen giji ne da dama, a wasu lokuta wasu Iyayen giji suna zama muhimmai fiye da wasu. Alal misali Amun ko Amon karamin Ubangiji ne, sai a sabuwar masarauta, bayan an dawo da babban birnin daular Thebes sannan ya zamo muhimmin ubangiji. Lokacin babban birnin yana Memphis babban ubangijin Misrawa a lokacin shi ne Ptah.

MUTUWA DA HISABI
“Jinjina a gareka Ubangijina Osiris! Zan tsira da gangar jikina har abada. Ba zan rube ba, ba zan zama abincin tsutsotsi ba; Ina tabbace, Ina raye, Ina da kuzari na, na tashi cikin salama, kayan cikina ba su rube ba, idanuwa na ba su lalace ba, ba a raba kaina da wuyana ba, gangar jikina za ta tabbata, ba za ta shude ba” Wannan wani bayani ne na karanto maku daga cikin Littafin Matattun (Book of the dead) daya daga cikin manyan bayanan da Masar ta dauri ta bar mana na dangane da yadda Misrawa suka dauki mutuwa. Masu ilmin kufai sun gano cewa a cikin kowane kabari, akwai wasu rubuce-rubuce da ake yi, wadanda manufarsu ita ce ta taimakawa mamaci ya isa lahira cikin nasara. Shi wannan ba saukaken littafi ba ne, a ainihin gaskiya ma masani Lepsius ne ya sawa tattararrun bayanan littafin matattu wanda ya buga a 1842.

Misrawan dauri sun yadda cewa in an mutu za a yi wa mamaci hisabi. Misali, in mutum ya mutu ana kyankyame gawarsa ne domin ya ji dadin yin sabuwar rayuwar lahira. To, bayan an yi bayanan nan na rubutu a kabarinsa wanda ake ganin kamar shine fasfon tafiya, sai kuma a kai ruhin mutum wurin da zai yi bayanin ayyukan da ya yi a rayuwar duniya. Misali mutum zai yi bayani kamar haka “ban tauye ma’auni ba, ban hana jariri shan mama ba, ban karkatar da hanyar ruwa ba, ban tauye hakkin maraya ba, ban kashe kowa ba..” da sauransu. Daga nan sai a dauko zuciyar mamaci a sa ta a sikeli. A hannu guda na sikelin kuma sai a sanya gashin kaza ko na agwawa ko wani tsuntsu a auna. Idan gashin ya rinjayi zuciyar mutum, to ya haye kenan, in kuwa zuciyar mutum ta rinjayi gashin nan to mutum ya kade har ganyensa kenan.

SARAUTAR FIR’AUNA
Da farko ya dace mu gano asalin kalmar Fir’auna. Daga ina ta samo asali, kuma me take nufi. To ita dai kalmar Fir’auna ta samo tushe ne daga harshen Misrawan dauri. Ita dai kalmar Fir’auna da (Ingilishi Pharaoh) tana nufin ‘babban gida’ da harshen Misrancin Dauri. A dauri ana amfani da kalmar ne domin bayyan fadar Mai sarautar Misrawa. An fara amfani da kalmar ne domin kiran Masu Sarauta daga wajajen 1400BC. Ta kokarin kiran dan sarauta dan babban gida shi ne har kalmar ta juye ta zama taken sarauta. A tsarin addininsu, Fir’auna an dauke shi a matsayin dan Osiris, daya daga cikin Iyayen gijinsu. Yana mulki ne a duniya a matsayin wakilin Osiris da sauran iyayen gijin Misrawa. Saboda haka, shi ne shugaban addini da kuma mayaka. A wasu lokuta ma ana daukar Fir’auna a matsayin wani dan karamin ubangiji tunda shi wakilin Osiris ne. Daga cikin fitattun Fir’aunonin da aka yi sun hada da Khufu da Zoser (Djoser) da Thutmose I da Thutmose II da Akhanaten da Ramses II, da kuma Fir’auniya Hatshepsut. Za mu yi bayani akan wasu daga cikin wadannan Fir’aunoni.
Mai Sarauta na farko da za a iya cewa shi ne ya kafa daular Masar ta Dauri shi ne Menes ko Nermer. Shi Menes shi ne ya hade garuruwan dake Kudancin kufadar kogin Nilu da kuma na Arewacin kogin Nilu. Ga jerin Gidajen Sarauta da kuma sunayen wasu daga cikin Fir’aunonin da aka yi a Masar daga gabanin samuwar Masarautu zuwa zamanin Girkawa da Rumawa.
ZAMANIN MULKIN FIR’AUNONIN MASAR
Kafin samuwar Masarautu Kafin 3150 BC
Masaurautun farko-farko 3150BC-2686BC Gidajen Sarauta I -2
Tsohuwar Masarauta 2686-2181BC Gidajen Sarauta 3 - 6
Tsaka-tsaki na farko 2181-2040BC Gidajen Sarauta 6 – 11
Masarauta ta Tsakiya 2040-1782BC Gidajen Sarauta 11-13
Tsaka-tsaki na biyu 1782-1570BC Gidajen Sarauta 13-17
Sabuwar Masarauta 1570-1070BC Gidajen Sarauta 18-20
1570-1293BC Gidajen Sarauta 28
1570-1546 Ahmose
1551-1524 Amenophis I
1524-1518 Tuthmosis I
1518-1504 Tuthmosis II
1504-1450 Tuthmosis III
1498-1483 Hatshepsut
1453-1419 Amenophis II
1419-1386 Tuthmosis IV
1386-1349 Amenophis III
1350-1334 Amenophis IV(Akhanaten)
1336-1334 Smenkhkare
1334-1325 Tutankhamun
1325-1321 Ay
1321-1293 Horemheb
1293-1185 Gidan Sarauta na 21
1293-1291 Ramesses I
1291-1278 Seti I
1279-1212 Ramesses II
1235-1224 Merneptah
1185-1070 Gidan Sarauta na 20
1182-1151 Ramesses III
Tsaka-tsaki na uku 1070-664BC Gidajen Sarauta na 21-25
Masarautun karshe-karshe 664-332 BC Gidajen Sarauta na 26-31
Zamanin Girkawa-Rumawa 332BC-395AD Gidajen Sarauta na 26-31
(Sarakunan Talamawa –Ptelemies da na Rum)

FIR’AUNA KHUFU DA ZOSER
Yanzu kuma sai gabatar da bayani akan wasu daga cikin wadannan Fir’aunoni da suka gabata. Dole ne mu ambaci Fir’auna Khufu da Zoser koda a gurguje ne domin kuwa sune suka gina Dalar Dutse da aka ce yana daga cikin manyan abubuwan mamaki na duniyar dauri guda bakwai. Wadannan Fir’aunoni na farko sune suka gina manyan abubuwan tarihi da har yanzu muke takama da su a matsayin kayan tarihi. Dalar Dutse da Mutum-Zaki (Sphinx) abubuwa ne na ban al’ajabi. Misali Dalar-Dutsen da suka gina takai kafa479 a tsawo, ta kunshi a kalla bulo (wanda kowane ya kai ton 2) guda 2,300,000. Herodotus, masanin Labarin {asa da Tarihi dan kasar Girka ya ruwaito cewa, sai da mutane 100,000 suka yi shekaru ashirin suna gina shi. Tirkashi, har yanzu abin da daure kai, domin an kasa gano yadda aka gina su. Shi kuma Mutum-Zaki (watau Sphinx) ya kai kafa 66 a tsaye, tsawonsa kafa 189.
Zanen Dutse mai nuna Khufu na karya makiyansa
FIR’AUNA AKHANATEN
Babban dalilin da ya sa na zabi in kawo bayani akan wannan Fir’auna shi ne, domin ya bambanta da saura. A baya mun gaya maku cewa, Misrawa na bautawa Iyayen giji da dama, babba a cikinsu kuwa shi ne Amun-Re. Fir’auna Amenophis III, shi ne mahaifin Fir’auna Amenophis IV. Mahaifiyar Amenophis IV kuma Sarauniyar Amenophis III sunanta Tiye. Amenophis III Basarake ne wanda ya yi fice ya kuma yi suna ta fuskar jarumtaka da mulki.

Lokacin da Amenophis IV yana yaro, watau yana dan Sarki kenan, bai taso tamkar sauran ‘yan Sarki ba. Maimakon ya maida hankali wurin koyon dabarun yaki da kuma sauran al’amura na jarumtaka da mulki, shi ya fi damuwa ne da wasu abubuwa na dabam. Misali shi ya fi damuwa da halittun Ubangiji madaukaki. Ya fi damuwa da kallon Dinya da Agwagin ruwa ko kifaye. Ya fi damuwa da kallon fitowar rana da faduwarta. Da sauran abubuwa na halitta.

A wannan lokaci, manyan malaman addini na Masar wadanda ke zaune a birnin Thebes sun kasaita matukar gaske. Tun farkon farawar Sabuwar Masaurauta, su wadannan malamai kan sami dukiya mai yawa daga masu sarauta da kuma mutanen gari. Saboda haka, sai suka fara zama barazana ga Fir’auna Amenophis III. Wannan ya sa a lokacin ya fara tunanin yaya zai yi ya rage masu karfi. Ta haka ne ya fara gina manyan Mutum-mutumansa wadanda daga bisani ya fara jan hankalin a rika bauta musu. Ta haka kenan ya fara janye mabiya Amun-Re kenan. A Birnin Thebes bautar Fir’auna ta fara karbuwa sosai haka a kudancin Masar.

Lokacin da Amenophis IV ya zama Sarki, ya gaji mahaifinsa Amenophis III, sai ya fara nuna alamun yana da ra’ayin wani Ubangiji da ake kira Aten. Shi wannan Ubangiji ba shi da mabiya da yawa. A takaice ma dai, ba a damu da bin wannan Ubangiji Aten ba. Ana cikin haka sai ya far a nisanta kansa daga bautar Ubangiji Amun (Amun-Re). Daga nan sai ya gina Mabautar Aten a Birnin Karnak, Sarauniya kuma Uwa Tiye ta rika tausawa danta domin lura da cewa shi mutum ne wanda bai damu da duniya ba, kuma ga alama ba zai iya yin mulki yadda ya kamata ba, ta hanyar yin amfani da karfin tuwo. Ba a tabbatar da cewa ko ta goyi bayansa ba bayan ya bayyana sabon ra’ayinsa na jaddada addinin Aten.

A takaice dai sai ya bayyanawa Misrawa cewa ya sauya sunansa daga Amunophis zuwa Akhanaten. Wanna sabon suna ya warware shi daga bautar Amun gaba daya ya kuma lika shi da bautar Aten. Ma’anar sabon sunansa shine Aten ya wadatu da ni. To daga nan ne ya fara bayyana cewa Misrawa su daina bautar Iyayen giji barkatai. Su bautawa sabon Ubangijinsa watau Aten. A cewarsa Aten shi kadai za a bautawa kuma ba za a wakiltar da siffarsa ta hanyar gunkin mutum ko dabba ba. Shi kuma Akhanaten ba za a kira shi ko a bauta masa a matsayin Ubangiji ba. Duk wannan abu da ake yi mabiya Amun-Re ba su jin dadi. Don haka sai suka fara shirya masa makarkashiya. Wannan ne ya sa ya yi hijira daga Thebes zuwa wani wuri tsakanin ta da Memphis (wani babban birni a Masar ta dauri). A daidai wannan lokaci ne ya auri wata mata mai suna Nafertiti, ba a da tabbacin ko ita wacece ko ‘yar wacece, sai dai ana kyautata zaton cewa kila ‘yar sarauta ce ita ma. Nafertiti ta yi imani da wannan sabon addini na mijinta ta kuma ba shi cikakken goyon baya.
Surar matar Akhenaten Nefertiti
A cikin shekar sa ta shida ne a kan karaga ya tafi wurin da zai gina sabon birninsa wanda ya kira Birnin Ubangiji. A dai-dai inda ya tsaya don kafa wannan sabon birni, ba komai face wasu ‘yan gidajen da talakawa ke zaune ciki bakin gabar kogin Nilu. Akhanaten da kansa ya ce game da wurin “Na sami wannan wuri da bamallakar kowa ba, ba na wani Ubangiji ko Uwargijiya ba ne, ba na wani yarima ko gimbiya ba ne, ba wanda zai ce nasa ne” Ya kwana a tantinsa, da safe ya fito ya shata iyacin inda birnin zai tsaya, ya kuma sa masa suna watau AKHATATEN ma’ana Birnin Aten. Sannan ya yi bauta ga Ubangijinsa, bayan nan sai ya cewa wadanda suke biye da shi “ Aten Ubangiji ne, shi ne ya umarce ni da in gina wannan birni” sannan ya ci gaba “Ga ubangiji na Aten zan gina wuraren bauta”

Bayan shekara biyu aka kamala ginin Akhataten suka dawo tare da iyalinsa da mabiyansa. Bayanan da aka samu sun nuna cewa, wasu sun biyo shi ne domin sun yi imani da shi, wasu kuma don su sami abin duniya suka yi kaura tare da shi. Imaninsa da gaskiya watau Maat ya bambanta da na sauran Fir’aunoni da suka gabace shi. Ga Akhanaten, Maat ba kawai tana nufin gaskiya tsurarta ba ne kawai, a’a, in an ce Maat, ana nufin ne aikata gaskiya, barin munafunci da annamimanci, bayyan abubuwa a yadda suke. Wannan sabuwar manufa ta shafi yadda ake tafiyar da rayuwar yau da kullum ta wancan zamani. Ga kadan daga cikin yadda yake yabon Ubangijinsa Aten. (daga cikin rubuce-rubucensa)

Ayyukanka suna da yawa matuka
Ya ubangiji tilo, babu wani tamkar sa
Kai ka hallici duniya yadda ka so
Da kai kadai ne tilo,
Duk mutum, duka dabbobi na gida da na dawa
Duk hallitta mai tafiya bias dugaduganta
Duk abubuwan dake sama da halittu masu fiffika suna tashi
(shi Ya halicce su)

Kai ka halicci kasashe har da kasar Masar
Ka ajiye kowane mutum a wuri nasa daban
Al’umomi suna harsuna da-ban daban
Siffarsu ta jiki da launi sun banbanta
Domin ka banbance tsakaninsu.

Ya haifi diya mata kamar su Merytaten da Meketaten da Ankhhesenaten, sai dai bai haifi namiji ba.

Mabiya Iyayen giji da yawa sun ci gaba da shirya masa kulle-kulle da har daga baya dai ya sami baraka da matarsa suka rabu. Daga bisani ya zabi mijin diyarsa Makataten watau Samenkhkare ya zamar masa waziri. Da ga bisani dai ba za a iya cewa ga yadda ya kare ba. To amma bayan fakuwarsa Semenkhkare ya zama Sarki. Bayan ya zama sarki sai ya bar Akhataten ya koma Thebes. Shi ma daga nan ba a san yadda ya kare ba. Tutankhaten wanda shi ma surukin Akhanaten ne shi aka nada sabon sarki, sai dai yana yaro sosai. Don haka, Ay wani babban kwamadan Akhanaten kuma mai bin addininsa shi ke mulki. Tutankhaten wanda ya maida sunansa Tutankhamun, bai dade yana kan sarauta ya mutu yana dan shekara 18. Don haka Ay ya haye karagar mulki. Shi ma saboda tsufa bai dade ba ya mutu. Daga nan sai sarauta ta fada hannun Horembeb, wani babban kwamandan Masar.

Horembeb ya tabbatar da cewa an koma kan tafarkin addini da ake bi kaka-da kakanni. Da yake soja ne, sai ya dora kasar akan tsarin mulki irin na soja. Ya fara mulkin kama karya da gallazawa talakawa, tare da hukunce-hukunce marasa tausasawa. Kamar guture hancin mutum in ya karya dokar kasa. Ya sa aka goge duk inda sunan Aten ko Akhanaten ya fito a Masar saboda a manta da shi har abada. A shekarar 1320BC ya mutu, daga nan Gidan Sarauta na 18 ya zo karshe. Horembeb ba shi da magaji, saboda haka sai sarauta ta fada hannun wani mayakinsa mai suna Paramesses. Wannan shi ne kakan kakan Fir’aunan Annabi Musa (AS). Ya cire Pa daga sunansa ya koma Remesses I.

FIR’AUNA REMESSES II
Ramesses II dai shi ne wanda ake kyautata zatin cewa shi ne Fir’aunan da ya yi zamani da Annabi Musa (AS), wanda Allah Ya fadi tarihinsa a cikin Alkur’ani, littafin Allah mai tsarki. Kodayake masana irin su Maurice Bucaille suna ganin Merneptah ne ba Ramesses II ba. Saboda haka, ra’ayi ya banbanta ko tskanin Ramesses II da Merenptah wanene Fir’aunan Annabi Musa (AS). Wasu masanan Masar tadauri na ganin cewa Annabi Musa (AS) ya yi yayi da Remesses II ya kuma yi yayi da Merenmptah, wasu kuma na ganin dai-dai lokacin da Yahudawa suka yi kaura daga Masar suka bi ta kogin Maliya, Merneptah ne ke kan karagar mulki. Sai dai ba bu cikakken bayani akan shi Merneptah kamar yadda ake da bayani akan Remesses II. To, kowane ne dai daga cikinsu Fir’aunan Annabi Musa (AS) Allah ne Ya fi tokowa sani. To amma dai duka gawawwakin na su suna nan, don haka, alkawarin Allah Ya cika kenan. A duba shafi na gaba domin ganin kyamkyamammun gawarwakin Remesses II da Merneptah
Idan mun dauka Remesses ne Fir’aunan annabi Musa (AS) to, kusan duk mai bin addinin Muslunci ko na Kiristanci ko Yahudu ya karanta a cikin littafinsu yadda Allah Ya bada labarin kafircin Fir’auna Remesses II. Saboda haka, ba za mu yi wani dogon bayani ba illa dan tsokaci. Shi dai Remesses II da ne ga Seti I wanda shi kuma da ne ga Remesses I. Remesses I da sunansa Paramesses wanda asali ba jinin sarauta ba ne. Shi soja ne wanda ya gaji mulki Misra daga hannun Fir’auna Horembeb. Ya yi yake-yake da gine-gine manya katafarai. A takaice dai za a iya cewa yana daya cikin manyan masu mulki da Masar ta dauri ta taba yi. Cikin katafaraen gine-gine da yayi, ana daukar babban dakin nan da girmansa ya kai murabba’in kafa 5800 kuma an yi masa rufi tsaf. A yau da yake a bude, in ka shiga ka ce a wani sararin daji kake. Har yau in ka ie Karnak da Abu Simbel za ka ga wasu daga cikin maka-makan gine-gine da ya yi. Cikin manyan matansa akwai Nefertari da Manefrure. Ya kuma auri uwarsa ya kuma
aure diyansa mata guda uk`u. diyansa sun kai 150, dansa na 13 ne ya gaje shi shi. Sunansa Merneptah.
A shekarar 1881 aka gane kyankyamammun gawarwakin wasu fitattun sarakunan Masar ta dauri na Sabuwar Masarauta a wani wuri da yanzu akan kira Kufadar Sarakuna watau Valley of the kings. Cikin gawarwakin har da ta Fir’auna Remesses II, saura sune Seti I da Ramesses I da Ahmose I da Amenhotep I da Thutmose I da Thutmose II da kuma Thutmose III. Duka sai aka kai su gidan adana kayan tarihi na Masar. A cikin shekarar 1912 Masanin Masar ta dauri Eliot Smith dan kasar Ingila, ya fahimci cewa wata cuta ta kama gawar Remesses II saboda haka aka fara kokarin tsayar da kwayar cutar dake neman bata gawar. A cikin shekarar 1976 aka dauki gawar zuwa kasar Faransa don kyautata ta. Wannan shi ne karo na farko da gawar wani Fir’auna ta bar Masar. Da aka sauka da gawar a filin jirgin saman Orly, sai hukumomin Faransa suka yi mata tarba irin wadda ake yi wa Shugabannin {asashe har da shimfida jar darduma. Gawar Fir’auna Remesses II ta yi shekaru 3200 da binnewa, saboda haka ta fara fita daga hayyacinta. Don haka ne aka sa likitoci da masana kimiyya guda 102 karkashin Farfesa Lionel Balout suka yi watanni bakwai suna aiki akan gawar. Bayan an gyatta ta sai aka maido ta Masar. Ai alkawarin Allah ba ya tashi.
KAMMALAWA
A wurin kammalawa, ina ganin zai yi kyau in yi bayani a takaice bisa yadda ilmin Masar ta dauri ya iso mana. A nan ya kamata a fahimta cewa hanya ta farko ita ce ta Saukakkun Litttatafai kamar Al-qur’ani mai tsarki. Hanya ta biyu ita ce ta hanyar abubuwan tarihi da su Misrawan suka bar mana. Sai kuma hanya ta uku wadda ita ce ta bada cikakken bayani akan tarihin wayewar kan Masar ta dauri na tsawon shekaru dubu biyar zuwa bakwai. Wannan ita ce ta hanyar iya karanta, da fahimta da kuma fassara rubutunsu na dauri. A nan ya kyautu mu koma mu yi godiya ga masana na baya da suka yi kokarin gano sihirin rubutun misrawan dauri, irin su Nicolas Claude Fabri da Athanasius Kircher da Bernard Montfaucon da Jean-jacques Barthelemy da Antione Isaac Silvetre. To amma mutum daya da za mu fi yi wa godiya shi ne dan kasar Faransa Jean-Francois Champollion wanda ya shekara 30 yana kokarin warware zaren ya kuma warware shi a karshe. Sai kuma masanan Masar ta dauri da dama da suka yi bincike da rubuce rubuce a kan Wayewar kan Masar ta dauri irin su Manetho da Herodotus da Lepsius da Maspero da Marriette da Carter da Cheik Anta-Diop da su Gardiner da sauransu. Babu shakka, ba dominsu ba, da sai mu ce sai dai a yi kame-kame da shaci-fadi.

To, babban abin burgewa da Masar ta dauri ta barwa ‘yan baya shi ne gine-gine. Duk da cewa su gine-ginen duwatsu suka yi, za mu iya cewa Misrawan dauri da na yau sun yi kokarin adana kayan tarihinsu, ba domin haka ba, da babu abin da zai rayu har mu ‘yan baya mu zo mu gane shi mu kuma karu da shi. Don haka, kenan ya zama wajibi ga kowace irin wayewar kai ta adana kayan tarihinta domin ‘yan baya. Wannan ne ya sa na ga ya dace in nuna bakin cikina game da yadda mu a kasar Hausa muke yin watsi tare da fatali da kayan mu na tarihi. Yanzu ku duba badalar Kano. Duk da cewa an gina ta ne lokacin sarakunan Habe, da jahadi ya zo karkashin Fulani, ba su rusa ta ba. Da Turawa suka zo, ba su rusa ta ba. Amma bayan Turawa sun tafi, gata nan ta zama abin tausayi. Na tabbata nan da ‘yan shekaru ba za sami ko kufai na badala ba (sai shaguna?). Don haka, ina ganin lokaci ya yi da mutanen Kano za su fara wani motsi ko rugugi babba na gani cewa an tada badalar Kano. Kada ku ji komai, za a iya. Ku kuma daliban Jami’a, hakkin ku ne ku wayar da kan jama’a akan wannan harkar. Zan dakata anan sai kuma in mun sami wata dama za mu dora. Na gode kwarai da kuka zo kuka saurare ni.

Shari’ar Muslunci Da Turawan Mulkin Mallaka A Daular Sakkwato

2007-12-11T12:18:00.000-08:00

Daga
Yusuf Adamu
Geography Department, Bayero University, Kano.
(yusufadamu2000@yahoo.com)
http://www.kanoonline.com/yusufadamu/
Kano, Nigeria
© 2002

Kasancewarta makala wadda aka shirya gabatarwa a taron karawa juna sani
Giginya Hotel Sakkwato Yuni 25-26 2001 (Ba a sami damar gabatar da makalar ba)

Gabatarwa
Bismillahir rahmanir rahim

Godiya ta tabbata ga Allah Madaukakin Sarki, Tsira da Aminci su kara tabbata ga fiyayyen talikai, Muhammad da iyalan gidansa da sahabbansa har ya zuwa ranar kiyama.

Bayan haka, an nemi da in gabatar da makala mai taken Shari’a da ‘yan mulkin mallaka a wannan taro na yau. Na yi murna matuka da aka ba ni wannan dama duk da cewa ba sashena ba ne tunda ni a bangaren Labarin kasa na fi dama. To ina fatan masana tarihi da shari’a da ke wannan wuri za su yi mani afuwa saboda kamar yadda na yi bayani, ni dalibin tarihi ne ba malaminsa ba. Duk abubuwan da zan yi bayani a yau kalace-kalace ne daga ayyukan masana daban-daban. Ina fatan za a yi mani afuwa in na gaza yi wa taken bayanin adalci.

Saboda taken makalar ya shafi tarihi, ina ganin zai fi kyau mu yi waiwaye akan al’amuran tarihi ta yadda za mu fi fahimatar bayanin da za mu yi a gaba. Za mu kuma yi dan hasashe akan halin da muke ciki a yau. Ina fatan, bayan na gama gabatar da dan abinda ya sawwaka, za a tattauna wannan makala ta yadda ni ma zan samu in kare daga gareku.

Fara Shari’a a Kasar Hausa
Zuwan Muslunci kasar Hausa ya dade matuka, saboda zai yi wuya a ce ga lokacin da addinin ya iso ko ga lokacin da Hausawa suka fara karbar addinin. To amma Masana da dama sun yi amanna da cewa a wajajen karni na 14th ne addinin Muslunci ya zamo addininkasa, ma’ana lokacin ne sarakuna suka karbi addini suka kuma yadda da bin tsarinsa domin tafiyar da harkokin yau da kullum.

Jaddada addini kuwa ya fara samuwa ne a kasar Hausa tun karni na 15th lokacin da Shehun Malami Abdulkarim alMagili al-Tilmasani ya ziyarci kasar Kano. A zamanin Sarkin Kano Muhammadu Rumfa (233618AD…) Ya zauna a Katsina da Gao da sauran biranen Bilad-al sudan.. shawarwarin da ya rika baiwa sarakunan zamanin kamar su Rumfa da Askia Muhammad na songhai sun taimaka gaya wajen karfafa da kuma jaddada tsarin shari’ar Muslunci.cikin littatafan da ya rubuta sun haka da Taj al Din da Wasiya wadanda ya yi akan mulki da shari’a bi da bi.

Dalilan yin Jihadi da kafa Shari’a a Daular Sakkwato
Ya kamata a fahimci wani abu guda, a tsari na addinin Muslunci ba a banbance wani nau’I na rayuwa a ce wai bai shafi addini ba. Tamkar yadda akan yi a tsarin Sekulanci, inda ake ware ibada da sauran al’amuran rayuwa. Saboda haka, a tsari na Muslunci, yin Sallar sau biyar a rana da zuwa kasuwa domin neman halali duka suna da muhimmanci, saboda addinin Muslunci ya tsara mana yadda za mu yi kasuwanci tamkar yadda ya tsara mana yadda za mu yi sallah. Saboda haka neman halali ibada ne tamkar yadda sallah ta ke ibada.

Saboda haka, za mu yi waiwaye mu ga dalilin yin jihadi da kafa shari’ah a zamanin shehu Usmanu (Allah Ya yarda da shi, amin). Bayan dalilai na Ibada da Tauhidi wadanda ba sai mun sake yin bitarsu anan ba, akwai dalilai na zamantakewa da kuma tattalin arziki wakanda suke da muhimmanci ga tafiyar da addini da suka kara halatta Jihadin Shehu danfodiyo a 1804

An yi rubuce-rubuce masu yawan gaske akan Jihadin Mujaddadi Shehu Usmanu (Allah Ya kara masa yadda) Saboda haka, ba sai sun sake yin dogon bayani ba, illa a takaice mu yi wa maharta taro ‘yar bita domin ta dace da maudu’in da ake magana a kansa yanzu.

Duk da cewa sarakunan kasar Hausa musulmi ne tun kafin jihadi, ana samun matsalar yin addini yadda ya dace. A kan samu wasu su kaucewa tsarin shari’a a harkokinsu na yau da kullum, sarakuna kuma suna kaucewa tafarkin da shari’a ta tanadar na yin mulki. Kaucewar ta kan zo ne ta hanyoyi da dama, misali, ana kaucewa ta hanyar hada addini da gargajiya, ko kuma yin hukunci bisa son rai da sarakuna ke yi Wannan ya sa zalunci da danniya sun yi yawa. Ganin cewa hanya mafi sauki da dacewa domin yin gyara ba ta wuce hanyar da addini ya shimfida ba, shi ya sa Mujaddadi ya fara yin kira da a gyara.

A cikin Wasikatu ahl al Sudan, Mujaddadi Shehu Usmanu danfodiyo ya bayyana matakai goma da ake bi kafin a fara yin cikakken aiki da tsarin Shariah. Ga su kamar haka:
i) Kira ga alheri da hani ga munanan ayyuka
ii) Haramta abin ki
iii) Yin hijira daga kasar kafirci zuwa ta Muslunci
iv) Tabbatar da ‘yanuwantaka ta Muslunci
v) Naka Amirul Muminina
vi) Yin bay’a gareshi da mataimakansa
vii) Yin Jihadi
viii) Naka sarakunan Muslunci
ix) Nada Alkallai
Kaddamar da shar’ah

Shehu ya kwama da malamai da sarakuna wurin kokarinsa na tsarkake al’uma. wasu daga cikin abubuwan da Shehu ya yi gwagwarnaya a kansu sun hada da maganar aure da bashi da kasuwanci da adalci da fadin gaskiya. Kamar yadda Ibrahim Sulaiman (1986) ya yi bayani.

Ta fuskar aure, Shehu Usmanu ya yi hani da tsarin nan wanda waliyyi ke cinye kudin sadakin da aka baiwa mata ko kuma wata al’ada ta cewa lallai ne mutum sai ya biya amaryarsa wani kudI kafin ya fara saninta diya mace.

Ta fuskar kasuwanci kuma, Shehu ya yi umarnin da cewa a bi tsari na gaskiya da amana da kuma mutunci wurin yin harkokin kasuwanci, kuma duk mutumin da ke son yin kasuwanci to ya san hukuncin Allah a kai. Idan an baiwa mutum bashi an kuma sa lokacin biya, to a yi iya kokari a ga an biya, in kuma mutum ya kasa to kada a ci masa zarafi, a ba shi uzuri ta yadda zai iya biya.

Shehu ya kuma yi umarni da cewa masu hukunci su yi adalci a yin hukunce-hukuncensu ta yadda duk wanda ya yi ba dai-dai ba, zai sami hukunci iri guda, ba a rika yin hukunci na masu mulki da dukiya daban na talaka daban ba.

Shehu ya kuwa yi suka ga mallamai masana da su jibinci fadin gaskiya ga duk wanda ta kama a fadawa. Kamar yadda ya ce “ ka sani cewa wajibi ne ga duk wani mai ilmi kada ya yi shiru yana ganin barna na yaduwa a wannan lokaci. Hadisa ya ce ‘ idan barna ta bayyana a bayan kasa, kuma mallamai masana suka yi shiru (suka ki yin nasiha), to tsinuwar Allah na tare da su. Mafi yawancin mutane ba su san hukunce-hukuncen shari’a ba, don haka ya zama wajibi a kowane masallaci da kowace shiyya a gari, a sami mallami mai koyar da mutane addininsu.

To, amma Shehu ya yi gargadI mai karfi ga mallamai cewa kada fa mai dokar barci ya buge da gyangyadi. Shehu ya kuma yi gargadI a littafinsa

Shehu ya jaddadawa mabiyansa cewa Jihad al nafs shine kan gaba. Ma’ana kowane musulmi ya yi yaki da zuciyarsa tukunna. Kada mutum ya zake wurin yin yakI da abin ki al’uma. alhali shi yana yi. kokarin yin gyaran ne ya haifar da Jihadi.

Tafarkin Shaihu Danhodiyo wurin kara kabbaka Shari’ar Muslunci a Arewacin Nijeriya
A cikin Wasikatu ahl al Sudan, Mujaddadi Shehu Usmanu danfodiyo ya bayyana matakai goma da ake bi kafin a fara yin cikakken aiki da tsarin Shariah. Ga su kamar haka:
i) Kira ga alheri da hani ga munanan ayyuka
ii) Haramta abin ki
iii) Yin hijira daga kasar kafirci zuwa ta Muslunci
iv) Tabbatar da ‘yanuwantaka ta Muslunci
v) Nada Amirul Muminina
vi) Yin bay’a gareshi da mataimakansa
vii) Yin Jihadi
viii) Nada sarakunan Muslunci
ix) Nada Alkallai
x) kaddamar da shari’ah

Manufar Shari’ar Muslunci a daular Sakkwato
Bayan Shehu ya ci alkalawa an kafa daular Muslunci, abu na gaba shi ne tsara tafiyar da ita ta hanyar da shari’ah ta tsara. Yin haka, shi ne zai kawo sauyin da ake so a al’uma da kuma kyautata rayuwar Musulmi. Yin shari’a ba fa ya tsaya ne a kan yin hukunci a koto ba, a’a, ita kotu wuri ne na tantacewa da yin hukuncin adalci. Tsarin shari’a ya shafi bin hakkokin Allah wurin yin harkokinmu na yau da kullum.

Amiril Muminina Muhammadu Bello ya yi bayani a cikin littafinsa Usul al Siyasa cewa, « Shugaba ne zai samar da kayan jin dadi ga mutanensa domin jin dadin yin rayuwa da ibada. Saboda wannan dalili dole ne ya nemi hadin kan masu sana’o’in hannu da ‘yan kasuwa da mutanen da al’uma ba ta motsawa sai da su kamar manoma da makera da teloli da masu rini da masu bada magani da masu danyen kaya da kafintoci da rundawa da sauran masu nau’o’in sana’o’in yau da kullum….. Lallai ne ya tabbatar da cewa kauyuka da birane na cikin yalwa, ya gina masu ganuwowi da gadoji, ya kyautata kasuwanninsu da titunansu ya kuma samar musu duk wani abu da zai kyautata rayuwarsu, ta yadda za a iya tabbatar da doka da oda a al’uma”

Wannan bayani na Muhammadu Bello ya nuna mana kenan, bayan kafa gwamnatin Muslunci da Jihadin Shehu ya tabbatar, ba wai an maida hankali ne kacokan wurin hana manyan laifuffuka kamar zina da sata ba ne kawai, a’a, gwamnatin Muslunci ta maida hankali ne wurin kyautata rayuwar talakawanta. wannan na {aya daga cikin manyan dalilan da suka rike daular Usmaniyya ta kuma karfafa zukatan wakanda ke zaune a cikinta har zuwa yau.

Duk mai hankali zai iya fahimtar cewa tsarin da Turawa suka kawo ba tsari ne na adalci ba. Tsari ne mai cike da makarkashiya da kuma zalunci. Saboda haka, koda za a yadda da wasu ikirare-ikirarensu akan dalilansu na farma Daula ta yaki, za mu iya cewa ba wai domin shari’ah ta gaza ba ne. Saboda haka bin tafarkin shari’ah sau da kafa ita ce ne kawai hanya mafi dacewa ga Musulmi.

Zuwan Turawan Mulkin Mallaka da Shari’ar Muslunci

Kasancewar tsarin shari’ar Muslunci shi ne Tsarin Mulkin da ke tafiyar da Daula da shi ya kara tabbatar da ‘yancin daula da kuma mutuncinta. Misali, dokar cewa ba a yadda wanda ba Musulmi ba ya zo ya kawci ko mulki wani sashe na daular ba, amma ana iya yin zaman amana da shi matukar ba zai yi wani abu da ya sabawa shari’ah ba ya kare daula daga fituna iri-iri kafin Turawa su rusa ta da yaki. Saboda haka ne Kalifa Abdurrahman ya ki amincewa da neman karbar wani sashe daga daula domin ba Royal Niger Company da Birtaniya ta nema.

Ibrahim Sulaiman (1987) ya bayyana cewa tsarin shari’ar muslunci shi ne kangi mafi karfi ga mulkin mallaka domin kuwa shi tsari ne da ya dogara ga hukuncin addini ba na son zuciya ba. Wannan ne dalilin da ya sa ‘yan mulkin mallaka a ko’ina suka ki daulolin muslunci, suka kuma yi da ci gaba da kokarin ganin cewa ba a dabbaka wannan tsari ba a ko’ina.

Turawa sun yi kokarin ganin cewa daula ta amince su zo su yanki wani bangare nata domin ba Royal Niger Company ya faskara. To amma sun yi jabun takardu masu nuna cewa wai daula ta ba su wata dama ta siyasa na yin haka, wanda wannan ya sabawa shari’ah. Saboda haka ne ma masanin tarihin nan Adeleye (1977) ya jaddada cewa wadannan takardu na jabu ne. ‘Yan mulkin mallaka na gani kasheni irin su Hugh Johnson ma sun ti shakkar ingancin wadannan takardu ko bayanai wadanda su Birtaniya ta yio amfani da su wurin yakin daular Muslunci.

Tunda Turawa ‘yan leken asiri irin su Barth da Lander da Clapperton (wadanda a yau aka kawata sunayen wasu tituna da sunayensu a birnin Shaihu) sun zo sau da yawa, wasunsu ma sun zo, kuma daula ta fahimci cewa ba masu gaskiya ba ne, sai Halifa Abdurrahman ya yanke huldar jakadanci tare da su a wasikar da ya aike masu. Ga abinda wasikar ke cewa.

“Daga garemu zuwa gareku. ku sani cewa ban amince da wani daga cikinku ya zo ya zauna tare da mu ba. ni da kaina ma ba zan taba yin sulhu da ku ba, balle in ci gaba da yin hulda da ku ba. Daga yanzu babu wata hulda tsakaninmu da ku face ta tsakanin Musulmi da Kafiri-Jihadi, kamar yadda Allah Mai girma Ya umarce mu. Babu tsimi ba dabara sai ta Allah.”

Ranar 15 ga watan Maris 1903, Sakkwato ta fadi ga Turawan Mulkin Mallaka. An ruwaito cewa akalla Musulmi hamsin (50) ne suka yi shahada a kokarinsu na ganin cewa tutar Muslunci ba ta fadi ba. Ana kyautata zaton cewa anyi wannan gwabzawa ne a inda yanzu ya zama filin wasa watau GIGINYA STADIUM. Wannan abun kunya a garemu. Wurin da Musulmi suka yi dauki-ba-dadI da Turawa har ma wasu suka yi shahada wai shi aka maida wurin wasa, ma’ana an raina ba a kuma godewa shuhada’u ba. Kusan maida wurin filin wasa na kara nuna cewa Musulmi har da cibiyar daula sun sallama har abada.

Kalifa Attahirun Ahmadu ya yi hijira zuwa gabas a kan hanyarsa ta tafiya dubban mutane ne suka bi shi ta duk inda ya bi. Har ma ana cewa in mabiyansa suka biyo ta birni tun safe sai tsakar ranar suke wucewa. Turawa suka fahimci cewa wannan babbar barazana ce a a gare su, domin kuwa a yadda suka ayyana Attahiru a waje ya ma fi Attahiru a gida hatsari. Ranar 27 ga watan Yuli 1903, Turawa suka buga da Musulmi a Burmi (mil 600 daga Sakkwato, yanzu a jihar Gwambe). A nan ne Halifa Attahiru ya yi shahada. Hubbarensa na nan yanzu a wurin. To amma ban sani ba ko Masarautar Sakkwato ko Gwamnati na kula da wurin. Adeleye (1977) ya bayyana cewa daukakar kayan yakI ce ta sa aka ci Musulmi ba zarumtaka ba.

A Sakkawto kuma kamar yadda Ibrahim Sulaiman (1987) ya yi bayani, Musulmi na cikin rudani. Amma a karkashin jagorancin Waziri Muhammad Buhari, malamai suka yi nazarin halin da suke ciki ta hanyar tuntubar rubuce-rubucen Shehu da sauran littatafai suka yi matsaya. Matsayarsu ita ce su zauna da su da baki ba da zuci ba, har zuwa lokacin da Musulmi za su yi karfi su sake jaddada addini.

A shekarar 1914 ne kuma Turawa suka hada Kudu da Arewa suka kira ta Nijeriya. A 1960 kuma suka mika ‘yanci ga sabuwar kasar da suka kirkiro. Turawa sun tafi, amma Muslunci ya tsira saura da me, yaya Musulmi za su sake yin tajdidi?.

Takaita mulkin Halifa da karya lagon daula

Daga Ranar 14 ga watan Maris 1903, Haywood da Clarke, (1964) Daular Sakkwato ta faki ga Turawa, daga nan ne kuma sarautar Amirul-muminina ta kare, sarautaer Sulkan ta soma. Turawan sun fahimci muhimmancin Amiril Muminina sun kuma gane cewa matukar akwai Amiril Muminina to ana kan tafarkin Muslunci kenan.

Kamar yadda Dr. Sabo Albasu (1990) ya yi bayani, ranar 20 ga watan Maris na 1903, Gwamna Lugga ya kirawo sauran Manya da suka rage wakanda suka haka da waziri da Galadima da Umaru Sarkin Gobir da Marafa da Sarkin Burmi da Sarkin Zamfara da kuma Sarkin Kabi domin wai su za~i sabon Sarkin Musulmi. Da farko dai an za~I Umaru Sarkin Gobir to amma daga baya sai aka za~I Attahiru. Ba a da cikakken bayanin abin da ya jawo sauyin za~en ba, to amma an amince cewa wannan sauyi an yi shi ne da hannun Gwamna Lugga. Gwamna Lugga ya yi imani cewa ganin Attahiru II ba ya cikin waccan gwamnati, kuma bai yake su ba, naka shi Sarkin Musulmi wata dama ce da za su yi amfani da ita su gina mulkinsu. Ranar 21 ga watan Maris 1903 kuma Gwamna Lugga ya naka sabon Sarkin Musulmi ta hanyar bashi alkyabba da rawani, wannan ya nuna cewa karshen Daula ya zo kenan. A da ba a alamta sarautar da wata kyauta kamar yadda aka yi a wannan karo.

. To anan ya kamata a fahimci cewa Gwamna Lugga bai naka Attahiru II a matsayin Amiril Muminina ba, a’a ya naka shi ne a matsayin Sarkin Musulmi. Ya kamata a fahimci banbancin da ke tsakanin Amiril Muminina da kuma Sarkin Musulmi
Shi mukamin Amiril Muminina yana da alaka da tsarin addini da Shari’a domin kamar yadda muka bayyana sharukan naka Amiril Muminina a sama za mu fahimci cewa shi Amiril Muminina shi ne Sarki shi ne kuma limami kuma babban alkali. Wannan shi ne tsarin Sarautar kafin zuwan Turawan Mulkin Mallaka na Ingila. Shi kuwa Sarkin Musulmi ko Sultan Sarki ne kawai, saboda haka ba shi da wannan karama da izza ta addini sai dai ta al’ada.

Gwamna Lugga a jawabinsa ya yi kokarin halatta rusha Daular Muslunci ta Sakkwato da cire tare da kasha Amiril Muminina Attarihu I. Ya ce “Fulani a karkashin Danfodiyo sun ci wannan kasa da yaki. Sun kwace mulkinta, sun sa haraji, sun tun~uke wasu Sarakuna sun kuma naka sabbi. Su kuma sun faki ga Turawan Ingilishi, saboda haka mulki ya koma hannun Turawan Ingilishi kenan. Don haka, duk wata dama da mulki da Fulani ke yi, yanzu ya dawo hannun Turawan Ingilishi kenan” Northern Nigeria Annual report p. 96

Daga nan kuma sai ya ci gaba da yin bayanin sabon tsarin da za a bi, bayab ya yiwa Sarkin Musulmi Attahiru jirwayen cewa matukar ya bi su sau da kafa, zai tabbata akan mukaminsa, in kuma ya ki to ya san sauran. Gwamna Lugga ya fito karara ya shaidawa masu halartar taron cewa daga yanzu Babban Kwamishina ne ke da alhakin naka Sarkin Musulmi ko wani Sarki na wani gari ko ma dai wani mukami. Saboda haka kun ga anan an rusa shura kenan. A wannan jawabi nasa ya nuna cewa dai mulki gaba kayansa ya koma hannunsu kenan. Mulki ya koma hannun masu jan kunne.

To amma abin kara lura anan shi ne an kuma takaita sarautar Amiril Muminina. Yanzu Lugga ya nuna cewa sabon Sarkin Musulmin da aka naka watau Attahiru II ba shi da ikon ba da wani umarni ko isar da mulkinsa fiye da kewayen kasar Sakkwato ko mu ce lardi, don haka Srkin Musulmi ba Amiril Muminina ba ne. A wannan hali Babban Kwamishina ne ke da mulki da karfi irin na Amiril Muminina. Kuma abin ma ban haushi sai aka naka Manjo Buurdon Rasdan na Sakkwato kuma aka kora shi saman Sarkin Musulmi. Wannan shi ne tsarin da muke kai har yanzu, Gwamnan Jihar Sakkwato na gaba da Sarkin Musulmi kuma zai iya cire shi ko naka wani.

Wannan abu da aka yi a wancan lokaci mutane da dama ba su so ba, to amma ba bu yadda za su yi soboda an ci su da yaki. Amma dai a lokacin da dama sun fi yin imani da cewa Attahirun Amadu shi ne shugabansu, wanda Turawa suka kashe a Burmi. Wasu sarakuna daga nan suka fara fankarewa misali Sarkin Kiyawa na Kauran Namoda da Sarkin Kabin Yabo da Sarkin Kano Abbas duk sun sha nuna rashin biyayya ga Sarkin Musulmi kamar yadda Fika (1978) ya nuna.

Shari’a a zamanin Mulkin Mallakar Turawan Birtaniya

“Shari’a yau ta nasara ce,
kowa da takarda tai aje
in an yi shari’a mai yawa
an so a yi tara mai yawa
shi anka rubuta ko’ina
kowa ya bi karshen zamani.”
-Marigayi Narambaka

Zuwan Turawan Mulkin Mallaka ya ~ata tsarin da ya tarar na adalci da kyautatawa, kuma sun yi kutingwilar ganin cewa sun kawo karshen tsarin shari’a wanda ke tafiyar da harkokin addini da rayuwar mutanen wannan daula. Turawan mulkin mallaka sun hakikance da cewa in har aka bar tsarin Muslunci ya ci gaba to ba su da galaba, kuma haka zai kara bayyana zaluncinsu a fili. Don haka Gwamna Lugga bai damu da makomar jama’ar da ya ci da yaki ba, tamkar yadda ya damu da kyautata makomar sabuwar daular da Birtaniya ta samu. Sun fahimci cewar matukar ba a sauya tsarin gudanar da shari’a ba to suna da sauran aiki. Saboda haka, kamar yadda Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa (2001) ya ruwaito, ‘yan mulkin mallaka sun kafa dokar kafa kotun ‘Yan kasa a 1900. sun baytyana muhimman dalilansu kamar hake;
1. An ba Rasdan damar ya kafa kotun ‘Yan kasa (native court) a lardinsa in ya ga yin hakan ya dace. Amma za a nemi yaddar basaraken lardin tare da amincewar babban kwamishina.
2. Wakannan kotuna za su yi hukunci bisa tafarkin al’ada da kabi’ar yankin ga abubuwan da suka shafi zamantakewa (civil) da laifuffuka (criminal) . Ga yin hukunci ga laifuffuka kuwa za su iya yin kowane irin hukunci, ta fuskar zamantakewa kuwa za su iya yin hukuncin da ad-dai-dai da al’ada da kabi’a, amma banda hukunci wanda ya keta mutuncin Dan-adam ko ya yi karo da adalci gamagari wato ya shafi gallazawa ko ta~a halittar Dan-adam ko yanke hukuncin kisa. A lura, wannan ya haka da shari’ar Muslunci.
3. Basarake ne zai naka Alkalai amma sai da amincewar Rasdan. A wuraren da Basarake kuwa an ba Rasdan dama naka Alkalai.
4. Rasdan na da ikon shiga kotuna a koyaushe domin ya duba yadda ake gudanar da aiki. Zai iya kauke kara daga wata kotu zuwa wata. Zai iya sake yin nazarin kowace irin kara da kotu ta duba domin ya sa a sake duba karar ko kuma ma ya yi gyara ga hukuncin da aka riga ka yanke.
5. Tsari da kuma yadda za a gabatar da aiki a kotunan ‘Yan kasa ya dogara ne kacokan bisa ga tsarin dokoki da babban kwamishina ya shirya.

Ibrahim Ado-Kurawa ya bayyana cewa Sulaiman Kumo (1993) ya yi ta’alikin cewa wannan tsari da aka kawo ya shafi shari’ar Muslunci ta hanyoyi masu tushe. Na farko, kamar yadda Kumo ya nuna ikon kafa kotuna da gudanar da su ya koma hannun ‘yan mulkin mallaka, na biyu kuma soke haddin zina da sata da aka yi daga kotunan da aka ce wai an bari domin su ci gaba da gudanar da shari’ar Muslunci. Daga bisani kuma kamar yadda bayanin Christlow (1994) ya nuna a bayanin Ado-Kurawa (2001) Turawan sun karfafa gwiwar sarakuna da su rika sa siyasa wurin gabatar da ayyukan shari’a wai don a sami sassauci. To amma, manufa ita ce a ruguza muhimmanci da kuma tsarkin da shari’a ke da shi ne saboda ta yin haka, ba za a yi adalci ba.

Wadannan sabbin kotuna da aka kafa an ce an bar su ne domin yin hukunci ga ‘yan kasa, saboda haka, ba za su yi hukunci ga Turawa ko mazauna ba. Daga wannan lokaci, ikon shari’a ya koma hannun Turawa kenan. Musulmi mabiya sai dai su bi da Takiyya kenan. Daga wannan lokaci sai suka ci gaba da bi a sannu a sannu suna ruguza kan sauran ikon da ya rage ga kotunan Muslunci ta hanyoyin yaudara da tursasawa.

An yaudari shugabannin Arewa da cewa ya kamata su sassauta tsarin shari’ar Muslunci ta hanyar yin wasu gyare-gyare wakanda wai aka jaraba a Libya da Sudan da Indiya da sauran kas ashen da Turawan Ingilishi ke mulki wakanda kuma suke da yawan Musulmi.

A shekarar 1931 aka naka Donald Cameron wani makiyin Muslunci da Musulmi Gwamna Janar na Nijeriya. Cameron na ganin cewa kokarin cusa al’adu da kabi’un Turawan Ingilishi ga wakanda ake mulki a Arewa Nijeriya na gamuwa da tsaiko saboda ra’ayin rikau da kishin addinin Muslunci da al’adun mutanen Afirka. Saboda haka a ganinsa, kamar yadda Kumo (1993) ya yi bayani, wannan na jawo rashin ci-gaba yana kuma kaurewa sarakuna gindin ci gaba da zalunci da rashawa da kuma rashin ko-in-kula da halin wakanda ba Musulmi ba ke ciki. Ta haka ne suka soke cikakken ikon da tsarin shari’a ke da shi a Indiya, inda a shekarar 1862, suka kwacewa kotunan Shari’ar Muslunci karfin yin hukunci akan laifuffuka ta hanyar kirkiro wani abu wai shi Penal code. Daga irin wannan tsari ne aka maida kotunan Shari’ar Muslunci na raba aure da rabon gado kawai.

Shari’ah bayan an sami ‘yancin kai a Nijeriya

Kafin Tuarawan Ingilishi su tafi sun tabbatar da cewa sun rusa tushen tsarin shari’a. A nan in mun yi zancen shari’a ba fa mun tsaya ne kawai ga batun kotu ba, a’a muna zancen yadda tsarin addini ke tafiyar da harkokinmu na yau da kullum ne. in mun tuna, a baya mun yi bayanin yadda Amiril Muminina ya kuma Sarkin Musulmi ko Sultan, wannan ya nuna cewa iko ya koma hannun ‘yan mulkin mallaka daga nan ya faka hannun ‘yan Nijeriya wakanda Turawa suka rena suka kuma yaye. Iko yanzu ba ya hannun sarakuna, yana hannun gwamnati.

Tsarin da aka yi kokarin kora ‘yan book shi ne na Sekulanci, wanda ake cewa addini abu ne da ya shafi mutum shi kakai. Sauran al’amuran rayuwa kuwa ba ruwansu da addini. Give unto God, what’a God’s and unto Caesar what’s Caesar’s. An yi kokarin banbance Sallah da Ciniki. Sallah ibada ce an yadda ka yi ta, amma tsarin ciniki, sai ka bi na zamani wai don yin haka shi ne wayewar kai.

Duk da cewa Musulmin Nijeriya sun yi ta kokarin ganin cewa an dawo da bin tsarin shari’ah domin tafiyar da harkokin rayuwarsu ta hanyar sa ta a kundin tsarin mulkin Nijeriya, ba a sami nasarar tabbatar da haka ba. Kowa anan ya san yadda aka sha bugawa wurin zancen sa shari’ah. Kuma kowa ya sani cewa akwai kungiyoyin da suka taso masu son ganin an koma kan tafarkin shari’ar Muslunci a wannan kasa. Muna sane da su Malam Ibrahim El-Zakzaky (‘yan burazas) da sauran kungiyoyin irin su Tajdidil Islami da sauransu. Mun san wasu daga cikin matsalolin da suka fuskanta da kuma wakanda suke fuskanta. Muna da masaniyar nasarorinsu da dai sauransu. To amma abu da ya ingiza zancen Shari’ah a Nijeriya shi ne yunkurin da Alhaji Ahmed Sani Yariman Bakura, Gwamnan Jihar Zamfara ya yi na dawo da tsarin shari’a a jihar Zamfara.

Dawo da Tsarin Shari’ah a Wasu Jahohin Nijeriya

A gurguje ya kamata in dan yi tsokaci akan sake dawo da tsarin shari’ah a wasu sassa na wannan daula. mafi yawancinmu a nan mun sani cewa bayan an samu ‘yancin kai Musulmi sun yi kokarin ganin cewa sun sake komawa kan tsarin shari’a a hukumance da kuma ba a hukumance ba. Muna sane da harkoki irin su Gwagwarmaya ta Sheik Zazzaki da Tajdidil Islam ta su Aminu Gusau da sauransu. A gaskiya za a iya cewa Musulmin Nijeriya Kudu da Arewa na ta kokarin ganin cewa an koma tafarkin addinin Muslunci domin mulkarsu. To amma Alhaji Ahmed Sani ne ya fara yin wannan kokari a hukumance. Daga nan kuma gwamnatocin Jahohi kamr Sakkwato da Katsina da Jigawa da Niger suka suka biyo sawu.

Kowa ya san irin dauki-ba-dadin da aka sha. {anuwa Ibrahim Ado ya yi ko zai yi mana bayani mai gamsarwa akan soke-soke da aka yi a jaridu ga gidajen rediyo. Saboda haka, ya zama wajibi mu san muhimmancin sharia a rayuwar musulmi.

Shawarwari

Ina son in bada wasu shawarwari kamar haka:

1. Shugabanni su yi kokarin yin adalci da kuma kyautatawa talakawa

2. Ya kamata Gidan Adana Kayan Tarihi na Sakkwato ya koma Giginya Stadium. Haka ya kamata a gina wata cibiya ta Tarihi a wurin. A samar da bayanai da za su taimakawa jama’a da dalibai na su fahimci tarihinsu. Sannan kuma a yi filin wasa a wajen gari.

3. A yi amfani da marubutan Hausa da Masana da kuma masu yin fina-finai wurin bayyana manufofin Shari’ah ga ‘yan kasa

Kammalawa

A karshe ina ganin ya zama wajibi ga wakannan gwamnatoci da kuma Sarakunan Musulmi da su dora harsashin ganin cewa Musulmi su fahimci ma’ana da muhimmancin shari’ah.

Ya kamata a tabbatar an nusar da jama’a cewa shari’a ba ba wai ta tsaya ne akan shan giya da zina ko kafa kotuna ba, a’a shari’ah ta shafi dukkan hanyoyin tafiyar da rayuwarmu.

Ya kamat kuma duk Jahohin da ke yin shari’ah su kyautata rayuwar talakawansu, domin yin haka shi ne zai tabbatar da nasarar addini da siyasar musulmi a kasar nan. aiki da cikawa da dattako shi ne shari’ah ba surutun da ba shi da kai da gindi ba.

Manazarta

Adeleye R.A. (1977) Power and diplomacy in northern Nigeria 1804-1906 Longman in State and Society..

Ado-Kurawa, I. (2001) Shari’ah and the Press in Nigeria. Kurawa Holdings
Limited. Kano.

Albasu, S.A. (1990) From Caliph to Sultan: The Changing Role and Functions of the “Caliph” of Sokoto After British Conquest. A cikin Kani, A.M da Gandi K.A. Editoci (1990) State and Society in the Sokoto Caliphate. Usmanu danfodiyo University Press. Sokoto.

Chafe, K.S. (1990) The Transformation of Sociopolitical Policies of the Leaders of the Sokoto Caliphate: A preliminary Study of the Impact of the Socio-economic Programmes and Policies on Political Integration. A cikin
Kani, A.M da Gandi K.A. Editoci (1990) State and Society in the Sokoto Caliphate. Usmanu danfodiyo University Press. Sokoto.

Fika, A.M. (1978) The Kano Civil war and Bristish Overrule 18821940) Oxford University Press, London. Pg. 111

Haywood, A da Clarke F.A.S. (1964) The History of the Royal West African
Frontier Force. Gale & Polden Ltd. Aldershot

Kani, A.M da Gandi K.A. Editoci (1990) State and Society in the Sokoto Caliphate.
Usmanu danfodiyo University Press. Sokoto.

Last, D. M (1967) The Sokoto Caliphate. Longman. London

Sulaiman, I (1986) A Revolution in History. Mansell Publishing Limited.
London

Sulaiman, I (1987) The Islamic State and the Challenge of History. Mansell
Publishing Limited. London

Ganuwar Birnin Kano: Matsayinta a Tarihin Wayewar Kan Bahaushe

2007-12-11T12:11:00.000-08:00

daga
Yusuf Adamu
Geography Department, Bayero University, Kano.
(yusufadamu2000@yahoo.com)
http://www.kanoonline.com/yusufadamu/
Kano, Nigeria
© 2001

Ganuwar Birnin Kano: Matsayinta a Tarihin Wayewar Kan Bahaushe

Ko’ina mutum ya kewaya a birnin Kano yanzu zai lura da wani abu guda da mamaye birnin a lokuna da lunguna. watau shaguna. Kano ta zama ko’ina shago. Kila a iya cewa ci-gaban harkokin kasuwanci ne suka kawo haka, tunda Kano cibiyar kasuwanci ce tun shekaru aru-aru. Ba za a ki hakan ba. Za a kuma lura da cewa a halin yanzu mafi yawancin masana’antun dake Kano a rufe suke, saboda haka a halin da muke ciki yanzu ba na kera abubuwa a Kano kamar yadda ake yi a da, amma ana ta gina shagunan sayar da kayayyakin da ake kerawa a Legas da Onicha.

Akan yi wa Kano kirari iri-iri ciki har da cibiyar kasuwanci, cibiyar addinin da al’adu ko ace gari ba Kano ba dajin Allah, yaro ko da me ka zo an fika. I, babu shakka Kano gari ne mai tsawon tarihi kuma wadanda suka gina Birnin Kano shekara da shekaru ba ragwaye ba ne ba kuma mutane ne masu son zuciya da hadama da kuma rashin kishi ba. Mutane ne hazikai, masu kishin birnin Kano da son kyautata bayansu. A yadda na san mutanen Kano ‘yan shekaru kadan da suka wuce, a halin yanzu sun zama kanawawa ba kanawa ba domin kuwa Kano ba ta ransu. Abin da ke ransu abin da zuciyarsu ke so. Duk wannan shimfida ce na ke yi dangane da yadda aka sa ido ganuwar birnin Kano ta zagwanye ta lalace ake kuma kokarin shareta daga doron kasa duk da irin kimbin tarihin da ta ke da shi.Saboda haka, za a lura da wani abu guda, an kusa share Ganuwar Birnin Kano daga doron kasa. Wannan shi ya fi damuna matuka gaya.

Tarihin Ganuwar Birnin Kano

Duk tsoffin birane a kasar Hausa wadanda aka kafa kafin dauloli da ma wadanda aka kafa bayan kahuwar dauloli ko bayan jihadi suna da Ganuwa. Tsofaffin birane kamar su Kwatarkwashi da Birnin ‘Yandoto da Birnin Katsina da Birnin Koga da kuma birnin Kano suna da Ganuwa. Akan gina ganuwar gari ne kuwa domin a kare gari daga hare-hare da suka yi yawa a wancan zamani. Birnin Kano ko ace Daular Birnin Kano ta sha karawa da Daular Katsina da ta Zamfara da ta Zazzau kai har ma da su Damagaram.

Domin a kare birnin da kuma jama’arsa ne a cikin karni na 12 (kusan shekaru 800 da suka wuce) aka fara gina ganuwar birnin Kano. An fara gina Ganuwar Birnin Kano a karni na goma sha biyu a zamanin Sarkin Kano Gajimasu wanda ya yi zamani a tsakankanin shekarar 1095 zuwa 1134. An kammalata a zamanin sarkin Kano Jusa. Kamar yadda Dr. Adamu Tanko na sashen labarin kasa na jami’ar Bayero ya yi bayani, katangar a zamanin ta kewaye ~angaren Dala da Gwauron Dutse ne. Har yanzu in aka je wurin kofar Mazugal za a ga burbushinta.

Daga nan sai ganuwar ta yi arewa ta bi ta Kofar Ruwa/Linkwi ta kofar Waika da kofar ansakali. Daga nan sai aka juya ganuwar ta yi gabas ta bi ta wajen kurkukun Gwauron Dutse. Ganuwar ta gangaro tayo wajen Masallacin juma’a na birni sannan ta yi wajen Asibitin Murtala ta mike ta kofar Wambai. An zagaye birnin lokacin kenan. A karni na goma sha biyar, saboda yawan jama’a da ha~akar harkokin kasuwanci, birnin Kano ya kara ha~aka. A sakamakon haka ne Sarkin Kano Muhammadu Rumfa wanda ya kara fadada ganuwar Kano. Dr. Tanko ya bayyana cewa Sarkin Kano Muhammadu Rumfa ya kara da’irar ganuwa da kusan kashi 51 kuma ya tayar da gidan masarautar Kano ya matso da ita dai-dai inda take a hali yanzu ta yadda ya shiga sabon birni, tunda kafin ayi hakan, inda gidan Sarki yake a halin yanzu a lokacin wajen badala ne. A wannan karon ne aka sami kofofi kamar su Gadon {aya da Dan Agundi da kuma kofar Na’isa har ganuwar ta tarar da kofar Kansakasli.

Lokaci na karshe da aka kara fadada ganuwar birnin Kano shine a karni na goma sha bakwai a zamanin sarkin Kano Muhammadu Nazaki, sarki na 28. Wani masani ya yi hasa- shen cewa Wambai Giwa shi ne ya yi wannan gagarumin aiki a lokacin da Sarki ya tafi yaki da kasar Katsina. Ganin cewa shi wambai Giwa bashi da lafiya a lokacin da aka tafi yakin, sai ya yi tunanin me zai yi ya burge Sarki in ya dawo! An ce a lokacin da aka yi wannan aiki sai da aka yanka shanu dari. To ganuwar birnin Kano da muke gani yanzu, a wannan lokaci ne aka ginata. Ba za a ce ba a kara yi mata komai ba tun daga lokacin har zuwa lokacin Jihadi. Babu ko shakka ana yi mata ya~e ana kuma kyautata ta. Wannan dalili shi ne ya sa har ta kawo yau muke ganin sauranta.

A taron Cikar Kano shekara 1000 da soma mulki, Dr. Tanko ya yi tambayar cewa da anci gaba da fadada ganuwar birnin Kano ina za ta kai a halin yanzu? Har yana cewa da kila yanzu ta kai Kura.

Ba sai an yi dogon bayani ba. Kowa zai iya fahimtar dalilin gina ganuwar gari. Kuma kamar yadda aka fada a baya, ba birnin Kano ne kawai ke da ganuwa ba. Manyan biranen kasar Hausa kamar su Katsina da Zazzau da Sakkwato duk suna da ita, to amma in anje yau kila sai dai a tarar da kaofofi kawai ba ganuwa. {anana garuruwa ma kamar su Kausani a karamar hukumar Wudil suna da ganuwa. Ana kyautata zaton cewa kafin zuwan turawa akwai garuruwa fiye da dari masu ganuwa a kasar hausa, amma yanzu duk sun zama tarihi saboda sakaci da rashin kishin tushen da mutum ya fito.

Inda za a iya nuna mana majigin yadda ganuwowin birane suke a kasar Hausa kafin zuwan Turawa da an burge mu da kuma mun fahimci cewa kakanninmu wayayyu ne kuma masu basira da fusaha. Ku duba yadda Turawan Mulkin mallaka suka dauki bakar fata a matsayin koma-bayan halitta, amma da suka zo cin Kano da yakI sai da suka sara wa kakanninmu.Lord Lugard a 1903 da ya zo Kano, ga ruhoton da ya aika Ingila dangane da Badalar birnin Kano.“lokacin da dakaranmu suka iso Kano sun iske wata babbar Katanga mai matukar kwari wadda ta kewayen birnin. Wannan Katanga ta kwancewa hafsoshinmu kai domin ba su yi tsammanin ganin wani abu kamar haka ba. Ni kai na ban ta~a gani ko tunanin zan ga wani abu irin wannan a Afirka ba. Ganuwar ta kai mil goma sha daya tana da kofofi guda goma sha uku (13). Daga bisani an auna ta an ga cewa tsawonta ya kai kafa 30 zuwa kafa 50, fadinta kuma kafa 40 ne. Akwai kududdufai a gabanta da bayanta”

Makomar Ganuwar Birnin Kano

Tun daga farko-farkon shekara ta dubu biyu na fara rubuce-rubuce akan matsayin Ganuwar Birnin Kano a halin yanzu, an buga wasu a jaridar jihar Kano watau Triumph. Ba komai ya sa na soma rubuce-rubuce ba sai don ganin muhimmancin yin haka, a matsayina na malamin Jami’a kuma marubuci, ina ganin ta hanyar rubutu ne hanya mafi sauki a gareni in isar da sako ga wadanda abin ya shafa, wadanda za su iya yin wani abu da kuma wadanda ba za su iya yin komai ba.

Duk wanda ya zagaya birnin Kano yanzu zai lura da cewa akwai alamar cewa a wani zamani da ya wuce tsohon birnin a kewaye yake da ganuwa. Ita wannan ganuwa tana daya daga cikin muhimman kayan tarihi da Kano ta dauri ta bar mana. Sai kuma abin takaici shine gani yadda aka yi sakaci har ganuwar ta zagwanye. A wasu wuraren ma babu ita babu alamarta, misali daga kofar Nassarawa (ta inda Nasara suka ci Kano) zuwa kofar mata babu ganuwa. Amma daga kofar Nassarawan zuwa har kofar Waika da sauran alamunta. Abin tambaya anan shi ne laifin wanene?

Zuwan masu Jihadi Kano bai sa an wulakanta badala ba, zuwan Turawan Mulkin mallaka bai sa an yi watsi da kula da badala ba. Lalacewar badala ya somo ne bayn tafiyar Turawan Mulki, bayan mulki ya dawo hannunmu. Wannan ba karamin abin bakin ciki ba ne. Ta kai yau kowa na da ikon sare badala ya yi bulo da kasar ko kuma ya yi gini a bisanta kuma babu wanda ya isa ya ce masa me yasa. Ta kai cewa harabar badalar ta inda mai wucewa zai iya hangenta akalla ya tuna cewa kakannin mu sun yi abin a zo a gani hukumomin Jihar Kano, wadanda hakkin kare martabar mutanen Kano ke hannunsu sun rabe wurare an yi manya-manyan gine-ginen shaguna da wuraren ajiye ko sayar da motoci. Duba daga kofar Nassarawa zuwa kofar Kabuga. Abin tambaya anan shin me Masarautar Kano ke yi akan wannan barnatar da kayan tarihi da ake yi? Me hukumar gidaje da wuraren tarihi ta kasa take yi? Kuma me hukumar tarihi da al’adu na jihar Kano ke yi? Sannan kuma me mutanen cikin birnin Kano wadanda kakanninsu ne suka gina ganuwar, suke yi akan hakan?

To, ba za a ce ba a yin komai ba, domin na sadu na shugaban hukumar gidaje da wuraren tarihi ta kasa na kusa tattauna da shi akan matsalar. Malam Musa Humbolu ya yi mani bayanin cewa Masarautar Kano, musamman mai Martaba Sarkin Kano suna yin iya bakin kokarinsu, sai dai an fi karfinsu ne. amma ya koka akan cewa wane da wanen Kano ne abin bai dame su ba kuma sune ke daure gindin ~annata badalar Kano.

To a gaskiya da sake. Bai kamata mutane su zuba ido ana kasha mana tarihi ba. In dai har za a rika cika baki ana cewa gari ba Kano ba dajin Allah, yaro ko da me ka zo an fi ka kuma Kano Jallah ce babbar Hausa, amma a kasa kare mata kayan tarihinta a gaskiya an ji kunya. Duk manyan mu sun zagaya duniya sun kuma ga abubuwan tarihi da al’umu suka bari, sun kuma san muhimmancin adana kaya da wuraren tarihi, amma a ce sun kasa cewa uffan akan kyautata badalar Kano. A kasar Hausa gaba daya fa ba mu da wasu muhimman kayan tarihi da ya wuce badala. Bayan Rijiyar Kusugu da Hubbaren Shehu da marina me muke da shi wanda zai nuna ayyukan kakanninmu?

In har Turawa duk da wayewar kansu ta zamani za su rika adana kayan tarihinsu don me mu ba za mu yi ba. Lokacn da na je Ingila a 1998 na je wani wuri da ake kira Stonehenge. Na sha karanta tarihin wajen a littatafai kuma Allah Ya nufe ni da zuwa wurin. Duwatsu ne aka yi a zagaye, sai masana sun ce an gina wurin ne shekaru 5000 da suka wuce. Duk da cewa an dan ta~a tsarin duwatsub har yanzu wurin na nan a killace kuma mutane daga ko’ina cikin duniya suna zuwa kullun suna gani. Ana kar~ar kudin shiga da kudin kuma ake ci-gaba da kyautat wurin, bayan gudunmuwar hukuma da masu kudI da sauran jama’a.

Kammalawa

Saboda haka, lokaci ya yi da mutanen Kano za su fara tunanin dakatar da rushe ko kare badalar Kano da kuma fara shirye-shiryen tada ita. Misali, in an yi niyyar tada badalar Kano ba abinda zai hana. A fara daga kofar Nassarawa zuwa kofar Ruwa. Daga bisani a tada sauran ~angaorin. Wannan ba abu ne da zai gagara ba sai dai in ba a yi niyya ba. Rashin niyya kuma mun san ba zai kai mu ga nasara ba.

Idan da gwamnatin Jihar Kano tare da Masarautar Kano da mutanen Kano za su daura niyya tada badala, na tabbata Gwamnatin Tarayyar Nijeriya da Majalisar Dinkin Duniya da wasu kungiyoyi da hukumomin kas ashen waje ba za su kI taimakawa ba.

Amma mu kan mun yi kudurin ci gaba da fafutukar kare badala da kokarin tada ita matukar rayuwarmu kuma ko ba wanda zai yi wani abu a halin yanzu mu, mun fita hakkI tunda mun fadakar mun yi nasiha mun kuma ilmantar. Saura da me kila a wasu shekaru masu zuwa za a sami wani Sarki Gajimasun ko Jusa ko Muhammadu Rumfa, ko ma a sami wani Wambai Giwan da zai tada badalar Kano, daga nan kuma a tada na sauran biranen {asar Hausa. Muna fatan daga wannan rubutu mutane za su fara tsumuwa.

ALLAH YA JIKAN BASHARI FAROUK ROUKBAH

2007-12-09T11:15:00.000-08:00

Innalillahi wa inna ilaihi raji'un.

Allah ka jikan Bashari Farouk Roukbah. Lokacin da na samu labarin rasuwar malam Bashari ina Gusau, akan hanyata ta zuwa aikin Hajjin bana. Na yi bakin ciki matuka musamman ma da yake bai fi mako guda ba nake tunanin ya kamata in je in gaishe shi. Allah bai yi za mu sake saduwa ba, saduwarmu ta karshe a Giginyu ne lokacin da ya zo ta'aziyyar rasuwar mahaifin nasiru Mudi Giginyu watanni biyu da rabi da suka wuce, mun jima muna tattaunawa kamar koyaushe akan harkar rubutu, bayan ya yi addu'a.

Na fara haduwa da Malam bashari a 1985, na gama makarantar Sakandare na dawo gioda ina jiran fitowar WAEC, sai wani aminin mahaifina da ake kira Malam Yusha'u Dutse ya cewa babana zai hada ni da wani abokinsa marubuci kuma mawallafi tunda ya ga ina da sha'awar rubuce-rubuce, ile kuwa muka je ya kai ni gidansa. Tun ganina na farko da shi na fahimci cewa lallai wannan bawan Allah ya yi mun kama da marubuci, a shekarun da suka biyo baya muka saba da shi matuka. Mun kafa wata Kungiya ta marubuta mai suna Kungiyar Matasa Marubuta a 1986-87, muka kuma nemi su biyun su zamar mana iyayen Kungiya, daga baya muka kara da hajiya Hafsatu Abdulwahid.

Lokacin ina karatu a Jami'ar Usmanu Danfodiyo na na sa an gayyaci Bashari sau uku a Jami'ar, zuwa na farko da na biyu ya gabatar da makalu enakan adabi, zuwa na uku kuma a 1990 ya gabatar da makala akan Jangwarzon Shugaban Kasa: Janar Murtala Mohammed. Lokaci da na tafi hidimar Kasa a Dutsin Ma, na sake gayyatarsa ya yi wa dalibaina lakca kan RUwayen Gujjiyar Jiki (Hormones) daga nan kuma da muka fara harkar ANA muka shigo da shi a matsayin uban kungiya. Roukbah ya halarci tarurrukanmu da yawa, kuma da dama a cikinmarubutan Hausa sun san shi.

Ya rubuta litattafai fiye da arba'in, amma kadan aka buga cikinsu akwai Matar Mutum Kabarinsa, Hantsi Leka Gidan Kowa, Abinda ka shuka, Aikin Hajji na I-III, da wasu litattafan yara. Ya fara buga mujallar Abokiyar Hira da kuma Jakadiyar Muslunci. Akwai kuma littatafansa da dama wadanda ba a buga ba, wasu mun sansu mun kuma gansu, wasu kuma ba mu gansu ba ko ba mu sansu ba, cikinsu har da Mutum Dan Nuhu Jikan Adam.

Malam Basjari, shi ne mutum na farko da ya fara sanar da mu abinda ake nufi da wallafa (Publishing) , da kuma warware mana ma'anar hakkin mallaka (copyright), mun kuma karu matuka daga irin basirar da Allah ya bashi. Mu biyar muka yi yayin zuwa gidansa akai-akai sauran sune Nasiru Mudi Giginyu (Wanda muke ganin ya juye ya zama Roukbah a tunani) da Lawan Adamu (Kaifa) daga baya kuma akwai Baba Ali Abubakar (Dama Hannun Agogo zai dawo baya) da kuma Jibrin Ali Giginyu tsohon editan Sunday Truimph. Duk sanda muka je, bayan mun tatattauna akan rubutu, mu kan kuma tattauana akan rayuwar yau da kullum da kuma siyasar Nijeriya da kuma ta jihar Kano kai har ma da ta sarauta (tunda shi jikan Abdullahi Bayero Bayero ne).

Muna fatan iyalansa za su tattara rubuce-rubucensa domin adana su muna kuma fatan ANA da suaran mutane masoya adabi za su yi kokarin buga sauran litatttafansa da ba buga ba. Lallai ne mu raya sunansa. Babu shakka, marubuta, da manazarata da mawallafa da kuma dukan al'umar Musulmi mun yi rashin wannan bawan Allah ya kuma kyautata bayansa amin. Babbar addu'armu kenen.

Allah ya jikanka Bashari, mu kuma in lokacinmu ya zo, Allah ka amshi rayukanmu muna masu imani.

Commending Zamfara State Government on Education

2007-12-09T04:16:00.000-08:00

The last time I wrote anything about Zamfara State in th Nigerian newspapers was in 2001 when the then Governor Ahmed Sani Yeriman Bakuri allocated N18m or N80m there about for the purchase of turbans to pupils and students. I was in the United States doing a Fulbright fellowship. I remember sending an article in the New Nigerian condemning the action while arguing that bthere are more important things to do in education rather than buying turbans. The turbans were not bought for whatever reason and nothing was done to improve the education sector, except perhaps the new scholarship scheme (which was handy for politicking). Even the scholarship scheme was selective because I know PhD candidates that were not given a kobo by the Yarima administration.

Few weeks after the swearing of Mahmuda Aliyu Shinkafi as the Executive Governor of Zamfara State, we begin to see schools being fenced, new classrooms being built a befitting NYSC camp being built and so on. That gave us some hope that this man is interested in the education sector. We crossed our fingers and kept praying. The Hausa have a saying Ba a saurin yabon dan kuturu sai ya tashi da yatsunsa.

Suddenly in the daily Trust of Wednesday, December 5, 2007 a caption “Education tops Zamfara’s N76.5b budget” captures my attention with such a magnetic pull that surprised me. The report said “education sector got the lion’s share of 26% of the total budget” this was because according to His Excellency Governor Shinkafi “having taken into consideration the significance of this sector in our desire to attain meaningful development, we decided to give education the highest share…” he intended to build more classrooms, hostels, staff quarters and generally improve the quality of education.

This is a welcome development and good tidings to all the indigenes of the State and indeed to all responsible people of Nigeria. In fact, ASUU would be highly delighted to hear this. ASUU has been struggling for the allocation of 26% of the Nigeria’s annual budget (to be done in phases) since Abacha, here we are, a State government out of its vision, just doing that without anybody formally asking her to do so. This is commendable.

Now, the government has shown its willingness to support the education sector, the governor has also promised in the same report that total implementation of he budget will be ensured. The education sector of the State is in shambles, there just too many problems that discussing them here will be tantamount to waste of time. In view of that I wish to call on the State government to organize a stakeholders meeting on education, it should invite all its indigenes that teach in the Universities and other institutions of higher learning, educational administrators and others to seriously discuss the problems and strategize on how to handle them. It can borrow from Bauchi and Jigawa States and have a committee that can help the State develop a Strategic Plan for education. I was part of the Bauchi State effort and therefore willing to help my State.

We hope that the Government would conduct a baseline survey in order to establish a benchmark that would serve as a basis for monitoring the progress it sets to make in the coming years. This amount of money that would be invested must yield sweet fruits. Mahmuda, we wish you Allah’s guidance and assure you of our unfailing support.

Taimakawa Hukuma ta Fuskar Tsaro: Misalin Ali Kwara

2007-07-26T09:24:00.000-07:00

Daga
Dr Yusuf Adamu
yusufadamu2000@yahoo.com
Cibiyar Nazarin Al’adun Hausawa
Da kuma
Jami’ar Bayero ta Kano

Da sunan Allah Mai Rahama Mai Jinkai. Tsira da aminci su kara tabbata ga fiyayyen talikai kuma abin koyi, Muhammadu da alayensa da sahabbansa da kuma masu bin tafarkinsa.

Da farko zan fara da neman afuwa saboda an sani yin abinda ya fi karfina. Mai girma Dan Masanin Kano ne ya kamata ya gabatar da wannan jawabi da irin hikimarsa da kwarewarsa a harshe ta balaga da kuma dadadan kalamansa. Allah bai ba shi damar halarta ba.

Lokacin da aka nemi in yi wannan jawabi (shekaranjiya kenan) na so in ce ba zan iya ba domin kuwa ba zan iya taka sawun Dan Masani ba, ba kuma zan iya yin irin tasa ba. Amma dalilai biyu sun san a amince, na farko dai Uban Cibiyar Nazarin Al’adun Hausawa (wadda ni darakta ne a cikinta) watau Dr Magaji Dambatta da kuma shugaban wannan Cibiya Farfesa Abdalla Uba Adamu ne suka tuntube ni akan maganar, su kuma mutane ne da ba zan iya ce musu a’a ba. Na biyu kuma ganin irin gudunmuwar da Ali Kwara ke bayar wa ta sa na ga bai dace abinsa ya taso ba ace ban bada gudunmuwa ba. Saboda haka sai ayi hakuri da dan abinda zan iya fada a wannan taro mai albarka.

Manyan baki, kowa ya sani cewa Ma’aiki mai tsira da aminci ya ce in musulmi ya ga wani abu na laifi na faruwa a al’uma to ya gyara ba hannunsa, in ba zai iya ba ya gyara da bakinsa, in kuma ba zai iya ba to ya ki abin a zuciyarsa. Wannan hadisi ya takaita mana rawar da Ali Kwara ke takawa a fuskar tsaro a wannan kasa.

Babu shakka, matsalar tsaro da yi tsamari a wannan kasa tamu, dalilai na talauci da hadama da rashin dangana da zalunci da rashin kulawar shugabanni da sauran dalilai sun sa yau dan Nijeriya ba shi da tsaro a duk inda yake. In yana zaune gida cikin iyalinsa ba shi da kwanciyar hankali, in yana hanya zai tafi aiki ko kasuwanci ba shi da kwanciyar hankali, in yana ofis ko wurin sana’arsa ba shi da kwanciyar hankali. In ya zauna a cikin talauci ba shi da kwanciyar hankali, in kuma ya nemi arziki ba shi da kwanciyar hankali. Wannan na faruwa ne duk da cewa akwai hukumar ‘yan sanda a kasa.

Babu yadda za a yi al’uma ta ci gaba matukar babu tsaro, tsaro kuwa ba zai samu ba har sai hukumomin da suke da hakkin tabbatar da shi sun yi aikin da ya dace kuma al’uma ta taimakawa hukuma. In mun koma tarihi za mu ga yadda aka tabbatar da tsaro a Daular Sakkwato ta yadda har mace za ta iya daukar kwando cike da zinari daga bangare guda na daular zuwa wani, misali daga Sakkwato zuwa Kano ita kadai ba tare da wani abu ya same ta ba. Kuma in mun koma tsawon tarihi za mu ga yadda Sayyidina Umar Dan Haddabi (Allah ya yarda da shi) ya inganta tsaro ta yadda kowa a daular Muslunci ya zauna lafiya kuma addini ya yadu.

Kodayake wannan ba lokaci ne da zamu kawo laifuffukan hukuma ba, ya kamata a fahimci cewa harkar tsaro ba abin wasa ba ce, kuma babu yadda za a yi a samu tsaro a kowace irin kasa wadda shugabanninta ba su da adalci, talakawanta ba su da dangana, kuma hukumonin tsaron su ba su da alkibla. Wannan hali da muke ciki ya kamata a sauya shi matukar ana so a zauna lafiya, kuma hakkin kowane dan kasa ne ya bada gudunmuwarsa dai dai hali.

Hukumar ‘yansanda wadda hakkin kare rayuwa da mutunci da dukiyoyin jama’a ke hannunta ba ta da halin yin aikin da ake nema ta yi, kuma ba za ta iya yi ita kadai ba. Jama’a da dama sun sani cewa ‘yan sanda ba su da cikakkun kayan aiki, ba a biyan su albashin da ya dace kuma a lokacin da ya dace, sannan mafi yawancin jama’ar gari ba sa taimakawa hukuma ta hanyar sanar da ita bayanai akan masu laifuffuka saboda tsoron abinda ka je ya komo.

A cikin irin wannan hali ne Allah ya kawo Ali Kwara wanda ga abinda muka sani dan kasuwa ne amma ya koma mafaraucin masu laifi. A wanann fim da aka kira ALI KWARA, an yi kokarin a bada tarihinsa ne a fakaice, ma’ana masu shirya fim din sun yi kokarin tunatar da jama’a halin da ake ciki na rashin tsaro da kuma hanyoyin da ‘yan fashi ke bi suna yi wa mutane fashi da kuma rawar da shi Ali Kwara ke takawa.

Na tabbatta daga cikin manufofin ‘yin wannan fin sun hada da yabawa shi wannan bawan Allah da kuma jawo hankalin al’uma ga ayyukansa na alheri ta yadda kila za a iya yi wa wasu sassa na al’uma allura ko suma za su yi koyi da shi.

Fim din ya yi kokarin nuna abubuwa kamar haka:

i) Mafakar ‘yan fashi da makami
ii) Hanyoyin da suke bi don neman bayani akan mutanen da za su yi wa fashi.
iii) Ire-iren mutanen dake yin fashi da dalilansu, misali a fim din an nuna gungu har 7 na ‘yan fashi, daga masu amfani da bindigogin gargajiya, zuwa masu amfani da manyan bindigogi na zamani har ma da masu amfani da cinyar kaza don ci da buguzum.
iv) Ya nuna mana yadda ‘yan fashi ke rayuwarsu da yadda suke kasha kudadensu.
v) Ya nuna mana yadda ma ake yin fashi ko a gidajen mutane ko a hanya ko a ofis.
vi) Ya nuna mana yadda mata ma suke shiga harkar fashi da makami
vii) Da kuma yadda Ali Kwara ke gudanar da ayyukansa tare da hadin kan hukuma ‘yan sanda ta kasa.

Babban abinda ya kamata mu fahimta daga fim din shi ne kusan duk satar da za a yi ana yinta ne bayan ‘yan fashin ko abokan harkarsu sun tattara musu bayanai sun sanar da su. Kuma ya nuna mana muhimmancin sirri musamman a wannan lokaci na wayar salula. Yadda mutanen ke sakin baki suna maganar dukiya a bainar jama’a na iya sa su a hatsari babba.

Duk da cewa akwai kura-kurai ga yadda aka shirya wannan fim (wanda a shirye muke mu ba masu fim din shawara ta yadda za su inganta shi) lallai ne a yaba musu matuka bisa kokarin da suka yin a shirya wannan fim. Babu shakka, wannan wani salo ne da zai inganta sana’ar fim domin za ta bada damar masu fina-finai su fara shirya fina-finai akan mutanen kirki abin koyi ga al’uma. Ina fatan mahalarta wannan taro na yau za su ba su gudunmuwa sosai domin a kara musu kwarin gwiwa.

Ya kamata a wannan gaba in yi kira ga Mai martaba Sarkin Kano Alhaji (Dr) Ado Bayero CFR da kuma Gwamnatin Jihar Kano da su yi kokari su dawo da tsarin nan da ya ba dagatai da masu unguwanni hurumi da kuma damar tattara da adana bayanai akan mutanen da ke zaune a unguwanninsu da abubuwan da ke faruwa, su kuma rika sanar da hukumomin tsaro akai-akai. Babu yadda za a yi a tabbatar da tsaro har sai an hada da shugabanninmu Sarakuna, duk wanda ya ratso inda aka fito ko kuma ya karanta tarihi ya san irin rawar da masarautu suka taka wurin kyautata tsaro a baya.

A karshe ina godiya saboda saurare na da aka yi, ina kuma rokon Allah ya maida kowa gida lafiya, ya kuma kawo mana sauyi mafi alheri a wannan kasa tamu. Shi kuma Ali Kwara, Allah ya karfafe shi ya kuma tsare shi amin.

Bissalam.

July 21, 2007

An gabatar da wannan jawabi a bikin kaddamar da Fim mai suna ALI KWARA wanda aka yi a Sani Abacha Indoor Stadium a Birnin Kano, ranar 21/7/2007.

Poets and Scholars: The Challenge of Sakkwato Models

2007-06-12T06:32:00.000-07:00

By
Yusuf M. Adamu
Yusufadamu2000@gmail.com/
yusufadamu2000@yahoo.com

Introduction

This article is going to start with a brief of my personal journey of discovery about the poets and scholars of the Sakkwato Caliphate. The first time I read about Sakkwato Caliphate was when I was in primary school from a book titled Karamin Sani. There was a passage on the battle at Tafkin Kwatto culled from Infaku of Caliph Muhammadu Bello. At that time I could not appreciate the story for there is no prior basis for that. Secondly, although I heard about Shehu Usmanu Danfodiyo and I heard over and over again my grandma sing Begore a poem by Nana Asma’u and also heard about Hubbare in Sakkwato. I have no picture of what Sakkwato Caliphate was. The situation has not improved even when I went to secondary school. I was a good student of history in my forms 1 and 2 and I learnt about Mali, Ghana, and Songhai empires but not about Sakkwato. After two years I went to science school, thus cut off from history.

What actually helped me was the bookworming attitude that I developed that I always read and read any book of interest from Astronomy to Egyptology. By the time I completed my secondary education and got admission into the then University of Sokoto, I luckily came across a book titled The Sakkwato Model by Usmanu Bugaje, that was the beginning of my voyage in the vast ocean of scholarship about Sakkwato. After reading that book I begin to be thirsty of more knowledge about the history of that Great State. From then on, I began to feel that University of Sokoto should be renamed to Usmanu Danfodiyo University. I even wrote a letter to the Editor (New Nigerian) but never posted it, yet whenever I wrote to my friends, my address is always Usmanu Danfodiyo University not University of Sokoto. Within few years that dream came true.

With time, I learnt from seminars and few publications more about Sakkwato, and when I decided to register for courses in Hausa (as the only Social Science Student in the class), I was taught about some poems written by the Jihad leaders. I was taught about the literal interpretation of poems like Godaben Gaskiya, Ma’amare and Tabban Hakika among others, but I could actually not appreciate it as much. My interest at that moment was fiction and not poetry. Later I read Studies in Sokoto Caliphate edited by YB Usmanu. I then got and read State and Society in Sokoto Caliphate edited by Kabir Gandi and Ahmad Kani. I also read Sokoto Caliphate by Murray Last. But the two books that actually influenced me most were A Revolution in History and Islamic State and the Challenge of History by Ibrahim Sulaiman. All these books taught me more about what and how the Caliphate came into existence, how it declined and what we are to learn from it.

One important missing link is that although I read fairly well about the Jihad, the leader of the Jihad and Caliph Muhammadu Bello and a little on Shaikh Abdullahi Fodio (from Shehu Umar’s classic work) there is little about Nana Asma’u. I know about Nana Asma’u ‘Yar Shehu first from my grand mother. With the passage of time I began to develop some interest about who Nana Asma’u really was, what were her contributions to the Jihad and so on. But above all I wanted to learn about her “Yan Taru movement, I first heard in a seminar at UDUS. It was from the knowledge of the 'Yan Taru movement that I was able to appreciate and situate Wakar Ahmada my grand mother’s favourite. It was also with that background knowledge that I came to understand more about my grandfather’s sister Hauwa who though I met (before her death) but was too young to appreciate her learning. Gwaggo, my dad always tells us was a pious and learned woman who taught women about Islam, in fact my grandma learnt Wakar Ahmada and other aspects of knowledge from her. Perhaps she was a Jaji (a cadre of literate, itinerant women teachers within the ‘Yan Taru movement, who disseminated Asma’u’s instructive poetic works among the masses).

I visited Hubbare for the first time in 1996, I knew about Jean Boyd but I am yet to know about Nana Asma’u. When Caliph’s Sister (by Jean Boyd) was published in 1989, I saw its review, but there was no way I could get that book at the time. So I remained ignorant about Nana Asma’u, a woman I admire even before I know who she actually was.

The opportunity of coming to the United States came to me through the Fulbright Fellowship in August 2001. I met Dr. Sarki Abba Abdulkadir (who works at the same University I am doing my fellowship) In our long discussion about the problems of our society, we discovered that we share same interest about the model of Sakkwato Caliphate. He showed me a book titled Collected Works of Nana Asma’u Daughter of Usmanu ‘dan Fodiyo (1793-1864) compiled and edited by Jean Boyd and Beverly B Mack. I then remember seeing a copy at the ABU bookshop but at the time I could not afford it. I then went into action, trying to see if I could get and buy that book online, I got it and I bought it. But most interestingly, I got Caliph’s Sister and One Woman Jihad (Boyd & Mack). From these triad I learn about Nana Asma’u. In fact I learnt about Sakkwato Jihad of 1804 more. After reading these books I then realised how much I personally learnt but how much many other people are missing by not knowing all that happened in our pre-colonial past.

The Challenge

Now I realised that what I learnt so far about Sakkwato Caliphate is enormous but also a challenge. I asked myself beside the very thin and narrow folkloric knowledge available to the ordinary man in the street, how many people in the current area once Sakkwato Caliphate actually know about this great Islamic revivalism? How many people realised that we in the 21st century have a lot to learn from the 1804 revolution? How many of us read the books written by the Jihad leaders? How many people can situate the re-introduction of the Shari’a legal system within a wider social-history context in northern Nigeria? Above all what does Shari’a really stands for, for the Muslim ummah?

The answer without fear of contradiction is very little. Most of the published knowledge about Sakkwato Caliphate is in the English Language, thanks to the late Professor Abdullahi Smith who initiated the reconstruction of our historiography. Few of the Jihad books were publish in Hausa (Infaku and Nurul-al-bab for example) the language majority can read and appreciate, even those few books published are not in circulation.

After working for years to create a body of Hausa readers through the Hausa Literary Movement (erstwhile known as Soyayya writers). I now fully agree with one of the leaders (Sunusi Shehu Daneji) of the movement’s assertion that people should stop discouraging the movement. This is because, as he puts it “when you develop some one’s reading habit, it is easier to educate him’. Thus, a Hausa housewife who learn to read in Hausa roman script just to read a love story for instance, would also read a book by or about Nana Asma’u written in Hausa language. Jean Boyd and Beverly Mack described Nana Asma’u’s genius as laying “in transforming the women’s organization that had existed among the non-Muslim women prior to their capture, and channeling their interests and needs into organizing representative of the Jihadic community’s values. Through her organization of itinerant women teachers of other women (the ‘Yan Taru…) Nana Asma’u made working for the community both desirable and honorable” (Collected Works.pp7). Don’t we think that the failed Better Life, Family Support and Poverty Alleviation programmes would have been successful (at least in Muslim north) if based on the framework of the ‘Yan Taru Movement? The Islamic knowledge revivalism through Islamiyya schools for women has more to learn from Nana’s model.

We can see how easily a book on any aspect of Islam sells. Go to any Hausa books centre and you will see how books and pamphlets-some genuine some not- are being bought and read, people are today hungry of Islamic knowledge. In fact religious books sell more than fiction ones (an organised study on Kasuwar Kurmi Islamic book distribution system is yet to be undertaken by our revered Hausa scholars) but majority of the readers were initially ‘fiction readers’.

We could not accuse scholars of not translating Jihad leader’s books, Malam Isa Talatar Mafara has translated a corpus of books by Usmanu Danfodiyo and other Jihad leaders and most were published by the History Bureau Sokoto, but where are they today? They are not in circulation. There are also another corpus translated by Alkali Sidi Suyudi between 1976-80 but remain unpublished decade or decades after. Below are some examples from Boyd and Mack bibliography:

Title
Author
Date of translation
al-Tibyan li-huquq al-ikhwan
Abdullahi Danfodiyo
circa 1976-80
Siyar
Abdullahi Danfodiyo
circa 1976-80
Diya’ al qawa’id wa nathr al fawa’id li-ahl al maqasid
Abdullahi Danfodiyo
circa 1976-80
Kitab al-nasab
Abdullahi Danfodiyo
circa 1976-80
Lubab al-mudkhal fi adab ahl al-din
Abdullahi Danfodiyo
circa 1976-80
al-Ghaith al-wabl fi sirat al imam al-adl
Muhammad Bello
circa 1976-80
Kitab al Nasiha
Muhammad Bello
circa 1976-80
Raudat al-afkar
Abdulkadir B Mustafa/
circa 1976-80
Wasiyya
Gidado Dan Laima
circa 1976-80
Raud al-jinan
Gidado Dan Laima
circa 1976-80

Source: (Boyd & Mack 1997)
The list above is just a tip of the iceberg and contains mainly books, i.e. not to talk of poems majority of which are towards teaching of the Islamic knowledge and mobilisation. School children are supposed to be taught about The Sakkwato Model (apology to Bugaje). It is a shame that my children could sing ‘Wakar Sangaya” but could not sing Wakar Ahmada. Not because it is not available, but because I didn’t pay attention until recently. I struggled to get Mazan Jiya a book that contains some briefs about Hausa City-states and the Caliphate. I organised my children and younger brothers and sisters, to read the book in group and I am happy that the little they learnt has introduced them to the superiority of civilisation of the Caliphate. We need to produce more and more works at children, adult and scholars level in Hausa about the Sakkwato Jihad. There is so much ignorance among the population about these great scholars and their works.

By making such materials available our children and we would be able to appreciate our past but also prepare us towards ensuring a just society. The issue of Shari’a is a misunderstood case because majority of people (including Muslims) are not knowledgeable about what Shari’a entails. Many people erroneously restrict Shari’a to hudud only. Shari’a is beyond courts and cutting hands, stoning the adulterer and lashing the drunkard. The goal of the Shari’a is about developing a just, prosperous and peaceful society. The example of the Islamic State under Muhammad Bello as reported by Clapperton during his visit to Sokoto in 1826 is worth sharing:

"The Laws of the Qur’an in his (Sultan Muhammad Bello’s) time, were so strictly put in the forth . . . that the whole country, when not in war, was so well regulated that it is common saying that a woman might travel with casket of gold upon her head from one end of the Fellata (Fulani) dominions to the other." (Emphasis mine)

This is what is expected of the Shari’a system, bulk of the supporters of Shari’a in the so-called Sharia’a States are the masses who are looking for a just system that can improve their lives. It is therefore a challenge for those States that re-introduced the Shari’a to be courageous enough to educate people about the goals of the system but also exemplify it by being just and keeping trust.

Some people have contributed a great deal to the cause of propagating the Jihad ideals. A film producer (for instance) by name Alhaji Ganyama (now Hon. member, National assembly) has in conjunction with the Sokoto State Government, produced an excellent movie on the life and times of Usman Danfodiyo, some years before the civilians took over power. The movie titled Nurul Zaman is however still not released for whatever reasons. With these types of movies that could bring about social change kept away from the public, one wonders what Sokoto policy makers are thinking about. We actually need individuals, foundations and authorities to encourage and help to produce more historical films like the life and times of Caliph Muhammadu Bello, Shaikh Abdullahi Fodiyo, Nana Asma’u, Caliph Attahiru I and other most recent exemplary leaders. These movies would be a great way of mobilising the sick society we today live in. with books and movies; we can have a transformation of attitudes and become a better society.

It is therefore high time for us to look back and learn, the Hausas are saying Waiwaye adon tafiya.

MEDIA IN NORTHERN NIGERIA

2007-06-11T08:27:00.000-07:00

Introduction

Nigeria is the most populous country in Africa and one of the largest in terms of size. Church (1979). It came into existence in 1914 when the British colonialists amalgamated the then northern and southern protectorates. The northern protectorate falls within the domain of the Sokoto Caliphate, which fell to the British invaders in 1903. The Hausas, Fulani, and Kanuri are the larger ethnic groups. Islam is the predominant religion and Hausa language is the lingua franca in the region. Other important ethnic groups include the Nupes, Tivs, Angas, Jukuns, and Egbiras mainly in what is now known and called middle-belt of Nigeria. The major cities in northern Nigeria includes Kano, Katsina, Sokoto, Kaduna, Zaria, Gusau, Talata-Mafara, Maiduguri, Gombe, Bauchi, Funtua, Potiskum, Hadejia, Nguru, Argungu, Birnin Kebbi, Daura and Azare.

The major occupation of the northern population is farming, although Kano is a major commercial center, the largest inland port south of the Sahara. Industrial activities are also prominent in Kano and Kaduna axis. There are a good number of educational institutions notably the Universities, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria, Bayero University, Kano, Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, University of Maiduguri, University of Jos, University of Agriculture Makurdi, Abubakar Tafawa Balewa University of Technology Bauchi, University of Technology Yola and a host of others.

Northern Nigeria has been literate for the last seven hundred years after the invention of Ajami (the use of Arabic script to write Hausa language). It is however behind southern Nigeria in western education which came to it late and was not popular for a number of reasons, which we are not going to discuss here. This may partly explain why the north is lagging behind in terms of the print media in particular.

Print Media in Northern Nigeria: Historical Background.

No newspaper or news magazine existed in northern Nigeria before the occupation and subsequent colonization of the region by the British imperial force despite its literacy British colonial rulers introduced a trilingual newspaper around 1932 called Northern Provinces News/Jaridar Nigeria Ta Arewa. /Jaridat al Nijeriya al Shimaliyya. It was 22 pages and published four times a year and sold at half a penny (sisi). (Yahaya, 1988). This newspaper or rather a periodical reports mainly new colonial policies and news items about colonial administration activities.

In January 1939, a full-pledge Hausa newspaper Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo was established. Its first editor was the famous Hausa writer, the late Malam Abubakar Imam. A number of reasons were forwarded as the factors that led to the establishment of Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo. Yahaya (1988) argued that the Second World War was partly responsible as the British feared German and other propaganda through the radio and other means. While Best, (1996) see the struggle between northerners and southerners in the political struggle in Nigeria and the letters misrepresentation of the former as partly responsible. Whatever the case Yahaya (1988) explained that Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo was intended to be distributed to all northern provinces and serve as enlightenment medium and opinion moulder. It reported local, national and international news to its readers.

Around 1941, full-out sheets in Ajami form of written Hausa were introduced for those who could not read in the Roman Script. It was called `Yar Gaskiya (Ajami News Sheets). Suda another Hausa newspaper hit the stand in 1941. It was more or less a war propaganda newspaper and was published once every two weeks. (Yahaya, 1988) 15,000 copies were produced and distributed free of charge to all areas where Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo. was distributed and sold.

In 1954, the North Regional Literature Agency (NORLA) was established. Consequently, in addition to Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo, some provincial newspapers were established as shown in table 1 below.

Table 1
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Newspaper Province Language
------------------------------------------------------------------
Zaruma Sokoto Hausa
Himma Katsina Hausa
Gamzaki Plateau Hausa
Zumunta Bauchi Hausa
Bazazzaga Zaria Hausa
Haske Niger Hausa
Ardo Adamawa Hausa/Fulfulde
AlBishir Borno Hausa/Kanuri
Labaran Kano/Sodangi Kano Hausa
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Yahaya, I.Y. (1988)

All these newspapers were published twice every month. Other papers published at that time include Alfijir (mainly a Hausa version of The World), Jakadiya, Aboki, and Majalisarku.

Newspapers and News Magazines in Northern Nigeria After NORLA

NORLA was subsequently closed down in 1959. Only Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo, survived. However a number of other Hausa and English newspapers and magazine emerged. Some are owned by State, Regional or Federal governments while others were privately owned. The Nigerian Citizen was started around 1960 and was replaced in 1965, by the New Nigerian Newspapers.

Some of the papers that emerged included Daily Mail, Morning Post, Sunday Post, Maganar Kano, `Yancin Dan Adam, Amana, Maishela, Albishir, Alfijir, Zuma, Zaruma, Dillaliya, Bagaruwa, Jakadiyar Muslunci, Jakadiyar UNESCO, Sha Kallo, Daily Comet, Alkalami, Fitila, The Analyst, Triumph, Sunday Triumph, Zamani, The Nigerian Standard, The Voice, The Path, Trumpeter, The Democrat, Citizens, Nasiha, A Yau, Al-Mizan, Al-Ahram, Today, Weekly Trust, Just, Hotline, Rana, Telex, Kakaki, The Pointer, Al-Tajdid, Abuja newsweek, Nigerian Outlook, The Reporter, Mujahidah, The Pen, FIM, Tauraruwa, Taskira, Lokaci and many others. Most of these newspapers and magazine have ceased to exist.

In table 2 below, we indicate the newspapers that exist today, their language, place of publication and ownership.
Paper
Language
Place
Ownership
Frequency
Category
New Nigerian
English
Kaduna
Federal Government
Daily
News
New Nigerian Weekly
English
Kaduna
Federal Government
Weekly
News
New Nigerian On Sunday
English
Kaduna
Federal Government
Weekly
News
Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo
Hausa
Kaduna
Federal Government
Three times a week
News
The Triumph
English
Kano
Kano State Government
Daily
News
Weekend Triumph
English
Kano
Kano State Government
Weekly
News
Sunday Triumph
English
Kano
Kano State Government
Weekly
News
Albishir
Hausa
Kano
Kano State Government
Weekly
News
Alfijir
Hausa/Ajami
Kano
Kano State Government
Weekly
News
The Path
English
Sokoto
Sokoto State Government
Weekly
News
The Nigerian Standard
English
Jos
Plateau State Government

News
The Voice
English
Makurdi
Benue State Government

News
The Graphics
English
Lokoja
Kogi State Government

News
Legacy
English
Gusau
Private
Weekly
News
Nassarawa Newsday
English
Gombe
Private

News
Weekly Scope
English
Yola
Private?

News
Today
English
Kaduna
Private

News
A Yau
Hausa
Kaduna
Private
Weekly
News
Al-Ahram
Hausa
Kano
Private
Weekly
News
Weekly Trust
English
Abuja
Private
Weekly
News
Al-Mizan
Hausa
Zaria
Private
Weekly
News/Religious
Al-Tajdid
Hausa
Kano
Private
Weekly
News/Religious
Kakaki
Hausa
Bauchi
Bauchi State Government
Weekly
News
The Pointer
English
Zaria
Private
Weekly
News/Religious
The Herald
English
Ilorin
Kwara State Government
Daily
News
Source: Various

Table 3 gives a list of some magazines

Magazine
Language
Place
Ownership
Frequency
Category
Hotline
English
Kaduna
Private
Monthly
News
Crystal
English
Abuja
Private
Monthly
News
Just
English
Kaduna
Private

News
Nigerian Outlook
English
Kano
Private
Weekly
News
Rana
Hausa
Kaduna
Private
Monthly
News
Abuja Newsweek
English
Kaduna
Private
Monthly
News
FIM
Hausa
Kaduna
Private
Quarterly
Entertainment
Tauraruwa
Hausa
Kano
Private
Quarterly
Entertainment
Zuma
Hausa
Zaria
Private

News
Mujahida
Hausa
Zaria
Private
Monthly
New/Religious
Garkuwa
Hausa
Sokoto
Private
Quarterly
News/Entertainment
Mumtaz
Hausa
Kano
Private
Quarterly
News/Entertainment
Nishadi
Hausa
Kano
Private

Entertainment
Some major existing Hausa Newspapers and Magazines
Table 4

Newspapers

Newspaper Frequency

Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo Three time a week
A Yau Weekly
Al-Ahram Weekly
Albishir Weekly
Alfijir Weekly
Al-Mizan Weekly
Garkuwa Weekly
Dillaliya Weekly
Jagora Weekly

Table 5
Magazines
Newspaper Frequency
FIM Quarterly
Rana Monthly
Tauraruwa Quarterly
Zuma Monthly
Garkuwa Monthly
Mumtaz Quarterly
Nishadi Quarterly
Shirin Fim Quarterly

Broadcast Media in the northern Nigeria
Broadcasting in Nigeria started as far back as 1924 Kolade (1979). By 1944 broadcasting stations were established in Kano and six years after stations were opened at some towns in northern Nigeria, which are Katsina, Zaria, Sokoto, Jos, and Ilorin. Ladele (1979). By 1957 Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation was established. It replaced its predecessor which lasted for six years.

After independence and its aftermath, several radio and television stations were established by the then State Governments. By 1977 all the Television stations in the states (both north and South) were taken over by the Federal Military Government under General Obasanjo to form the National Television Authority (NTA).

For the northern region, the establishment of Northern Nigeria Broadcasting Corporation with its headquarters in Kaduna in 1962 gave birth to a more serious and sustainable broadcasting service. Thus Radio Television Kaduna was born. Radio Television Kaduna was latter to be Federal Radio Corporation of Nigeria Kaduna (being one of the four- Lagos, Ibadan and Enugu).

The birth of Radio Nigeria Kaduna pioneered radio broadcast in northern Nigeria. The station has millions of listeners and it is effectively used by the State and other vested interest. It is the major Hausa radiobroadcast station in the world. Its broadcast is mainly in Hausa with some insert of programmes in Fulfulde, Kanuri, and English. It has a very big and rich audio library and has greatly influenced and still influencing happenings in northern Nigeria and other Hausa speaking areas of West Africa.
The National Broadcasting Commission

The National Broadcasting Commission (NBC) is the nation’s body that regulate and monitor the broadcast media. It was established in 1992 by decree 38 of 1992 as amended by decree 55 of 1999. It is empowered among other things to regulate, monitor and control broadcasting in Nigeria. It is also responsible for issuing licenses for the establishment of all broadcast outfits in the country. It has seven zonal offices four of which fall within northern Nigeria. Thus we have

Abuja Zone comprising of The Federal capital territory, Kaduna, Kogi, Kwara and Niger States.

Kano Zone comprising of Kano, Katsina, Kebbi, Sokoto and Zamfara States

Jos Zone comprising of Plateau, Nassarawa, Adamawa, Taraba, and Benue States.

Then

Maiduguri Zone comprising of Borno, Yobe, Bauchi, Jigawa and Gombe States.

Based on this zonal classification we will provide the distribution of Radio, Television and Cables Satellite stations in the north.

Zonal Distribution of Radio Stations by ownership

Table 6
---------------------------------------------------------
Zone Ownership Number
---------------------------------------------------------

Kano Federal 0
State 6
Private 0
Abuja Federal 2
State 6
Private 1
Jos Federal 0
State 8
Private 0
Maiduguri Federal 0
State 6
Private 0
Total
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Monitoring & Operation Directorate 1999

Zonal Distribution Television Stations by Ownership
Table 7

---------------------------------------------------------------------
Zone Ownership Number
--------------------------------------------------------------------
Kano Federal 3
State 3
Private 0
Abuja Federal 5
State 2
Private 1
Jos Federal 5
State 4
Private 0
Maiduguri Federal 2
State 4
Private 0
Total
-------------------------------------------------------------------
Source: Monitoring & Operation Directorate 1999

Zonal Distribution of Cable Stations

Table 8

Zone Number
----------------------------------
Kano 5
Abuja 4
Jos 3
Maiduguri 3
------------------------------------
Total
--------------------------------------
Source: Monitoring & Operation Directorate 1999

Broadcast hours

Table 9
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Zone Daily Hours Weekly Channels
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Kano Radio- 94 658 39
Television 45 241
Cable 120 648

Abuja Radio 122 856 22
Television 61.30 502.30
Cable 144 1008
Jos Radio 124.34 830.58 26
Television 44 142
Cable 264 1848

Maiduguri Radio 102.30 719.30 21
Television 34.30 259
Cable 216 1512
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Total
Source: Monitoring & Operation Directorate 1999

There are 39 cable stations in Nigeria, all of which are privately owned.

Sample Programmes Coverage
A number of programmes are aired in the Radio and Television Stations most of which are government oriented. Among the common programmes aired are
Local News
National/International News
Drama
Greetings
Documentary
Discussions
Interviews
Children Programmes
Political Programmes
Women Programmes
Youth Programmes
Arts and Literature
Agricultural Extension
Health Matters
Enlightenment Programmes
Public Announcements
Advertisement

List of Some Radio Stations where Hausa Broadcast is over 70% of the airtime
Table 10

Station
Location
Ownership
Radio Kano
Kano
Kano State Government
Radio Zamfara
Gusau
Zamfara State Government
Radio Jigawa
Dutse
Jigawa State Government
Rima Radio
Sokoto
Sokoto State Government
Radio-Nigeria Kaduna
Kaduna
Federal Government
Kaduna State Radio
Kaduna
Kaduna State Government
Radio Katsina
Katsina
Katsina State Government
Radio Bauchi
Bauchi
Bauchi State Government

Radio Nassarawa
Gombe
Nassarawa State Government

Yobe Radio
Damaturu
Yobe State Government
Source: VariousTelevision Stations

Table 11
Some T.V. Houses with Hausa Programmes

Station
Location
Ownership
NTA Kano
Kano
Federal
CTV Kano
Kano
State
NTA Sokoto
Sokoto
Federal
NTA Maiduguri
Maiduguri
Federal
NTA Kaduna
Kaduna
Federal
DTV Kaduna
Kaduna
Private
NTA Katsina
Katsina
Federal
KTTV Katsina
Katsina
State
NTA Bauchi
Bauchi
Federal
NTA Yola
Yola
Federal

Source: Various

International Hausa Broadcast
Hausa people are naturally good listeners, thus they enjoy and patronise radio stations, locally, nationally and internationally. It can be conveniently argued that radio information is the major source of information among Hausa populace particularly those that are not literate or semi-literate. The radio has over the years provided all the necessary news Hausa people need. In fact, radio has greatly improved Hausa people knowledge on current affairs that a common man in Hausa society can comment on international affairs. Thus International Broadcast in Hausa is crucial in socio-political mobilisation of the largest language group in West Africa. Below in table 12 is a list of some international Hausa Broadcast Stations.

Table 12
LIST OF SOME INTERNATIONAL HAUSA BROADCASTS STATIONS
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Station Country of Broadcast
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Sashen Hausa
BBC London
Bush House London. UNITED KINGDOM

Sashen Hausa
Muryar Jama’ar Jamus
Duetch Velle
Federal Republic of Germany FED. REPUBLIC OF GERMANY

Sashen Hausa
Voice of America
Washington DC UNITED STATES OF AMERICA

Sashen Hausa
Radio Beijing International
Beijing
China PEOPLES REPUBLIC OF CHINA

Sashen Hausa
Radio Alkahira
Cairo
Egypt. ARAB REPUBLIC OF EGYPT

Sashen Hausa
Radio Tehran
Islamic Republic of Iran
Iran ISLAMIC REPUBLIC OF IRAN

Sashen Hausa
*Radio Ghana
Accra
Ghana REPUBLIC OF GHANA

Voice of Nigeria
Abuja
Nigeria. FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF NIGERIA

*Radio Niger
Niger Republic
Niger. REPUBLIC DU NIGER

Sashen Hausa
Radio Moscow
Moscow
Russia** RUSSIAN REPUBLIC
Source: Various

*Not sure of the name
** I think it is no longer in operation

Hausa Home Videos

The history of Hausa home videos can be traced to the earlier efforts by some individuals notably Sani Lamma, Hamisu Gurgu, Sidiya Bakar Indiya in the early 1980s in Kano (Mandawari, 1999). These individuals were avid views of cinema programmes particularly Indian and Western movies. They personally made earlier attempts to produce home videos (not for sale). In the mid 1980s some drama clubs that have been active at stage drama began to think of producing home videos. These drama groups were also active in Television Soap opera. Some of their dramas were produced and aired by Nigerian Television Authority Kano and CTV 67 (The State owned Television Station). They include:

Tumbin Giwa Drama Group
Gyaranya Drama Group
Jigon Hausa Drama Group
In 1990, Ibrahim Mandawari then president of Tumbin Giwa Drama Group was encouraged and supported by some of his members notably Auwalu Marshall, Aminu Hassan Yakasai and Adamu Mohammed to produce a home video. Consequently they produced a two-hour video programme titled TURMIN DANYA. In 1992, they produced another television opera titled CIN AMANA. This programme was aired at the Katsina State Television in thirty episodes. It was until 1993 that Tumbin Giwa made its debut with the production of GIMBIYA FATIMA (3 tapes). Jigon Hausa followed suite with MUNKAR in the same year.

Around the same period some individuals made efforts and made the first independent home video production. These pioneers are Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino (IN DA SO DA KAUNA- adapted from his best selling Hausa novel), Bala Anas Babinlata (TSUNTSU MAI WAYO- also from his Hausa novel with same title). Consequently, individual producers began to emerge producing one video film after another. It was from 1998 that the home video business in Kano became well established that today it has produced celebrities. Hausa home videos are past replacing Indian, American and Nigerian (English home videos). Moreover, cinemas are also affected by this surge that most of the cinemas today show Hausa home Videos to their customers. Today, an average of three home videos are released every month.
The themes of these home videos range from romance, marriage, family life, crime, social problems, corruption, and some politics. The films use modern and traditional instruments for their music (perhaps to replace those missed from Indian films).

One thing of note here is that Kano home video industry is an off short of its popular literature movement. Most of the earlier home videos were adaptations of earlier novels (example In Da So Da kauna. Tsuntsu Mai Wayo, Ki Yarda da Ni, Muguwar Kishiya, Bakandamiyar Rikicin Duniya, Kwabon masoyi, Su ma `ya`ya ne, Kara da kiyashi, Sa’adatu sa’ar mata, and so on.) Some of the producers and directors are also writers, examples are Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino, Bala Anas Babin lata, Dan’azimi Baba, Aminu Hassan Yakasai, Adamu Muhammed, and so on).

Just as the popular books raise many social questions and controversies, the home videos are also doing the same. The industry is dominated by youth so the level of modernization is great. This new trend is a fertile area of research.

Hausa home video industry has also sprung in other major cities of northern Nigeria notably, Kaduna, Katsina, Gusau, Sokoto, Zaria, and Gombe). Yet Kano leads the industry and is seen by many as the northern Nigerian Hollywood christened Kallywood. The industry has led to the emergence of entertainment magazines notable FIM magazine published in Kaduna and Tauraruwa published in Kano. There are indications that some new magazines covering the home video industry are likely to emerge in Sokoto, Kano and Kaduna. The industry is employing a large number of youth.

Name and Addresses of the major home videos producers in Kano

Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino
Gidan Dabino Video Productions
570, Sabon Titin Mandawari
Kano.
Tel: 064-636339

Ibrahim Muhammad Mandawari
Mandawari Enterprises
Ibrahim Taiwo Road
Kano
Tel: 064-640310

Adamu Muhammad
Kwabon Masoyi Productions
Gidan Umma Bayero
Kano.

Dan-azimi Baba Cediyar `Yangurasa
R.K. Studios
14, Sabon Titin Mandawari
Kano.

Abdulkarim Muhammad
FILAPS
Court Road
Kano.

Inuwa Hassan
Mu’azzart International
`Yankaba Quarters
Kano.

Umar Bawa Dukku
Dukku Productions
No. 3 Dandago Quarters
Kano-City.
Tel: 064-635071

Hamisu Lamido
Iyan Tama Multi-Media
44, Sabon Titin Mandawari
Kano.
Tel: 064-632280

Auwal Muhammad Sabo
Sarauniya Production
Gwammaja Quarters,
Kano.

Mansur Sherif Abba
Ibrahimawa Productions
485, Dandago Quarters
Kano.

Aminu Sherif
Ummi Productions
`Yankaba Quarters
Kano.

Hajin Fafa
Hajin Fafa Ventures
Gidan Atiku
Sabon Titin Mandawari
Kano.

Kabiru Na-kwango
Dabo Film Production
Gwammaja Quarters
Kano.

List of Cinemas in Kano Metropolis

El-Dorado Cinema
Farida Cinema
Lale Cinema
Marhaba Cinema
Orion Cinema
Plaza Cinema
Queens Cinema
Sani Abacha Youth Centre Cinema.
Wapa Cinema

List of major home video distributors

Alhaji Hassan Adamu
Bayan Bata
Kano.

Isma’il Idris
Bayan Bata
Kano.

Alhaji Musa Mai Kaset
Malam Kato Square
Kano.

Muhammad Lawan Kalarawi
Sabuwar Kasuwa
Kofar Wambai
Kano.

Alhaji Mustapha Muhammad
Club Road
Kano.

Danlami Sani
KRODA
Kano.

REFERENCES

Yahaya, I.Y. (1988) Hausa A Rubuce, Northern Nigeria Publishing Company, Zaria

Best, C. (1996) Press Development in Nigeria, A Comparative Analysis. Midland Press Limited, Jos.

Kolade C. in Ladele, O. et al (1979) History of The Nigerian Broadcasting Corporation. Ibadan University Press. Ibadan.

Churh, H.R. (1977) Africa and the Islands (Fourth edition, revised impression) Longman. London.

Mandawari, I.M. (1999) Verbal Communication on October 13 at his office.

Mohammed, A. (1999) Verbal Communication. October 2.

2007-06-11T08:21:00.001-07:00

INTERVIEW WITH HAFSATU AHMED ABDULWAHID

This interview was conducted in London in November 1998 by Yusuf M Adamu. I am grateful to Bala Muhammad who helped me organised the interview.

ADAMU: Could we hear a brief about your life?

ABDULWAHID (laughter) I was born at Kofar mata in Kano city on May 5, 1958. I started my primary education at Shahuci Primary School when my father was taken to Kaduna where I joined NEA in Kaduna. After four years I proceeded to Provincial Girls School where I spent at least three years. That was up to the time the school was up graded into a secondary school. I got married on January 15, 1966. Currently I have seven children who are alive while three have died.

What drew your attention to start writing?

I have been an avid reader and listener of folktales since my childhood. When I started schooling, I develop my skills of writing from the home-works and assignments we are given.

What is your first storybook?

So Aljannar Duniya. I started writing this book since my primary school days. It was about my elder sister who got married to a Libyan. When I learnt about a competition organised by the NNPC, I sent it as my entry and I was successful to have won the second position.

How do you get your inspiration?

Mostly from the happening around me. You know we still have problems of ethnicity or racial discrimination in our society particularly when it come s to marriage. That in particular inspired me to write So Aljannar Duniya.

When did you actually complete So Aljannar Duniya?

As I said earlier it was very long a go. I re-write it in 1971 and 1972 I revised it. It was that revised copy that I sent for the competition.

You have earlier said that So Aljannar Duniya was based on the life of your elder sister. Can we consider it as entirely a true story?

The story as it was in the book is a combination of her life and some personal experience. I am also married to someone that is not of the same race with me, but I have not experience many problems as my elder sister.

How do you learnt about the competition?

I read it in Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo.

How many books have you written so far?

I have written about nine books so far but only three were published.

Why do you write?

(Laughter) Interest. But also for one to be able to express himself for others to read.
It took you almost sixteen years to publish another novel (Yardubu) since the publication of So Aljannar Duniya. Why this long silence?

Is not that I have not been writing since that time. The problem is that of getting a publisher, it is a problem of having money to publish, a problem of having some kind of support for this kind of work.

You are married and have children. How do you combine your marital chorus with writing?

This is not a big problem. Since one is interested, the commitment is there. Nothing could stop me from writing.

Do you read other writers in Hausa or English? If yes give us an example.

I do. I read mostly classical Hausa writers like Abubakar Imam and other writers of that generation. I no longer read much now. I read English novels also mainly historical, horror and thrillers.

Who among Hausa writers impress you most?

Of course it is Abubakar Imam and the author of Tauraruwar Hamada, one Ahmad somebody. I couldn’t remember his surname.

Could it be Umar Dembo?

No it was not Umaru Dembo. His name is Ahmad some body who wrote Tauraruwar Hamada. Actually the story was about a sister of mine (now late). I read the manuscript before it was published. The author is also dead now. I also read authors like Jabiru Abdullahi the author of Na gari na kowa, the author of Jiki Magayi, and so on. For English writers, I read Rider Haggard, Catherine Gaskin, Arnold Rake and so on.

Do you write in any other language apart from Hausa?
Most of my writings are in Hausa, however I do write English Poems. We are now trying to translate all my Hausa works into English. My father is translating some into Fulfulde and Arabic.

In your first published novel, the main character Bodado is not a Hausa girl rather Fulani Why was that so?

(Laughter) May be because I myself am Fulbe. Not because I deliberately didn’t like her to be Hausa. I was trying to portray how difficult inter racial marriages were (laughs).

Do you relate to ANA or any writers Association?

Currently in Gusau where I live, I relate with some writers. Some years back I was in contact with a writers Association in Kano but things went wrong some how and that was that.

There are now many young writers both males and females. What is your opinion about the new writers?

Well, some of them are good while others are not so good. Some adapt movies. But there are some of them that I enjoy reading like Yusuf Adamu, Babinlata and one Ado Ahmad some body.

What are your main problems as an authoress?

It is not more than my inability to publish my books. Those that could help are also crying of no money. You know how things are nowadays.

What role do you think Hausa authors could play in shaping the future of Hausa society?

Well they could contribute positively if they write about our culture and about morality. You know how bad things are today. If they could do that I think things will improve.

Do you write non-fiction?

Yes I do. I have published one title about marriage. Some cultural practises are now making marriage very difficult due to economic hardship. The book was launched at the Bayero University Kano in September 19….. It was entirely about marriage problems.

Does Hausa society value literature?

Not quite! If they care, writers can be encouraged. Fortunately now we have young men and women that read and those that write (particularly about romance) but our people are not helping matters but I think they should.

What should we do?
If rich people can establish publishing outlets, it would certainly help immensely.

Do any of your children write?

Yes. Two of them write. My eldest daughter Kadiriyya does write so also my sixth child Sa’adiyya.

What kind of writing do they do? Is it fiction or newspaper articles?

They write features in newspapers and I encourage them to keep them. They might be published consequently in the future.

What is the joy of being a writer?

The joy is to see that you are able to express your mind into writing that people could read even after your death. This will say a lot about the kind of person you are.

Thank you for your time.

(Laughter) Thank you too.