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
Sunday, May 17, 2009
Thursday, March 19, 2009
Hausa Literature and the City
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.
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.
Wednesday, January 21, 2009
WAKE UP ARAB WORLD
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.
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.
Saturday, January 10, 2009
Gaza: Why Arabian Monarchs and Emperors Keep Silent!
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.
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.
Sunday, October 19, 2008
TAWAYEN HAUSAWA A BRAZIL
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.
Sunday, September 28, 2008
Wednesday, September 3, 2008
Saturday, August 30, 2008
Thursday, August 28, 2008
WRITERS vs CESORSHIP BOARD:CEASE-FIRE REACHED
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.
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.
Saturday, August 2, 2008
Hausa Literary Movement & the 21st Century
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.
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.
Tuesday, July 15, 2008
BETWEEN THE PEN AND THE SWORD: DRAWING THE BATTLE LINE IN KANO STATE
“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.
-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.
Monday, March 3, 2008
BANGON DUNIYA. Where are we in the Cosmos?
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.
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.
Friday, February 15, 2008
FACES OF ISLAM
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).
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).
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About Me
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- Yusuf M. Adamu
- Kano, Kano, Nigeria
- Dr. Yusuf M. Adamu, Fulbright Fellow, member, Nigerian Academy of Letters and Fellow of the Association of Nigerian Authors is a Professor of Medical Geography at the Bayero University Kano. He is a bilingual writer, a poet, and writes for children. He is interested in photography and run a photo blog (www.hausa.aminus3.com) All the blogs he run are largely for his hobbies and not his academic interests. Hope you enjoy the blogs.