Paradigmatic Shift in Literary Ignorance – Removal of Ajami from Nigerian Currency Notes
This post is about the removal of what the Nigerian political and economic establishments called "Arabic inscriptions" on the Nigerian currency (the Naira) on 28th Feburary 2007 in new currency notes that removed the ajami (Hausa written in Arabic script) writing that indicated the denomination of the respective currency note and replaced it with Roman alphabet. The full historical overview of how the Arabic "script" came to become part of essentially northern Nigerian Muslim Hausa educational package is given in Manuscript Learnability and Indigenous Knowledge for Development – Hausa Ajami in Historical Context . This is a paper I presented at the International Conference on Preserving Nigeria’s Scholarly and Literary Traditions and Arabic Manuscripts Heritage held on March 7th and 8th, March, 2007 Arewa House Kaduna, Nigeria, organised by Arewa House, Ahmadu Bello University, in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy, Abuja. I rarely bother to visit Nigerian "N...