Nishad'in Hululu (Hausa Popular Culture)

Book Burning in Nigeria (1) - The Yandoto Experience

2007-06-20T12:51:00.000-07:00

This posting and the next to follow deal with an event that was not widely reported in Nigerian newspapers – the first Book Burning in modern Nigerian literary history. In the next posting, I will give full details.

In this posting I want to reproduce an academic paper written by Dr. S.A. Albasu of the Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto (UDUS), Nigeria on the first Book Burning in Nigerian literary history – the destruction of the Islamic Scholar community at ‘Yandoto, near Tsafe, in Zamfara, Nigeria, by Jihadist forces led by Muhammad Bello. This is to serve as a pre-quel to the modern Book Burning that took place in Kano, Nigeria, on Thursday 3rd May, 2007.

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Islamic learning and intellectualism in Katsina outside the Birni: The Yandoto experience

S.A. Albasu
Department of History
Usmanu Danfodiyo University
Sokoto

Taken from
Tsiga, Ismail Abubakar. and Adamu, Abdalla Uba (eds) 1995. Islam and the History of Learning in Katsina. Abuja, Spectrum; pp. 187-197.

Available separately. Click to download.

Introduction
Studies in the origin and spread of Islam in the western and central Sudan are many and varied.1 Whereas a great deal of these studies focus attention on the process and dynamics for the spread, quite a number of others highlight the role of agencies and institutions in facilitating the diffusion of the religion. One such institutions were Islamic schools, which, apart from promoting Islamic scholarship became great centres of population concentration, commerce and politics. The cities of Timbuktu, Gao, Jenne, Aghades and Borno became famous as, first and foremost, centres of Islamic learning. Others like Kano, Katsina and Zazzau owe their development and fame to the important position they occupied as centres of learning. Timbuktu had the reputation of being the most famous having attained its peak under the Mali and Songhai. It produced eminent scholars and thriving Islamic culture known as "Timbuktu Tradition" for over five hundred years. Its inhabitants in recognition of the significance of their town as a great centre of learning, claimed that there was never a time worship had been offered to pagan gods within its walls".2

Gazargamu from about the mid-17th century became famous Islamic centre throughout Borno Hausaland. Eye witness accounts report that the Mali's court recorded "highly educated Ulama who indulged constantly in learned disputations".3

Birnin Kano had assumed similar role with an emergent Ulama class. Similar developments took place in Katsina particularly after the fall of Songhai, when it became supreme in Islamic learning and home of renowned scholars like Dan Masani and Dan Marina.4

Of all these great centres in learning and intellect the least known, but equally significant, was Yandoto. Like Timbuktu, Kano, and Borno, Yandoto was a prominent Islamic centre, but unlike these towns, it received little attention from scholars and researchers.5 This seeming neglect accounts for the lack of appreciation of Yandoto and its scholars despite the fact that several scholars in Kano, Zazzau, Birnin Katsina could have their origin straced to Yandoto. In some accounts, Yandoto was reported as abode to one of the three Muslim Universities in central and western Sudan; the two others being Timbuktu and Cairo.6 In about the 16th century Yandoto was one of Kano's scholarly neighours in addition to Birnin Katsina and Birnin Zazzau.7

This not withstanding, we are yet to read any comprehensive work on Yandoto. This chapter therefore is an attempt to highlight the significance of Yandoto as a leading centre of Islamic learning and sscholarship in pre-jihad Katsina and draw attention to the need for a wider study.

Methodological limitation
A word or so need to be said on the problems associated with this study. Generally, information seem scanty on the developments in the central and western Sudan before the 19th century. Yandoto suffers from this inadequacy. Secondly, the jihad on Yandoto leading to the burning and destruction of scholarly materials leaves no room for unearthing the pre-Jihad historical and intellectual development of the area. Thirdly, the jihad leaders seemed to have deliberately discouraged study on Yandoto scholars probably because of the general apathy in classifying them as evil scholars. Fourthly, no remnants of uncomprimising scholars can be found in Yandoto presently, having decided to migrate than to remain under the tutelage of the jihadists.

Yandoto: The area and its peoples
Yandoto is a small village about fifty kilometres east of Gusau. It is situated on the main road between Gusau and Funtua. Little is known about the origin of Yandoto settlement. Like the old towns in Hausaland, Yandoto had no written history about its distant past and so, this necessitates reliance on oral tradition to reconstruct its history. According to one such tradition Yandoto was founded long before the emergence of Hausa states.8 Another tradition went further to claim that Yandoto was founded before the birth of Jesus Christ and was among the first one hundred and seventy settlements created by God.9 Apparently these claims lack corroborative evidence, but the existence of walls and dye pits at Yandoto lay credence to its ancient origin.

Presently, there are three settlements that bear Yandoto. Yandoto Birni was founded first, but abandoned due to ecological problems. Yandoto Ramo was abandoned after its destruction by the Jihadists. Yandoto Daji had since then became the settlement inhabited by the decendants of the great city most of who deserted the territory after its capture by the Jihadists.10

The origin of the earliest inhabitants of Yandoto is also obscure. However, some traditions maintain that the area was originally inhabited by Maguzawa (non-Muslim Hausa).11 We do not know where they came from or the reasons for their settlement in the area. At most this claim can be considered part of the general assetion that most of Hausaland was originally inhabited by Maguzawa. At a later date Yandoto witnessed influx of immigrants of Fulani, Barebari and Adarawa background probably in response to the intellectual position of the area.12

However, some sources claim that Yandoto was inhabited by immigrants from Mali and, in fact, the area bore the name Wangara in recognition of their original home in Mali, "which controlled the famous gold bearing region on the upper Niger known far and wide as Wangara."13 Furthermore, the legendary Korau of Yandoto who founded the Korau dynasty of Katsina is spoken of as "red, that is, light skinned person usually associated with the colour complexion of the Malians.14

Yandoto and Katsina: the linkages
No precise date can be given for the commencement of close relation between Yandoto and Katsina peior to Korau-Sanau incident. Even for this event, it seem the evidence available is not clear over the issue of date and characters involved. Usman was swipt in identifying the inconsistencies in the Yandoto Katsina connections and by extension the emergence of Birnin Katsina and its Sarauta system.16 According to Bath, the first Sarkin Katsina was Kumayau, grandson of the legendary Bayajida. Before establishing his kingdom in Katsina, Kumayau overthrew an older one, that of Durbawa. Later, Kumayau's kingdom was toppled by Korau who came from Yandoto.17 In another tradition, Kumayau kingdom was overthrawn by one Muhammadu Korau presumably the first Muslim ruler of Katsina. He was also reportedly of Yandoto origin.18 This inconsistency apart, both versions agreed that Korau came from Yandoto. Thus, Yandoto occupies a special position in Katsina history as home of founder of Katsina kingdom and more importantly, the spread of Islam and Islamic learning. Mohammad Korau being the first Muslim ruler of Katsina and having came from Yandoto is a further testimony to its significance as a centre for learning.

After giving birth to Katsina Yandoto continued to maintan centuries of political and intellectual relations with Katsina as seat of the kingdom. Yandoto became central to the region known as Katsina Laka.19

Islamic scholarship and the intellgensia in Yandoto
The major obstacle to a full understanding of Yandoto's scholarly tradition is the lack of survival of their works and the scattering of the uncompromising Ulama. However, intellectual position is acknowledged far and wide to the extent in search of scholarship. There is no evidence to show that any of the principal jihad leaders had studied there. This, however, does not suggest that none of them might have gone there to study considering its scholastic culture and proximity to the centre of Jihadist activities. Moreover, there is evidence that Muhammad Saad, a newphew of Sheyk Usman Danfodiyo, had lived and married at Yandoto before moving to Kwanni.20 What is not clear is whether the Shaykh himself had ever gone to Yandoto to study or preach considering the fact that he had lived in the Zamfara area. Perhaps also, the Jihad leaders had blood relations with Yandoto Ulama. The exact nature of this relationship cannot be ascertained as there is no evidence of inter-marriage except with the Sheykh's nephew. Due, principally, to this inadequacy it is safe to conclude that the relation of the Yandoto scholars and the Jihad leaders was purely intellectual. According to some sources two leading scholars of Yandoto, who also play a tremendous role in the emergence of Gusau, Malam Umaru son of Alhaji Mustapha and Muhammad Sambo son of Ashafas used to frequent Shehu’s school at Degel.21

The scholars of Yandoto
Yandoto was endowed with numerous scholars, but not much is known about them or their scholarly activities. Two of the most fairly known scholars were Alhaji Mustapha and Malam Abdul-Rahman. Alhaji Mustapha was either born in Baghdad or in the Hijaz, but originally of Fulani background. Little is known about how he came to Yandoto, but probably through the imigratory movements in the 17th or 18th centuries he found the Yandoto area attractive and so decided to settle there. Together with his son Umaru, Alhaji Mustapha occasionally returns to the Hijaz to perform the Hajj. In one such trip he was followed to Yandoto by a close associate Malam Andul-Rahman, father of Muhammad Ashafa. In an effort to further cement their relationship Umar's daughter was married to Muhammad Ashafa. The marriage was blessed with a child, Muhammad Sambo, who later founded Gusau.

There were other prominent scholars like Malam Buhari Na Yandoto who was adviser to Sarakunan Katsina. One of his sons, Malam Abubakar became a leading scholar in Kano in the 18th century, whereas the other, Malam Yahaya, found a famous school at Gafai in Birnin Katsina.23 Other scholars include Alhaji Mustapha Ibn Zangi al-Baqdazi, Malam Halilu, who authored Lamiyyatus Sagairi (a poem). Malam Baki al-Barnawi who authored Balagul Muna; Malam Dan Madina, the supposed author of Baru and Bacca.24 Interestingly, Yandoto had also produced female scholars of repute despite the neglect suffered by women education in pre-Jihad Hausaland. Among the female scholars were Hadiza, Raliya and Umm Hari.25

Ethic and belief system
Here again, there is very little information on whether or not Yandoto scholars had some unique characteristics. The sources available seem to potray them as strict adherent to the Qur'an only. But more than this, they are described as scholars who encouraged innovations often mixing Islam with other practices peculiar to the pre-Jihad Hausa Muslims. If this description is true then it would have formed the basis of the jihadist attack on them.26

However, it is unlikely that scholars of Yandoto were syncretists. Already Yandoto role as a leading Islamic cetnre had been demonstrated. The Jihad leaders themselves, and acknowledged this position otherwise the Shaikh would not have accepted them as his pupils or even approved his nephew's search for knowledge there. More importantly, neither the Shaykh nor his son Muhammad Bello ever made such accusation against Yandoto scholars even during the period of hostility.

The Yandoto scholars have been described as law abiding, peace loving and strict believers in predestination. According to them whatever happens is from God, and for this reason they emphasis the need for strickest observance of the tenents of Islam. A true believer is one who does what is required of him anbd avoid what is forbidden.

There is nothing fundamental that distinguishes Yandoto Islam from the rest of the Muslims, although some authors tried to give a picture of them as syncretists.27 However, the few research works on Yandoto have all agreed on the fact that the contribution of Yandoto scholars to Islamic learning is tremendous. Apart from pioneering the teaching of the Qur'an in a simplified format they were described as the first to introduce the use of Zaure as school.28 In a study of their intellectual tradition, Alhassan recorded more than eighty works attributed to them, although some appear suspect.29 Given the long period of Islamic culture and learning that flourished at Yandoto one is bound to ask why the jihad leaders extended their campaigns to the area.

The Jihadists versus Yandoto scholars
To the Yandoto scholars the significance of Jihad in the form of preaching, teaching and enlightenment was not doubt. They themselves were Islamic scholars who indefatigably promoted Islamic learning and scholarship. Therefore, when the Sokoto jihadist asked for their allegiance the scholars of Yandoto could not understand the basis for such question beyond naked display of political opportunism. Why should they be asked to submit to a human being (a mortal) despite their absolute submission to Allah. The scholars, therefore, viewed Shehu's call for submission with disdain and totally rejected it. Only Malam Ashafa and Muhammad Sambo who had been students of the Shehu accepted the call. For doing this, they were expelled from Yandoto.

To the jihadits, the Yandoto scholars were seen as representing an obstacle to the submission of the town as well as surrounding villages and communities in the Zanfara territory. Nadama pointed out the danger and imminent setback Yandoto opposition would create on the jihadist in the Zamfara area:

"At the earlier stage of the jihad the support of the Sarakuna of Zamfara had proved crucial in the trying days of 1804. However, by the end of 1805 some of the towns were becoming increasingly hostile, raising the banner of tawaye against the jihadist. If action was not taken against the Yandoto community in good time, the whole movement would been endangered".30

Moreover, since the basis of the jihad as put by the jihadist was to reform Islamic religion, opposition to this reform from leading Muslim scholars like Yandoto would be more dangerous than even a hostile army. This town had to be brought to submission, but since they could not be charged of heathenism the jihadists had to provide justification for attacking it, which they never did.31

Towards the end of 1805 Bello led an expedition to Yandoto, but first "camped close to it in order to talk with its scholars. He sent a message to them that:

"If it should prove that we were in the right they should repent and follow us, but if they were in the right then we would repent and leave that on which we were set".32

The unyielding Yandoto scholars who had never accepted Shehu's superiority and now provoked by an army on their doorsteps determined to fight them sent a reply to Bello:

"We will not talk to him at all, we do not even wish to see him, lest God join us with him and his father Shehu in this world and the next".33

This rebuff proved too much for Bello's tolerance and so, he marched against Yandoto. Most of the scholars were reported to have fled during the attack and thereafter Bello camped in the town for several days.

Aftermath of the conquest
The Yandoto scholars not only challenged the authority of the Shehu, but more fundamentally, the legality of the jihad. To them the Shehu had no right (moral or theological) to force them to submit to him. Not only were they Muslims and their territory Islam, their town had the reputation of being a famous centre for Islamic learning. What then, was the justification for waging jihad against them? The attack on Yandoto was unjustified, especially because the people of Yandoto were never accused un-Islamic practices like the people of Borno who were accused of:

(a) Making sacrifices to trees and other objects at certain specific places.
(b) Failure of free born women to cover their heads.
(c) Taking bribes by officials.
(d) Falsification of judgements by law courst.
(e) And embezzlement of property of orphorus by officials.

Even in the case of Borno, el-Kanemmi emphatically rejected that such acts, which he considered as acts of disobidience (ma'asiya), (enough to) constitute unbelief and hence justify jihad against the people of Borno.34

The attack on Yandoto much more than that on Borno, was a political and intellectual issue further than religious one. Because the two incidents were similar, el-Kanemi found it expedicent to refer to the jihadist attack on Yandoto during his intellectual controversy with Bello. One of his accusations against the jihadist was that they had been guilty of destroying Islamic books at Yandoto:

We see among you a thing which every Malam rejects. You are destroying books; you are scattering them in the roads; you are throwing them in the dirt. But the name of God is on these books and you know that he who throws the name of God in the dirt is heathen.35

Bello rejected the charges in a reply to el-Kanimi:

You say you see among us a thing which every Malam is opposed to; let me inform you, el-Kanemi, I went out on an expedition and captured one of the Katsina towns...I saw papers being blown about by wind. They were falling into the dirt. I endeavoured to pick them up, till I was weary for they were so many. So I returned and was vexed all day. Then I gathered the people together... they said the cause of what had been done was a quarrel that arose over the spoils of war. They further said that if anyone had intentionally thrown these papers away, he could only be one of the lowest of our people and if we had seen him we would have... punished him severely.36

Notes

1. The following are few of the literature on islamic in western and central Sudan Trimmingham, J.J., Islam in West Africa, London, 1966; Lewis, I.M. ( ) Islam in Tropical Africa, London and Clark, P.B., West Africa and Islam, London, 1982.
2. Kani, A.M. "The Role of the Sokoto Caliphate..." World Seminar on Impact of Nationalism on the Ummah, London, August 1985, p.3.
3. Adeleye, R.A. "Hausaland and Borno 1600-1800", in Ajayi, J.F.A. and Crowder, M. History of West Africa, Vol.1, Second Edition, Longman, 1979 (reprint).
4. Ibid. See also Paden, J.N., Religion and Political Culture in Kano (Berkely: University of California Press) and Hiskett, M. An Islamic Translation of Reform in the Western Sudan from the 16th to the 18th century: BSOAS, XXV, 1962.
5. So far I have known only two "direct" studies on Yandoto, These are: (a) Alhassan, H Su Wanene Malaman Yandoto? A paper presented at International Seminar on Intellectual Tradition in the Sokoto Caliphate and Borno. Centre for Islamic Studies, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto, June 1987. (b) Chafe, S.S., The Relationship Between Yandoto Scholars and Sokoto Jihadists, B.A. Islamic Studies Project UDUS, 1988, The Works of Usman, Y.B. The Transformation of Katsina: 1400-1883. The Emergence of and Overthrow of the Sarauta System and the Establishment of the Emirate, ABU Press, 1981 and Nadama, A.G., "Urbanization in the Sokoto Caliphate: A Case Study of Gusau and Kaura-Namoda", in Usman, I.B. (ed) Studies in the history of the Sokoto Calipohate, Zaria, 1979.
6. Hunwick, J. "Ahmad Baba and the Moroccon Invasion of the Sudan" JHSN,2, 1962. See also Yandaki, A.I., "Islamic Scholarship and Revivalism in Hausaland in the late 18th and early 19th centuries: A Prelude to the twentieth century Revivalist tendencies". PG Seminar, History Department, UDUS.
7. Last, M., "Beyond Kano, Before Katsina: Friend and foe on the Western Frontier", Second International Conference on the History of Kano, Bayero University, Kano, 1985, p.2
8. Alhassan, H., op cit.
9. Ibid.
10. Oral Information, Malam Habib Alhassan, Usmanu Danfodiyo University, March 28, 1992.
11. Alhassan, H. op cit see also Chafe, S.S., op cit.
12. Alhassan, H. op cit In addition Yandoto was described as "a junction town of trade routes passing to the various areas of Hausaland", Na Dama, A.G. "Urbanization in the Sokoto..." in Usman Y.B. (ed) Studies in the History.... p.148, It had also been described as a fertile land conduceive for agricultural production see, Chafe, S.S. The Relationship... op cit.
13. On this issue see Ajayi, J.F.A. and Crowder, M., History of West Africa, Vol.1, p.191 and Usman, Y.B., The Transformation... p.12.
14. Ibid.
15. For a detailed description of the origin of Katsina's Sarauta system viz-a-viz Korau - Saana "contest" see, usman, Y.B. The Transformation... p.10-34.
16. Ibid, p.11.
17. Ibid, p.11.
18. Yandoto at one time lived under the supervision of Katsina represented by Madawakin Katsina based at Yandoto. See Chafe S.S. The Relationahip..., p.8, see also Na Dama, A.G. Urbanization..., p.148.
19. Gusau, M.S. and Gusau, M. Gusau Ta Malam Sambo.
20. Ibid.
21. Ibid.
22. Usman, Y.B. The Birnin Katsina in Cities of the Savannah, n.d.p.
23. Alhassan, H., Su Wanene...? p.6. Alhassan listed thirty Scholars attributed to Yandoto.
24. Chafe, S.S., "The Relationship...", p.
25. So far as I know, the Yandoto scholars had not been accused of any wrong doing by the Jihadists. However, their alleged closeness to the Sarakunan Katsina could have earned them the wrath of the jihadists. According to Nadama, a section of the Yandoto community had established a modus vivendi with Katsina ruling class, who had repressed the Jama'a. Nadama op cit, p.148-150.
26. Alhassan, H. "Su wanene...? p.7-8.
27. Ibid.
28. It appears to me that some of these works attributed Yandoto scholars are simply imaginary. Some do not exist in any form and/or are associated with sooth sayers and magicians.
29. Na Dama, A.G. in Usman, Y.B. "Studies...", p.150.
30. See Note 26. The Jihadist hostility to Yandoto could have arisen due to its special ties with Borno, Sokoto's traditional rival. See Johns, H.S. The Fulani Empire of Sokoto. Or because of their classification as venal scholars (Ulama al-su') one of the three religious categories of people identified by the jihadist. See Minna, M.T.M., Sultan Muhammad Bello and His Intellectual Contribution to the Sokoto Caliphate. PhD. Thesis University of London, July 1982, p.222.
31. Arnett, E.J., The Rise of the Sokoto Fulani being a paraphrase and in some parts a translation of the Infaqul - Maysur of Sultan Muh'd Bello, p.87.
32. Ibid.
33. Minna, M.T.M., p.200.
34. Amett, E.J., p.102-103.
35. Ibid, p.107.

Paradigmatic Shift in Literary Ignorance – Removal of Ajami from Nigerian Currency Notes

2007-04-16T07:44:00.000-07:00

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 "Naija" websites on the web or any other group of politically motivated Nigerians. I know what I will find -- the usual vituperative tirade against northern Nigerians, Muslims, Hausa, ad nauseum. Southern Nigerians have three fundamental articles in their crusade against northern Nigeria: Islamic fanaticism, conservative feudalism and the “born to rule” syndrome. No matter how many groups of Nigerians you interact with, these three form the main focus of the divide in Nigeria. They are the main reasons why Nigerian "unity" is virtually impossible.

I doubt if there is any other group of Africans who hang out their ethnic dirty laundry like Nigerians. I accept, for the most part such ranting are probably not personal; they are basically religious – the Christian versus Muslim divide, rather than any feeling of superiority of one ethnic group over the other. Any such feelings of superiority are part of a religious template that sees acquisition of education as the central criteria for judging the value of a whole people. Thus education, not religion, is the central fulcrum around which the Nigerian nation wobbles.

Southern Nigerians acquired education through Christian Missionary activities from about 1849 (Ajayi 1965, Ayandele 1955, 1969, Bassey 1991, Adelabu 1971). Such education became the mainstay of acquiring Westernized modernity. Inevitably Western education brought by Christian missionaries to Nigeria became equated with Western Christian values. For the most part, Christian southern Nigerians are happy with this because it makes them “civilized” -- in the absence of any cherished antecedent cultural values. Thus any other worldview is considered barbaric.

Northern Nigerians, specifically the Hausa and the Kanuri acquired education through conversion to Islam since 1250 (Aliyu 1972, Zarruk 1978) and in Kanuri kingdom, even earlier. The constant eddy of scholars from north African learning centers throughout 14th to 17th centuries ensured a sustained scholastic tradition in Muslim northern Nigeria (Palmer 1903, Philips 1989, Al-Hajj 1968, Lovejoy 1979, Hiskett 1965, Graham 1966, Hunwick 1996, Dobronravine 2002, Adamu 2007, Chamberlain 1975, Mohammed and Khan 1981, Barkindo 1988).

Northern Nigerians therefore had a longer exposure to the concept of learning and literacy than southern Nigerians. A universal basic education was indeed introduced around 1464 in the city of Kano when new methods of indigenizing the Arabic script to Hausa phonology were created. This led to the creation of a novel way of writing out Hausa language in a script the young scholars will understand . It is this method of indigenizing Arabic script to Hausa language that became ajami. It became one of the main ways of educating young pupils in northern Nigeria. Do you remember all those “almajirai” you see in northern Nigerian cities? Well they are fluent in ajami writing.

Ajami, therefore, is any literacy strategy in which any language is written in Arabic. Over 50 languages are currently written in the script (Adamu 2007). Let us look at the parallel sphere. If any African language is written in Romanized characters, it can be called Ajami. Ajami therefore is not Islamic, anymore than Romanized alphabets are Christian.

However, in a new era of reform, the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) decided to remove the “Arabic” script from the Nigerian currency in new currency notes launched on 28th February 2007. The removal of ajami script on the Nigerian currency reflected the deep-rooted religious divide that is Nigeria, because the Arabic script was seen as religious – and Nigeria is considered a secular country. This equates Arabic with Islam – ignoring the huge number of Arab Christians that exist throughout The Middle East.

The logic of the removal of the what the Nigerian economic establishment call “Arabic inscription” on the Nigerian currency given by the Nigerian Government was premised on using a Roman inscription that is available to all Nigerians (even if in mutually exclusive languages), rather than an exclusive script tied down to a particular religious culture. According to the Governor of CBN, Professor Chukwuma Soludo during a sensitization visit to the Sultan of Sokoto,

I will also like to inform you that the removal of the Arabic inscription on the notes is not targeted at any group or religion but rather to promote our language and cultural heritage…As you can see, Naira is the symbol of our nationalism and our pride. It is pertinent to let you understand that Arabic is not one of our national languages and it was inscribed on the notes forty years ago because the majority of people then, can read it in the northern part of the country to the detriment of their counterparts in the South (ThisDay, 16th February 2007, posted to the web 19th February 2007 at http://allafrica.com/stories/200702190519.html).

It is interesting that a main argument was that the presence of ajami on Nigerian currency was seen to the “detrimental” to southern Nigerians (who presumably do not understand it) – yet the inclusion of Roman lettering is not seen as detrimental to non-Roman literate northern Nigerians (especially non-Muslim Hausa, who presumably do not understand it). In this warped logic, it is therefore easier to alienate Muslim Hausa northern Nigerians than southern Nigerians, especially since a Christian is the President of the country (and a Christian Governor of the Central Bank facilitated the alienation). Of course when a Muslim becomes the President, the arguments might be revisited – and reversed; which another subsequent Christian president will also revisit, and so on endlessly.

The inclusion of the script on the Nigerian currency by the colonial administration was an acknowledgement of the rich literary heritage of a vast number of people who could not read the Romanized script– and not a strategy to impose Islam on anyone in Nigeria. Certainly the British colonial administration had no reason to propagate Islam. Yet on the currencies circulated by the same administration the “Arabic inscription” was conspicuously present, as in these specimens of earlier Nigerian currency show.

Further, other multicultural countries do pay such homage to multiple literacies in their currency notes. The Indian currency, for instance, has 14 language scripts , including Urdu (ajami) – despite Arabic not being part of its national languages. Examples are located here.

And while not explicitly stated, the links made by the Nigerian economic establishment with Arabic to Islam seems to be part of a move to “de-Islamize” Nigeria – scoring a point particularly in the way most northern Nigerian States re-introduced Islamic Shari’a in their governance from 1999 led by Zamfara State, and the earlier issue of Nigeria’s membership of the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) in January 1986, which the Nigerian Christian (as well as Marxist Muslim) groups were against. The Christian views of these debates are given here.

It is not clear where the arguments along the religious lines would end because some significant symbolism of Nigeria is decidedly Christian. For instance, the Eagle that characterizes the Nigerian coat-of-arms is a symbol of Christ and his Divine nature, of regeneration by baptism; it is also an emblem of St. John the Evangelist. Because it soars upward, the eagle is a symbol of the resurrection or ascension of Christ. Thus the eagle symbolizes baptized Christians, who have symbolically died and risen with Christ.

And the horses? If you look hard, you will see Christian symbolism there too. And not all nice, either. According to this source, in Biblical times, the horse was primarily a vehicle of war (Jer 6:23; 50:42; 51:27). The sudden appearance of one or more horses was an omen of war or deadly misfortune. Before the Israelites crossed the Jordan into the Land of Promise, Moses instructed them, "He (Israel's king) shall not multiply horses for himself, nor cause the people to return to Egypt to multiply horses..." (Deu 17:16). Moses told the Israelites, the Lord was to be their confidence in war rather than armies with their horses and chariots (Deu 20:1-4). The psalmists considered the horse "a vain hope for safety" and encouraged Israel to place their trust in a God who was pleased by faith rather than by strength (Psa 20:7; 33:17-19; 147:10-11; see also Prov 21:31).

Further, the color of a horse is very important in determining its symbolism. White horses symbolize the sun, the moon, the sea, the heavens, justice, and holiness. Most sacred horses are white. During the Middle Ages, virgin heroes, saints, and Christ were depicted riding upon white horses. At the end of the age, Christ and His heavenly armies arrive, mounted on white horses (Rev 19:11-15). However, to dream of a white horse is considered an omen of death. Don’t forget, the Nigerian coat of arms has two white horses – surely an invitation to a double death, then. Thus if we are to take the symbolism argument further, we might as well start thinking about changing the Nigerian coat of arms with its Christian theology – as Nigeria being a secular nation, we can’t afford a particular religion to dominate. Once you start along this road, there is no knowing where it might end up.

Thus if we are to change the animals on the Nigerian coat of arms to appease to Muslim sensibilities, I have quite a few suggestions. The eagle can be replaced by a rat – for the rat represents the most accurate depiction of Nigerians and their leaders – thieving lot that they are. Get rid of the Christian horses and replace them with lizards, again another Nigerian political symbolism – slithering away from real political responsibilities.

I must say therefore that the most sober historical reflection on this issue is surely Nowa Omoigui’s New Naira Notes – Languages and Scripts; Can of Worms, which is a balanced recapitulation of the historical development of the Nigerian currency. Both the antagonists and protagonists will certainly benefit from the historical information – thus enabling them to escape from being labeled eunuchs in the harem of historical epistemology.

References
Abubakar, Aliyu (1972) Al-Thakafatul Arabiyyati Fi Nigeriya, 1750-1960 (Arabic Literature in Nigeria, 1750-1960). PhD Thesis, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, 1972.

Adamu, A. U. (2007). Manuscript Learnability and Indigenous Knowledge for Development – Hausa Ajami in Historical Context. Paper 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, organised by Arewa House, in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy, Abuja (link posted on this blog).

Adelabu, A. (1971). Studies in trends in Nigeria’s educational development: An essay on sources and resources. African Studies Review 14 (1) April 1971, pp. 101-112.

Ajayi, J.F.A. (1965). Christian missions in Nigeria, 1841-1891: The making of a new elite. Evanston, Il.: Northwestern University Press.

Al-Hajj, M. (1968), A Seventeenth Century Chronicle on the Origins and Missionary Activities of the Wangarawa, being a translation of Waraqa maktuba fiha asl al-Wangariyin al-muntasibin lik-shaikh Abd al-Rahman b. Muhammad b. Ibrahim b. Muhammad Qithima. Kano Studies, Vol 1. No 4. 1968, pp. 7-16.

Ayandele, E.A. (1955). The missionary impact on modern Nigeria, 1842-1914: A political and social analysis. New York: Humanities Press.

Ayandele, E.A. (1969). Traditional rulers and missionaries in pre-colonial West Africa. Tarikh, 3 (1), 23-37.

Barkindo, B.M (1988). The Role of al-Maghili in the Reforms of Sarki Muhammadu Rumfa (1463-1499) of Kano: A re-examination, Kano Studies New Series Vol 3 No 1, 1987/88 pp. 85-110.

Bassey, M.O. (1991). Missionary rivalry and educational expansion in Southern Nigeria, 1885-1932. The Journal of Negro Education, 60 (1), Winter 1991, pp. 36-46.

Chamberlain, J.W., The Development of Islamic Education in Kano City, Nigeria, with emphasis on Legal Education in the 19th and 20th Centuries. Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, Columbia University, 1975 p. 52.

Davis, T.J. and Kalu-Nwiwu, A. (2001). Education, ethnicity and national integration in the history of Nigeria: Continuing problems of Africa’s colonial legacy. The Journal of Negro History, 86 (1), Winter 2001, pp. 1-11.

Dobronravine, N. (2002) Hausa Ajami Literature and Script: Colonial Innovations and Post-Colonial Myths in Northern Nigeria. Paper presented at the Second International Colloquium African Muslim Responses to the State, with Special Reference to the Colonial Period, held on 15-19th May 2002, and organized by the Institute for the Study of Islamic Thought in Africa (ISITA), Program of African Studies, Northwestern University, Chicago.

Graham, S.F. (1966). Government and Mission Education in Northern Nigeria, 1900-1919 - with special reference to the work of Hanns Vischer. Ibadan: Ibadan University Press.

Hiskett, M (1965). “The Historical Background to the Naturalization of Arabic Loan-words in Hausa”, African Language Studies, VI (1965), I8-26.

Hunwick, J. (1996), Sub-Saharan Africa and the Wider World of Islam: Historical and Contemporary Perspectives. Journal of Religion in Africa, Vol. 26, Fasc. 3. (Aug., 1996), pp. 230-257.

Lovejoy, P. E. (1978), “Notes on the Asl Al-Wangariyin” Kano Studies (New Series), 1 (3), 1978.

Mohammed, A., and Khan, M. B (1981). “From Cradle to Grave: The Contribution of Ulama to Education in Nigeria. Kano Studies Vol 2 No 2, 1981 pp. 110-145.

Murray, A.V. (1935). Education under Indirect Rule. Journal of the Royal African Society, 34 (136), July 1935, pp. 227-268.

Palmer, H.R. (1908) The Kano Chronicle, The Journal of the Royal Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland, Vol. 38 (Jan. – Jun., 1908), pp. 58-98.

Pasch, H. (2004). Competing scripts: The introduction of the Roman alphabet in Africa.’ International Journal of the Sociology of Language.

Philps, J.E. (1989). “A History of the Hausa Language” in Kano and Some of her Neighbors edited by Bawuro Barkindo. Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University Press, 1989 pp. 39-58.

Zarruk, Rabi’u Muhammad (1978) “Dangantakar Hausa Da Larabci”, in Ibrahim Yaro Yahaya and Abba Rufa’i (eds), Studies in Hausa Language, Literature and Culture – The First Hausa International Conference, Center for the Study of Nigerian Languages, Bayero University, Kano, 1978

Eunuchs in the Harem of Hausa Cultural Epistemology

2007-03-19T11:38:00.000-07:00

Published in (Nigerian) Weekly Trust, 20th December, 2002

Hausa cultural studies never had it so good. I doubt if there is any field of cultural studies that has engaged much attention from critics — both virile and eunuchs — like studies of contemporary Hausa culture. Outside the country, the main focus is on attempting to understand what makes the Hausa person tick; for instance, why, in spite of high western education, the highly educated and articulated Hausa intellectual retains his cultural mindset and never sees himself as a poor photocopy of a Europeanized mind. On the internet, the focus is on whipping up sentiment against Hausa “zealots” and “fundamentalists” who seemed ready to decimate any opinion contrary to their religion. The incidence with ThisDay newspaper article of November 16 2002 generated a lot of heated debates initiated by “Naija” webmasters, not just against Muslims, but Hausa generally about their “fanaticism”. Within the country the main focus is on entertainment media, particularly the use of literature and home videos to express emergent evolutionary new age cultural patterns of thought among, particularly urban and urbanized Hausa youth.

For the most part the culture critics mean well, if ineffectively. The desire to create a “standard” form of cultural expression through entertainment media is informed by a closed-society mindset that sees conformity as a virtue, and individualism as a crime. The reluctance to accept the changing configurations of social matrixes infused within a transformative cultural change paradigm further entrenches the conformist mindset of the systems’ self-appointed praetorian gatekeepers. At the height of the debates about the virtues, or otherwise, of specifically contemporary Hausa literature, common grounds were laid out, common understandings fleshed out and points were made. Our purpose in starting and sustaining the debates were to provoke those whose intellectual responsibility — and livelihood — it is to grab the mantle and develop the strands into more effective means of creative guidance and, and thus subsequently, control for the authors. Yet, for all they care, we were preaching to the dead. For in their mindset, Hausa literature died with its progenitors, and will remain dead for ever. For instance, look around the various “commercial” courses and programs offered in all our institutions of higher learning. How many took advantage of the largest pool of indigenous writers, producers, artistes and directors, and thus created empowerment programs for them to acquire the necessary technical skills to express themselves better? None.

Thus I was tempted, like Dr. Ibrahim Malumfashi, to throw in the towel and say “the hell with this”. The issue is not the case of Malumfashi vs. Abdalla vs. Sheme vs Assada. It is the three (or four, five and six) of us versus the system that condemns any new ideas, but refuses to move on from the stagnant pool of stale dreams and nightmares. And like fighting any “system” this particular system has no nexus of control to attack — until recently.

Despite what close observers of the debate on Hausa cultural studies might think, all the critics of the system have a common thread and a common direction: the betterment of Hausa culture, in whatever form, and from within. And yet the critical climate is absent from our universities and research institutions. Sadly this situation will remain so for a long time because all our efforts to energize local interest and quantitative research on Hausa cultural studies, have been to naught. Ibrahim Malumfashi and Ibrahim Sheme come from literary background, so it is their forte. My background is scientific, and I wish to bring the analytical structures of quantitative scientific methodology to cultural studies. All the shouting, the writings and the prodding have not yielded any significant result.

To add insult to injury, Hausa cultural studies has now an even worse enemy beside the intellectual complacency of its guardians: Al-Bishak, the New Nigerian Editorial Consultant, whose attack on Hausa cultural studies, especially literature, was carried out in an essay titled The Soyayya Debate: A Redirection and published in The Write Stuff column of New Nigerian Weekly on Saturday 22nd December, 2001. It is now exactly a year to the day Al-Bishak published his essay which he expected to provide a paradigmatic template in the structure of Hausa literature.

In Al-Bishak’s narrowed world, the “soyayya” debates lasted for two years (presumably from 1999 to 2001). Wrong. The debates were started by Hawwa Ibrahim Sherif in “Interview with Ibrahim Sheme” in Nasiha of 6th September 1991. By then the genre has been in existence for over ten years (starting life in 1980 with Hafsat Abdulwahid’s So Aljannar Duniya).

Al-Bishak argued that during the period the debates lasted, he had expected a more critical analyses of the new novels along an expected (though not listed) literary framework. Apparently Al-Bishak does not seem to read much of the newspapers he was offering services to as an editorial consultant. This is because the lengthy article by Halima Abbas, titled, “New Trends in Hausa Fiction” and published in New Nigerian Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 11, 18, July; 1 August, 1998, has answered all the questions he sarcastically posed in the introduction to his essay. That particular essay by Ms. Halima Abbas was adapted from her masters’ degree project. In addition, there had been over 50 masters, undergraduate and doctorate degrees on Hausa contemporary fiction in both Nigeria and abroad. Currently a lady in Germany, Julie Ahmar, is about to embark on a fieldwork in Kano, on Hausa contemporary fiction leading to the award of a doctorate degree in the field. So the intellectual bases and structures that legitimize Hausa contemporary fiction as a field of study does exist! It was these debates that stimulated the academic interests — and led to further contribution to knowledge in the area.

Further, if Al-Bishak had high expectations about the debates and what they can do for the authors, where was he during the heat of the battles? As a literary person himself, one would have expected him to come down from high high critical pinnacle and lead us to a refined literary debating forum. So why wait until it is all over, before coming into the, by now empty, arena?

Further, coming from an “irreverent” literary background with impressive credentials in English language (and cultural?) studies, I was surprised that Dr. Ibrahim Malumfashi’s analytical framework seemed to have eluded Al-Bishak. Even Ibrahim Sheme, Ibrahim Malumfashi’s “friendly enemy” seemed to have missed the whole point of Malumfashi’s methodology. When Malumfashi “attacked” me in his article titled “Beyond the Market Criticism”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 15 May 1999 p. 14, 15 (published also in Weekly Trust, 28 May 1999), I understood immediately he was not being personal; as such, I was not slighted. Subsequent counter-debates proved this. Yet observers of the debates formed two lines: one behind Abdalla, and the other behind Malumfashi and we were seen as “enemies”! This worried me so much that I one day dragged Malumfashi to a photographer in Bayero University Kano, and had our photograph taken and subsequently published in New Nigerian, so that people could see us as what we are: academics engaged in intellectual discourse, not yan tauri squabbling over criticial theory turf territoriality. That, course, does not mean there were no disagreements in the value of literature between us: Malumfashi was insistent that contemporary Hausa novels do not represent quintessential Hausa culture. My stand is that it does, because literature is a mirror of the society, as it currently is; that culture is a transformative phenomena not bound by any stasis.

When Ibrahim Malumfashi and Ibrahim Sheme “locked” horns in 2001 over the values of literature, I did not interfere, simply because they were rehashing the same old arguments. However, by now Ibrahim Malumfashi has refined his methodology and given it its proper label: literary invective (The Art of Literary Invective New Nigerian Weekly, 20th October 2001). What readers (and Ibrahim Sheme) saw, were personal attacks. What I saw were attempts to cast Hausa literary criticism into a new mold. Clearly Ibrahim Malumfashi drew his analytical inspiration from Juvenalian satire, which, as Al-Bishak very well knows, is any bitter and ironic criticism of contemporary persons and institutions that is filled with personal invective, angry moral indignation, and pessimism. We thank the Latin poet and satirist, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, better known as Juvenal for initiating this form of literary criticism. His satiric depictions of Roman life provided templates for other satirist across Europe, such as Samuel Johnson (The Vanity of Human Wishes), Jonathan Swift (Gulliver’s Travels), Thomas More (Utopia), Aldus Huxley (Brave New World), and George Orwell (1984). As I said, it is surprising that Al-Bishak, who is aware of all this, perceived that Ibrahim Malumfashi was being personal, and appointed himself a literary referee between them.

Nor is the art of literary invective dead. More contemporaneously, it was between Salman Rushdie (The Satanic Verses) and John le Carre (real name David John Moore Cornwell, The Spy Who Came in from the Cold). As reported by The New York Times, in November 1997

“….In a week of correspondence of growing vituperativeness, Salman Rushdie has called John le Carre ''an illiterate pompous ass,'' and Mr. le Carre has replied that Mr. Rushdie is ''self-canonizing'' and ''arrogant,'' blinded by the pursuit of increased royalties for himself from the physical danger that sales of his book posed to others.

The exchanges have taken place in a time-honored arena for mudslinging in Britain, the letters page of a newspaper, The Guardian. While other parts of the paper were covering the continuing push in high places to have Britain portrayed as a sensitive, caring, compassionate nation, Mr. le Carre and Mr. Rushdie were striking blows in the letters columns for the tradition of literary invective…”
(Warren Hoge, “London Journal; All Is Not Lost: Art of Insult Survives 'New Britain' The New York Times November 27, 1997.

The editor (or Editorial Consultant) of The New York Times did not step in to prevent the invectives because the antagonists were his “students”. Nor did he came up with a weak, limp, arrogant alternative to the invectives. So what gave Al-Bishak the intellectual right to determine the directions Hausa literary criticism should follow?

Nebulously Northern
Adding salt to Al-Bishak’s injurious attack on Hausa culture is his suggestion of the creation of Arewa Literary Series. In his prescription:

“The Soyayya Debate” should continue, but under a new name called, “The Arewa Literary Series”. Well-researched articles or essays on Hausa literature are hereby welcome from interested readers…”

My understanding of the word Arewa is that it means “north”. It is a geographical index. It has no political, social, cultural, and certainly no literary meaning. So why should Arewa Literary Series start and end with “..articles on Hausa literature…”? There are, presumably, other linguistic groups in the geographical Arewa. Are they so unimportant to Al-Bishak that he insults them by denying their identity and lumping every single linguistic manifestation in his “Arewa” as Hausa? Shouldn’t a venture like Arewa Literary Series (whatever that is) be aimed at encouraging literary expression of other linguistic groups? How about literature (prose, drama, poetry, educational) in Fulfulde, Shuwa, Yiwom, Berom, Yukuben, Wapan, Zarma Turkwam, Shanga, Bacama? Hundreds of other linguistic groups have been marginalized by the mainstream Nigerian literary society. Al-Bishak hopes to sustain this marginalization with his new series.

Further what gave Al-Bishak the intellectual right to determine the form, pattern and structure creativity should take place? Are Hausa writers and essayists so puerile that Al-Bishak needs to provide them with a framework for writing nice, cute little essays and stories? For in Al-Bishak’s methodology, abut 20 analytical topics were given, and he urges readers to write essays on each of these 20 topics that seemed to focus attention on Hausa literature, rather than Arewa literature. Broken down into their essential structural elements, the topic areas seemed to be an examination rubrics for a badly taught Hausa literature course. They inlude topic areas such as: “What is literature?, Is Hausa literature an off-shoot of European literature?, Are there classic Hausa wrtiers after Abubakar Imam? What is Hausa liteary history?”… etc etc. Arewa is missing from these musings. A purebred Fulani like myself will certainly not participate because Al-Bishak is not interersted in documenting my Fulani literary heritage! Thus the absurdity of the “Arewa Literary Series”. It equates Arewa with Hausa — a typical Nigerian mindset.

Ibrahim Malumfashi, in his rejoinder to Al-Bishak’s “Hitleric” paradigm, (Of Al-Bishak and Editorial Dictatorship, Weekly Trust, February 5-14, 2002 p.33) diplomatically writes that “…I am not saying that Al-Bishak or the NNW should not conceive the idea of TALS and even implement it…” I hold a contrary opinion. I think it is a bad, arrogant, and intellectually inept idea, and is certainly more anthropologically and culturally irresponsible than the heat of our debates.

Again a year later, we are still waiting for the outcome of Al-Bishak’s competition.

Breaking the Boundaries of Cultural Epistemology
Finally, Al-Bishak is worried that

“…because the New Nigerian is a public trust devoted to the highest standards of responsible journalism, it can no longer entertain further abuse on the pages of the newspaper vaingloriously called the Soyayya Debate…”

This is a pity, because all the articles on these “vainglorious debates” for the last ten years have been compiled into a teaching material by Prof. Graham Furniss of the School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London, as the only source of public discourse on contemporary Hausa literature. No other Nigerian university has these collection of debates in one place, or uses them as a teaching material. Thanks to Al-Bishak, a valuable teaching resource is now decimated.

Further, these “vainglorious debates” have unexpected and unintended outcomes that further the intellectual cause of Hausa literary expression. They stimulated young Hausa writers to begin to diversify their focus — for diversification is only matter of time. It is this diversity that we hoped would emerge out of their initial focus on fictional elements.

In Kano, for instance, there are many Hausa authors who have published on topics they would never have the courage to do in the past. For example, Cinikin Hannun Jari, is a Hausa treatise on stock markets and political economy; a young programmer is sending to the press a book he has written on computer programming in Hausa in which he translated all the technical terms; a police sergeant (!) has concluded a manuscript on Internet in Hausa. From Zariya, a young Hausa author has just finished working on a book on email in Hausa; a female writer from Kano is concluding a research on Hausa Women as role models; from Daura, a young author has published a book on European History — all these were in Hausa. From Katsina, a woman doctor has just finished translating a book she originally published (by Spectrum) in English on Kuruntar Yara, aimed at providing general psychological and medical information in early childhood deafness. The same author has finished another text-book on Shayarwa (breastfeeding); from Kano, again, a book is currently in production which focuses on comparative analysis between Biblical and Qur’anic laws in Hausa language.

All these and more were encouraged by the “vainglorious debates” on the merit or otherwise of Hausa literature which confirmed to these authors that a readership exists among the Hausa. And that, to me, is the singular most significant contribution of the Hausa writers: creating a wide readership so that other writers with more “stuff” to write about, could build. There was no way these emergent academic writings in Hausa could have been possible without Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino (Inda So Da Kauna), Bala Anas Babinlata (Da Ko Jika?), Alkhameed Bature Makwarari (Matsayin Lover), Yusuf Adamu (Ummul-Khairi), Badamasi Shu’aibu Burji (In So Ya Yi So), Dan’azumi Baba C/Yangurasa (Badakala) and countless others.

Since Al-Bishak hates these debates and has banned them from New Nigeria (probably affecting sales), I decided to move to an arena Al-Bishak had no control over: the Internet, and we sustained the debates there with a free web-based Yahoo! Groups discussion forum on Contemporary Hausa literature. The debates will not stop. They provide out people with an intellectual avenue not available to any ethnic group in this country.

Market Forces and Hausa Literature

2007-03-18T14:20:00.000-07:00

Previously published in Weekly Trust (Nigeria), March 10-16, 2000

Oh dear! Just when you thought it is all over and laid to rest, someone has to stroke the embers of The Great Soyayya Debate again. It would appear that Garkuwa magazine (January 2000) and its prophets of doom were too early in gleefully mourning the “death” of Hausa novel (and don’t count the over 35 new, non-continuity novels that have been released in Kano alone since January this 2000). I am of course referring to the opinionnaire review of soyayya novels as given by Alhaji Ibrahim Bello, the Area Manager of the Zaria branch of Macmillan Nigeria Publishers Ltd, and Alhaji Ja’afaru D. Mohammed, General Manager of the Northern Nigerian Publishing Company (NNPC), Zaria in New Nigerian Weekly of Saturday February 19, 2000 (“Soyayya Novels Get a Kick in the Face”). Macmillan and NNPC, it should be recalled, make nice bedfellows, so the views were part of the same vacuous, and thus innocuous, continuum.

Ordinarily, the views expressed by these two icons of publishing industry would have been passed as just another raving ranting of the moral brigade, who have never bothered to read any of the books in the genre, and who pass opinions based on the ranting and ravings of others. However, coming from representatives of two of the most powerful publishing concerns in this part of the country merits more than a cursory attention. It demands full head-on consideration. Let us recapitulate.

Alhaji Ibrahim Bello, the Area Manager of the Zaria branch of Macmillan Nigeria Publishers Ltd extols the virtues of what he calls Hausa literary works like Magana Jari Ce. He scolds youth for “…wasting their precious times reading (soyayya) books, most of which thrive in exposing the youth to alien vices…” Further, if “the production of this (sic) kind of books was allowed to continue, most of the Islamic value systems especially as regards marital affairs, would be eroded.”

Alhaji Ja’afaru D. Mohammed, General Manager of the Northern Nigerian Publishing Company (NNPC), Zaria believes that the “bulk of these works are unhealthy for both academic and social well-being of the young ones…The contents are mostly alien to the Hausa cultures which they pretend to explore.” Alhaji Ja’afaru gleefully and scornfully declared that NNPC does not publish such books because “…they know we won’t accept, so they don’t even bring to us.”

Well excuse me, but I thought Balaraba Ramat Yakubu’s Budurwar Zuciya (1987) was printed by Gaskiya Corporation, the printing division of NNPC (transaction code reference GCL 0648/1090). Similarly, her Wa Zai Auri Jahila? was printed by the same corporation. This is of course not quite the same as actually publishing it; but it seems that although NNPC feels these books and the genre they spawned are morally repulsive, yet the lovely solid and crisp cash brought by the authors to the company is acceptable (and I refuse to believe these books were printed free due to the sheer milk of human kindness of Gaskiya Corporation). Hooray for capitalism (read greed) at its best! Or has Gaskiya/NNPC became born again after accepting Ms. Ramat’s cash to print her “repulsive” and “immoral” novels?

And Budurwar Zuciya is as much a template and wake-up call for Hausa literati if there ever was one — containing all the ingredients that make the meal as fresh in year 2000 Hausa novel (try Bilkisu S. Ahmed Funtuwa’s Kowa Ya Raina Tsaiwar Wata January 2000) as in the legacy years of 1987 when the genre was about to explode. But don’t go away yet, we will get back to this theme.

Glass Houses and Stone Throwers
It is ironic that two major publishers (assuming, of course that they views they expressed in the opionionnaire survey reflect official company policies of their firms) seemed quite proud of their contributions towards snuffing the life out of any literary activity in Northern Nigeria which is not sponsored or sanctioned by them. Thus they totally ignore the fact that the soyayya genre has led to the prayer genre publishing as a counter-culture in Northern Nigeria, and thus contributed to educating the society in more ways than one. But one feels the pains of NNPC who, having published the winners of a spate of competitions that threw up morally doubtful novels in the 1980s, seemed to sink into oblivion. Yes, morally doubtful. Let us have a quick gander.

Alhaji Ja’afaru of NNPC proudly displays his catalog of 41 out-of-tune-with-reality fiction books (among others; the last possibly published in 1983). Top of the list is Dare Dubu Da Daya (1-5)(published in 1933). As this is a family newspaper, I will not bother to give excerpts of some of the passages in Dare Dubu…, but suffice to say that the entire series is an excellent script for a full-action violently explicit pornographic movie. What Alhaji Ja’afaru neglected to tell the readers (possibly because he doesn’t know or, as more likely, has never read any story in Dare Dubu... despite being in the Company since Friday 2nd May 1976) is that the series of stories have nothing to do with Hausa culture, and therefore it is rather disingenuous of him to quote them as exemplars of what Hausa literary activity should be. If the series of stories in Dare Dubu Da Daya were written by any contemporary Hausa writer, they would have fatawa’d him. Yet because it was translated by a white colonial officer in collaboration with an Imamian Paradigm product, it was given a respectful sheen and touted as a Hausa literary classic. Its morally bankrupt tales of sexual fantasies and activities were seen as harmless to a Hausa “Victorian” society of 1930s (which was more conservative!). I am not happy that I pay tax to the Government, and my hard earned money is used to officially sponsor the publishing of pornographic novels by NNPC. At least the soyayya writers operate as independent marketers, not relying on taxpayers money to publish their “morally repulsive” books.

Other acts in the NNPC theater do not fare much better, either. Karshen Alewa Kasa, Tsumagiyar Kan Hanya, Zabi Naka, Turmin Danya deal with themes of urbanism, corruption, politics, bureaucracy and technological society. Turmin Danya, even when moralizing, deals with sexual corruption of the worst order — a married man (to three wives) procuring young girls for extra-marital activities.

Karshen Alewa Kasa must have been good for other qualities, but certainly not its morality — the very accusations against soyayya writers. As Graham Furniss noted, “…marking a major departure from previous writing, the story (Karshen Alewa Kasa) is brim full of features of modern Nigeria: fast cars, booze, gambling, sex, violence…girl-friends who speak their minds in no uncertain terms…and a wide variety of stock characters from Northern Nigerian society…” Furniss further observers that, “…this novel owes more to James Hadley Chase, Fredrick Forsyth and the cinema of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly than to earlier Hausa writing…” (Graham Furniss, Poetry, Prose and Popular Culture in Hausa, p. 55. London: International African Institute/Edinburgh University Press, 1996).

With these proud credentials, Alhaji Ja’afar presumes to pass moral judgement on the morality of contemporary Hausa writers.

As for Magana Jari Ce, that must surely be the most hyped “Hausa literature” ever written. The author, the late Abubakar Imam, had repeatedly declared that the stories were not original to him. As Ibrahim Malumfashi pointed out — in an argument that sees all writers as dancing naked in the market place, borrowing garbs from other writers — the books had “…a semblance of adaptation, transmutation and translation from Arabian, Persian, European, Asian and African sources literary and otherwise..” (Dancing Naked in the Market Place, NNW, July 17, 1999). To be specific, Beata Jez in her 'Fukcjonowanie watkow obcych w dziele Magana Jari Ce A. A. Imama (don’t worry, it means 'Functioning of the foreign plots in the work Magana Jari Ce by A. A. Imam’!), submitted as MA thesis at the University of Warsaw in 1986, analyzed Magana Jari Ce and concluded that 11 stories are from Thousand and One Nights; 14 fables are from the brothers Grimm; 5 stories are from a Persian version of the Indian collection Sukasaptati; 2 stories are from the Indian collection Panchatantra; 2 fables are from Hans Andersen; 7 short stories from Decameron by Boccaccio; one each are based on a Greek myth about the king of Macedonia; of Persian origin; a Biblical story, and a fable by W. Hauff. Only about 34 stories were either original or derived from unknown sources. Imam’s genius (and we must doff off our caps/hats/whatever to this fact) was in transmutating (to borrow Malumfashi’s expression) the stories to read as if they are Hausa literature. Abubakar Imam’s other masterpiece, Ruwan Bagaja was, according to the author, inspired (read transmutated) by an Arabian book titled Muqamat al-Hariri (The Abubakar Imam Interview, NNW, November 21, 1997).

Oh, and while we are still at it, should it be pointed out that Iliya Dan Maikarfi, another Gaskiya/NNPC product was directly based on a Cossack Russian folk hero Ilya Muromets of Murom, who defended Kievan Rus (now in Ukraine), from the Mongols in the 10th century? Waldima was Vladimir Svyatoslavich, born c. 956, Kiev, and died July 15, 1015, Berestova, near Kiev. By the way, Kiev was Ahmadu Ingawa’s Birnin Kib. Let us not forget that at the end of Iliya Dan Maikarfi, he begged God to turn him into a stone — a statue. Is this an Islamic Hausa prose? I was about to go off about A. Katsina’s Sihirtaccen Gari being another direct translation from an Asian (or whatever) source (not even transmutated!), but I realized that I have probably made my point.

So what is Hausa about these proud NNPC titles? Merely substituting the Arabian/Persian/Russian/whatever names for Tanko/Jatau/Gide/whatever does not make them Hausa. But what rankles most was the moral charges against the contemporary Hausa literature, as compared with Imamian Paradigm output. I argue therefore that the classicists of Hausa literature were more guilty of polluting and corrupting Hausa moral structure than any work written by any contemporary Hausa writer. And Gaskiya/NNPC (whatever) is the conduit of this moral corruption. Incidentally, Dare Dubu Da Daya is still available, unedited!

Back to Macmillan, which hasn’t done much (allowing its partner-in-progress NNPC to do the job) for Hausa literature. Alhaji Ibrahim Bello, its Area Manager in Zaria was appalled at the “alien” and “un-Islamic” vices in contemporary soyayya novels. Yet he has not given specific examples of the vices and the books were such vices are preached. The nearest he gave was a girl’s abhorrence for polygamous relationships as a result of reading a soyayya book. So what is wrong with that? As she was giving her opinion, let me also add fuel to the fire by giving my tuppence worth. Most polygamous relationships are miserable. The only person who enjoys them is the husband — the well-endowed super stud with four rotating wives and a brood of tiny, dirty, sickly, unkempt children littering the two bed roomed gidan haya hovel they call a home. The kids and the wives are, in most cases, hopelessly miserable. So what is un-Islamic about detesting misery? Nowhere in Islam is it made compulsory for you to marry more than one wife. So why should you label someone un-Islamic simply because they prefer monogamous relationships? The author of the book that made Alhaji Ibrahim’s friend (?) detest polygamy was not necessarily providing a template for girls not to get involved in such relationships. He or She was merely pointing out an episode in allegorical narrative which seems to make direct meaning to the reader. Realism or what?!

Hausa writers like Bilkisu Ahmad Funtuwa are not necessarily glorifying monogamous relationships; but pointing out the easy way in which polygamous relationships often go awry, with terrible and cruel consequences on the victims of such relationships. Her recent novel, Kowa Ya Raina Tsaiwar Wata, is a classic depiction of the miseries of polygamy; conveyed with such depth, panache, and style that the misery becomes a solid pall. What makes Tsaiwar Wata more frightening was the fact that it was based on real life story. Monogamous relationships can also be miserable; but at least the spread of the misery is limited to only the man, the wife and the odd kids.

Perhaps Alhaji Ibrahim was against the womanist message of books such as Balaraba Ramat Yakubu’s Wa Zai Auri Jahila? in which the 12 year old protagonist was forced into marriage with someone as old as her father, whom she detests (and who statutorily raped her) and who and runs away as a result. Is this a corruption of Hausa society? It is the reality. Parents often force their daughters into unhappy relationships based on their own selfish desires, rather than consideration for the happiness of their children (just like the polygamists). Fiction doesn’t make it a vice; it just draws it out in the open and points its ugly consequences — a cautionary tale for those who want to learn.

Literature, like all other human activities, necessarily reflects current social and economic conditions. Indeed world literature is replete with occurrences as to suggest that realism is a universal phenomena. For instance, Durub al-hijrah (Ways of Migration), written by Lebanese Iskandar Najjar's recorded the tribulations of the country's European minority. Hasan Dawud's Sanat al-utumatik (The Automated Year) and Muhammad Abi-Samra's Al-Rajul as-sabiq (The Previous Man) are notable especially for their precision, narrative structure, and exploration of new experience. Sahar Khalife’s Al-Subar (Wild Thorns) provides a haunting chronicle of life in the Israeli-occupied West Bank.

Thus Alhaji Ibrahim Bello of Macmillan would rather see “…a situation where the few good ones among them (contemporary Hausa novels) are chosen for school syllabus to augment the established Hausa literary works while the bad ones are banned..” So who makes the judgement? And what are the criteria to be used? Alhaji Ibrahim mentions school syllabus. Alhaji Ja’afar of NNPC also mentions academic and social well-being (from a publisher of Dare Dubu Da Daya, let us not forget!) of readers.

Fear of Mad Cow Disease!
Now the penny drops. Let us be clear on one thing: Macmillan and NNPC are worried because their authors have developed writer’s cramps. The slew of books they published in the early 1980s provided a fat cow for the companies to milk by the political strategies of ensuring that the books were on the reading lists of WAEC syllabus. Thus, good or bad, Hausa language and literature candidates — and we are talking thousands here — are forced to buy them and study them. The authors, apparently not overwhelmed by the N28.34k check royalty (or some similar pittance) sent to them (which they had to probably go to Lagos to cash) protested by the simple act of refusing to write anymore for these companies. Or maybe they run out of ideas. Or maybe they were no longer up to it. Maybe they have never been up to it in the first place, but were warped to a high pedestal by the publishing companies so that they can be exploited.

In any event the stratospheric rise of private publishers (many with ISBN to boot!) has given the major publishing companies cause for concern. Their cow has developed a Mad Cow Disease and is dying. Thus their venom, vitriol, anger and angst at the new crop of independent devil-take-it writers and publishers (that is “publishers” to the cow milkers) is perfectly understandable. Not only do they undermine their established domain, but they also do things the major publishers can never do: reflect the society, intent only on telling the truth. The major publishers will of course shun these books simply because they are not politically correct (no one likes calling a spade a spade, it is a shovel!). Further, they are more concerned with the lovely musical tingle of the cash tills for the sales of their books rather than the well-being of their authors.

The new independent writers were not motivated by capitalist greed — many of them barely recover the cost of their production. Rather, they are motivated by the desire to express literature as an art form. And we all know about struggling poor artists, don’t we? The major publishers cannot even sustain their present catalogs unless there is a demand for large quantities. Can you stroll into any bookstore and buy }arshen Alewa }asa, Sihirtaccen Gari, Idon Matambayi or Iblis {an Lis? Of course not! Since there is no large demand for these books, why bother? Thus literature to the major publishers is not an art form; it is a cash form.

Finally, the Alhaji Ja’afar was quoted as arguing that “…the production of more good books of Hausa literature will help to divert the attention of the youth from soyayya novels…” An example was Bashari Farouk Roukbah’s Matar Mutum Kabarinsa — a reprint. One wonders why NNPC did not ask Mal. Bashar to write a new play, rather than dusting off the plates of the old one — cutting down on the amount of royalty payment, perhaps? Of all the over 350 young authors of Northern Nigerian extraction — perhaps the largest assembly of such writers from one ethnic group in Nigeria writing in vernacular language — NNPC could not find any worth polishing and pruning in their image. This is not due to conservatism, but capitalist greed; parents, already nervous about these writers because they empower their readers, particularly girls, would protest; further lancing the NNPC’s cow. And we wouldn’t want that, would we?

It is clear that both Alhaji Ibrahim and Alhaji Ja’afar did not bother to read the books they are casting aspersions on; for most of them are full of the moral motifs they claim to represent in their stable. For instance, Bala Anas Babinlata’s Da Ko Jika is a tale of horrifying descend into the abyss of greed and its terrible consequences; while El-Bashir Abubakar’s Kafar Ungulu deals with self-styled “niggas”, the dangers of irresponsible parenting and power of religious introspection; Auwalu Yusuf Hamza’s Gidan Haya is a poignant portrait of communal living; Bacewar Awwal by Sabo Sa’idu Mohammed is a story of a struggle against all odds, and the triumph of the righteous; Nafisa Baballe Ilah’s Zabin Iyaye is a tale of betrayal by foster parents of an orphaned girl. No rampaging racist stereotyped “blackmoors” satisfying the lusts of a busty Arabian queen. Certainly these, and many more books like them, are more moral, more relevant to contemporary Hausa society than Dare Dubu Da Daya, the “top list” of NNPC catalog! Perhaps Alhaji Ibrahim and Alhaji Ja’afar should read Muhammad Mujtaba Abubakar’s Littafan Soyayya a Ma’aunin Hankali Da na Shari’a (1999) which, while also full of rants and raves, nevertheless bothered to provide some albeit tilted perspective on some of the books which the author has clearly read. A more noble effort than that of the major publishers.

Alhaji Ja’afar also bemoans the lack of organization of Hausa soyayya writers and urges them to group and set up publishing firms. This remark clearly reflects his indifference to Hausa literary development. In Kano, the Association of Nigerian Authors (ANAK) has developed a Hausa version of the association called Dandalin Marubuta since early 1990s that provided the monitoring mechanism he yearns. It meets the first Wednesday of every month at the Kano State Library Board. Thus Khamisu Bature’s Matsayin Lover (first edition) was forced to be withdrawn as a result of pressure from members of ANAK due to its perceived moral lapses. The author was quite resentful of this decision because he claimed he was writing about what he knew was happening in girls’ secondary schools. Similarly, ANAK banned Ashhabu Gamji’s Dufana on grounds of moral depravity. Bilki Ahmad Funtuwa’s Kyan Dan Miciji created such furor that she was forced to withdrew the offending bits in a second edition. More specifically, ANAK provides a “certificate of acceptability” to books the ANAK Executive read and accepted, and this certificate is often reproduced in some of the books. So a monitoring, moral mechanism exists, precisely because the Hausa novelists are aware of the eagerness of most people, especially those who don’t bother to read their books, to give a dog a bad name just to hang it.

Further, at the beginning of the Hausa literary revolution in the early 1980s, many of the authors coalesced into writers clubs. These included Jigon Hausa, Kukan Kurciya, Raina Kama Writers Association, Writer’s Forum, Kungiyar Matasa Marubuta and many of others. These clubs still sustain the printing/publishing tradition of Hausa novels, at least in Kano. They remain small outfits because they don’t have taxpayers money to sustain them. They remain heroes of Hausa literary expression because they dare to go boldly where no man (or woman) has gone before. If you can’t emulate them, can’t praise them, then let them be.

The only way to redeem the society is to listen to these New Age Interpreters, learn their lessons and reflect on our activities and behaviors as parents, guardians, husbands, wives and ordinary folk. Far from eroding the moral fiber of the conservative Hausa society, the Hausa novelist emerges as a moral crusader, using language as his jousting lance to probe the innermost fears and hypocrisy that is prevalent in the current society. The major publishers such as NNPC are too concerned with the WAEC syllabus and cash tills and their trial balances to worry about literature and society.

Polemics on Contemporary Hausa Prose Fiction

2007-03-18T13:57:00.000-07:00

The flurry of literary activities by Hausa youth (aged 18-32) in vernacular (Hausa) prose fiction in Northern Nigeria drew a flak of criticism — both for and against. This post presents a distilled perspective of the criticisms from the popular press in Northern Nigeria in 1999.

Sources:
Abdalla Uba Adamu, “Hausa Literature in the 1990s”, New Nigerian Weekly, Saturday April 24 and Saturday, May 1, 1999.
Ibrahim Malumfashi, “Beyond the Market Criticism”, New Nigerian Weekly, Saturday May 15 1999.
Abdulaziz S. Malumfashi, “Babinlata: A Writer with a Difference”, New Nigerian Weekly, Saturday May 22 1999.
Ibrahim Sheme, “Of Market Forces and the Hausa Novel”, New Nigerian Weekly, Saturday June 5 1999.
Abdalla Uba Adamu, “Idols of the Marketplace: Literary History, Literary Criticism and the Contemporary Hausa Novel”, New Nigerian Weekly Saturday June 12, 1999
Ibrahim Malumfashi, “Dancing Naked in the Market Place”, New Nigerian Weekly, Saturday July 17, 1999

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“…most of the Kano Market Literature pamphleteers see my kind of criticism as envy, competition and, worst of all, sabotage. This I have to come understand might not be unconnected with their demented capitalistic mind that sees criticism as a weapon in “killing” the goose that lays the golden eggs for them…” (Malumfashi, NNW 15/5/99).

“…Since the demise of the legendary Alhaji Imam, many writers….have been trying to step into the shoes he bequeathed, but none of them has succeeded. Such contemporary writers are legion; the indefatigable Ibrahim Sheme, the writer of The Malam's Potion, Kifin Rijiya….Dr. Ibrahim Malumfashi, who intended to continue with Imam's famous Magana Jari Ce but ended up wasting his time writing the serialized Wankan Wuta: a book that questions the creativity of the writer as it, appears to be a hopeless plagiarism of an Indian film, Khudgaz, and Jeffrey Archer's Kane and Abel. Though they have through their various works been preserving Hausa literature as well as promoting the reading habit among the Hausa people more than during the Imam era, unfortunately none of them has matched Imam’s great genius and wisdom…” (A. S. Malumfashi, NNW, 22/5/99).

“…most of Shakespeare’s plays are full of histories, history of disorder, unsuccessful wars abroad, cold wars at home, harmony after war, etc. Most of these histories Shakespeare meticulously grafted from so many materials and historical sources, not from formal school system, but through personal taught process. Shakespeare went through a mass materials…employ (ing) the same method in the construction of his comedies and tragedies…” (Malumfashi, NNW 17/7/99).

“…it is thus clear that neither law nor public morality, nor the public's neglect nor the critic's scorn has ever seriously deflected the dedicated novelist from his self-imposed task of interpreting the real world or inventing alternative worlds. We can only contribute to the intellectual development of our Hausa nationality by giving a free, objective room to all genres, including the soyayya genre. Let Hausa literature it find its value in the society. If it is trash, it will soon fade away, unsung. If it is a classic, it will endure long after we are gone…” (Adamu, NNW 1/5/99).

“…Why do I refer to such kind of articles or opinions (like Dr. Adamu's) as market criticism? There are many reasons but we shall be contented with the most important and serious ones. Dr. Adamu is a science educationist, an associate professor of Education, but not an expert in Hausa literary history….” (Malumfashi, NNW 15/5/99).

“…Malumfashi's' main problem was that I was not an expert on literary history but an educationist. This is a label I accept with total humility. Education as the act or process of educating or being educated, is indeed the “mother of all'' disciplines, and it is by this entrance gate that I entered the arena of literary criticism. True, I am also a scientist. And yet recourse to scientific authority and method is the outstanding trait of 20th century criticism…” (Adamu, NNW 12/6/99).

“…Prof. Abdalla should know that in literature there is no demarcation line between an educationist and literary critic. It is a deep bore‑hole that can be regarded as a bottomless pit…” (Malumfashi, NNW 17/7/99)

“…Let us extend the search for the expert and see how far we can stretch it….Should we really read any of Shakespeare's works, knowing full well that he did not attend any university and had no degree in…and therefore could not really be an ‘expert’ in writing since he was not properly trained? And are we to stop reading Abubakar Gimba's novels and ask him to write treatises on economics instead?…” (Adamu, NNW 12/6/99).

“….Classifying or adequately analyzing who is an expert is problematic. True, academic qualifications do not necessarily make an expert, but they add to the sweetness of his argument and fortification of his ideas….” (Malumfashi, NNW 17/7/99).

“…Well, I do not regard myself as an expert in this field, but I believe I am reasonably well read on the subject matter…” (Malumfashi, 15/5/99).

“…So how many books does it take to read to become an expert in a genre? What does it take to become an expert in Hausa literary history? Chains of degrees from Wisconsin and SOAS, with tutelage under Neil Skinner and Graham Furniss?…” (Adamu, NNW 12/6/99).

“…Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu….completely mis‑read my synthesis of his “competence” as a literary critic. My only problem is that I found his performatic indulgence quite trite…” (Malumfashi, NNW 17/7/99)

***

“…Novelists, being neither poets nor philosophers, rarely originate modes of thinking and expression. Poets such as Chaucer and Shakespeare have had much to do with the making of the English language, and Byron was responsible for the articulation of the new romantic sensibility in it in the early 19th century. It is rarely, however, that a novelist makes a profound mark on a national language, as opposed to a regional dialect. Nevertheless we are beginning to see the emergence of this contribution to Hausa literature in the Enghausa vocabulary form that creeps now and then in some of the writings . (e.g. Badariyya, Balaraba Ramat; So Tsuntsu, Hamisu Bature; Allura Cikin Ruwa, Bilkisu S. Ahmad)…” (Adamu, NNW 1/5/99).

“….The age of an imaginative literature should be viewed from the generic distinctiveness of the environment and world view that provides it. The classical books in Europe are not the same in Hausa land, so also the modern or renaissance. Dr. Adamu did not know this because he was using the wrong barometer in analyzing a wrong sample otherwise, how could the uses of the novel in America or Europe be the same in the Hausa society? This can only happen when we push the globalization to the extreme…” (Malumfashi, NNW 15/5/99)
“….While the novel can certainly be used as a tool for the better understanding of a departed age (Shaihu Umar, Ruwan Bagaja, Gandoki), it can equally be used as an instrument of describing today (the soyayya genre). It must be pointed out that the novel as an expression of the spirit of an age group does not necessarily speak on behalf of the society. (Adamu, NNW 24/4/99)

“….What kind of tool did Abdalla Adamu use in referring to Shaihu Umar, Ruwan Bagaja, Gandoki as “books of the departed age,” and the Soyayya books as “describing today? Is it traditionalist aesthetics, sociological excavation, systemic perspective, materialistic theorization or structural anatomization? In literary history, as well as stylistics, the age that matters is that of a diachronic and synchronic, while in thematic considerations, we talk of discourse—the level of meaning or semiotic — the cultural and other categories of meanings, apart from semantics…” (Malumfashi, NNW 15/5/99).

“…Novels in any society are not expected to be didactic; although at the very base level, they reflect a philosophy of life. For instance, as the novel became increasingly popular during the 18th century Europe, writers examined society with greater depth and breadth. They often wrote revealingly about people living within, or escaping from, the pressures of society. Many authors implicitly criticized characters attempting to ignore society and its conventions, and they criticized society for failing to satisfy human aspirations…” (Adamu 24/4/99).

“...While talking about the commitment of the writer to his society it is important to add that ideally no write-up is without a focus. As such the Kano chapbooks are predominantly didactic. There is nothing more ludicrous than insinuating that such “mere erotic imageries are capable of corrupting the whole society. If one insists on that one is correct because one is not talking about now but the future…” (Malumfashi 15/5/99).

****

“… If Abdalla Adamu was not sure of the efficacy of the Hausa adage, da yayyafi kogi can cika, let him ask Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino how many letters he got from readers between 199-1997? The same goes for Babinlata, Balaraba Ramat Yakubu, Zuwaira Isa and Bilkisu Ahmad Funtua, who are the most popular writers. Let him ask them how many phone calls they receive from readers. What do the readers want? How do they feel about the Soyayya books? Ask Gidan Dabino how many girls came to him since 1991 with their matrimonial problems? How many girls ran away from their parents and took refuge either in his office or home because they were to be wedded to men they do not like? (Malumfashi, NNW 15/5/99).

“…yes, I am aware of the numerous phone calls Ado Ahmad receives regularly from distraught girls pouring out stories of sorrow about their marriages (the scripts of which could easily form the basis of a series of stories). But wait a minute. These girls have access to phones, which reveals something about their social status. They are entrapped in miserable and unhappy relationships, which reveals something about their parents. They read Ado Ahmad (and others) and suddenly they see salvation of a sort, which reveals something about their need for information…Have we considered the alternatives for those who have no access to Ado Ahmad as social interpreter to drive home the misery in their lives? Have we considered what happens to those who run away from miserable matrimonial homes — right into the arms of a magajiya or a local neighborhood pimp? So is Ado Ahmad committing a crime by providing a medium through which these girls are counseled, rehabilitated and an agreement reached with their parents?…” (Adamu, NNW 12/6/99).

***

“….The (soyayya) genre merely reflects the predominant philosophy of the current society. For instance, the novels of Jane Austen, designed primarily as superior entertainment, imply a desirable ordered existence, in which the comfortable decorum of an English rural family is disturbed only by a not-too-serious shortage of money, by love affairs that go temporarily wrong, and by the intrusion of self-centered stupidity. The good, if unrewarded for their goodness, suffer from no permanent injustice. In the whole current of bourgeois Anglo-American fiction life is seen as fundamentally reasonable and decent. When wrong is committed, it is usually punished. The soyayya genre happily reflects this with its generally predictable endings. (Adamu, NNW 1/5/99).

“…by making inferring that Soyayya books are describing today, Abdalla is merely being atavistic. Does he mean to tell us that between 1990 and 1998 the Hausa society is rabidly engrossed in love and romance? Does that mean the era of SAP and Abachanornics was an era of gigantic love escapades and romantic topsy-turvy?…. the period between 1991-1998 was the worst period in the life of most households: pervasive poverty, hunger, miser, school drop-outs, riots, political miscarriage, corruption, prostitution, an thuggery were (are?) the picture that confronted (confronts?) us. How com then love and romance too the centre-stage in our chapbooks and not any a these economic problems?…” (Malumfashi 15/5/99).
“…SAP and Abachanomics? Bah! That is the concern for adults with jobs, kids, homes, mortgages and lemony cars…” (Adamu, NNW 12/6/99)

“…A final fall-out of the Hausa novel is that it stimulates reading culture — a process through which youth are now focusing their attention in learning things from the books; in other words, gaining incidental education…” (Adamu, NNW 12/6/99).

*****

“…As I have been saying for I years, our preoccupation with the Kano chapbooks, the drums we beat in their commendation and ululation our over-reliance on these young writers as our literary saviors will, if care is not taken, bring down Hausa literature. I said it over and over again, that market pamphleteering is just a vogue where it thrived. It was never taken to be a “contemporary literature” but an adventure within a given literary landscape…” (Malumfashi, NNW 12/5/99)

“…Malumfashi makes the distinct error of assuming that the Imam era….was the best that we all deserved….He was apathetic to its own appalling shortcomings such as the imprisonment of the society in a cell occupied by genies, witches, demons, tyrannical emirs and courtiers, ignorant and fatalistic populace…The fact that most of the literature of that bygone epoch was a translated or even plagiarism copy of yet another bygone (and foreign) era was lost on him. That era can be accused of stultifying the emergence of a really indigenous Hausa literature…However, this is not to say Abubakar Imam and the grand old fellows of his time didn't deserve our adoration. As pioneers, they will continue to enjoy the privileges of earning our fascination for laying the foundation of it all, even at the behest of our grandparent’s colonizer, and shall have our perennial gratitude for immortalizing our language and culture in a way…” (Sheme, NNW 5/6/99)

“…The fact is that Hausa novelists in Kano have provided a facility through which youth can acquire love for books and reading; certainly a primary objective for any literate society. We hope there would be more of these Commercial Libraries that will help to turn away kids from drugs, crimes, juvenile delinquency, gangerstrism and destructive idleness…” (Adamu, NNW 12/6/99)

“…ours is such kind of capitalistic literary endeavour the chapbooks made their writers comfortable and popular. But as the phenomenon started declining from 1997, they had to cling to another mode at sustenance. They thus came into the home video thing…” (Malumfashi, NNW 15/5/99).
“…he described as “capitalistic literary endeavor” the effort by the current Hausa writers, saying the so‑called chapbooks have made their writers comfortable and popular.”…What on earth did Malumfashi expect? Artists are always supposed to enjoy the fruits of their labor, and this includes making money from the sale of their works and becoming popular among their patronizers. A bad artist is one that fails to attract good sales or inspire adulation in the society….(Sheme, NNW 5/6/99).

“…Since literature is the keystone to understanding the heart and mind of mankind, it should not be left to any Tom, Dick and Harry to play with…” (Malumfashi, NNW 17/7/99).
“…the fact remains that the contemporary Hausa novels have, warts and all, made important contributions to our society in the last two decades. However, like all grains, there can be found among them bad ones, but that shouldn't push us into burning the farm where they are produced or the barn in which they are kept. Willy ninny, they have documented a part of our culture—even if it includes the bad part. For this, we should hug their authors or write the right alternatives ourselves. Covering the abject failure to checkmate them with the blanket of spurious postulations is equal to the attempt to climb up to yonder heavens in order adjust the balance of the moon…” (Sheme, NNW 5/6/99).
“…Indeed, my primordial concern was to support any activity that encourages reading culture among Hausa youth. Reading is certainly an educational activity. By that fact, any writer, whether of Nuclear Physics, Ethnomathemtics, or Badariyya, becomes my concern…” (Adamu, NNW 12/6/99).

“…I wish to re-state that the Kano Market Literature may possibly live for the next 450 years as nightmarishingly adduced by Prof. Abdalla. It may serve as a token in opening new vistas, especially reading culture among less‑literate market women, young school leavers and married women as succinctly put by Ibrahim Sheme. But one thing it will never do is saving Hausa prose fiction from extinction! What the market literature is now doing is lullabying us to deep slumber, colonizing our thoughts in romantic delirium, instead of liberating us from the clutches of capitalism and its local comprador collaborators…” (Malumfashi, NNW 17/7/99).

“…Any writer who refused to see that there is a linkage between values, cultures, politics and economics of his people is doomed. We should not just sit and brood over romance, sex and jealousy among co-wives, we should go beyond that…Aren't there other social, economic and political issues worth treating?…” (Malumfashi, NNW, 17/7/99).

Abdalla Uba Adamu, March 2000

[1] The flurry of literary activities by Hausa youth (aged 18-32) in vernacular prose fiction in Northern Nigeria drew a flak of criticism — both for and against. This paper presents a distilled perspective of the criticisms from the popular press in Northern Nigeria in 1999.

Annotated Bibliography of Criticisms against Hausa Prose Fiction

2007-03-17T14:10:00.000-07:00

This entry is an annotated list of critical debates and perspectives on Hausa prose fiction, often referred to as "soyayya novels". The debates occured on the pages of northern Nigerian newspapers (mainly in the Hausa language) in the early 1990s to 2002. The debates virtually stopped because the attention of the critical established had shifted to the Hausa video film which was getting established as the new focal point of cultural attack.

Hausa prose fiction is produced predominantly by young men and women in the Hausa language. The main dominant theme is romance (soyayya -- hence the label, Soyayya novels). The predominance of romantic theme in novels aimed at teen population in an Islamic society is seen as an attempt to corrupt the morals of youth in the society. These debates capture the two camps -- both pro and against the novels.

For more specific details of this Hausa prose fiction genre, see Adamu, A. U. 2006, Loud Bubbles from a Silent Brook: Trends and Tendencies in Contemporary Hausa Prose Writing. Research in African Literatures - Volume 37, Number 3, Fall 2006, pp. 133-153.

The Listings

Sherif, Hawwa Ibrahim., “Interview with Ibrahim Sheme”, Nasiha, 6 September 1991. Seminal interview with an author (Ba A Nan Take Ba) and journalist which started the whole new Hausa literature debate. In the interview, the fiery tempered writer attacked the then new crop of Hausa novelists as being one-track minded with a singular focus on soyayya. She urges for a new direction in Hausa prose fiction.

Malumfashi, Ibrahim., “Akalar Rubutun Adabin Hausa Na Bukatar Sauyi”, Nasiha, Friday 15 November 1991, p. 7. This was one of the most structural and earliest attacks on the new Hausa writings. Coming from a writer (Hausa Wankan Wuta; English, From the Eyes of My Neighbor), an academician, this particular essay conferred on the polemics of new Hausa writings some form of legitimate authority. It also became the central point on the exposition of the virtues of what I call the Imamian Paradigm of Hausa Literature which sees the writings of Abubakar Imam era as being the quintessential and only relevant Hausa literature. This article is the central core of Ibrahim Malumfashi’s main attack on the soyayya genre and the new Hausa prose fiction (from 1984). This article became the main focus of praise and attack by both writers and readers of the genre. Malumfashi accuses the writers of being culturally irrelevant. However, condescendly extols a neoclassic Hausa text, Karshen Alewa Kasa as being the most meaningfully and well-crafted book he has read, and urges those with creative skills to follow the footsteps of the classic writers to purify their literary expressions. Suggests that there are themes for Hausa writers to work on, such as poverty, education, economic depravity, rather than romantic escapism which seemed to be the only focus of the new prose fiction writers.

Bichi, Maigari Ahmed., “The Author’s Imagination” The Triumph, Tuesday March 12 and 17, 1992, p. 7 each issue. Also published as “Kano Market Literature: The Man Behind It”, New Nigerian Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, June 20, 1997. *Eulogizes Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino as a writer and provides an insight into the Mal. Ado’s motive for writing by suggesting that Mal. Ado was motivated by personal experiences of deception in love affairs, as reflected in Mal. Ado’s first book, Inda So Da {auna (1992). Bichi claims that after the book was published, the author received about 979 letters from various readers all over the country, of which 326 were from male readers, the rest of 653 were all from female readers — many of whom actually visited his house.

Gidan Dabino, Ado Ahmad., “Zamani, Zo Mu Tafi!” Nasiha, Friday 24, 31, July 1992, p. 4. *Rejoinder to Ibrahim Malumfashi (Akalar Rubutun Adabin Hausa Na Bu[atar Sauyi, Nasiha 15/11/92). Times change, and we must change with them! Ado Ahmad argues that Ibrahim Malumfashi should not have been disdainful of the current crop of writers on the basis of their lack of deeper Western education or literary training; that creativity resides in everyone, regardless of training or qualification. Berates Ibrahim Malumfashi who eulogized specifically a neoclassical Hausa novel, {arshen Alewa {asa which Malumfashi in his original article claims to be the most meaningful book he has read. Ado Ahmad asks why Magana Jari Ce a classical Hausa novel (by Late Alhaji Abubakar Imam, the “father” of Hausa prose fiction) is still being printed, whereas the neoclassical {arshen Alewa {asa is deleted; was it because the classical text was more significant than the neoclassical one?

Malumfashi, Ibrahim., “Tsakanin ‘Gwanjo’ Da ‘Orijina’, Nasiha, Friday 7, 14, August 1992. *A rejoinder to Ado Ahmad’s rejoinder (Zamani, Zo Mu Tafi, Nasiha 24, 31/7/92). Laments being misunderstood as a critic and researcher by most Hausa writers. Attempts to educate readers, in particular Ado Ahmad, on his understanding of the differences between literature (orijina, as reflected in Kitsen Rogo, Karshen Alewa Kasa, Jiki Magayi) and novels (gwanjo, as reflected in all soyayya genre), which was his main argument in the first article. Argues that virtually all the current crop of Hausa writings, especially soyayya are not literature. Rhetorically asks why neoclassical Hausa texts like Kitsen Rogo, {arshen Alewa {asa are used as set books in Secondary school curriculum, and not a single soyayya book, and answers that schools do not exist to corrupt the minds of youth (which he argues the soyayya books do).

Adamu, Yusuf Muhammad., “Ina da Ja, Ibrahim Malumfashi!” Nasiha, Friday 21 August 1992, p. 4. *A writer defending his book (Idan So Cuta Ne) which was attacked by Ibrahim Malumfashi (Nasiha 15 November 1991) accusing the writer of using European settings with Hausa names. Argues that his contexts simply reflected the contemporary Hausa upwardly mobile and Noveau rich characters.

Gambo, Shehu., “Jigon Soyayya: Holoko Hadarin Kaka”, Nasiha, Friday 21 August 1992, p. 4. *An antagonist and follower of Ibrahim Malumfashi (q.v.). Defends Malumfashi’s attack on soyayya genre and accuses Ado Ahmad of being commercially, rather than intellectually, motivated.

Giginyu, Nasiru Mudi., “Karamin Sani {u}umi Ne: Martani Ga Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino” Nasiha, Friday 21, Friday 28 August 1992, p. 4. *A vitriolic attack on Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino, particularly the rejoinder he wrote to the paper on 24 July 1992. The writer accuses Mal. Ado of encouraging copy-cat behavior amongst Hausa adolescent girls. In particular, he argued that a girl called Fati Abdullahi in a village in Kaduna State had killed herself by throwing herself into a well, as reported in the New Nigerian, November 24, 1991. Her grisly end echoes the ending of Ado Ahmad’s first book Inda So Da Kauna, Part I, where the heroine threw herself into a well when it was clear she would not be allowed to marry the boy she loves. Mal. Nasiru accuses writers like Ado Ahmad of encouraging such bizarre acts. It was not clear from both the news story or the critique that the unfortunate girl was actually motivated into killing herself as a direct result of reading Ado Ahmad’s book. Incidentally, the heroine, in Mal. Ado’s book, survived the fall in the well.

Sheme, Ibrahim., “Raba Matasan Marubutan Hausa Fada”, Nasiha, Friday 21 August 1992, p. 4. *Ibrahim Sheme attempts to “referee” in the arena of pro, and against, soyayya genre among youth. As the editor of the Nasiha literary ‘supplement’ he stands on the high pillar of shifting through the morass of articles on both sides of the divide. This article gave a resume of the debates, and urges that the writers should contextualize their settings.

Haruna, Aishatu., “The Celebrated Hausa Writer Who Never Went To School…Ado Ahmed Gidan Dabino” The Pyramid, September 6-13, 1992. Also reprinted in New Nigerian Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, Friday June 20, 1997. *Eulogizes Ado Ahmed Gidan Dabino and provides a family profile on the writer who, “receives not less that 15 love letters a week…” The reproduction of this and Bichi’s article published five years earlier, indicated the rekindling interest in the soyayya genre debate, especially now that it is in English language papers, giving the debate a larger audience.

Gidan Dabino, Ado Ahmad., "Tasirin Labaran Soyayya Ga Al’umma, Musamman Hausawa", an unpublished paper presented at a Writer’s Forum Seminar on Sunday December 27, 1992, Kano. *Provides a long analytical framework on the concept of soyayya before arguing the merits of the genre from six perspectives. A very dispassionate and well written paper which neither promote nor damn the genre.

Kungiyar Matasa Marubuta, First Kungiyar Matasa Marubuta Literary Symposium, held January 9, 1993, Rumfa College, Kano. This is a video tape, containing coverage of the symposium held under the auspices of Kungiyar Matasa Marubuta of Kano, on the new Hausa writings. Papers were presented by Shehu Al[alanci, Bashari Farouk Roukbah (Hantsi Leka Gidan Kowa), and Ibrahim Malumfashi. Sheikh Aminuddeen Abubakar, a noted cleric in Kano, provided a neutral ground and a fairly linear perspective of writing and writers in Hausaland. Other noted literati included Dr. Sa’id Muhammad Gusau, the editor of Nasiha newspaper (that started the critical debates in the first place), Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino (who engaged Ibrahim Malumfashi in a war of words on what constitutes plagiarism and criticism in literature) and Khamisu Bature Makwarari, author of highly controversial Matsayin Lover. (This tape is available from Yusuf Adamu’s archives).

Gusau, Bashir Sanda., “Abinda Ke Sa Muke Rubuta Labaran Soyayya”, Mujallar Rana, 8-21 February 1993, p. 19. *Interview by Ibrahim Sheme with Bashir Sanda Gusau, a soyayya writer (Soyayya Dan[on Zumunci, Duniyar Soyyya, etc). The author reveals that his first book, Aibin Biro, published in 1988 was a political satire that led to his arrest by State Security Service agents (in then Sokoto State). He decided after than unpleasant experience to concentrate on what a theme that is safe, mundane and in vogue, soyayya. He also explains that although the central theme of his latter books, e.g. Soyayya Dan[on Zumunci which was used in critical theory class in one of the northern Universities, is love, nevertheless it ends with a philosophical message. Defends the Middle-Eastern settings of some of his books.

Mujallar Rana, “Aibin Biro Ko Amfaninsa?” Mujallar Rana, February 8-12, 1993, pp. 14-17. *The first survey of writers, critics and booksellers (who prefer to stock soyayya books “because they sell fast!”) by the editorial team of the newsmagazine conducted by Ibrahim Sheme, although mainly synthesized from earlier correspondences in the Nasiha literary supplement (Sharhi Kan Littatafai). Interlaced with literary commentary from university lecturers Islamic scholars on the genre. A very good definitive guide on the views of people on the genre.

Musawa, Zabba’u Garba., (Ms) “A Yi Rubutun Da Zai Inganta Rayuwa”, Mujallar Rana, 8-21 February 1993, p. 20. *Interview by Ibrahim Sheme with Ms Zabba’u Garba Musawa, a playwright (Da Na Sani). Urges for more writers among Hausa youth and explains the educative role of literature. Accepts soyayya genre, but would wish the writers to concentrate on more educative literature.

Danjuma Katsina, Muhammad Mu’azu., “Zuwa Ga Marubutan Soyayya”, Gwagwarmaya, No. 11, 1993, pp. 19-20. *Editor of the newsmagazine (Gwagwarmaya). A journalist, writer (Mai Yadda Ya So) and one of the two notable arch-critics of the soyayya genre (the other is Ibrahim Malumfashi (q.v.). Whereas Ibrahim Malumfashi based on criticism on the belief that the new Hausa writers will never replace Hausa literature as represented by the Imamian Paradigm, Danjuma Katsina based his revulsion of the genre on moral arguments that the genre is un-Islamic and corrupts the mind of the youth. He considers such writings as kafirci (apostasy). Not surprisingly, he was also the Deputy-Editor of Al-Mizan, a Hausa Muslim newspaper. This is an “open letter” to soyayya writers. Claims that the central theme of the genre, from his reading of many books, was against either forced or arranged marriages — a common custom among the Muslim Hausa. However argues that many of the settings are not culturally Hausa, and the cover art of the books was un-Islamic, showing as they do in some cases, boys and girls mixed together, or girls without hijab on their heads. Further argues that if the soyayya genre writers are reforming the society, then there are more, Islamic, ways of doing it than through writings which he believes have corrupting influence on youth.

Hadiza Mohammed (Ms), “‘Kafircewar’ Marubutan Soyayya” I and II, Rana, 31 May 1993, p. 25; 14 June, 1993, p. 17. *An apocryphal rejoinder to Danjuma Katsina who argued that soyayya writers had gone against Islamic teachings (kafirai) in promoting undesirable, salacious behaviors among youth (their target audience). She argues that an inappropriate methodology was used to generalize the genre.

Gidan Dabino, Ado Ahmad., “Ba Laifunmu Ba Ne”, Gwagwarmaya, No. 13, 1993, pp. 24-25. *This is an interview between Danjuma Katsina (antagonist) and Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino (protagonist) of the soyayya genre. Mal. Ado argues that before the large-scale appearance of the soyayya writings in Kano, there were social vices of sexual nature, and thus it was unfair to attribute their occurrence to the style of soyayya writers.

Danjuma Katsina, Muhammad Mu’azu., “Kafircewar Marubutan Soyayya: Raddin Editan Gwagwarmaya Muhammad Danjuma”, Gwagwarmaya 14, (1993) 1414. *A rejoinder to Hadiza Mohammed, an apocryphal defender of the genre (and most likely pen-name of a well-known male journalist). Defends himself against the charges that he called the new Hausa writers unbelievers (kafirai) in his article of Gwagwarmaya, No. 11, 1993, pp. 19-20. First claims that the writer, Hadiza Mohammed, could not be traced at the address given, and therefore was a fake name. Claims that he quoted out of context by “Hadiza Mohammed” in “her” rejoinder to his original article on Hausa writings. Warns that this was a ploy to deliberately alienate him from his Muslim brothers who are writers. Claims that his original article was terribly twisted to distort his opinions on the new Hausa writers.

Gidan Dabino, Ado Ahmad., Gudummawar Adabin Hausa Ga Addinin Musulunci, an unpublished paper presented Workshop organized by Muslim Students Union of Senior Secondary School, Dawakin Tofa, Monday May 3, 1993, Kano. *Argues that a significant portion of Hausa poetry, popular songs and writings contain Islamic messages, thus intertwining Islam and culture in all aspects. Not strictly on soyayya, but at least shows the writers sensitivity to the religious aspects of some Hausa cultural expressions. However, does bring in the soyayya theme to show how some of the writes moralize on religious issues. In particular, he chose Idan So Cuta Ne (Yusuf Adamu) where the girl attempted to unsuccessfully entice her lover to impregnate her so that they can marry since their parents do not wish them to marry.

Ahmad, Muhammad Lawal., “Marubutan Soyayya ko Mabarna Al’umma? Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo , Thursday 29 July 1993, Letters Page, p. 3. *Writes that Soyayya writers are motivated by Jews and Christians (aka Euro-American socio-cultural antecedents) to destroy Islam among Hausa adolescents. Condemns the genre and says the writers should instead use their skills in writing on Islam. Uses a Hadith from Arba’un Hadith to support his arguments against [agaggun abubuwa (created stories; although the Hadith was referring to possibly rumors etc, rather than creative writing) to prove that such writings are un-Islamic.

Malumfashi, Ibrahim., “Adabin Kasuwar Kano”, Nasiha 3 & 29 July 1994. The first Hausa language article in which Ibrahim Malumfashi created the term Adabin Kasuwar Kano (Kano Market Literature), a contemptuous comparison between the booming vernacular prose fiction industry, based around Kano State (with Center of Commerce as its State apothegm) and the defunct Onitsha Market Literature which flourished around Onitsha market in Anambra State in the 1960s. Malumfashi argues that the new Hausa writings were merely passing fad and market driven, and would likely fade away, just as the Onitsha Market Literature did. Picks up Danjuma Katsina’s moral high stand against the soyayya genre and argues the novels are responsible for corrupting the minds of youth, especially school girls.

Assada, Muhammad Kabir., “Ramin Karya Kurarre Ne”, Nasiha, 16-22 September 1994, p. 4. *Claims that some soyayya writers copy their themes mainly from Indian films. In particular, an Indian film called Romance was, according to him, plagiarized as Alkawarin Allah by Aminu Adamu. Argues that the only skill the new generation of Hausa writers have was in plagiarization of Indian movies or only in writing in love stories, and not much else. Urges that such writers should re-direct their skills in writing in other genres.

Gidan Dabino, Ado Ahmad., “Wanda Ya Raina Tsayuwar Wata Ya Hau Ya Gyra” Martani Akan Adabin Kasuwar Kano, Nasiha, Friday 16 September – 6 October 1994, (3 issues), p. 4 each issue. *This replies Ibrahim Malumfashi (Adabin Kasuwar Kano, Nasiha 3 & 29/7/94) on the attributes and values of soyayya genre. Mal. Ado claims that this particular article was heavily edited, and provided the me with the original copy which he sent — and it does seem that the most contentious points were cut off; possibly due to space limitations. In the original text, Mal. Ado asks Malumfashi to answer 29 questions (which were excluded from the published article in Nasiha, of which Ibrahim Malumfashi was the Deputy Editor!) which deal with social vices and argues that these vices existed in Hausa society long before soyayya writers appeared on the scene. He argues that the writers were merely reflecting the realities of the society. Mal. Ado also replies that a few of the soyayya books have started appearing as recommended texts in some schools (e.g. College of Science and Technology, Sokoto and Inda So Da Kauna Part I, Auren Zamani and Dan[on Zumunci; College of Education, Kano and the English translation of Inda So Da {auna Part I translated as The Soul of My Heart, 1992).

Giginyu, Nasiru Mudi., “Ina Ruwan Biri da Gada”, Martani Akan Adabin Kasuwar Kano, Nasiha, Friday 21-27 October 1994; 28 October – 3 November, 1994; 3-17 November 1994. *Accuses soyayya writers of empowering girls to rebel against their parents and their religion (Islam) by showing they have choice in their marriage affairs. Claims that soyayya writers are financially motivated and morally bankrupt.

Abdullahi, Muhammad., “Shin Marubuta Soyayya sun Kuwa San Soyayyar? Martani Akan Adabin Kasuwar Kano, Nasiha, 28 October – 3 November, 1994; 3-10 November 1994. *Presents a view on what love is and that the love portrayed in the soyayya genre is mainly salacious.

Qaseem, Muhammad., “Wankan Wuta ko Wankar Littafi?” Nasiha, Friday 11-17 November, 1994. *Accuses Ibrahim Malumfashi of plagiarizing Jeffery Archer’s Kane and Abel in a Hausa form, and serialized in Nasiha as Wankan Wuta. Also claims the book (Archer’s) was adapted into an Indian movie called Kudgaaz, and asks whether Malumfashi copied Archer or the Indian movie. Further claims that since Wankan Wuta features love as a central theme, then Malumfashi is also a soyayya writer — a genre he (Malumfashi) detests!

Aliyu, Suwaibat A., (Ms) “Sharhi Ba Zargi Ba Ne”, Nasiha, Friday 2-8 December 1994, p. 8. *Centrist. Claims that soyayya writers are inspired more by Middle-Eastern folk lore and traditions rather than Euro-American cultural influences. Argues that soyayya as a concept was a recurring theme in books published before 1990 when the soyayya genre properly took off. Accepts that some of the writers probably copy Indian film themes in their books, but also often portray the realities of the current Hausa society. Urges critics to be objective in their observations on the soyayya writers and suggests more focus on Hausa poetry, rather than soyayya writings.

Ayagi, Sani Abdullahi Yusuf., “Yabon Gwani ya zama dole.” Martani Akan Adabin Kasuwar Kano, Nasiha, Friday 12-19 May, 1995, p. 4; repeated Friday 16-22 December 1995, p. 4. *Rejoinder to Ibrahim Malumfashi (Adabin Kasuwar Kano, Nasiha 3 & 29/7/94) and Nasiru Mudi Giginyu (Ina Ruwan Biri da Gada, Nasiha 21-27/10/94). Defends soyayya writers. In particular salutes Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino who he argues that despite lack of extensive western education and degrees, yet has become a literary icon in modern Hausa prose fiction. Urges for constructive criticism and suggests that no matter how bad the soyayya books are portrayed to be, they must contain some learnable lessons. Argues that he does not believe the writers are responsible for corrupting the society. Concludes by claiming that most of the criticisms were maliciously motivated.

Yahuza, Muhammad Bashir., “Marubutan Zamani Da Adabin Zamani” Nasiha, 2-16 June, 1995 (2 issues). *Centrist. Argues that contemporary Hausa novels, especially soyayya were written without careful editorial work. This was because many of the authors were bedsit and garage publishers, who cannot afford to go the bigger publishing houses. As such, these books were marked by serious errors. Urges for a more “correct” Hausa literature.

Gidan Dabino, Ado Ahmad., "Tsokaci a Kan Labaran Soyayya", an unpublished paper presented at Workshop on Hausa Language, Culture and Literature, Center for the Study of Nigerian Languages, Bayero University, Kano, 7-11 August 1995, Kano. *Presents a resume of some of the antagonisms against the genre, and argues that it is was misunderstood. Claims that 15% of the writers were autobiographical in their writings; 65% were reflecting what was going on in the society; while the rest of the 20% write purely for pleasure.

Maizare, Abdullahi Yahaya., “Sara Da Sassaka”, Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo, Monday 13 May 1996, p. 4. *A defender of the genre of new Hausa writings. In earlier articles Hausa writers were accused of being barely literate (having only a secondary school education, and not more, e.g. Ibrahim Malumfashi’s article in Nasiha, 15/11/91) and being responsible for the moral corruption of contemporary Hausa youth through thinly disguised salacious writings. Argues that accepted Hausa literature classics such as Dare Dubu Da Daya (trans. 1933) and {arshen Alewa {asa (1982) were far more salacious than any Hausa prose fiction, and that another accepted Hausa classic, Jiki Magayi (1933) had dubious moral attributes since it focuses on revenge. Insists that soyayya writers are merely reflecting the realities of the current Hausa society.

Whitsitt, Novian., The Literature of Balaraba Ramat Yakubu and the Emerging Genre of Littatafi na Soyayya: A Prognostic of Change for Women in Hausa Society. An Unpublished thesis submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts (African Languages and Literature) at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, 1996. *Claims to be one of the first “academic” study of the genre. His analysis was from a feminist perspective, focusing attention on two of Ramat’s books (Budurwar Zuciya, and Wa Zai Auri Jahila?). He also scrutinized littatafai na soyayya looking at the social and political implications alluding to the position of women in Hausa society.

Gambo, Shu’aibu H., “A Harmful ‘Love’, New Nigerian Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, February 21, 1997 p. 11. *A snippet. In a scathing attack on the soyayya genre and its authors, he argues that “there is a great need for the society, particularly parents, religious, social and educational authorities to intervene to check the commotion these useless writings are creating in our society..” Argues further that the writers “consist of some obnoxious teenagers and adult persons of varying ages who passed out of their secondary education with F9 here and there, or may have got a C6 credit in Hausa only on their GCE slips. Another segment of this group are some persons who are rescued from darkness by the emergency adult literacy evening classes[1] and on completion they arrogate themselves academic maturity…This group depends intoxicatingly on their ability to write Hausa with little difficulties, neglecting the essential norms and technicalities involved in proper Hausa prose…” He also accuses some “…mushroom university dons who promote these irresponsible writings by blessing them with forewords..”

Larkin, Brian., “Modern Lovers: Indian Films, Hausa Dramas and Love Novels Among Hausa Youth”, New Nigerian Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, February 21, 26 , 1997. This paper was initially presented at the African Studies Association Annual Meeting at Orlando, Florida, U.S., November 3-6 1995; Also published as “Indian Films and Nigerian Lovers: Media and the Creation of Parallel Modernities.” Africa, Vol 67, No 3, 1997, pp. 406-439. *This article (from Africa) discusses the significance of Indian films in revealing a relatively ignored aspect of the transnational flow of culture. After discussing reasons for the popularity of Indian films in a Hausa context, it accounts for this imaginative investment of viewers by looking at narrative as a mode of social enquiry. Hausa youth explore the limits of accepted Hausa attitudes to love and sexuality through the narratives of Indian film and Hausa love stories (soyayya). This exploration has occasioned intense public debate, as soyayya authors are accused of corrupting Hausa youth by borrowing foreign modes of love and sexual relations. The article argues that this controversy indexes wider concerns about the shape and direction of contemporary Nigerian culture. Analyzing soyayya books and Indian films gives insight into the local reworking and indigenizing of transnational media flows that take place within and between Third World countries, disrupting the dichotomies between West and non‑West, colonizer and colonized, modernity and tradition. in order to see how media create parallel modernities.

Musa, Ibraheem., “Censoring the Romantics”, New Nigerian Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 21 February 1997. *Deals with censorship issues on soyayya writers. Although he does not support censorship of authors, nevertheless he took trouble to “…make it abundantly clear that I am not in support of the activities of these weeds luxuriating on the fringes of literature. If truth be told, they are a cancer on the body of the nation’s literati…” Suggests an alternative method of censoring books through voluntary co-operative censorship involving the authors and State-agents to determine what is acceptable to society.

Adamu, Yusuf Muhammad., “Hausa Writer and Writing Today”, New Nigerian Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, Friday 20, 27 June 1997. *A long exegesis on contemporary boko Hausa writing, with particular slant to the soyayya genre from a soyayya writer (Idan So Cuta Ne, 1989). Divides Hausa writers into four generations. First was from 1930s, represented by Abubakar Imam and co, who published works like Ruwan Bagaja, Idon Matambayi, Gan]oki, Shehu Umar; the second generation was represented by Ahmadu Ingawa and co with Iliya Dan Mai}arfi, Da’u Fataken Dare, Nagari Na Kowa, Tauraruwar Hamada; the third generation by {arshen Alewa {asa, Tsaka Mai Wuya, Mallakin Zuciyata. The fourth generation arose out of a long gap after the third generation when publishing firms found it difficult to sustain their publication and this led to the individual efforts and attempts at publishing, which gave fertile soil to the soyayya writers.

Malumfashi, Ibrahim., “The Hausa Writer and the Reading Culture”, New Nigerian Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 20, 27 June; 4 July, 1997. *An extremely detailed and long exposition on the history of Hausa writings from earliest part of the first millennium. It is in this paper that the sobriquet KML or Kano Market Literature first appeared in English (having made a debut in Nasiha, 3 & 29 July 1994 as Adabin Kasuwar Kano). Initially designed as a contemptuous categorization of all recent (i.e. post 1984 when the genre was virtually created with Talatu W. A. Shellat’s Rabin Raina) and “unserious” Hausa novels (as opposed to original works of literature represented by the Imamian Paradigm), with particular emphasis on the soyayya genre, the term, shortened to KML was gleefully embraced, to Ibrahim Malumfashi’s chagrin, by his critics! Further states that the books were “…selling because (they) have basically the same themes liked by the youngsters; love, marriage, women’s role, domestic power relations, education, morality and inter‑generational struggle. Within‑a spate of 10 years, a new reading culture had been introduced and gaining wide currency daily. It has attracted such wide spate of criticism not only from the literary critics, but Hausa newspapers, magazines, journals, mosques, parents and just recently the Kano State Government that enacted an edict to check the proliferation of these books. All these does not seem to affect the production of these books, as most would want…”

Sheme, Ibrahim., “Much Ado About Soyayya Writers”, (Editorial Comment), New Nigerian Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, Friday July 25, 1997. *Just as he acted as a referee in Nasiha when the debate got hot (21/8/92), he also steps in to provide an eloquent editorial comment after allowing all shades of opinions to be expressed. Points out that despite casting aspersions on the writers the phenomena “…has since grown into a big industry, throwing up publishing firms, filmmaking outfits, book-selling ventures, writers’ associations, and even a news journal. At the same time, the publications of this market have increased in number, volume and sophistication, becoming at the time the largest book publishing business in the country, beating by far the decidedly strong book publishing industry in the English language…” Notes that the soyayya writers “…are unstoppable. This is more so since they have not only dominated the book-selling market but have pierced and conquered the hearts of majority of Hausa readers…” Despite campaigns to destroy the genre, they have prospered. Asks (and answers!) “…so what do we do with the promoters of the KML? Crucify them? Gag them? The answer is simple: befriend them. Hug them. Give them prizes. Love them. Censoring a creative mind wouldn’t cleave it of its spirit or exorcise from it the devil some of us thought it contains. Better let the market reach its zenith, as it already obviously has, arch, and go down. Even so, we may not want a literary movement to just disappear because it would vanish with a part of our culture…”

Danjuma Katsina, Muhammad Mu’azu., “Hausa Writers: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly.” New Nigerian Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, Friday 5 September 1997 p. 12. *Marks a significant move for the critic who had earlier labeled the writings of the new age Hausa novelists as kafirci[2] (Gwagwarmaya, No. 11, 1993) and has now started looking at them more dispassionately in terms of the quality of the materials written. The good authors, in his classification, “..are those who write with a positive purpose in mind and, while writing they obey all the Hausa grammatical rules…Definitely, in this category the “Kano Group” of Hausa authors are in the lead..” They include Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino (In Da So Da Kauna) and Bala Anas Babinlata (Zinaru, Kwarya Ta Gari). The bad authors “…consists of those authors who are refractory to constructive criticism even as their write-ups are grammatically poor.” Examples include Aminu Abdu Na’inna (Raina Fansa) Muhammad Usman (Ban Kwana Ga Masoyi). Further, “…many women are also found in this category such as Hajiya Balaraba Ramat Yakubu (Badariyya, Wane Kare Ne Ba Bare Ba) who wrote many books, yet they are of poor quality that one would be led to think that her books were written so many decades back, before the era of excellence in Hausa literature…” The ugly authors are those who “…have been unable to develop a good style and have a tendency to write without consideration for their audiences’ feelings..” Examples cited include Adamu Aliyu (Dan-gwajin Takalmi), and “…Bilkisu Ahmad Nabature Funtua (triple worst!)(Ki Yarda Da Ni, Allura Cikin Ruwa)…”

Danjuma Katsina, Muhammad Mu’azu., “Lessons from the Abubakar Imam Interview”, New Nigerian Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 19 December 1997. *Eulogizes an interview published in the recent issue of New Nigerian Literary Supplement (21/11/97, 28/11/97, 5/12/97, itself reproduced and translated from the original Hausa language script to English by Ibrahim Sheme from Harsunan Nijeriya Vol XVII, 1995 pp. 86-110). Paradoxically argues that modern Hausa writers “…refuse to take an idea from others. They should understand that there is nothing wrong in doing and expressing that..”; whereas the Late Abubakar Imam openly acknowledges his literary antecedents. Yet the problem of Hausa writers, especially the soyayya genre were the accusations that they copy from other cultures! Concludes by accusing that “…only few Hausa writers today would care to write and educate; most would only do so for material gain and popularity…” Concludes by hoping that “…writers who are popular, such as Ado Ahmad, will lean from Imam and write books on such topics as “The importance of women’s education” or any topic which will enlighten and encourage the society to go either for school or business for their self sustenance..”

Danjuma Katsina, Muhammad Mu’azu., “Hausa Literature: Why Novian Whitsitt Couldn’t Get It Right”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 28 February 1998 p. 15. *A critic of Novian Whitsitt’s dissertation on feminist literature in Hausaland. Points out that Whitsitt’s analysis ignores the role of Islam in Hausaland, and as such also ignores Islamic viewpoints on feminism — a perspective that the critic argues must be taken into consideration when analyzing works written by a Muslim Hausa woman. The English translations of many of the Hausa dialogs were also faulted which “clearly shows that Novian Whitsitt has produced a thesis on books he could neither understand their content nor comprehend their mode of presentation.” Cautions foreign researchers about accuracy in conducting field research on issues of culture and language, and “…they should remember that that Hausa people of today are in 1998, not 1898.”

Malumfashi, Ibrahim., “Kano Market Literature: A ‘Love’ Story”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 14, 21, March 1998. First presented as a seminar paper at the 1st Annual Seminar organized by the Creative Writer’s Club, Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, on February 20, 1998. *Gives a detailed analysis of book publishing in Northern Nigeria before focusing attention on the “the new creative writings, though regarded as significant in many academic and intellectual fora, are now becoming a tool in changing certain societal norms, most especially among the youth, when no other “serious” work is there to compete with them in the open market…” Argues that most of the new Hausa prose fiction author’s do not have educational backgrounds beyond secondary schools, and “most of them are not exposed to the rudiments of classical or variety of local and external literature.” Also claims they derive their influence from cinema, television and videos. Admits, however, that “the Kano Market Literature is blossoming despite the criticism and edicts. This is because the Hausa society needs literary pieces, it needs creativity, it needs to move ahead with time, as such it needs to document its ups-and downs, since the “serious” literature is nowhere to be found.

Gumel, Hamisu Abdullahi., “Of Hausa Novels and Moral Decadence”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 16 May, 1998 p. 14. Also published in Sunday Triumph, 22/2/98. *An acidulous attack on the soyayya genre. Argues that “…today Hausa novels have become the agents of cultural destruction and therefore a menace to the society. The contemporary Hausa novelists, knowingly or unknowingly, are posing a threat to the existence of their society’s moral and cultural norms. The danger here is that these books, which now flood our markets, full of obscenity in total disregard of the culture of the community or the language in which they are written are undermining its very existence…” Claims that recent spades of suicides and murders by girls in unacceptable matrimonial circumstances were influences by such writings. Harks back at the “…good old days when the early Hausa literary writers were using literature as a vehicle for advancing the Hausa community and of portraying the dignity of its people and culture….” Accuses soyayya genre writers of “…writing for fame and money, and for the sake of being widely known. Most of them lack the creative mind. Besides, their writings are linguistically dwarfed…” Besides being subversive, he also claims that Hausa writers “…are a poor replica of Western literature and are bent on destabilising the culture of the Hausa people…”

Adamu, Yusuf Muhammad., “Long Live The Hausa Novel!”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, June 6-12, 1998, p. 15. *A rejoinder to Hamisu Abdullahi Gumel (Of Hausa Novels and Moral Decadence, New Nigerian Weekly, 16/5/98) A spirited defense of the genre from a writer (Idan So Cuta Ne, Ummulhairi). Argues that “…literature is a reflection of social happenings. Writers do not exist in a vacuum, but rather write out of their accumulative experiences derived from the existing social framework and reality, operating in the society in which they live.” Further argues that “…when a writer writes bout social inequality, brutalisation, forced or arranged marriages, moral decadence, cultural imperialism, etc, it is because such things abound in his society…If, therefore, readers and social critics do not like what Hausa novelists write they should also dislike and re-assess the social-psychology and social framework existing in contemporary Hausa society…”

Yusuf, Aisha Umar., “The Great Soyayya Debate”, Weekly Trust, June 19/26, 1998. *Accuses the soyayya books of being “…virtual replicas of contemporary European literature…” Having “read only ten of these contemporary Hausa novels…” and admitting that she is “…by no means an authority on the subject…” castigates the writers for portraying settings and contexts not characteristic of Hausa society. “…some of the scenes one encounters in soyayya are not what obtain in real-life Hausa courtship and romance…” Cites three examples from the books she read to strength her arguments about the alien cultures portrayed in the books, which included an aeronautic engineer playing a flute on the streets of Jos for his girlfriend (Zuwaira Isa’s Cin Amanar {auna ). Advocates for a censorship board which can “…correct cases of misinformation such as the ones quotes above, as well as ensure that some moral and linguistic standard is adhered to. It should consist of Hausa linguists from our universities, learned Muslim clergy and other responsible leaders of thought…The time to do something about them is now, if not we may have genuine case to regret later.”

Abbas, Halima., “New Trends in Hausa Fiction”, New Nigerian Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 11, 18, July; 1 August, 1998. *This was a post-graduate seminar presentation of the Department of Nigerian and African Languages, Ahmadu Bello University Zaria held on June 3, 1998 towards an M.A. degree. *Focuses attention on the literary aspect of the novel as a framework and attempted to use the framework in analyzing soyayya books. Argues that the genre was a protest against the Hausa classicist novel writing styles (as iconized by the Late Alhaji Abubakar Imam). Urges for the continuation of the books and wants the authors to be encouraged to write more “properly”.

Adamu, Yusuf Muhammad., “Hausa Novels: Beyond the Great Debate”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 18 July 1998, p. 14. *A rejoinder to Aisha Umar Yusuf (The Great Soyayya Debate, Weekly Trust, 19 & 26/6/98). Defends the trenchant view that the Hausa “…novel as an entity cannot be stopped. There is nothing wrong if bad books are discouraged. What I will not like to see is negating the contemporary Hausa novel. If all Hausa novelists are discouraged by general and subjective criticism it is as good as saying farewell to the Hausa novel forever…” Argues further that “…the Hausa people are better at listening and talking than at writing. Hausa society has no interest in it its creative literature and has neglected it…” and wonders why a whole legion of Hausa neoclassical writers have stopped writing. “…so if those that are supposed to be writing sense failed to, those who can write nonsense have very reason to do so until good writers emerge…”

Funtua, Bilkisu S. Ahmed., “I Write To Enlighten Northern Women”, New Nigerian Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 1& 15, August 1998. *The first and most in-depth interview given by a female soyayya writer. So far all the flak had been absorbed by Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino. Most of the female writers had decided to keep quite about the raging thunder. It is therefore a tribute to Ibrahim Sheme, the editor of the Supplement who was able to arrange to interview the most prolific female soyayya writer. She explains that her books were more like real-life soap-operas, and that she attempts to be as moral as possible. Her central theme is female empowerment, but within the establishment, thus eschewing feminist tendencies.

Danjuma Katsina, Muhammad Mu’azu., “Death to the ‘soyayya’ Novel!”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 5 September 1998, pp. 14-15. *A rejoinder to Yusuf Adamu’s Hausa Novels: Beyond the Great Debate New Nigeria Weekly, 18/7/98). Claims that parents would prefer to buy prayer genre books for their children than soyayya genre books, because “…in a Hausa traditional set-up no parent can buy a love story book for his child. Not that love does not exist in a traditional Hausa society, but parents would rather teach their wards to pray than how to love…” Ironically acknowledges a vital achievement of the soyayya genre by stating that “…we discovered that many people learned how to read as a result of the influences of soyayya novels, but later turned their attention to prayer books…” Concludes by stating that “…looking at the background of these books nothing beneficial will come out of them but foolishness, lack of direction and immorality…”

Danjuma Katsina, Muhammad Mu’azu., “The ‘Best Hausa Books’ of 1997/98”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 17 October 1998, p. 15. *The single apostrophe around best of Hausa books, possibly added by the editor reflect a wry sense of irony. Danjuma Katsina has been the most destructive critic of the soyayya genre (labeling their writings kafirci, immoral, etc), and yet in this article comes up with a best seller list. Although the list also contains non-fiction works, yet the first three positions were taken up by soyayya books! His judgmental meter includes the book being educative, written in standard Hausa, critical of immoral acts, teaches morality and is appealing to readers. Based on all these the best is Zinaru by Bala Anas Babinlata (the ugly writer of Danjuma’s earlier categorization, see Danjuma Katsina, Hausa Writers: The Good, The Bad and the Ugly, New Nigerian, 5/10/97). Another “ugly” writer in his earlier classification was Bilkisu S. Ahmed Funtua (“triple worst!”) at the third place with Ki Yarda Da Ni. Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino, the “good” writer and best now emerges second place with Duniya Sai Sannu which enamored the critic so much that he suggests it “…could even be recommended or our schools…”

Mansur, Ahmed., “Re: The ‘best’ Hausa Books 1998”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 19 December 1998 p. 15. *Supports Danjuma Katsina’s The ‘Best Hausa Books’ of 1997/98”, New Nigerian Weekly, 17/10/98), and writes to “amplify other salient issues which I strongly believe have derailed the beauty and philosophy in the art of writing nowadays…” Argues that “…under normal conditions, the increasing enthusiasm writing is good for Hausa literature, though many of the novels available remain virtually inauspicious, even when evidence points to the contrary…” Extols neoclassically written Hausa books (such as Mallakin Zuciyata and Kitsen Rogo “so far the best of their kind I read in recent times”) and laments that “…today’s novels have been robbed of taste and decency because of failure of logic, poor methodological outline and lack of clear thinking…The writing culture is overtaken by all comers and it seems to be driven by economic forces alone at the expense of enriching the Hausa customs and traditions…By manipulating the unsavoury trends in our marriage system, most novels are irrevocably damaging the attitudinal and ideological perception of readers towards the marriage institution, thereby throwing the youths, particularly girls, into the devil’s arms. Nudity, sex, drugs and violence — themes Western writers gleefully promote — are surreptitiously entering the art of writing, a phenomenon that does good to nobody…”

Abdullahi, Iliyasu Ibrahim., Tsokaci A Kan Kagaggun Labaran Soyayya: Yanayinsu Da Sigoginsu. Unpublished M.A. (Hausa) thesis, Nigerian Languages, Bayero University, Kano 1999. *One of the first in-depth studies of the genre. Lists a total of one hundred books and their authors, and selected six for a structural analysis. He was more concerned with form and structure, rather than any moralizing of the genre.

Abubakar, Muhammad Mujtaba., Litattafan Soyayya a Ma’aunin Hankali Da Na Shari’a. Privately published. School of Business and Publish Administration, The Polytechnic, Kebbi, 1999. *A religious attack on the soyayya genre in which the author, using copious quotations from the Qur’an and the Hadith, argues that the only love approved by Islam is legal (married) love; any exposition on love outside marriage is un-Islamic, and on this basis, the entire lot of soyayya genre stand damned because they encourage immoral behavior amongst Muslim youth. He also attacks the recent crop of Hausa home videos, which perhaps not surprisingly, were hotwired to the soyayya writings.

Adamu, Abdalla Uba., “Hausa Literature in the 1990s”, (in two parts), New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 24 April 1999, p. 14 (Part I); Saturday May 1, 1999, p. 14 (Part II). *Just as the debate on the relevance and direction of the new Hausa writings seemed to be getting cold, Dr. Abdalla Uba Adamu, a science educationist, entered into the fray and rekindled it. Writing as “…a protagonist of Hausa writing and writers in general..”, argues for the relevance of the soyayya genre within the context of four uses of a novel in European literary settings. The main focus of the author is on encouraging reading habits among Hausa adolescent and youth. Further contends that “…it is ludicrous to presume that such mere erotic imageries (as reflected in many soyayya books) are capable of corrupting the whole society, and gives a naïve view of society. It also says nothing about responsible parenting which many parents shirk away from and point accusing fingers at soyayya writers. Critics always also ignore the endings of such novels which reveals their inherent morality…” Believes that “…banning some of the books such as had been done by the Kano ANA or setting up a Government committee as done in Kano to scrutinize the manuscripts are both counter-productive measures which will stifle further creativity. Creativity cannot be muzzled by self-appointed guardians of public morality. If the book is distasteful enough, the market will reject it — sending a powerful enough message to the author to revise strategies and focus…”

Malumfashi, Ibrahim., “Beyond the Market Criticism”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 15 May 1999 p. 14, 15. Published also in Weekly Trust, 28 May 1999. *A rejoinder to Abdalla Uba Adamu, whom Malumfashi considers “merceneristic”. As argued: “…by making inferring that soyayya books are describing today, Abdalla is merely being atavistic. Does he mean to tell us that between 1990 and 1998 the Hausa society is rabidly engrossed in love and romance? Does that mean the era of SAP and Abachanomics were an era of gigantic love escapades and romantic topsy‑turvy? I am not sure if that hypothesis can stand the test of time. This is because the period between 1991‑1998 was the worst period in the life of most households: pervasive poverty, hunger, misery, school drop‑outs), riots, political miscarriages, corruption, prostitution, and thuggery were (are?) the picture that confronted (confronts?) us. How come then love and romance took the centre‑stage in our chapbooks and not any of these economic problems?..” Alternatively refers to soyayya genre as chapbooks or Kano Market Literature. Argues for a purity in Hausa literature, warning that “…as I have been saying for years, our preoccupation with the Kano chapbooks, the drums we beat in their commendation and ululation, our over‑reliance on these young writers as our literary saviours will, if care is not taken, bring down Hausa literature…I said it over and over again, that market pamphleteering is just a vogue where it thrived. It was never taken to be a “contemporary literature” but an adventure within a given literary landscape…”

Malumfashi, Abdulaziz S., “Babinlata: A Writer With A Difference”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 22 May 1999 p. 15. *Eulogizes Bala Anas Babinlata, a first generation soyayya writer (Kulu, Da Ko Jika?, Zinaru, Bakar Ashana, Rana Zafi). Claims that Babinlata’s books “…have a unique feature and they differ greatly from those of his colleagues in terms of style and ideas…Among the characteristics of his books are the accurate description of events, places, things and people, correlation of paragraphs and events, descriptive opening, superb dialogue, as well as suspense, to mention but a few…If you feel sleepy, don’t even start reading Babinlata’s book, else you will remain awake until you finish reading it!…” Concludes by stating that “…with time and if Babinlata continues to exhibit his literary talent, he would be the Abubakar Imam of our time…”

Sheme, Ibrahim., “Of Market Forces and the Hausa Novel”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 5 June 1999. *A rejoinder to Ibrahim Malumfashi’s Beyond Market Criticism (New Nigerian Weekly, 15/4/99). Argues that increased literacy level as more schools weaned students, the widespread introduction of American home videos due to accessibility to new technology as well as the burgeoning sophsitication/Westernisation of the Hausa society have necessitated a change in Hausa society. “...Thus anyone who assumed our society was not a part of the global village should see his doctor immediately. The society cannot be an island unto itself but is unstoppably susceptible to external influence. The KML (Kano Market Literature) may appear foreign, but it’s not wholly so; it was made up of both local and foreign ingredients...” Concludes that “…However, like all grains, there can be found among them bad ones, but that shouldn’t push us into burning the farm where they are produced or the barn in which they are kept. Willy ninny, they (Hausa soyayya writers) have documented a part of our culture even if it includes the bad part. For this, we should hug their authors or write the right alternatives ourselves…”

Adamu, Abdalla Uba., “Idols of the Market Place: Literary History, Literary Criticism and the Contemporary Hausa Novel”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, June 12, 1999, pp. 14-15. *A rejoinder to Ibrahim Malumfashi’s Beyond Market Criticism (New Nigerian Weekly, 15/4/99). Deals with the mechanism of literary criticism by focusing on the moral worth of literature and the nature of its relationship with reality. Argues that the novelist, in whatever social circumstances, is an interpreter of the society. The Hausa society has had to rely for years on classical works to provide an interpretation of a society no longer in tune with current social realities. Also claims that some contemporary soyayya novels like Bala Anas Babinlata’s Zinaru are “…far more relevant in analyzing today’s problems than Shehu Umar. If the novelist is seen as moral interpreter of the society, then he must operate within his natural medium, unhampered by cloying and suffocating classicist paradigmatic shackles…”

Imam T/Wizirchi, Abdullahi Garba., Tsokaci Da Kalailaicewa a kan Litattafan Soyayya na Hausa, Seminar Presentation in Bayero University, Kano, Wednesday June 16, 1999, Department of Nigerian Languages. *The speaker was inspired into writing the paper as a result of being a field assistant to an American postgraduate student, Novian Whitsitt (q.v.) Mr. Whitsitt wrote out eleven questionnaire items, to which Mallam Garba provided written responses. It is this, as it were, completed questionnaire, that Mallam Garba presented to the crowd in BUK. Thus the paper was written in a form of question-answer style. It provides the authors’ view on the predominantly evil effects of soyayya genre, which according to him, range from encouraging stealing among youth (so that they can buy the books they are now hooked on to) and mass failure in examinations by girls, to poor housekeeping by housewives (who were constantly engrossed in reading these types of books).

Adamu, Abdalla Uba., “Hausa Literature and Information Technology in the decade of the 1990s”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, 3 July, 1999, pp. 14-15. *Focuses attention on a pioneering work which led to the development of Hausa hooked characters for the PC using Fontographer 3.5, and how the fonts were distributed as “public domain” shareware to literary centers and authors in Kano. Claims that the availability of the fonts in 1995 boosted the production of Hausa books making them easier to read due to accentuation.

Ibrahim, Malumfashi, “Dancing Naked in the Market Place:”, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, July 10, 1999 p. 14-15. *A reply to the various criticisms (Abdalla Uba Adamu, NNW, 12/6/99; A. S. Malumfashi, NNW 22/5/99; and Ibrahim Sheme, NNW 5/6/99), of his Beyond the Market Criticism discourse (NNW 15/5/99; as well as Weekly Trust 28/5/99). Argues that “…most writers are dancing naked in the marketplace…” since they keep on grafting ideas from other sources to make up their stories — thus stripping themselves bare to reveal their real lack of originality. Spent considerable time trying to prove that both William Shakespeare and Alhaji Abubakar Imam relied heavily on other people’s works. While he accepts this is an established tradition in the literary world, he berates Hausa soyayya writers of being incapable of effective grafting. Points out, for instance, that Ibrahim Sheme's Kifin Rijiya is “…another pervasive transmutation of Imam's Ruwan Bagaja which in the long run did not serve the encomium of realism and fantasy. Sheme's caricature dabbled more into the fantasizing…” Argues that Hausa writers lack the sophistication of European “…writers' mindset and their wide range of readings…” to successfully graft ideas into effective story-lines. According to him, “….our writers parrotically graft an idea and reproduce it without letting it germinate….” Concludes that although the recent Hausa novels may “…serve as a token in opening new vistas, especially reading culture among less-literate market women, young school leavers and married women….” it will never save “…Hausa prose fiction from extinction! What the market literature is now doing is lullabying us to deep slumber colonising our thoughts in romantic delirium, instead of liberating us from the clutches of capitalism and its local comprador collaborators…”

Adamu, Abdalla Uba., “The Lexicon of Love: A Review of Tsokaci Da Kalailaicewa a kan Litattafan Soyayya na Hausa”, Seminar Presentation in Bayero University, Kano, Wednesday June 16, 1999, Department of Nigerian Languages, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff August 21 and August 28, 1999. *A review of the seminar presentation by Imam T/Wizirchi (q.v.), which itself was a questionnaire survey answer for Novian Whitsitt (q.v.). Argues that the seminar paper lacked empirical bases for many of claims made, such as that soyayya novels were responsible for mass failure of examinations among school girls; their presence also encourages petty theft by boys who wanted to read them and having no money therefore steal some to buy them (!); and that all cases of marital problems were caused by housewives who read the novels.

Tilde, Aliyu, “Prudence and the Contemporary Hausa Novel”, Weekly Trust, August 16, 1999 p. 18. *As an advocate of the Imamian Paradigm of Hausa Literature, argues that the soyayya books will never stand the test of time in terms of quality. “To expect that these books will stand the test of time and be accepted within academic circles as genuine literary contributions is least deserved by any person who might have passed through a degree programme.” Castigates the soyayya books as being “…poorly conceived, poorly written and poorly published. They are nowhere to be compared with the standard literature of the “Imam” and “Suleiman Katsina” eras. Acknowledges, however, that the soyayya books “…might have simply filled a vacuum created by the recent incapacity of our Hausa specialist holding a degree or a Ph.D. in the subject.” Accepts that mainstream publishing houses may not wish to publish the recent spate of Hausa novels, but points out that the “…this should not discourage good writers particularly during the age of desktop publishing…other channels like the Internet will soon open its arms at a much cheaper cost than even desktop publishing…”

Aliyu, Mohammed Dantala., “Why some academicians ‘hate’ the soyayya novel’, New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, September 25, 1999 p. 14. *Another critic of the genre who noted the recurrence of the debates on the genre in 1999 particularly in New Nigerian Weekly. Argues that “…too shameful it would be should the soyayya books find their way into the classroom. The soyayya heroes and their protagonists academicians like Dr. Abdalla Uba Adamu should be prudent in the role they are currently playing in this debate. Recall the adage da ]an gari akan ci gari (the enemy within). Adamu may turn out to be the ]an gari (the enemy) who, in blind fantasy, threw away intellectualism and betrayed his colleagues…” Urges for a return to “ideal” (i.e. Imamian) Hausa literature. Ends with a prayer that “…it is our hope that these novels will be kept out of schools, as was done in Europe to Mills and Boon, Caribbean Caresses, etc. Antagonists of the soyayya pamphlets are not constituting themselves as authorities and should not be mistaken as such…”

Pindiga, Habeeb Idris., “Soyayya novels are the real Hausa literature” New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, October 23, 1999 p. 14. *A fiery rejoinder to Aliyu Mohammed Dantala’s fears that soyayya books could find their way into classrooms. Asks, rhetorically, “…which is the ideal literature of Hausa? The plagiarized compositions o of the Alhaji Imams or the translated versions of Garba Funtuwas? Or it is the crime stories of the Bature Gagares or the vengeance packets of the John Tafida Wusasas? Tracing the history of Hausa novel writing, one ends up finding as great as were plagiarized, translated, or stolen from various Arabian and European literary works. So if there is anything ideal in Ruwan Bagaja…Jiki Magayi…etc what makes Inda Alkawari, Tauraron Zuciyata, Wa Zai Auri Jahila? and Zinaru unacceptable?…In my opinion, it would be worthier to teach/study the moral lessons packed in Balaraba Ramat Yakubu’s soyayya book, Wa Zai Auri Jahila? Than the barbarian antiquated compositions like Shehu Umar and collections like Ruwan Bagaja and Iliya Dan Maikarfi. Who cares for “labarun aljannu?” or “labarun barayin zamanin jahiliyya” in this modern world?.

Adamu, Abdalla Uba., “Emotions in Motion: Sleaze, Salacity, Moral Codes and Hausa Literature” New Nigerian Weekly Literary Supplement — The Write Stuff, November , 1999 p. 14.*Another rejoinder to Dantala’s September 25 1999 article. This argues that “…it is often forgotten that it is the society that creates literature; not the other way round. There is no single scene, behavior, or act described in, say, Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino’s Kaicho! or Yusuf Adamu’s Idan So Cuta Ne that is not a common mode of behavior in any society. Talking about them does not necessarily provide a template for readers to emulate; it merely draws attention to them and their unpleasant consequences….” Concludes by stating that “….if we want sanitize Hausa literature, then we must sanitize the Hausa society, for literature is a reflection of society and is a creation of society. We must acquire the habit of responsible parenting. We must find ways of controlling the freaks, sex weirdoes and monsters — the real enemies within — that are prevalent in our society hiding under the façade of moral purity. So long as these perverts exist, they will continue providing endless source of inspiration for writers…”

Abdalla Uba Adamu (December 2002)

[1] A barely concealed attack on Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino and Ms Balaraba Ramat Yakubu who both became writers after graduating from Adult Literacy classes.
[2] Kafirci is non-belief in God’s messages. The critic used the expression to refer to participation in any activity that is expressly prohibited by Islam.

Emotions in Motion: Sleaze, Salacity, Moral Codes and Hausa Literature

2007-03-16T17:52:00.000-07:00

Published previously in (Nigerian) New Nigerian Weekly, Saturday November 6, 1999

What a befitting coda! Just as you thought the Great Soyayya Debate has died down, especially with the departure of Ibrahim Sheme from this newspaper, it is rekindled again by Muhammad Dantala Aliyu in The Write Stuff of 25 September 1999. In the article I was accused of being the enemy within (‘da dan gari akan ci gari’) who holds the door open for the enemies of public morality, i.e. specifically contemporary Hausa writers, to lay to waste our pristine moral landscape. My crime — delightfully accepted — was an unbridled support for Hausa literary expression in whatever form in a crusade to further the cause of Hausa literature and cultural studies; a crusade which, not tainted by the impurity of being a specialist in the area, gives a me a vantage moral edge and cause to fight more convincingly.

Being an empiricist, let me state my analytical framework. I can easily measure the impact of alcohol consumption on the cellular structure of an individual and attribute the outcome to the alcohol consumed. However, I am yet to see an instrument that measures such absolute correlation between literature and behavior. So I look forward to the day the moral guardians will perfect a system of linking, say, reading Jiki Magayi with a bloodthirsty quest for vengeance as a behavioral trait; or proving that just because you wear a 2Pac Shakur T-shirt, then you are both morally corrupt and must have read El-Bashir Abubakar’s Kafar Ungulu.

So the debate shifts from what literature is, to what literature does (or should do). This time the main focus is not on whether the new Hausa prose fiction — from what I call the Millennium Generation —is real (orijina) literature or gwanjo (trash). It is on moral precepts. Like a Morse code, the moral meter keeps popping its head once in a while in debates about the moral values of the Millennium Generation Hausa writers, and yet no one seems to want to address it fully. Let us do it now, shall we?

Art, Literature and Morality
The moralist view of art generally holds that the primary or exclusive function of art is as a handmaiden to morality--which means, usually, whatever system of morality is adhered to by the moralist in question. Art that does not promote moral influence of the desired kind is viewed by the moralist with suspicion and sometimes with grudging tolerance of its existence. For art, including literature, implants in people unorthodox ideas; it breaks the molds of provincialism in which people have been brought up; it disturbs and disquiets, since it tends to emphasize individuality rather than conformity; and works of art are often created out of rebellion or disenchantment with the established order. Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino’s In Da So Da Kauna (1990), was written out of such disenchantment; and because thousands shared his pain, it went on to become one of the most successful Hausa novels of recent times. Sixty years from now it would probably remembered as a classic — not for its beauty, but for its revolutionary fervor, condemned during its time, but glorified in retrospect.

When art does not affect people morally one way or the other (for example, much of didactic literature), it is considered a harmless pleasure that can be tolerated if it does not take up too much of the reader’s time; but, when it promotes questioning and defies established attitudes, it is viewed by the moralist as insidious and subversive. It is viewed with approval only if it promotes or reinforces the moral beliefs and attitudes adhered to by the moralist.

Plato is probably the first champion in the Western world of the moralistic view of art — at least in The Republic and Laws. Plato admired the poets; but, when he was founding (on paper) his ideal state, he was convinced that much art, even some passages in Homer, tended to have an evil influence upon the young and impressionable, and accordingly he decided that they must be banned. Passages that spoke ill or questioningly of their deities, passages containing excessive sexual passion (and all works that would today be described as pornographic), and even passages of music that were disturbing to the soul or the senses (he certainly would not have listened to Tina Turner or Notorious B.I.G.!!) were all condemned to the same fate. Much of what is said in the Republic and elsewhere reflects the belief that the vital opinions of the community could be shaped by law and that men could be penalized for saying things that offended public sensibilities, undermined common morality, or subverted the institutions of the community. And this barrage was some four hundred years before the birth of Isa (AS).

Plato's concern here was with the purity of soul of the men who would become members of the council of rulers of the state; he was not concerned with censorship for the masses, but, since one could not predict which young people would pass the series of examinations required for membership in the council of rulers and since it was (and is) practically impossible to restrict access to works of art to a certain group, the censorship, he decided, would have to be universal.

It would be admitted, first of all, that works of literature can teach valuable moral lessons through explicit presentation: the genre that has this as its aim is didactic literature, as exemplified by Pilgrim's Progress by the English Puritan John Bunyan and Back to Methuselah by the Irish dramatist George Bernard Shaw. But most works of literature do not exist to teach a moral lesson: possibly, Shakespeare did not write Othello merely to attack racial prejudice or Macbeth to prove that crime does not pay. Literature does teach but in a far more important way than by explicit preachment: it teaches, as John Dewey said, by being, not by express intent.

Literature achieves this moral effect by presenting characters and situations (usually situations of difficult moral decision) through which the reader can deepen his own moral perspectives by reflecting on other people's problems and conflicts, which usually have a complexity that his own daily situations do not possess. He can learn from them without himself having to undergo in his personal life the same moral conflicts or make the same moral decisions. The reader can view such situations with a detachment that he can seldom achieve in daily life when he is immersed in the stream of action. By viewing these situations objectively and reflecting on them, he is enabled to make his own moral decisions more wisely when life calls on him in turn to make them. Literature can be a stimulus to moral reflection unequalled perhaps by any other, for it presents the moral choice in its total context with nothing of relevance omitted.

Perhaps the chief moral potency of literature lies in its unique power to stimulate and develop the faculty of the imagination. Through literature the reader is carried beyond the confines of the narrow world that most persons inhabit into a world of thought and feeling more profound and more varied than his own, a world in which he can share the experiences of human beings (real or fictitious) who are far removed from him in space and time and in attitude and way of life. Literature enables him to enter directly into the affective processes of other human beings, and, having done this, no perceptive reader can any longer condemn or dismiss en masse a large segment of humanity due to their perceived imperfections ;for a successful work of literature brings them to life as individuals, animated by the same passions as he is, facing the same conflicts, and tried in the same crucible of bitter experience.

Through such an exercise of the sympathetic imagination, literature tends to draw all men together instead of setting them apart from one another in groups or types with convenient labels for each. Far more than preaching or moralizing, more even than the descriptive and scientific discourses of psychology or sociology, literature tends to unite mankind and reveal the common human nature that exists in everyone behind the facade of divisive doctrines, political ideologies, and social mores.

This is not to say, of course, that those who read great works of literature are necessarily tolerant or sympathetic human beings. Reading literature alone is not a cure for human ills, and people who are neurotically grasping or selfish in their private lives will hardly cease to be so as a result of reading works of literature. Still, wide and serious reading of literature has an observable effect: people who do this kind of reading, no matter what their other characteristics may be, do tend to be more understanding of other people's conflicts, to have more sympathy with their problems, and to be able to emphasize more with them as human beings than do people who have never broadened their horizons by reading literature at all.

Thus in every literate society, the novelist frequently has to encounter those dragons unleashed by public morality or by the law. The struggles of Flaubert, Zola, and Joyce, denounced for attempting to advance the frontiers of literary candor, are well known and still vicariously painful, but lesser novelists, working in a more permissive age, can record cognate agonies. Generally speaking, any Western novelist writing after the publication in the 1960s of Hubert Selby's Last Exit to Brooklyn or Gore Vidal's Myra Breckenridge can expect little objection, on the part of either publisher or public, to language or subject matter totally unacceptable, under the obscenity laws then operating, in 1922, when Ulysses was first published. This is certainly true of America, if not of Ireland or Malta. But many serious novelists fear an eventual reaction against literary permissiveness as a result of the exploitation by cynical obscenity mongers or hard-core pornographers of the existing liberal situation.

Hausa Literature and Public Morality
The moral stand with regards to contemporary Hausa literature is fairly simple. According to the argument, as advanced by the Muhammad Dantala Aliyu’s attack in The Write Stuff of 25 September 1999, the current moral corruption (whatever that is) of Muslim Hausa youth is caused by reading books written by the Millennium Generation Hausa prose fiction writers. The moral strand most often isolated for this is youth and sexuality. Hugs, kisses, heavy petting, and in some cases, downright (suggestive) penetrative sexual act were all claimed to be the main forte of these books, and since a significant portion of Hausa youth read them, they therefore acquire all unpleasant moral perversion from reading these books. The moral judgement is that such behaviors should not be reflected in literature aimed at youth. It seems Plato is still alive and kicking!

Agreed. But have we paused to ask of the source of such inspiration? Where do the new Hausa writers — not many of whom actually write about such things, anyway — obtain their source? It is often forgotten that it is the society that creates literature; not the other way round. There is no single scene, behavior, or act described in, say, Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino’s Kaicho! or Yusuf Adamu’s Idan So Cuta Ne that is not a common mode of behavior in any society. Talking about them does not necessarily provide a template for readers to emulate; it merely draws attention to them and their unpleasant consequences. If every pervasive act detailed by a writer is a licence for behavioral photocopying, then by now all individuals aged 25 and above in any large urban cluster would have been excellent thieves and murders because of the huge amount of James Hadley Chase they read during their secondary school days. Similarly, such group would have been sexual perverts as a result of all the Nick Carter pulp fiction, full of sexual exploits, they have read. The fact that, ironically, it is this age set shouting the moral Morse code to protect the minds of readers reflects a series of lessons. First is responsible reading. Because some members of the society are perverts, the moral guardians tend to think that everyone is also likely to be a pervert. This ignores the factor of personal responsibility on the part of the reader to distinguish fiction from reality, and reflect on the implications, to reality, of fictional accounts.

Secondly, responsible parenting. Faced with the struggle for daily subsistence, many parents are happy to throw away the moral responsibility for their children’s upbringing, and consequently expect the society — full of real-life weirdoes and freaks — to act as the moral guardians for their children. Massive reading of Chase and Nick Carter in the 1970s and 1980s did not produce a 1990s society of thieves, gangsters, murderers and sex freaks. This was because of responsible parenting of 1950s and 1960s: a code many parents have now abandoned.

Further, often perverted behaviors emanate from the same guardians of public morality in the society — thus sending wrong signals to youth. Else how do you justify a 52-year man — “decent” and perfectly “respective” with children and grandchildren of his own — raping a 12-year girl, as happened recently in one of the cities? From which book did he acquire such sickness? What of the numerous commercial sex-workers, many of whom were little girls, given safe havens by irresponsible adults to operate brothels in many large as well as peri-urban clusters? From where did they read about their trade? And have you read how someone in Kano in summer raped an eight-year old girl and broke her neck? Did the devil made him do it (as he claimed) or did he read Bilkisu S. Ahmed Funtuwa’s novels?

Thus that is where we face the main problem: proving that by reading a description of a behavior, the reader acquires the behavior. If we follow this argument, then we do not need any contemporary Hausa prose fiction to corrupt the minds of the Hausa youth. Their minds are being corrupted everyday by newspapers and radio newsreels in which stories about horrid crimes are routinely reported. Dantala, a student of Mass Communications, is thus guilty of perpetuating the moral corruption of Hausa youth by mere reportage of salacious, sleazy and immoral events. Copycat mass murders as recently happened in the United States, for instance, were more on media coverage of similar horrors, rather than reading any trashy paperback.

Other aspects of morality such as corruption (where a leader stashes away billions of public naira in foreign accounts), murder (hired assassinations are the in-thing now), rapings, betrayal of trust, child abuse, child hawking and begging, not being the main concern of the new Hausa writers, were not seen as menace to public morality. When we read about them in the papers, we just shake our heads and thank God that such things are happening to other people, not us. I thus look forward to the day when newspapers will report the daily activities of a secondary school, present a special ten-page pull-out on how to landscape your garden, write special features on edibility of mushrooms, print a five-page supplement on traditional poetry, etc instead of reporting perverted crimes, grisly murders, large-scale looting of public treasury — which can serve as templates for youth and those in position to emulate.

Thus the correlation between cause and effect is what makes statements about any aspect of knowledge credible. So far of all the moral critics, no has one proved that the salacity, perversion and downright oddness that occurs in mainstream society is more repulsive that what is written in the new Hausa novels. Further, it is not clear what aspect of morality the moral critics were worried about. This lack of clarification clearly reveals confusion on what constitutes morality in human psycho-social development. Morality embraces a person's beliefs about the appropriateness or goodness of what he does, thinks, or feels. So what aspect can we, with all fairness, accuse Hausa novelists, of corrupting?

Throwing Stones in the Vicinity of Glasshouses
As I argued earlier, the moral criticisms against the new Hausa novels center around male-female interactions which were forcefully brought out into the open. This is scandalous to a society conditioned to masking its emotions. Thus scenes of gamboling, frolicking and swimming in bikinis and trunks (e.g. in Bala Anas Babinlata’s Kulu) were all labeled kafirci and influences of Euro-American cultural perversion — this from the same critics able to condone military dictators stashing away billions of the country’s currencies in foreign banks.

Sometimes it befuddles the mind to wonder about the source of criticisms and the inherent reversed racism in them. In 1933 Jiki Magayi was not only hailed as a classic, but was also awarded a prize by the colonial administration. Yet it deals with the same themes considered repulsive in contemporary Hausa fiction. A boy loves a girl, but she is swept away by someone richer. When Ado Ahmed Gidan Dabino explored the same theme in his Idan Da So Da Kauna (1990) it becomes a moral punch bag for the critics. Was it because it was not endorsed by a Svengali white editor?

Perhaps the most controversial Hausa classic is Dare Dubu Da Daya, published in five volumes. This, as we are all tired of hearing by now, was a translation of Arabic Alf Laylah Wa Laylah, a collection of Oriental stories of uncertain date and authorship whose tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sindbad the Sailor have almost become part of Western folklore, and translated into English by Sir Richard Burton as The Thousand Nights and a Night, 16 vol. (10 vol., 1885; 6 supplementary vol., 1886-88). The raw sexuality of some of the stories, especially in the Hausa vol. 5, was glossed over by critics of the new Hausa novels. Containing gory salacious details of penetrative sexual promiscuity, it nevertheless became accepted as an adult text in a prudish Hausa society of the 1930s when it was translated by Mamman Kano and Frank Edgar. In the 1980s it was even being read over the radio! They stopped reading it as a result of pressure from youth who felt embarrassed to be listening to such raw sexuality in the company of their parents from what is a family program. And yet to date, there is no single soyayya book that described the lurid details of sexuality as in some of stories of Dare Dubu Da Daya.

Further, other accepted novels (they were even awarded literary prizes) such as Karshen Alewa Kasa, Tsumagiyar Kan Hanya, Zabi Naka, Turmin Danya deal with themes of urbanism, corruption, politics, bureaucracy and technological society. Turmin Danya, even when moralizing, deals with sexual corruption of the worst order — a married man (to three wives) procuring young girls for extra-marital activities.

For instance, Karshen Alewa Kasa must have been good for other qualities, but certainly not its morality — the very accusations against soyayya writers. As Graham Furniss noted, “…marking a major departure from previous writing, the story (Karshen Alewa Kasa) is brim full of features of modern Nigeria: fast cars, booze, gambling, sex, violence…girl-friends who speak their minds in no uncertain terms…and a wide variety of stock characters from Northern Nigerian society…” Furniss further observers that, “…this novel owes more to James Hadley Chase, Fredrick Forsyth and the cinema of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly than to earlier Hausa writing…” (Graham Furniss., Poetry, Prose and Popular Culture in Hausa, p. 55. London: International African Institute/Edinburgh University Press, 1996).

The Children, Themselves
Finally, so much spleen has been vented on the alleged corrosive influence of the new Hausa novels on youth. Yet to date, no one has bothered to empirically measure the extent of this influence. To do this effectively, you need to first determine what you consider moral outcomes as variables. Then determine how to measure them, before attempting to link their acquisition to reading specific texts. I welcome any development of such analytical tool which may lay down to rest, once for all, the issue of pervasive influence of literature on moral behavior of (presumably) impressionistic youth.

A simple survey of 1,000 secondary school students in northern Nigeria on their opinions about the new Hausa romantic fiction novels shows that about 46 reasons were given for reading Hausa novels, and 29 for not reading them. Interestingly, more suggestion were given by readers of the novels on how to reform the books than by those who do not read them. And of the well-known authors, only Alhaji Abubakar Imam was listed, while Magana Jari Ce, Ruwan Bagaja, Ilya Dan Maikarfi, and Shehu Umar were the only books listed from a previous generation (most of those choosing these books could not tell the author, except for Magana Jari Ce). The rest of some 130 novels most frequently read by the Kano sample are all written by the Millennium Generation.

As this is still a research-in-progress, I will not comment on these preliminary trends (moreover, the SPSS processor is still chewing over the tests of hypotheses). But let us reflect on them. Another instrument seeks teacher and parents views of the entire issue; but then we do know those, don’t we?

What this points out to, however, is that if we want sanitize Hausa literature, then we must sanitize the Hausa society, for literature is a reflection of society and is a creation of society. We must acquire the habit of responsible parenting that enabled a high school girl in the 1970s to read Denise Robin’s The Flame and the Frost, yet put it aside and read her Chemistry: A Functional Approach, and pray at the appropriate times. We must find ways of controlling the freaks, sex weirdoes and monsters — the real enemies within — that are prevalent in our society hiding under the façade of moral purity. So long as these perverts exist, they will continue providing endless source of inspiration for writers. Delete them from the hard disks of our lives, reformat them, and your Hausa literature becomes sanitized — whatever that may mean.

Abdalla Uba Adamu (November 1999)

Hausa Literature and ICTs in the Decade of the 1990s

2007-03-16T16:34:00.000-07:00

Previously published in New Nigerian Weekly, July 3, 1999, pp. 14-15.

Introduction
The “titanic” debates that punctuated the pages of New Nigerian Weekly (northern Nigeria) newspaper about the merits or demerits of the more or less recently created Hausa soyayya genre of creative writing, I feel, lose sight of many salient and very significant points in the literary development of the Hausa nationality and how it reflects on the uses of the novel among the Hausa, particularly of Northern Nigeria. I intend to argue that the widespread availability of information technology facilities in the decade of the 1990s has provided the bedrock around which the innate creativity of Hausa writers found expression. Without this technology, there would not have been such literary output at such scale. In this regard, I wish to chronicle the development of the technology as it affects Hausa writing in Kano.

The supportive Technology for Hausa Literature in Kano
Despite the great flood of soyayya writings in the Northern markets, it should be appreciated that many worthy experimental novels, or novels more earnest than entertaining, gather dust in manuscript or are circulated privately in poorly produced typewriter scripts. Indeed, the difficulty that some unestablished novelists find in gaining a readership (which means the attention of a commercial publisher) has led them to take to the personal publishing routes of gaining attention. In Kano this has spectacularly developed into a single cottage industry, and was given a boost in early 1990s by the widespread availability of the Personal Computer (PC) and the development of Business Centers in the metropolis.

Curiously, the IBM personal computer we take for granted now is a recent affordable technology; for it was created only in 1981. The early personal computers were not only cumbersome, but also awesomely expensive with software requiring an acquisition of arcane non-transferable skills. However, corporate competition and market-driven forces made the prices tumble down sufficiently for the machines to be affordable. Such that by early 1990s business centers, initially with electric typewriters (with “memory”) started to emerge with computers. Some of the early computing pioneers were Amstrad PCW dedicated word processors that seemed to suddenly open up a whole new world to a generation brought up on Olympic typewriters. The transition to “proper” computers in the form of the early 386s that pervaded the Kano markets in the early 1990s opened up the literary establishment to a faster mode of processing information. Eminent Kano pioneer business centers that emerged in this era included Abacus Computer Services, Midtown Business Services and City Business Center. Incidentally, each has its own focus clientele which helps to understanding the emergent literary and publishing trend in Kano.

Abacus pioneered the Arabic typesetting industry in Kano and thus made it possible for the earliest prayer genre books to appear in the market. This was made possible by Abacus being the first to acquire the DOS-based Universal Word program which included Arabic language module in its multi-lingual structure. Midtown is a high-end upper middle class establishment with emphasis on professional typesetting and ultimately more powerful computers with emphasis on graphic-based work. Its pioneering role was in its being one of the first to acquire a HP Scanjet scanner in 1993 and thus quickly scan documents and photographs directly into the computer. It is from its studios that initial color separations (what some Kano printers contemptuously call “burum-burum” color separation to indicate that it is not high-definition) that characterize the covers of the soyayya genre books were made. The scans were made from art work initially drawn by professional artists dotted around Kano, although the most patronized seemed to be the resident artists at the Kano State History and Culture Bureau.

Perhaps the biggest role in the production of the soyayya genre was played by City Business Center, located right in the heart of the Kano city, and about five blocks away from the Gidan Dabino publishing house along the same street. The focus of City Business Center — cheap, cheerful and flexible — is on Hausa writing which was later expanded to include Arabic typesetting. To date, the City Business Center has typeset more than 800 of such books and their associative forms. Incidentally, some of the operators at the City Business Center were so caught up in the frenzy that they became character actors of the films from which the novels are being increasingly adapted.

However what really transformed the literary process — spearheaded by the soyayya genre — in Kano was the availability of Windows 3.x software. Windows 3.1 became available world-wide in April 1992. With it came a whole raft of features that made its predecessor (Windows 3.0 released in May 1990) positively archaic. Windows 3.1 came with support for TrueType font technology, and suddenly it became possible to produce good-looking manuscripts that at last begin to look like real printed books! So much was Windows held in awe that its default font of Arial used by the crude resident word processor Write, was automatically used by business center operators and unchallenged by the authors who were only too happy to see their works better produced than on typewriter. Until then WordPerfect 5.0 had been the predominant Dos-based word processor. Its default Courier font — especially printed crisply on a laser printer — merely made an ugly typeface more tolerable. Windows changed all that to such an extent that the basic word processor in Windows, Write, was universally used by most of the earlier authors — simply because of its Arial font!

With the availability of more powerful machines in mid-1990s (by 1995 the common computer configuration was 486DX2-100/8MB Ram/350 HDD capable enough of running Windows 95), the availability of more powerful Windows word processors (Microsoft Word remained dominant among computers in Kano) and the realization that the fonts can be added to the system, the Hausa literature went into an overdrive. Hitherto the production of Hausa literature was, from its infancy, institutionalized.

The transformation of the Translation Bureau into Literature Bureau in 1935 by the colonial Government yielded a clutch of books that forced a specific mode of thinking that was very pro-establishment, even though the arch-Svengali of the Northern literary evolution, Dr. Rupert East acknowledged that it was difficult convincing the founding fathers of Hausa literature that it was worth doing. The saccharine cloyingness of the early Hausa classics succeeded in trapping whole generations of readers in a gridlock of village simplicity and were the epitome of cultural correctness — as reflected in that period.

The outburst of information technology in the early 1990s is the wake-up call for the silicon breed and the formation of urban defence league guerillas ready and willing to emphasize that urban is good, desirable and a way of life. Whether motivated by greed and tinsel or desire to contribute their widow’s mite to Hausa literature, the floodgates opened and the result was literally thousands of publications (all self-sponsored) many with cheerfully gaudy cover art work with a liberal use of decorative fonts. Incidentally, except for few centers, Adobe (then Aldus) PageMaker and Microsoft Publisher, two leading desktop publishing packages, were largely ignored, perhaps because of their steep learning curves. QuarkExpress, the leading DTP package on the planet, was unknown or possibly unavailable, even to the few Macintosh freaks brave enough to merely display their Apples! The result was cut-paste-cut style of straightforward word processor printout that characterizes the poor finishing of most of the early Kasuwar Kurmi Hausa literature genre.

By then also the business center phenomena has exploded in Kano. More sprung up, and the competition became fierce — giving greater choices and thus encouraging more authors. I think this is perhaps the singular most significant contribution of the computer technology in the development of the Hausa literature. Typesetting a novel with pretty fonts and fancy graphics does not make a good book; but the availability of the technology has made it possible for writers to refine their methodology far much more easily over time.

Enter Hausa Fonts
Although the computer has made it possible to write a lot in a short time, there were, of course, limitations. For one thing, it was not easy to spell-check Hausa writings due to inherent lack of a spell-checker for the Hausa language in virtually all the word processors. Consequently the printed books suffer from a large number of spelling errors, missed words and incomplete expressions — errors easy to correct in any document when using any European language (some of the word processors have multi-lingual support that includes only Afrikaans in their African repertoire; even the Arabic is the Middle Eastern variety).

Another limitation of the computer typeset documents was the lack of hooked letters — b’ d’ k’ and their capitals, ‘B, K’ ‘D — characteristic of Hausa orthography (and y’ for Fulfulde). While the Hausa language font sets were widely available for the Macintosh computers, they have not been so easily available for the IBM PC. This has not deterred the Hausa writers from writing; but it does reduce the impact of their messages since the precise inflexions are missing in their prose. Further, availability of the Hausa font character sets, even on the Macintosh, was restricted to academic circles (for instance the National Language Development Center, Abuja which has the character sets for all major Nigerian languages).

An insight was provided to the solution by pioneering work undertaken by both myself and a colleague. To overcome the limitations of spell-checking, my colleague started developing a wholly Hausa Windows word processor — complete with drop-down menus, selections all in Hausa. Not being linguists in the trained sense of the term, we were not sure whether some of the translations were accurate enough. Cancel, for instance was a bit tricky to translate in a way meant by canceling a Windows application. Do we say soke, or a bari (an fasa!)? And OK. Do we translate it as ya yi, or dai-dai? Being Kanawa we tended to aggregate to Kano Hausa. Would our translations be acceptable across the board to our cousins in Kebbi, Zangon Daura, Azare, Yola, or Zariya?

This clearly convinced us of the need for collaborative efforts in software development. So we establishment a small task-force comprised of programmers, linguists and writers — all computer nerds. The codename for the word processor was Marubuciya which the colleague (the main programmer) developed. Indeed a tentative prototype of the Marubuciya was developed which was shown to interested linguists sometime in 1994 in Kano and was well received.

The initial development of the Hausa word processor was done with Microsoft Visual Basic 1.0 which was rudimentary and reflected on the prototype Marubuciya. What we needed was sponsorship to purchase the a more powerful programming language (e.g. Borland C++ Microsoft C++, or Visual Basic Professional), font design packages (such as Fontographer, Fontmonger) as well as development time in the form of a sabbatical to concentrate on the various aspects of the word processor (the core programmer, the linguist to develop the spell-checker, an artist to guide on its appearance and a writer to write the manual). The idea was that Marubuciya will be targeted at secondary school leavers who lack the linguistic exposure to properly understand the complex command structure of more sophisticated word processors like Microsoft Word and WordPerfect. Our preliminary survey did show the vast majority of the business center operators on the Hausa literature scene in Kano were from this sampling frame. However despite attempted contact, no one was willing to sponsor such venture in Kano so we gave up, and disbanded the team.

However, not ready to give up totally, I decided to pursue a strand of project — font development — to its logical conclusion. This is based on the fact that any TrueType or postscript font can be used by any application in the Windows environment. The required font development platform — Fontographer 3.5 — was acquired through the good will of some American friends (which I gathered later cost well over $300!) and I set to work.

To develop the Hausa font I needed to work with a template. This presented two questions before the font could be created. First, which font to convert to Hausa? Second, which keyboard characters to “kill”?

Of the numerous fonts available I decided, quite arbitrarily I must add, to modify Times New Roman. In the first instance, it is a body typeface, meant for body text writing. It is also a serif font (with the curly bits at the end of the stems), so it is easier to read. The process involved loading the font into Fontographer and artistically working on the stems of the necessary characters create the hooks.

As for which characters to “kill”, that was easy enough; q, x, v with the capitals all went away to make room for \ ] [. I initially toyed with the idea of destroying “p” — until I saw how Panshekara and Panisau (suburbs in Kano) were spelt. The initial resultant font was named rabiat, a name with a specific maternal sentimental value to me. The first version was rather crude, and clearly reflected the fact that it was developed by a non-artist (science thus requires the creative arts to flourish!).

Rabiat TrueType font was meant to be used in pure Hausa writing where the killed keyboard characters would not certainly be used. It was released in Kano on 10th February 1995. However, feedback indicated an increasing number of Hausa literary works that include English words either in quotation or in Enghausa form ( e.g. Khammes’ Matsayin Lover). This led to a need to revise rabiat TrueType font.

A breakthrough (and in science there is always a “lucky break”!) came in the form of contact with American Summer Institute of Linguistics (SIL) based in Texas, United States. The SIL has developed a series of phonetic typesets for essentially academic use in mid 1990s based on International Phonetics Association (IPA) guidelines. The IPA fonts were first generation of SIL Encore Fonts — scalable outline fonts for both Macintosh and Windows systems. They contained every base character, diacritic, and suprasegmental mark prescribed by the International Phonetic Association, including the 1989/90 Kiel Convention revisions. Most significantly, they contain at least two Hausa hooked characters b’ and d’ (curiously enough, without k’ or their capitals). However, to use these two Hausa characters, you must use Alt and a sequence of numbers on the keyboard. This was too cumbersome, especially to those not familiar with computers. Thus the first task was to “bring out” the fonts into a more accessible keyboard location.

Still using the same Times New Roman as a template, this time I round I decided to kill off square ‘D d’ and curly K’ k’ brackets; the tilde b’; and pipe filter ‘B — the assumption (untested!) being that these characters are not used in any form of writing — on the keyboard to obtain the six Hausa typefaces. This involved first using the versatility of Fontographer move the two available characters (b’ and d’) from the SIL package to the Times New Roman template (times.fog) in Fontographer, and then creating ‘D ‘B K’ droopings (or curlies!) using the drawing facilities of Fontographer. Thus in the keyboard positions of these non-alphabet characters were substituted with the six Hausa hooked characters. The result was a self-named font, Ibtissar. Incidentally, Rabiat was also revised so that all its Hausa character sets look similar to those in Ibtissar TrueType font.

The naira (_) sign is on the underscore charater in upper right. This was as a result of another lucky break. I was tired of crossing the capital N to get the Naira (-N-) sign, but all attempts to create a neat Naira sign in Fontographer failed! I had almost given up when I noted, during one of my font tinkering, that WP Typographic font — the WPHV04.ttf — contained a naira sign. This font comes with default installation of WordPerfect for Windows 6.1a (which, incidentally also came with WPArabic font — thus obviating the need for a separate Arabic word processor). The naira sign was transplanted in Fontographer to Ibtissar font template to replace the underscore (_).

Both Rabiat and Ibtissar TrueType fonts were not perfect, but as first versions, they served the purpose for which they were intended to serve without the cumbersomeness of a whole software development team. The City Business Center in Kano was the first to adopt both the rabiat and Ibtissar fonts and it has helped in producing the proper accentuation in the Hausa typesetting. More development efforts needed to be done to perfect the fonts. For instance, there are no italic, bold or bolditalic weights for these two Hausa fonts. Thus when using them in these weights, you have to rely on the on-screen interpretation of the base fonts.

Another limitation was also lack of decorative typeface in Hausa font medium. Most users ask for Arial which is used as display type.

Of course all this became academic because the AfroRoman unicode became commercially available in the noughties, and it contains all the Hausa character fonts. Still my little efforts seemed to be preferred all over northern Nigeria -- basically because my fonts are offered FREE!

A good discussion on the AfroRoman font is moderated by Don Osborn at http://lists.kabissa.org/lists/archives/public/a12n-collaboration/msg00815.html

Abdalla Uba Adamu (July 1999)

Hausa Prose Fiction in the 1990s

2007-03-16T16:28:00.000-07:00

Published as “Hausa Literature in the 1990s”, New Nigerian Weekly, April 24 and May 1, 1999)
Introduction
The recent debates that punctuated the pages of this paper about the merits or demerits of the more or less recently created Hausa soyayya genre of creative writing, I feel, loses sight of many salient and very significant points in the literary development of the Hausa nationality and how it reflects on the uses of the novel. In this presentation, I intend to take the position of a protagonist of the Hausa literary expression in general, but the soyayya genre in particular, situating my arguments within the analytical framework of at least four uses of the novel in any society.

The Hausa ethnic nationality has established themselves as great travelers and scholars spread all over the West African sub-region. Their iterant mercantile capitalism has established the dominance of the Hausa language all over sub-Sahara. And yet despite long tradition of Islamic scholarship, the Hausa intellectual class has not succeeded in using their grasp of the Arabic writing form (or even the alphabets) into recording their experiences. It would appear that the many clusters of Hausa ethnic groups in various countries of the West African sub-region establish vibrant host communities, complete with schools and trade centers; but without an effective popular literary tradition. The masses of works written was essentially religious in nature. Even the quintessential Hausa popular literary (as opposed to religious) classic, Tarikh Arbab Hadha al-balad al-Musamma Kano (the Kano Chronicle) whose writing started sometime around 1650, was written, according to some perspectives, not by Kano mallams but by some resident Tripolitanian scholars (working with the Kano mallams and the Palace). Such apparently frivolous writing of history (interlaced with folklore) was not what the Kano mallams were used to.

The establishment of the Translation Bureau in 1930 and its literary competition of 1933 yielded the first clutch of now Hausa boko literature classics (Ruwan Bagaja, Shehu Umar, Gan]oki, etc). It must be kept in mind that the scholastic tradition of the Hausa has always been the preserve of the mallam class; consequently even in popular literature the fountainheads, being carved out of that class, reflect their antecedent traditions. Times, as they say, change. Thus enter the Soyayya literary genre to close the millenium.

New Dimensions of Hausa Literature
The biggest reaction to contemporary Hausa popular writers was that having acquired the technology to rapidly express themselves in their language, Hausa fiction writers tended to produce works that are less than desirable for a conservative society like the Hausa society. The predominant class of such writings fall into the Mills and Boons mold, or the Soyayya genre.

Both the protagonists and antagonists of the genre do have their relative points and this forum has provided them with an opportunity to express these points. Looking at the antagonists, one does appreciate that many of the books probably do not follow the conventional “rules” of creative writing. Plot and characterization seemed pretty thin on the ground. The scenes (settings) and the narrative forms, are at most, lackluster. Overall, authors seemed more motivated by market forces to recoup their initial investments, than filling an intellectual void or advancing the cause of Hausa literature. Compromises are then made between what the author wants to write and what the market wants to buy. The dominant philosophy thus seems to be: pile them high and sell them cheap.

Further accusations have been that the genre — besides being insipid and lackluster — encourages the development of undesirable traits and behavior among their class focus; adolescents and twentysomethings. An example of this observation is given by Danjuma Katsina — a literary critic and author — who wrote that “….looking at the background of these books nothing beneficial will come out of them but foolishness, lack of direction and immorality…” (“Death to the ‘soyayya’ novel!” The Write Stuff, New Nigerian Weekly, 5 September 1998 p. 15). He was joined by Ahmed Mansur who scornfully wrote that “it is high time we did away with junk” (Re: The ‘best’ Hausa books 1998; The Write Stuff, New Nigerian Weekly, 19 December 1998, p. 15). He further argues that, “…most novelists are irrevocably damaging the attitudinal and ideological perceptions of readers towards the marriage institution, thereby throwing the youths, particularly girls, into the devil’s arms…” I will not go into the structural polemics of the two writers, as I am sure that will be taken care of elsewhere.

However, as a protagonist of Hausa writing and writers in general, I intend to provide contrary arguments to the relevance of the soyayya genre within the specific analytical framework of the uses of the novel. I will use European writers as case in point.

Uses of the Novel
Novels in any society are not expected to be didactic; although at the very base level, they reflect a philosophy of life. For instance, as the novel became increasingly popular during the 18th century Europe, writers examined society with greater depth and breadth. They often wrote revealingly about people living within, or escaping from, the pressures of society. Many authors implicitly criticized characters attempting to ignore society and its conventions, and they criticized society for failing to satisfy human aspirations.

And it is this point that seems to be overlooked by the antagonists of the soyayya genre. The genre merely reflects the predominant philosophy of the current society. For instance, the novels of Jane Austen , designed primarily as superior entertainment, imply a desirable ordered existence, in which the comfortable decorum of an English rural family is disturbed only by a not-too-serious shortage of money, by love affairs that go temporarily wrong, and by the intrusion of self-centered stupidity. The good, if unrewarded for their goodness, suffer from no permanent injustice.

In the whole current of bourgeois Anglo-American fiction life is seen as fundamentally reasonable and decent. When wrong is committed, it is usually punished. The soyayya genre happily reflects this with its generally predictable endings (e.g. In Da So, Ado Ahmad; Kwarya ta Gari, Bala A Babinlata; Ummulhairi, Yusuf. Adamu; Bakandamiyar Rikicin Duniya, Dan Azumi Baba).

A counter-movement to this naturalistic philosophy is realist literature, showing that there was no justice in life and that the evil and the stupid must prevail. Such morbid styles (as represented for instance by some of Thomas Hardy’s works) had deliberately been ignored by most popular European novelists. Dickens achieved his criticisms of Victorian society (1837-1901) not so much by means of realism as by the prolific invention of comic characters and situations that were presented sometimes affectionately, sometimes in fierce contempt, but always with the utmost intensity. Dickens sustained his vision of life and the structure of his novels by such pervasive metaphors as entombment, imprisonment, and rebirth. It is interesting to see the emergence of such category in the soyayya genre (e.g. Duniya Sai Sannu, Ado Ahmad; Zinaru, Bala Anas Babinlata).

Any reader of fiction has a right to an occasional escape from the dullness or misery of his existence, but he has the critical duty of finding the best modes of escape — for instance, in dreams of love that seemed to reflect some innate Freudian hopescapes of not only the writers, but also the readers. Indeed the provision of laughter and dreams has been for many centuries a legitimate literary occupation and has thus served as an escapist basis. It can be condemned by serious devotees of literature only if it falsifies life through oversimplification and tends to corrupt its readers into belief that reality is as the author presents it. The soyayya genre is guilty in this respect in that the escapism of the genre is at variance with social realities. However, it could be argued that the depressed economy with its attendant tightly restrict life-style choices has created pressure points among youth in the Hausa nation adequately addressed by the escapism of the soyayya genre (e.g. Kibiyar Ajali, Naziru Adamu; Sara Da Sassaka, Bala A. Babinlata).

Novelists, being neither poets nor philosophers, rarely originate modes of thinking and expression. Poets such as Chaucer and Shakespeare have had much to do with the making of the English language, and Byron was responsible for the articulation of the new romantic sensibility in it in the early 19th century. It is rarely, however, that a novelist makes a profound mark on a national language, as opposed to a regional dialect. Nevertheless we are beginning to see the emergence of this contribution to Hausa literature in the Enghausa vocabulary form that creeps now and then in some of the writings . (e.g. Badariyya, Balaraba Ramat; So Tsuntsu, Hamisu Bature; Allura Cikin Ruwa, Bilkisu S. Ahmad).

There are, of course, European antecedents. Günter Grass, in post-Hitler Germany, sought to revivify a language that had been corrupted by the Nazis; he threw whole dictionaries at his readers in the hope that new freedom, fantasy, and exactness in the use of words might influence the publicists, politicians, and teachers in the direction of a new liberalism of thought and expression. Whether this high-end can be ultimately achieved by the soyayya genre is debatable. As also to whether it is desirable or not especially with regards to its impact on the further development both the English and Hausa language among the Hausa.

While the novel can certainly be used as a tool for the better understanding of a departed age (Shehu Umar, Ruwan Bagaja, Gan]oki), it can equally be used as an instrument of describing today (the soyayya genre). It must be pointed out that the novel as an expression of the spirit of an age group does not necessarily speak on behalf of the society.

In European literature, the unrest and bewilderment of the young in the period after World War II is reflected in novels like J. D. Salinger's Catcher in the Rye (1951) and Kingsley Amis' Lucky Jim (1954). It is notable that with novels like these — and the beat-generation books of Jack Kerouac; the American-Jewish novels of Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, and Philip Roth; and the black novels of Ralph Ellison and James Baldwin — it is a detached spirit that is expressed, the spirit of an age group, social group, or racial group, and not the spirit of an entire society in a particular phase of history.

A preoccupation with current political and social problems is evident in a number of contemporary African writings. Among the more prominent are Songs in A Time of War (1985) by Ken Saro-Wiwa; The Fate of Vultures and Other Poems (1990) by Tanure Ojaide; and The Graveyard Also Has Teeth (1980) by Syl Cheney-Coker. Other works are more oblique in their approach, causing some critics to brand them as escapist. These works include The Famished Road (1991) by Ben Okri, Cheney-Coker’s The Last Harmattan of Alusine Dunbar (1990), and South African novelist Zakes Mda’s Ways of Dying (1995).

Thus the rampant Freudian sexuality of some of the soyayya genre merely speaks of the spirit of innate adolescent sexual expression and consequently do not necessarily reflect societal norms. As the German-American writer Thomas Mann critically observed in Reflections of a Nonpolitical Man (1918), an artist must be involved with society. Soyyayya writers, as artists, are definitely involved with the society. (e.g. Kyan Dan Miciji, Allura Cikin Ruwa, Bilkisu S. Ahmad; Dufana, Ashabu Mu’azu Gamji; Masoyan Zamani, Ado Ahmad; Hajjaju Lubabatu, Nakanka S. Aminu; Budurwar Zuciya, Balaraba Ramat). It is ludicrous to presume that such mere erotic imageries are capable of corrupting the whole society, and gives a naïve view of society. It also says nothing about responsible parenting which many parents shirk away from and point accusing fingers at soyayya writers. Critics always also ignore the endings of such novels which reveals their inherent morality.

It could, of course, be argued that the society is ultimately shaped by its young, and corrupting the young eventually corrupts the society. To prevent this from happening, the social antecedents that lead to the need for the soyayya novels (and it must be stated that these go beyond the market forces; perhaps the answer lies with Freudian analysis) must first be addressed. In other words, what motivates the writers — money or Freudian expressions? What would be the payload of such literary repression — poverty or uncontrolled Freudian expressions?!?

Finally, novels have been known to influence, though perhaps not very greatly, modes of social behaviour and even, among the very impressionable, conceptions of personal identity. And perhaps it is this that is causing most of the problem for the soyayya genre. I argue, however, that this should not be a source of concern. This is because even in European literature, the capacity of D. H. Lawrence's Lady Chatterley's Lover (1928) to engender a freer attitude to sex, has never been assessed adequately. Banning or damning books such as Dufana, Matsaying Lover, as being salacious is an over-kill, especially if Dare Dubu Da Daya (with all its vivid pornographic imagery) was not only allowed a free reign in a more conservative Hausa society (late 1940s to 1960s), but was also actually broadcast in the early 1980s over the radio! But perhaps the reason why Dare Dubu Da Daya escaped literary “death threats” was that it was written by an Arab, so it must be good!! If it was written by, say Bala Anas Babalinta, a fatwa might have been issued on him!

This represents a small portion of the uses of the novel in any society. Others include reportage, propaganda, arbiter of lifestyles and taste which I feel are stages yet to be attained by the soyayya genre at this infant stage. The main thrust is therefore that the soyayya genre is merely developing along the same patterns that emergent and mature literature has followed in various countries across the centuries. There are always those who will glorify “classic writers” (Shakespeare, Abubakar Imam); just as there are those who will glorify “trash literature” writers (Jilly Cooper, Joan Collins, James Hadley Chase, Harold Robbins). It must be appreciated that whatever the platform, literature serves a specific useful purpose to its audience. And if in the case of the soyayya genre it will lead to debates and counter-debates and more production of counterpoints and arguments, then the more the merrier!

Banning some of the books such as had been done by the Kano ANA or setting up a Government committee as done in Kano to scrutinize the manuscripts are both counter-productive measures which will stifle further creativity. Creativity cannot be muzzled by self-appointed guardians of public morality. If the book is distasteful enough, the market will reject it — sending a powerful enough message to the author to revise strategies and focus. For instance, the first printed edition of Hamisu Bature’s Matsayin Lover generated so much distaste for its portrayal of lesbian relationships that the author was forced to withdraw it from the market and entirely re-write the story, removing the offending bits. Similarly, Ado Ahmad, perhaps one of the leading vanguards of the genre, seemed to have “reformed” and stopped writing in the genre. He has since moved to the prayer genre. It is not clear exactly why he recanted from the genre he helped to establish, but social response could have been one of the reasons.

Moral concern, however, is as old as the novel itself. Spanish writer Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra wrote what is considered the first great novel of the Western world, Don Quixote de la Mancha (Part I, 1605; Part II, 1615) and what is considered by many to be the overriding moral purpose of the form—to teach individual human beings what is possible to specific men and women living in specific societies.

Thus banning merely arouses further curiosity in the direction different from that intended by the moral minority. For instance after the ban on Ashabu Mu’azu Gamji’s Dufana, the book went underground and suddenly became a “collector’s item” with price tag about four times its cover price! (from about _25 to _100).

Reed to Read to Reel
That does not mean that all is rosy on the Hausa novel front. I do have my own reservations, but they are more of a format of presentation, rather than structuralist revulsion. The current trend now, especially from 1995 would seem to be for novelists to write their books with a film in view; effectively changing the character of their writings. The burgeoning home video and the establishment of Kalywood at Sabon Titi Kano (our Sunset Boulevard!) have given the Hausa novelists the taste for lucre. More are now writing with a film in mind; thus the innate creativity of literary expression is slowly being placed on the back-burner.

The transition from paperback to film via the script is a fairly common practice among world’s A-list novelists. The point, however, is that these novelists were established first as writers before the lucre of Tinseltown (Hollywood, if you like) made them adapt some of their works into more lucrative film scripts. The literary tradition therefore gains cultural supremacy over the screenplay.

As literature, few screenplays stand on their own, nor are they meant to. A good script is not judged by the way it reads but by its effectiveness as a blueprint for a film. To be successful, it must be conceived in visual terms and should sustain a pace of action and dialogue in keeping with the requirements of a motion picture. Its dialogue must integrate well with other elements of the sound track, such as music and effects. I argue that very few novels have this capability; apparently a contrary view to the current craze among Hausa novelists to convert every new novel into a screenplay. They are not the only ones, however.

Some of the writers (mainly American) often abandon novel writing altogether in favor of screenwriting. For instance, Michael Crichton made the transition from novelist to screenwriter in movie adaptations of The Andromeda Strain (1969), Coma (1978), The Great Train Robbery (1979), Looker, 1981 and Runaway (1984). Jurassic Park (1993), Disclosure (1994). Stripped of their reel connotations, The Andromeda Strain and Coma were simply superb thrillers. And while Sidney Sheldon was the screenwriter to film hits such as Annie Get Your Gun (1950) Just This Once (1952), All In A Night's Work (1961) (to mention just three out of 12 movies he has scripted), yet only two of novels were adapted for the screen, Bloodline (1979) and The Sands of Time (1992). If Tomorrow Comes was made into a TV mini-series.

Some other writers resist the lucre of the screenplay and would prefer permanent residence on bestseller lists of either the New York Times, or The Times of London. For instance, of the many novels written by Robert Ludlum, only The Bourne Identity (1988) and Osterman Weekend (1983) were made into highly successful films. Even Harold Robbins' moderately enjoyable trash, The Betsy was dramatized in 1978 while his The Pirate was adapted into TV movie also in 1978. His many other novels remain haunting memory of a cozy evening curled up on the sofa.

Of course many also move into the reverse direction. Stephen King, the ultimate horrormeister, had virtually all his novels turned into films (e.g. Carrie (1976), The Shining (1980), The Dead Zone (1983) Stand By Me (1986) and Misery (1990). Similarly, virtually all of John Grishams’ law and courtroom dramas are now film blockbusters (The Client, The Rainmaker, The Firm etc).

But there is method in movie madness. For instance, it could be argued that Crichton's eminently readable novels tend to be plot-driven rather than character studies and make excellent fodder for screenplays. Surprisingly pessimistic for best-sellers, they are meticulously researched and well constructed arguments supporting the author's various pet peeves — e.g. the meaning of theme parks (Jurassic Park, Westworld), the arrogance of scientists (Sphere), and the manifold abuses of political and economic power (Andromeda Strain, Capricorn One). Most contemporary Hausa novels do not lend themselves to such complexity and depth of vision in their characterizations. It is doubtful therefore if the simple plot lines would lend themselves to visual festivals. If they need to provide visual and aural panorama, then the novels should be left pure and alone; write a separate screenplay for your movie fantasies!

Often the screenplay writers, going overboard with the availability of CGI facilities in most studios mutilate the simplicity of the earlier novel for visual fest. For instance, Robert Heinlein’s 1958 novel Starship Troopers was transformed into the 1998 movie Starship Trooper (directed by Paul Voerhen) with bugs being kept alive by a river of leprous yellow acid. Hausa home movie producers, operating on a tighter budget of course could not afford such lavish productions at the moment. The end product is a hybrid — neither a full novel, nor a full screenplay, and unsatisfactory movie.

Thus my main reservations about the current trend of novel-to-films among Hausa writers is that that the lucre of money and fame (although more of fame than the money) may push them too much into scriptwriting at the expense of the more fundamental literary task of novel-writing. This tends to cast creativity aside and make authors more concerned with what Executive Producers/Financiers want rather than what the ordinary Hausa reader wants. And if this happens, it would be a sad end to a brilliant experiment.

Luckily, there are many out there who see the task of novel writing first and foremost as a literary activity, rather than a movie gateway to fame and riches. And that is not because they cannot muster enough cash to turn their novels into scripts; they simply enjoy the art of writing (I count Yusuf Adamu and Ado Ahmad among these idealists). I think we should have more of them.

Conclusion
From the initial arguments presented earlier, it is thus clear that neither law (Kano State Government Censorship Committees) nor public morality (Kano ANA) nor the public's neglect nor the critic's scorn (Danjuma Katsina, for example) has ever seriously deflected the dedicated novelist from his self-imposed task of interpreting the real world or inventing alternative worlds. We can only contribute to the intellectual development of our Hausa nationality by giving a free, objective room to all genres, including the soyayya genre. Let Hausa literature it find its value in the society. If it is trash, it will soon fade away, unsung. If it is a classic, it will endure long after we are gone. In any event, the soyayya genre has captured the minds of twentysomethings and adolescents of Kano circa the decade of 1990s. It has freed this generation of the shackles of insipid non-contextual literary classicism. Children of the silicon milk feed, they embrace the technology that provided them with the freedom to explore their innermost universes.

It is significant that the amateur who dreams of literary success almost invariably chooses the novel, not the poem, essay, or autobiography. Fiction requires no special training and can be readable, even absorbing, when it breaks the most elementary rules of style — so to answer Ahmed Mansur, it does welcome “all sorts”. It tolerates a literary incompetence unthinkable in the poem. If all professional novelists withdrew, the form would not languish: amateurs would fill the market with first and only novels, all of which would find readership — as clearly demonstrated by the soyayya genre.

And in any event, the situation is not all bad. I argue that the prayer genre of books — religious pamphlets which condense or draw attention of specific topics of Islam to the general public — arose as a counter-culture to the soyayya genre. This is an excellent development because it not only provides readers with wider, richer choices, but also educate the society. The prayer genre would not have developed the extent it did if the soyayya genre had not been there for it to oppose. Such counter-movements have always served as a basis for growth and development. For it to be sustained the original subject must not be killed by misplaced parochial moral minority.

So instead of gripes and moans, let us have reactions and counter-reactions. The prayer genre is one reaction. Let some of the more concerned antagonists and protagonists among our fiction writers set up an anti-novel movement — that produces works of art that radically differ from the norm. Instead of some empty rendering of an empty biography of an equally empty individual who in the final analysis has done nothing to his society, let us see historical fiction; set in 17th century Kano or similar. Let us create a plot around the caravansaries that dotted the trans-Saharan trade landscapes in the 18th century. Give us a family saga centered mercantile capitalism in 20th century Kano.

Further, let us see criticisms on elements of writing such as the plausibility of the plot, the realism of the characters, the blending of the scene with the plot, the power of the narrative style, and the scope of the story (and let us not quibble over whether the printed forms of soyayya genre represent a novel or a novella, please).

As the Stoic Greek philosopher Epictetus (55-135 A.D.) said, “…If you would be a reader, read; if a writer, write…” Curiously enough, as far as is known, Epictetus wrote nothing. His teachings were transmitted by Arrian, his pupil! He must have been a good reader, then!

Abdalla Uba Adamu (April 1999)

Barka da zuwa (Welcome!)

2007-03-16T15:58:00.000-07:00

Assalamu Alaykum!

Welcome to my meanderings on Hausa popular culture (nishadin hululu). The main idea is to share my various ethnographic researches on Hausa popular culture (literature, music, film and occassional art work). I am based in Kano, Nigeria, and have been conducting an ethnographic study of how global media flows impact on Hausa popular culture.