Hausa Prose Fiction in the 1990s
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 ...