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Nigeria news article: it began as poetry recitations and graduated to Islamic songs

November 30, 2009 By Leave a Comment

When they first made their debut, Islamic songs in Hausa were highly popular, particularly among the youths.
They began as poetry recitation and later graduated to be accompanied by mandiri, a set of Arabian drums. In their latest manifestation, these songs are accompanied by modern musical instruments-an obvious influence of Hausa film music-as composed in the many studios that produce music for Kannywood.

Through all these phases, Sharif Rabiu Usman Baba has been one of the leading lights of Islamic songs not only in Kano, but everywhere there are Hausa speaking Muslims on the face of the earth. “I have been in this business all my life. I got the inspiration when I was very young, during my Islamiyyah (Islamic school) days. I was very active then, particularly in the presentation of songs and recitation of the Holy Qur’an during anniversaries like Maulud [the birthday of Prophet Muhammad, upon him be peace].

“With that background and the zeal I have for singing, I started writing Islamic poems in 1980, when I was seven; and because God has blessed me with a voice for music, I grew up to be a star”, he told Sunday Trust.
Presently, the star Islamic poet and singer writes songs for Islamiyyah schools and for other poets. So far, he has written and produced over three hundred Islamic songs and looks forward to producing more.
“Currently, I do write songs for Islamiyyah schools as well as other poets. I have written and sang over 300 songs. I am working on some and intend to produce more by Allah’s leave”, he said.

As his brand of music spreads into the world, Rabiu has been following it with live performances. So far, he has performed in Ghana, Cameroon, and Niger.

“Initially, I only performed in Kano but, as time went by, I went national and now I have gone international. I have travelled to almost all the states of the federation and to Cameroon, Niger and Ghana”, he said.

Despite acute criticism and opposition from some segments of the Muslim Ummah, and in spite of the overwhelming popularity of Hausa film songs which almost eclipsed them, the popularity of Islamic songs is on the increase, and many more new poets are emerging. These teeming poets and singers in Nigeria came together to form a national association, Jama’atul Shu’ara’il Islam, of which Rabiu is the president. The brilliant performances of these poets and singers have made poets and singers in other climes to imitate them.\

“In countries like Cameroon, Niger and Ghana”, Rabiu Usman Baba said, “Nigerian Islamic songs are being imitated-they see us as their heroes”.

With the entrance of new poets and singers into the scene, however, there has been concern that the quality of songs or poems they produce is falling. Rectifying this negative development, according to Sharif Rabiu, who spoke on the activities of the association, is of paramount importance.

“The way more people are coming out to give their contributions to Islam through songs is quite impressive, but the most important thing is that the songs should send a message which is in line with the teachings of the religion. This is what Jama’atul Shu’ara’il Islam is trying to achieve, to ensure sanity in the industry”, he said.

Sharif Rabiu also said that it had become necessary for them to ensure that their songs did not run contrary to the teachings of Islam in view of the power of music as a means of communication and the significance the religion had attached to morality: “Considering the power of music as a means of communication, it has become necessary for Jama’atul Shu’ara’il Islam to ensure this is done, particularly taking into account the weight morality holds in Islam”.

To achieve this aim, the association, according to Rabiu, has ordered that all songs must be vetted by the association before they are released. The association has also made it mandatory for all members to have a good knowledge of Islam and be gainfully employed.

“We want to ensure that songs are not made just for the sake of singing and released like that; we want to ensure that they are properly checked, made free from any untoward utterances”, he said, adding: “Also, singers must realise that music in its entirety is a school of its own; therefore, poets must be vast in their knowledge of the field. This is why we are encouraging our members to go to school, learn more and have special interest in happenings in the society so that they can translate them intelligently into songs”.
Rabiu also said that the association had set up a committee of specialists charged with the responsibility of editing all songs produced by members of the association.

“Our only snag”, he lamented, “is that we are not cultured and law abiding when compared to Cameroonians, Ghanaians and Nigeriens. In these countries, all laws are abided by; a very good example is how they abide by traffic rules and regulations”.

He also called on Nigerian Islamic poets to address social issues through their songs as a means of checking moral decadence in the society.

“Since Islam is all encompassing, I urge our members to address social issues in their songs. To me, it will be a good avenue for addressing a lot of things in the society because our people have a passion for their religion and will take things more seriously when they are given religious connotations,” he said.

Ref: http://allafrica.com/stories/200905180927.html

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Reasons why Nigeria cannot have a common language

November 25, 2009 By Leave a Comment

I am forever amazed how class and intelligence is always tied into language and speaking. One of my past newsletters talked about the right accent and how it helps you move ahead because of people’s perception about you. No matter how you want to spin it the way you talk can tell everything about you: where you went to school, where you lived, who influences you (are you a reader? scientist?) etc. All these facts can get you into the right places whether or not we like to admit it.

Think about it – if you are articulate people automatically consider you intelligent, which is why people always associate fluency in a language with intelligence as well. Is there a difference between articulate and fluent? Given all this I was not shocked to learn that Pidgin English in Nigeria is associated with a lower class even though it is the most widely spoken language in the country.

So what is Pidgin English? Well as we all know English in different parts of the world is just different (kinda like Spanglish)…in most parts of the world it is interspersed with the local dialects and slang. Nigerian Pidgin English (which is really similar Jamaican and Trini speak as far as my ears are concerned) is English mixed with all the local dialects in the country. The funny thing is that politicians use the language in their campaigns to gain votes but the language has no political recognition as a national language. Why? Because Pidgin English is considered the language of the uneducated.

But even so trust artists and activists to make this a social issue in the country by campaigning to make it an official language with political recognition. When I started reading about this I was like WTF everyone already speaks it so why the need to make it official? Turns out that the reason is really simple – in a country with over a hundred languages/ dialects it is almost impossible to pass on messages because they have to be translated so often. Imagine what a language that incorporates all the dialects could do? But for any language to be used as a national language to promote political messages in the media and other mediums it has to recognized by the government (I was not even aware of that).

The other reason is that Nigerian Pidgin English is not static – the spellings change, the meaning of words change and the grammar and pronunciation change as well because it has not been compiled or documented. It really is the language of the people because they keep on inventing it, all this makes for a very confusing state of affairs. Of course language is evolutionary so this makes sense but the only reason why language is language is because there are sounds and words and letters that are repetitive – that is to say the word for a particular object will not change tomorrow, if this were not the case then you invite a state of general confusion into communication and the way that we prevent this in modern society is to compile words and their meanings so everyone can be on the same boat and give structure to language. So if Pidgin English were official it could be studied more widely at universities which could eliminate a lot of the current problems.

Despite all the problems with meaning and everything else musicians, poets and writers in Nigeria have been writing in Pidgin English for a while because it is a simple way to connect with everyone. Below is one very famous song in Pidgin English (I have heard pidgin English and this is very simple compared to how complex it can get).

Sweet Mother by Prince Nico Mbarga

Sweet mother I no go forget you
for the suffer wey you suffer for me.

Sweet mother I no go forget you
for the suffer wey you suffer for me.

When I dey cry, my mother go carry me–she go say,
my pikin [1] wetin you dey cry ye, ye,
stop stop, stop stop make you no cry again oh.”

When I won sleep, my mother go pet me,
she go lie me well well for bed,
she cover me cloth, sing me to sleep,
“sleep sleep my pikin oh.”

When I dey hungry, my mother go run up and down.
she go find me something when I go chop [2] oh.

Sweet mother I no go forget you for the suffer wey you suffer for me

When I dey sick, my mother go cry, cry, cry,
she go say instead when I go die make she die.

O, she go beg God,
“God help me, God help, my pikin oh.”

If I no sleep, my mother no go sleep,
if I no chop, my mother no go chop, she no dey tire oh.

Sweet mother I no go forget you,
for the suffer wey you suffer for me.

You fit get another wife, you fit get another husband,
but you fit get another mother? No!

And if I forget you, therefore I forget my life and the air I breathe.

And then on to you men, forget, verily, forget your mother,
for if you forget your mother you’ve lost your life.

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Poetry is useless in the face of guns

November 23, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Dance your anger and your joys,
Dance the military guns to silence,
Dance oppression and injustice to death,
Dance my people. – Ken Saro Wiwa

There are days such as today when I ask myself why I care and what the purpose of all this is. In many ways I am a typical poet/ writer because I can descend into the dark and spend hours examining existential questions. Today I am once more obsessed with what the purpose of poetry is in a world that is filled with so much pain and injustices seem to be the order of the day. What are we going to do with poetry and stories in a world that is intent on self destruction? What good is speaking and telling stories? Can a story really save or change a life? Can poets change history or defy a destiny. I like to think so…

Today, I think it’s sad that some of my favorite poets are activists and not love poets. Why is that? My heroes are more adept at writing protest slogans and starting revolutions than writing about nature and making love in sunshine and Nigeria’s famous poets are no exception. Nigeria is one of those countries that seems to birth protest poets and writers almost to its own detriment…I think every country has one or two historical events that are shaped by artists but for me the two activists that I have always admired from Nigeria are Wole Soyinka and Ken Saro Wiwa both of which are shaped by the Biafran war.

Looking at Wole Soyinka’s life and history I can take comfort that words and poems can touch a nation and scare governments. Wole Soyinka has always advocated for organic revolution, which is a revolution led by art but also a revolution that happens on its own and spontaneously. He has constantly spoken out against the oppression of all kinds and the Nigerian government in particular (and actually has a play named after him – “who is afraid of Wole Soyinka”) and has been arrested and even had a death sentence bestowed on him in absentia (he was in exile at the time of the sentence but its still hardcore). In the late 1960s whilst in prison he wrote poetry on toilet paper in jail and had those published as soon as he got out of prison. Wole Soyinka was also one of the first theater producers on the continent to produce satirical plays pointing out the follies of corruption on the continent. It was also Wole Soyinka who defended Ken Saro Wiwa during his detention and also spoke out against his murder.

Civilian and Soldier by Wole Soyinka
My apparition rose from the fall of lead,
Declared, ‘I am a civilian.’ It only served
To aggravate your fright. For how could I
Have risen, a being of this world, in that hour
Of impartial death! And I thought also: nor is
Your quarrel of this world.

You stood still
For both eternities, and oh I heard the lesson
Of your training sessions, cautioning -
Scorch earth behind you, do not leave
A dubious neutral to the rear. Reiteration
Of my civilian quandary, burrowing earth
From the lead festival of your more eager friends
Worked the worse on your confusion, and when
You brought the gun to bear on me, and death
Twitched me gently in the eye, your plight
And all of you came clear to me.

I hope some day
Intent upon my trade of living, to be checked
In stride by your apparition in a trench,
Signaling, I am a soldier. No hesitation then
But I shall shoot you clean and fair
With meat and bread, a gourd of wine
A bunch of breasts from either arm, and that
Lone question – do you friend, even now, know
What it is all about?

I first learned about Ken Saro Wiwa when I watched “God is African” and I remember being shocked that environmental issues were real even on the African continent and that clean air and human rights could be entangled (something that had never crossed my mind before). I swear I was one of those teens that thought environmentalism was a trend invented by the West…Actually Ken Saro Wiwa is an interesting case because he was more an activist and writer who happened to stumble across the power of poetry as a medium to spread his message. I guess its sometimes easier to get poems out to the media in times of urgency in the fight for human rights. I say this because Ken Saro Wiwa understood the power of spoken word poetry and admitted to the fact that his poetic performances had one aim: to imprint the name of the Ogoni people in the audience mind and also said that his performance was a form of modern storytelling.

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Write your story, rewrite your history

November 20, 2009 By Leave a Comment

Imagine my shock when I found out that somewhere in the 16th century Hausa traders and Arabic scholars told stories and poetry about the origins of Hausaland and its people and marketed these to a paying public that was illiterate. It was like reading about a historic Speak 2B Free (*smile); only more interesting because it was exotic and other people shaping their history through stories. They used words to fashion themselves and recreate their history and believed that the only way to prove that you had written a poem was to perform it, because to them (till this day) they do not know why you would write poetry and not perform it.

Four centuries ago Hausa storytellers and poets were very powerful because of the legends they created around their own history. These poets and storytellers were also praise singers for Kings; they announced royal visitors and also paid tribute to the king’s virtues and announced his genealogy.

I have been trying to learn a lot more about the Hausa’s of Nigeria because their oral traditions are so interesting and so rich but the history is so complex and dates back to BC, Egypt and the Moors. Because I am a poet and a romantic at heart (really I am), I am going to share the mythological story of the Hausas taken from Wikipedia.

The Hausa are an ethnic group of people who live in Northern and Southeastern Nigeria and Hausaland (the area between Sudan and Lake Chad). They speak Hausa, which is a mix of African and Arabic and their history in Nigeria dates back to the 1300s. According to mythology the Hausa are the result of a union between a Baghdadi (Iraq) Prince and a Bornoan (Nigerian) Princess. According to legend the Prince left Iraq and crossed over into the Sahara with a group of followers and there he fell in love with the Princess and had one child but they were later driven out of Borno to Gaya (Niger) because of a disagreement with the Bornoan King. In Niger the prince had a blacksmith carve him a knife, thereafter he travelled to Daura (Northern Nigeria) where he slayed a serpent that was preventing people from drawing water from a well and in appreciation was married by the Queen of Daura and had 6 children. All his children went on to rule the seven houses of Hausa. I suspect that those traders in the 16th century had a lot to do with all the many legends around the Hausa…

I love the myths and the legends. But what I like even more is the Hausa and their spoken word poetry that dates way back. It’s interesting that cultures feed off each other – today spoken word poetry is becoming more popular but within Western society there is still the clash between academic poetry and spoken word/ slam poetry. Whereas to the Hausa reading poetry silently to yourself makes no sense – poetry to them is meant to be sung and chanted out loud. Even written poetry is written to be performed. Why else do you write if you are not going to lend your voice to your words?

To the Hausa the only way that you can establish authorship of your work is by performing it. The way you confirm that you are the author is to deliver a stellar performance from memory. I find that very fascinating, It is one thing to write something but it is another thing to give it life and lend it a voice, emotions. Personally, I always feel as though performing opens me up and forces me to connect with emotions that most times I would rather ignore. I always think that poetry connects my spirit to my body even when I don’t want that to be the case.

One of the most famous Hausa poets was Alhaji Ak’ilu Aliyu. Although he wrote his poetry (like most poets today) he more well known for his performance.

Hausa Mai Ban Haushi by Alhaji Ak’ilu Aliyu

Saba da neman gaskiya duk nisa,
Sarari da b’oye kadan ka so bunk’asa.
Ga gargad’i ya zuwa gare mu, zumaina,
‘Ya’yan Arewa da wanda duk ke Hausa.

Translation

Hausa, the Giver of Vexation

Get used to seeking the truth no matter how distant,
Out in the open or hidden, if you want to advance.
Here’s an admonition directed toward us, my clansmen,
Children of the north and anyone else who (speaks) Hausa

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“The owl is the wisest of all birds because the more it sees, the less it talks.”

November 15, 2009 By Leave a Comment

The above quote is  a famous Nigerian proverb, which I think it very true.

Some of Africa’s most well known and influential writers are from Nigeria. But before this boom in literature Nigeria was well known for its storytellers and even today a lot of Nigeria’s history can still be found in its oral traditions.

Nigeria is a country that consists of 250 ethnic groups and 4000 languages so each and every group has its own history and stories but I think the most popular internationally are Igbo and Yoruba. The country has its own professional storytellers and poets who retell these stories and are known as the keepers of traditions because they can recount years of history and genealogy (same as storytellers in other countries). The theater has also played a major role in keeping oral traditions alive in the country and dates back to the sixteenth century when it was first started by the Yoruba people.

I have had the pleasure of reading many modern Nigerian authors and I feel that their writings are heavily influenced by their traditional folk stories. My favorite author as I have said is Ben Okri (but I think the one that everyone knows is Chinua Achebe), his writing is very poetic and almost mystical and magical in the descriptions of the people. I keep on thinking about one of my favorite books “Famished Road” by Ben Okri and how his characters are always communicating with the spirit world and fantasy and reality are mixed and people communicate in riddles. I remember reading the book for the first time and thinking: “this is so African”. Its funny because I feel the same way about Chinua Achebe’s work as well because of his use of Igbo stories to make his point.

I could not really tell you what I meant by “this is so African” except that I always feel that some African stories often have a surrealism to them – there are fairy tales true, but there are other stories that describe a world where animals, humans and other magical creatures interact and because of the performance of the storytellers I used to wander if people really believed in those worlds.

I don’t think I could ever blog about the oral traditions of Nigeria without ever talking about the evolution of literature because somehow literature did affect oral traditions in the country. The writers that we have today would probably be oral storytellers if the written word had not been invented. The literature scene in Nigeria was first influenced by Arabic literature and then Western literature when the missionaries arrived in Africa. Even today the main religions in Nigeria are still Christian and Muslim; during the nineteenth century when the missionaries were introducing western education into the country a sort of war of words broke out in the country – black Muslims in the country used their folktales to write protest poetry against the missionaries and at the same time other Nigerians (particularly Yoruba) used their folktales to preach acceptance of Christian ideas. The idea of protest poetry seems to have a long history after all!

Is it not interesting how even our folk stories can be used in many ways to spread ideologies? I always lament that today our battles are fought in the media and then I wonder if maybe the only difference between now and the past is technology? I suspect that in our past battles were fought in stories that were perhaps retold by traveling storytellers with an agenda…

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