THE HAUSA MAN AND HIS LANGUAGE AND CULTURE LEST HE FORGETS.
I do not know whether to admire
my Muslim Hausa brothers'
forgetfulness or to pity him for it.
One thing I personally admire
about the Yoruba man is that he
teaches his child his history and
culture to the later. That is why
you have a Yoruba Muslim called Bola Tinubu or Tunde Fashola or even MKO Abiola all Yoruba native names and likewise the Kanuri man despite the fact that they embraced Islam one thousand years before it was eventually forced on the Hausa man by the Fulanis from Senegal.
The forgetfulness of the Hausa man is legendary. I advise my Hausa brothers especially those Muslims amongst them who want to write in the press to cross check facts and read history first before putting pen to paper.
I am really very surprise that a
Hausa man can ignorantly
actually lay claim to 'Kaftans', the long shirt, 'Zanna Bukar', the long cap or hat, the turban and many others which he had borrowed from the Arabs or the Fulbe as recent as 19th century.
He behaves like the Somalian who is more Arabic than the Arab man.
No wonder a Hausa man who
came to Jos Plateau from Kano in 1994 will swear with "Walahi
talahi" that his grandfather was
born in Jos and he does not know where he comes from. I mean as recent as just last year 2009AD, Dr Aliyu Tilde, to his chagrin wrote in all his columns
castigating his Hausa brothers
especially the Muslims amongst
them for borrowing and
embracing everything Islamic and by implication all the Arab culture whole hog and thereby threw away the whole Maguzawa
'Hausa' culture totally.
Please
check Dr Aliyu Tilde series on
gamji.com for explicit and
comprehensive Arab culture and
words that have totally displaced
and replaced native Hausa
language and cultural practices.
Hausa actually means "Ya hau
Sa'a." literally meaning he is
riding a cow.
Referring to the
Fulbe conqueror that came on his horse to Daura during the
conquest of the Hausa land by
the Fulbes from Senegal.
For those who may not have the
time to go that far, let me freshen
your memory and to tell you that
more than half of the Hausa
language is borrowed language
as much as all the Hausa culture
is as foreign to Hausa man and
land as to the Plateau man, Kogi
man, Adamawa man or even
Nupe man in Niger state or Kwara state.
The Hausa man cannot
therefore take pride in telling
anybody for that matter that his
culture has permeated the North
or Middle-belt region. The culture he is claiming to be his is Arab and Fulbe culture pure and
simple. I challenge a Hausa man
to write anything to the contrary.
The Kaftans for example is a
dress that came from Turkey
which originated from the Iranian / Iraqi axes over 2000 years. It came to the Hausa land via Senegal when the Islamic
jihadists conquered the Hausa
land.
Islam as a religion came to the
old Bornu empire 1000 years
before Usman Dan Fadiyo the
Fulani man from Futa Jallon
Senegal conquered the Hausa
land barely 200 years ago.
If
there is any group in Nigeria who
should pride in Islam, it is the
Kanuri man who accepted Islam
on his own terms but certainly not a group that was conquered by the Fulanis and had the religion forced down their throats.
Of course the long cap called the
Zanna Bukar has its origin yet
again with the Kanuris and that is why it is called "Zanna Bukar".
From there it reached the Hausa
land.
Even "Babanriga" is a
Tuoareg and Barbers attire which originated from the middle-east originally came to Northern Nigeria via Senegal and of course Islam.
I cannot remember of any name
now that is pure Hausa language
in origin as all the Hausa names
that I remember are all bastardised Arabic names or
borrowed literally. Name them,
Adamu,
Nuhu, Ali,
Ibrahim,
Iliyasu,
Dauda,
Suleiman,
Hassan,
Hussein,
Talatu,
Danjuma,
Ladi,
Saidu,
Abubukar,
Usman Asabe, etc.
All the above are the corrupted forms of Arabic and in fact Jewish names. Iliyasu for example is the corrupted form of Eliyahu in Jewish language which literally means "The Lord is God!”
All the names of the days of the
week from Ladi, Litinin, Talata,
Laraba, Alhamis, Juma'a, and
Asabar are all corrupted Arabic
words which the early Hausa men couldn't pronounce properly when they were forced to convert to Islam. Therefore for any Hausa writer to falsely lay claim to these Arabic words as Hausa words is tantamount to stealing and a disservice to humanity.
Just like the Hausa man again
has borrowed a lot of words and
culture from the Yoruba language.
Words like 'Ashana',
matches,
'Gele',
Scarf, '
Ali Gogoro',
originally Onile Gogoro in Yoruba language are all borrowed words and culture. Just like after admiring the Nollywood films for sometimes, the Kano guys have crafted the Kannywood.
As for entrepreneurship, I am yet
to understand what the average
Hausa man is bragging about? Is
the Maigadi, watchman job? Is it
the Mai ruwa job, water vendor; Is it the Dan achaba job? Is it the
Shoe shiner Job? Is it the Mai
shayi job? Is it the Motor park tout job? Or is it the almajiri system?
These are jobs anybody
anywhere can do any day without formal training. That is why most of the Hausas are ready made tools to be used to forment religious crises any time any day because most of the jobs they do are casual and therefore they lazy around. When it comes to entrepreneurship, we have to look up to the Igbo and Yoruba people.
The major reason why the Hausa
man is always quick to riot and
burn people's property is the fact
that he has nothing to lose. Since he is always a mai guard, mai ruwa or mai shayi.
He envies
others and therefore is quick to
burn the market like the Jos main market, Bukuru main market or Katako market.
I advise my Hausa brother to
seriously teach his children that
more than half of all Hausa words are Arabic words while about a quarter are borrowed from the Yoruba language. It is important to make it clear here that the Fulani is actually distinct from the Hausa man. They may have the Islamic religion to some degree in common.
The Hausa man should sheath
his pride for now for more than
half of his language is borrowed
from Arabic, half of his culture
and way of dressing is not native
to Hausa but originated from
Senegal and Middle East. Only the Yorubas and the Kanuris can
glow with pride for maintaining
their culture but certainly not the
Hausa man who behaves like the
Hankaka, (the Raven).
For more information please read the History of West Africa from AD 1000.
Thanks for your time
By Ndiameeh Babrik
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