Sola Osofisan
11-17-2007, 11:48 AM
Global Media As the Message - Hausa Prose Fiction In the Age of Technology
By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu
Leadership (Abuja)
Today is a historic day in the literary history of northern Nigeria.
Today sees the modern public acknowledgement of creative genius among modern Hausa prose fiction writers who, for the most part, were vilified as hopeless romantics by critics of the Contemporary Hausa Novel which they contemptuously labeled the Kano Market Literature, to allude to its alleged commercial, rather than creative impetus.
The event we are about to witness is not the first, at least in structure. The first literary accolades were awarded in 1933 when Abubakar Imam (Ruwan Bagaja), Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (Shaihu Umar), Muhammad Gwarzo (Idon Matambayi), Muhammad Bello Kagara (Gandoki), Rupert East and John Tafida (Jiki Magayi) were singled out in a competition as being the best writers of short stories targeted at Hausa school children. These five novels were destined to become classics in Hausa literature and became the benchmark which reflected the quintessential literary representation of a Hausa person and his social climate.
In 1978 the results of another Hausa literary competition were announced. The winners included Hafsatu AbdulWahid (So Aljannar Duniya), Magaji Dambatta (Amadi Na Malam Amah), and Suleiman Ibrahim Katsina (Mallakin Zuciyata).
In 1980 the Federal Ministry of Culture released the results of yet another Hausa literary competition, and the winners were M.M. Bello (Tsumangiyar Kan Hanya), M.M. Katsina (Zabi Naka), Bature Gagare (Karshen Alewa Kasa), Suleiman Ibrahim Katsina (Turmin Danya).
Sadly, the last Hausa literary competition held was in 1986-21 years ago-organised by the Kaduna State Council for Art and Culture. It was called the Northern Languages Novel Writing Competition. The winners included Muhammad Barau Bambale, Shafi'u Magaji Usman (Jamila Da Jamilu), and Ibrahim Sheme (Kifin Rijiya). None of the resultant novels were formally published, and the spirit of the Hausa literary competition was left to wither away.
And yet the 1980 competition led to the birth of the self-publishing phenomena among Hausa youth-emboldened by the success of Hafsatu AbdulWahid who entered into Hausa literary history by being the first female novelist in Hausa language. In 1984 Talatu Wada Ahmed entered into another page of history by self-publishing Ruwan Raina which became the wake-up call for self-publishing among Hausa youth. What emerged subsequently was what led to the creation of the Contemporary Hausa Novel. It is significant that despite the stereotypes about women in Muslim Hausa communities, yet it is women who have been at the vanguard of the new publishing revolution-further signaled by the fact that we are gathered here today at the behest of a woman who immortalized the memory of her husband.
From the various databases available, over 1,800 novels have been published in Hausa language from 1980 to 2006. These novels reflected a young generation immersed in media technologies that took advantage of the availability of such technology to capture its thoughts and emotions. To this Millennium Generation, as I label them, the medium is indeed the message. Due to the didactic evolutionary nature of Hausa literature, the focus on romantic themes in the novels of this generation created a harsh core of critical reaction to the novels from the critical establishment. In particular, there were beliefs that availability of a literary medium should be utilized by the young writers to entrench the didactic nature of Hausa literary discourse. Yet this did not happen. What did happen instead was a global appropriation of themes, styles and kernel of ideas to create a contemporary Hausa prose fiction that in reflecting a media globalized world, made the traditionalist establishment uncomfortable. Global media, clearly, has become the message. The critical reactions seemed to have ignored the educative functions of the literature in stimulating literary and reading culture among the millions of youth for whom the novels became the only direct exposure to structured writing, and often, education.
Today's activity is the fourth public, but fifth attempt at recognizing Hausa novelists as credible writers on any intellectual platform. That it is organized by the Association of Nigerian Authors (Abuja) in collaboration with the Engineer Mohammed Karaye Prize for Hausa Literature Committee is an indication that Hausa prose fiction has finally come of age. And as usual, it has set a record - Hausa literature is the most voluminous indigenous language publishing phenomena in this country. Hausa writers are also the most numerous of any group of writers in indigenous language. Furthermore, it is only befitting that this award is initiated by a woman - because there are more Hausa women writers than any other group of indigenous language writers in Africa. Thus creating the Engineer Mohammed Karaye Prize for Hausa Literature is a timely and significant recognition of the efforts of Hausa writers in promoting literacy and reading culture through community efforts.
Considering the hundreds of Hausa novelists we have, it became an immense challenge to determine who will emerge as winners for this contest. The organizers and sponsors of the event had already given a criteria for inclusion of an entry into the award, and only about nine of the submissions met these criteria. It was these nine that were given to a select jury to evaluate, and for which I was made the chairman.
A further challenge was determining which three among the nine are to be shortlisted for this award. I must state right away that we are highly impressed by all the nine submissions, and for those who have been following the debates about the merits or otherwise of the contemporary Hausa novel, I can assure you that there is a tremendous improvement not only in the production process of the contemporary Hausa novel from its starting point in 1984, but also in the thematic focus of the stories. Thus each had something to offer that makes it stand out as a credible statement of Hausa contemporary life or a reflection of the perception of Hausa about contemporary issues. In the end, however, there must be winners, and these were those that provided an extra perspective in their craft that made them stand out above the crowd. In making decisions about which novels to honor for this prize, we took into consideration so many factors, but focused on mainly seven.
The first was cultural representation. In this criterion we were looking at how the Hausa universe was portrayed in the novel. We are not worried about whether this representation was "modern" or "classical"; but more concerned with its accuracy. We were looking for a situation where anyone reading the novel would immediately connect to the Hausa socio-cultural universe no matter how it was portrayed.
The second is the theme. We took this to be the basic idea or general truth the author is trying to present; the statement made about a topic. If the novel, for example, is about love (topic), what does the author say about it (statement): Love is cruel, Love is kind, Love is the source of all sorrows, etc.
The third was narrative structure. It is very important in literary communication for a writer to maintain a cohesive narrative structure that conveys meaning and depth. Such narrative structure should not tax the readers by confusing them with too many characters. It is also important to us that the narrative structure leads to a particular point - whether didactic or not, but there must be a clear resolution of a particular conflict that initiated the narrative in the first place.
The fourth was character development. Within this context we looked for characterization that provides a deep enough picture of the characters to make them credible, and their actions believable.
The fifth was time. In this we looked at the arbitrary division of existence in novels submitted to us. My colleagues of course would know that the most common varieties of time in literature are (1) chronological, in which all things follow in their natural sequence; (2) flashback, in which the author leaves the present time through recollection of a character, dream of a character, or director narration to tell of an incident that happened at an earlier time; and (3) overlapping, in which the author progresses to a certain point with one character or group, then switches to another character or group and brings them to the same point. The skill of the author in handling the time sequence in the narrative was a significant point in our judgment.
The sixth was style. We categorized this as the author's technique of writing. Here we gave consideration to sentence length, punctuation or lack of it; diction and vocabulary; use of symbols, metaphor and simile constructions, and other forms of figurative language; and uses of idiom and slang.
Finally the plot itself. We perceived this as the situation or story itself; what is happening between the characters. We wanted a plot element that tells why we are reading the novel and, most importantly, keep us glued to the plot and eager to see how it resolves itself. We are not too keen on too many intersecting sub-plots that deviate from the main plot structure and confuse the reader.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure many of us, especially the literary critics, would pick holes in these criteria-either they are too many, or they are not enough, or they are not appropriate for analyzing a Hausa novel, etc. We seek your indulgence and accept that our criteria is not perfect. Further, we approached our judgment from multiple angles. Thus while looking at the literary perspectives of the novel, we are also keen on cultural anthropology of the novel as a diary of a people.
We are also not naïve to the fact that many might see problems with our choice of winners. For one thing, each of the winners is a seasoned and well-established writer. Putting them in the same category as new writers-of which there are many among the other six contestants - creates a discordant imbalance. As such the winners for this first edition might not be too surprising. However, we would have wished a situation in the future where the entrants are categorized according to experience - that way writers would be judged alongside their peers to create a more balanced level playing field for a healthy competition.
I would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the energetic leadership of ANA (Abuja) under the never-ageing Dr. Emman Usman Shehu for organising this event, which is a resuscitation of the literary heritage of northern Nigeria. We would urge that ANA (Abuja) and other ANAs begin to focus attention on other indigenous literature in northern Nigeria to encourage literacy and reading culture at the community level.
Our final thanks go to Hajiya Bilkisu Bashir for her courage, determination, fortitude and intellectual foresight in instituting this award in the honor of Engineer Bashir Karaye, her late husband. In this singular act, she has initiated a mammoth reform process of the intellectual heritage of millions of Nigerians. It is left to see whether our teeming 'Yan Arewa, with avowed and publicly declared interest in the progress of northern Nigeria will take up her gauntlet and sustain this effort.
Hajiya, Allah Ya saka miki da alhairi. Allah Ya jikan Mal. Bashir. Allah Ya Rahama masa.
Thank you.
This is the text of a speech delivered during the First Engineer Mohammed Karaye Prize for Hausa Literature by Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu, Chairman of the Engineer Mohammed Karaye Prize for Hausa Literature Committee
http://dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6029&Itemid=63
By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu
Leadership (Abuja)
Today is a historic day in the literary history of northern Nigeria.
Today sees the modern public acknowledgement of creative genius among modern Hausa prose fiction writers who, for the most part, were vilified as hopeless romantics by critics of the Contemporary Hausa Novel which they contemptuously labeled the Kano Market Literature, to allude to its alleged commercial, rather than creative impetus.
The event we are about to witness is not the first, at least in structure. The first literary accolades were awarded in 1933 when Abubakar Imam (Ruwan Bagaja), Abubakar Tafawa Balewa (Shaihu Umar), Muhammad Gwarzo (Idon Matambayi), Muhammad Bello Kagara (Gandoki), Rupert East and John Tafida (Jiki Magayi) were singled out in a competition as being the best writers of short stories targeted at Hausa school children. These five novels were destined to become classics in Hausa literature and became the benchmark which reflected the quintessential literary representation of a Hausa person and his social climate.
In 1978 the results of another Hausa literary competition were announced. The winners included Hafsatu AbdulWahid (So Aljannar Duniya), Magaji Dambatta (Amadi Na Malam Amah), and Suleiman Ibrahim Katsina (Mallakin Zuciyata).
In 1980 the Federal Ministry of Culture released the results of yet another Hausa literary competition, and the winners were M.M. Bello (Tsumangiyar Kan Hanya), M.M. Katsina (Zabi Naka), Bature Gagare (Karshen Alewa Kasa), Suleiman Ibrahim Katsina (Turmin Danya).
Sadly, the last Hausa literary competition held was in 1986-21 years ago-organised by the Kaduna State Council for Art and Culture. It was called the Northern Languages Novel Writing Competition. The winners included Muhammad Barau Bambale, Shafi'u Magaji Usman (Jamila Da Jamilu), and Ibrahim Sheme (Kifin Rijiya). None of the resultant novels were formally published, and the spirit of the Hausa literary competition was left to wither away.
And yet the 1980 competition led to the birth of the self-publishing phenomena among Hausa youth-emboldened by the success of Hafsatu AbdulWahid who entered into Hausa literary history by being the first female novelist in Hausa language. In 1984 Talatu Wada Ahmed entered into another page of history by self-publishing Ruwan Raina which became the wake-up call for self-publishing among Hausa youth. What emerged subsequently was what led to the creation of the Contemporary Hausa Novel. It is significant that despite the stereotypes about women in Muslim Hausa communities, yet it is women who have been at the vanguard of the new publishing revolution-further signaled by the fact that we are gathered here today at the behest of a woman who immortalized the memory of her husband.
From the various databases available, over 1,800 novels have been published in Hausa language from 1980 to 2006. These novels reflected a young generation immersed in media technologies that took advantage of the availability of such technology to capture its thoughts and emotions. To this Millennium Generation, as I label them, the medium is indeed the message. Due to the didactic evolutionary nature of Hausa literature, the focus on romantic themes in the novels of this generation created a harsh core of critical reaction to the novels from the critical establishment. In particular, there were beliefs that availability of a literary medium should be utilized by the young writers to entrench the didactic nature of Hausa literary discourse. Yet this did not happen. What did happen instead was a global appropriation of themes, styles and kernel of ideas to create a contemporary Hausa prose fiction that in reflecting a media globalized world, made the traditionalist establishment uncomfortable. Global media, clearly, has become the message. The critical reactions seemed to have ignored the educative functions of the literature in stimulating literary and reading culture among the millions of youth for whom the novels became the only direct exposure to structured writing, and often, education.
Today's activity is the fourth public, but fifth attempt at recognizing Hausa novelists as credible writers on any intellectual platform. That it is organized by the Association of Nigerian Authors (Abuja) in collaboration with the Engineer Mohammed Karaye Prize for Hausa Literature Committee is an indication that Hausa prose fiction has finally come of age. And as usual, it has set a record - Hausa literature is the most voluminous indigenous language publishing phenomena in this country. Hausa writers are also the most numerous of any group of writers in indigenous language. Furthermore, it is only befitting that this award is initiated by a woman - because there are more Hausa women writers than any other group of indigenous language writers in Africa. Thus creating the Engineer Mohammed Karaye Prize for Hausa Literature is a timely and significant recognition of the efforts of Hausa writers in promoting literacy and reading culture through community efforts.
Considering the hundreds of Hausa novelists we have, it became an immense challenge to determine who will emerge as winners for this contest. The organizers and sponsors of the event had already given a criteria for inclusion of an entry into the award, and only about nine of the submissions met these criteria. It was these nine that were given to a select jury to evaluate, and for which I was made the chairman.
A further challenge was determining which three among the nine are to be shortlisted for this award. I must state right away that we are highly impressed by all the nine submissions, and for those who have been following the debates about the merits or otherwise of the contemporary Hausa novel, I can assure you that there is a tremendous improvement not only in the production process of the contemporary Hausa novel from its starting point in 1984, but also in the thematic focus of the stories. Thus each had something to offer that makes it stand out as a credible statement of Hausa contemporary life or a reflection of the perception of Hausa about contemporary issues. In the end, however, there must be winners, and these were those that provided an extra perspective in their craft that made them stand out above the crowd. In making decisions about which novels to honor for this prize, we took into consideration so many factors, but focused on mainly seven.
The first was cultural representation. In this criterion we were looking at how the Hausa universe was portrayed in the novel. We are not worried about whether this representation was "modern" or "classical"; but more concerned with its accuracy. We were looking for a situation where anyone reading the novel would immediately connect to the Hausa socio-cultural universe no matter how it was portrayed.
The second is the theme. We took this to be the basic idea or general truth the author is trying to present; the statement made about a topic. If the novel, for example, is about love (topic), what does the author say about it (statement): Love is cruel, Love is kind, Love is the source of all sorrows, etc.
The third was narrative structure. It is very important in literary communication for a writer to maintain a cohesive narrative structure that conveys meaning and depth. Such narrative structure should not tax the readers by confusing them with too many characters. It is also important to us that the narrative structure leads to a particular point - whether didactic or not, but there must be a clear resolution of a particular conflict that initiated the narrative in the first place.
The fourth was character development. Within this context we looked for characterization that provides a deep enough picture of the characters to make them credible, and their actions believable.
The fifth was time. In this we looked at the arbitrary division of existence in novels submitted to us. My colleagues of course would know that the most common varieties of time in literature are (1) chronological, in which all things follow in their natural sequence; (2) flashback, in which the author leaves the present time through recollection of a character, dream of a character, or director narration to tell of an incident that happened at an earlier time; and (3) overlapping, in which the author progresses to a certain point with one character or group, then switches to another character or group and brings them to the same point. The skill of the author in handling the time sequence in the narrative was a significant point in our judgment.
The sixth was style. We categorized this as the author's technique of writing. Here we gave consideration to sentence length, punctuation or lack of it; diction and vocabulary; use of symbols, metaphor and simile constructions, and other forms of figurative language; and uses of idiom and slang.
Finally the plot itself. We perceived this as the situation or story itself; what is happening between the characters. We wanted a plot element that tells why we are reading the novel and, most importantly, keep us glued to the plot and eager to see how it resolves itself. We are not too keen on too many intersecting sub-plots that deviate from the main plot structure and confuse the reader.
Ladies and gentlemen, I am sure many of us, especially the literary critics, would pick holes in these criteria-either they are too many, or they are not enough, or they are not appropriate for analyzing a Hausa novel, etc. We seek your indulgence and accept that our criteria is not perfect. Further, we approached our judgment from multiple angles. Thus while looking at the literary perspectives of the novel, we are also keen on cultural anthropology of the novel as a diary of a people.
We are also not naïve to the fact that many might see problems with our choice of winners. For one thing, each of the winners is a seasoned and well-established writer. Putting them in the same category as new writers-of which there are many among the other six contestants - creates a discordant imbalance. As such the winners for this first edition might not be too surprising. However, we would have wished a situation in the future where the entrants are categorized according to experience - that way writers would be judged alongside their peers to create a more balanced level playing field for a healthy competition.
I would like to extend our sincere appreciation to the energetic leadership of ANA (Abuja) under the never-ageing Dr. Emman Usman Shehu for organising this event, which is a resuscitation of the literary heritage of northern Nigeria. We would urge that ANA (Abuja) and other ANAs begin to focus attention on other indigenous literature in northern Nigeria to encourage literacy and reading culture at the community level.
Our final thanks go to Hajiya Bilkisu Bashir for her courage, determination, fortitude and intellectual foresight in instituting this award in the honor of Engineer Bashir Karaye, her late husband. In this singular act, she has initiated a mammoth reform process of the intellectual heritage of millions of Nigerians. It is left to see whether our teeming 'Yan Arewa, with avowed and publicly declared interest in the progress of northern Nigeria will take up her gauntlet and sustain this effort.
Hajiya, Allah Ya saka miki da alhairi. Allah Ya jikan Mal. Bashir. Allah Ya Rahama masa.
Thank you.
This is the text of a speech delivered during the First Engineer Mohammed Karaye Prize for Hausa Literature by Professor Abdallah Uba Adamu, Chairman of the Engineer Mohammed Karaye Prize for Hausa Literature Committee
http://dailytrust.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=6029&Itemid=63