In my view, World Hausa Day should be a day for soul searching to all Hausas in the world. We are blessed in so many ways, but like every ethnic group, we have our problems . Our shortcomings include too many beggars among us , disunity, lack of help/love among ourselves, and lack of leadership/vision. This piece is aimed at reawakening Malam Dan-Hausa from being asleep and snoring. No one chooses to be born as Yoruba or Igbo or Kanuri or Nupe and or Tiv man! I am proud to be a Hausa man! All well- meaning Hausas in the world should and or must “reflect” in a day like this on the above- mentioned problems.
On the other hand, the Hausas are blessed with many things. Hausa and Swahili languages are the two most widely spoken languages in Africa. Swahili is widely spoken in the East African countries while Hausa language is widely spoken in West Africa and beyond. Hausa language is being spoken by many Hausas in about 32 African countries out of the 54 Independent countries where they migrated for various reasons. There are about 10 million Sudanese of Hausa -origin in Sudan.
However, it baffles me to note that, about 90% of beggars in Nigeria are my people. Why? This is to the extent that some people maliciously linked our cherished culture with begging. Far from that! Ours does not accept it. I feel pain for this! After all, all ethnic groups have their various shortcomings! Sadly too, because 99% of Hausas are Muslims, some people have maliciously and or ignorantly thought begging is encouraged by “Islam”. Never at all!
Our people almost regarded begging as profession. All well meaning Hausas should and or must make serious effort towards discouraging our people from begging. After all, we are not the only people suffering from poverty in Nigeria. It is among all!
However, we are equally blessed, Hausa language is being taught as a course of study in universities in Germany, England, United States of America, Belgium, Netherland, Poland, Portugal, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland and many other African Universities. A lot of European researchers study Hausa Language in order to make their research work easier in terms of gathering data, especially in West Africa and other parts of Africa. We have many Europeans that are professors in Hausa Language.
We must celebrate the fact that, Hausa Language has an international recognition. The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC), broadcast news in over 30 different world languages daily and from 1957 to date (62 years now ) it has been broadcasting news in Hausa language four (4) times daily (in total 2 hours) You can also watch them on “Capital TV” Ghana. United states of America’s Voice of America (VOA) Hausa service was established in 1979 (40 years now ) and it has been broadcasting news in Hausa language four (4) times daily.
In Germany Deutech welle Radio was established in 1953 (66 years now) it has been broadcasting news in Hausa language three (3) times daily. A French Radio, Radio France International (RFI) has been broadcasting news in Hausa language from 2007 to date three (3) times daily. Radio Moscos World service, Hausa 1961; Radio Sin(China) International, Hausa, 1941; Radio Libya, Hausa; Radio Tehran (Iran)IRIB, Hausa ; Radio TRT Hausa and Radio Muryan Alkahira, Egypt etc.
We have newspapers that published in Hausa language; such as: Leadership Hausa, Aminiya and Rariya, etc. Hausa language can be adopted as a lingua Franca in West Africa with little or no hitches due to its wide coverage .
To address the menace of beggars, In my view, since all our beggars did not fall from the “sky”, they all have families! Let’s encourage every Hausa family to take care of his blind or deaf or dumb or cripple or dwarf and or widow.
One can hardly separate Hausas from the Fulanis. We are often referred to as Hausa-Fulani due to the fact that, you will hardly see a Hausa family without a Fulani blood in him due to Inter-marriages.It is often said that, the Hausas colonized the Fulanis with their language and the Fulanis colonized the Hausas with leadership following the Jihad of Shenu Usthman Ibn Fodio.
Let there be a foundation by all Hausa people world-wide to raise funds for skills acquisitions to our beggars in order to impart skills ;such as: weaving, netting, tailoring, and petty trading etc.,to them in order to address the menace of begging among us.
As a Hausa-Fulani man, l feel very bad when I got to realize that we have no agenda. We have no vision! We have weak leadership . Please let’s change for the better!
Nurudeen Dauda, Kaduna [email protected]
