By Aliyu Ammani

Those following happenings in the social media, could not have missed the debates and controversies generated by the rise in tribal identity consciousness among the Hausa in Nigeria. Identity among the Hausa has been suppressed by the mischievous use of the tag “Bamaguje”, masked by “Hausa-Fulani” and “Arewa” labels, and tacitly put to question over the years. 

Many people see in this increasing consciousness, a threat to the coexistence between the Hausa and the Fulani, two tribes that have been living together for centuries in Hausaland.

Series of conspiracy theories are churn out to explain the genesis of this resurgence on social media, most of which borders on the ridiculous.  The conspiracy theorists appeared not to see the wood for the trees.

There are 2 basic reasons behind the resurgence of interest in Hausa identity in Nigeria today.

First, the Bororo Fulani banditry in Hausaland on populations that are essentially Hausa, and its attendant destruction of lives and properties, maiming, looting, raping of women, kidnapping for ransom etc.

Thousands of towns and villages across Hausaland were sacked. Communities of free law abiding citizens forced back to the dark age of slavery; abled bodied men attacked and abducted, sometimes right inside mosques on Fridays.

The perpetrators of these heinous crimes are always willing to tell the world that they are

Fulani, fighting for Fulani against the Hausa. The reader can hear from the Horse’s Mouth in the following audio-visual documentaries available on YouTube: (i) BBC Africa Eye Documentary “The Bandit Warlords of Zamfara”, (ii) Trust TV’s “Nigeria’s Banditry ‘The Inside Story’” and. (iii) a video coverage of Dr Ahmad Gumi’s meeting with Zamfara Bandits at Shinkafi.

Second, and most important, the attitude of city dwelling Fulani, including some notable traditional and religious leaders in Hausaland in the face of Bororo banditry.

Instead of publicly dissociating themselves from the atrocities of the Bororo bandits or publicly declaring that terrorists like Bello Turji, Dogo Gide and Ado Aleru do not represent the Fulani; they seem more comfortable fabricating excuses for the bandits in tongue-in-cheek statements like “their cattle were rustled”, “traditional cattle routes were blocked by new farmlands and settlements”, “the Fulani are not in it alone, there are other tribes including the Hausa aiding and supporting them” “the Fulani are neglected by the governments, …” etc.

Not a single traditional ruler in mainstream Hausaland came out to publicly take an impartial stand as did the emir of Muri.

Even Miyetti Allah, the Fulani association that is always quick to cry blue murder whenever the interest of the Bororo appeared threatened, appeared to lose its voice.

Thus, projecting an impression that while Bororo Fulani are busy terrorising and destroying essentially Hausa populations and settlements; city Fulani are busy manufacturing and propagating excuses and justifications for the atrocities.

Can one sincerely justify banditry or rebellion by Fulani in Hausaland, a land that is practically a Fulani territory?

The most important traditional rulers in Hausaland are Fulani. The key political figures and public officials in Hausaland are Fulani. The most notable Islamic clerics and religious leaders are Fulani. Even in Hausa settlements outside Hausaland, the heads of the communities, known as “Sarakunan Hausawa” (singular- Sarkin Hausawa) majority are Fulani. The Fulani should be the last to rebel in Hausaland!

The Hausa, hitherto conditioned to accept that he has ‘his back covered’ by the Fulani, feels betrayed. With the scales falling off his eyes, he began to see the writing on the wall: “You are on Your Own”. This ignites the process that sparked the chain of reactions that we are now seeing on social media as the resurgence of interest in Hausa identity, what others see as the dissociation of Hausawa from the Fulani.

There is indeed the tendency that a reawakening of identity consciousness among the Hausa is capable of igniting an equal spark in Fulani identity among the almost “hausanised” Fulani in Hausaland. This could lead to an upsurge in identity politics among both groups, which could lead to extremism where elements from both tribes could begin to see and interpret processes and events on a “we versus them’ basis.

Traces of such extremism are already visible. However, the possibility of such tendency should not be reason enough to deny the Hausa of their rights to tribal identity, association and aspirations, for the simple reason that other Nigerian tribes have been enjoying such rights without posing any threat to their coexistence with other tribes in Nigeria.

The upsurge in Hausa identity revival has started and cannot be stifled or halted, the genie is already out of the bottle.

The question that begs for an answer is “which way forward”?

The way forward is not in the identification and clamping down on the persons or group managing pro Hausa identity revival social media handles as is being suggested by some Islamic clerics across Northern Nigeria. This is more likely to compound rather than solve the problem.

The solution is for the ‘organised Fulani front’ to confront and respectfully address the fears of the Hausa people (of a conspiracy to annihilate them), assure them and publicly dissociate the Fulani from the activities of terrorists like Bello Turji & Co, and commence the process of rebuilding mutual trust and respect between the Hausa and Fulani.

Farooq A. Kperogi

Since 2015, every August 26 has been observed as “Hausa Day” (or “Ranar Hausa” in the Hausa language) by Hausa-speaking people all over the world. In honor of this day, I highlight 20 Nigerian English—and Nigerian Pidgin English— expressions that owe debts to the Hausa language.

As with every language that leaves its primordial shores, the Hausa words that make it to Nigerian English are often contorted from their original forms and meanings.

1. “Jaara.” Most speakers of Nigerian English recognize this word as an additional, often small, quantity that a merchant gives to a customer who purchases goods in the market as a show of appreciation for the customer’s business. It is derived from the Hausa “gyara.”

The word’s corruption to “jaara” in Nigerian (Pidgin) English) is a consequence of the absence of the Hausa phoneme “gy” in most Nigerian languages.

Interestingly, in the U.S. state of Louisiana, when I lived for almost two years before moving to Georgia, people use the term “lagniappe” (pronounced Lan-Yap) to signify what Hausa people call “gyara” and that Nigerian English speakers call “jaara.”

No other part of the United States has a culture of merchants giving a small gift to their customers after a transaction. I once speculated that the Louisiana “lagniappe” culture may be traceable to enslaved Hausa people in the state hundreds of years ago.

2. “Babban riga.” The resplendent, broad-sleeved, flowing gown that has now become the attire of choice of Nigerian politicians of all ethnicities is often called “babban riga” in Nigerian English. It’s a slight distortion of “babbar riga,” its Hausa name.

3. “Megad.” This Nigerian English word for what native English speakers call a door guard, a gatekeeper, a uniformed doorman, or a hall porter came to us from a distortion of the Hausa “maigadi,” itself a blend of the Hausa “mai” and the English “guard.”

The fact that most doorkeepers in Nigerian urban centers used to be—probably still are—Hausa or Hausa-speaking northerners helped to admit “megad” into the pantheon of unique Nigerian English expressions.

4. “Buka.” This word now means a cheap, casual, ramshackle eatery that sells already prepared food. It came from the Hausa word “bukka,” which means a temporary, tumble-down hut or tent.

Since most roadside or dirt-cheap eateries in Nigeria used tents (many don’t these days), Nigerians neologized the word “bukateria” from “bukka” on the model of cafeteria, itself an American English word borrowed from Spanish.

5. “Burantashi.” Most Nigerians know this word to be the Hausa word for an aphrodisiac, that is, the bitter herbal concoction that reputedly stimulates sexual desire in men. “Bura” is the Hausa word for the male reproductive organ and “tashi” is the Hausa word for rising, waking up, etc.

Curiously, however, the word “buratashi” (which is probably how it would have been written in Hausa if it were a thing) is more used outside Hausa land than in Hausa land.

In everyday conversational Hausa, at least among Hausa Muslims, “bura” is rarely used except in vulgar insults such as “bura uban ka/ki” (which is now rendered as “borobanka” in some varieties of Nigerian Pidgin English).

I’m genuinely curious how “burantashi” came to be if it’s almost absent in the demotic repertoire of native Hausa speakers. Hausa people call aphrodisiacs “maganin karfin maza” or “gagi.”

6. “Fadama.” This Hausa word for a fertile wetland is now a widely used terminology in agriculture in Nigeria and beyond.

7. “Do guy.” To “do guy” in Nigerian English is to preen, to show off with elaborate sartorial care. That expression owes provenance to the Hausa “gayu,” where it means the same thing. A dandy is called “dan gaye” or “dan danyu” in Hausa.

But it seems like there is a circular sociolinguistic loop in the emergence of this expression from Hausa to Nigerian English. Since “gayu” itself doesn’t seem to be native to Hausa, it’s reasonable to assume that it’s a loan to the language from the English “guy.”

Guy means an adult male in English, and men who wore shirts and trousers (as opposed to the more common Hausa attires of kaftans and babbar riga) were referred to as “guys.”

So, “guy” might have changed meaning from just being men attired in Western clothes to dandies, from where it made its way to Nigerian Pidgin English and later to Nigerian English to simply mean preening.

8. “Long leg,” the Nigerian English idiomatic expression for connections (which even Wole Soyinka used in one of this iconic plays) is said to be the direct translation of the Hausa dogon-kafa. Dogon-kafa can mean long-established, and it can colloquially mean (unfair) advantages that come with knowing people in high places.

9. “Kaya mata” or “kayamata” (which native Hausa speakers would write as “kayan mata”) has come to mean sexual stimulant for women and is now widely known by that name in southern Nigeria.

10. “Mudu,” the unit of measurement that most Nigerians use in the market, is a Hausa word.

11. To “see gobe” in southern Nigeria is to be in trouble, sometimes good trouble. It’s the title of Davido’s 2013 hit song. It may have been derived from the Hausa “sai gobe,” which literally translates as “until tomorrow.” I am also curious to know how the semantic transition occurred from “until tomorrow” to “being in trouble.”

12. “Suya” literally means frying in Hausa, but it has become the name for barbecued meat in Nigeria, which Hausa people call “tsire.” Since most non-Hausa Nigerians can’t faithfully pronounce the phoneme “ts” in Hausa, it’s entirely possible that Hausa tsire sellers encouraged the popularization of suya, an easier word to pronounce among non-Hausa-speaking people.

13. “Dogon yaro” (which literally means tall child) is the Hausa word for neem tree, but it is almost universally known by that name in Nigeria.

14. “Wahala.” Although “wahala” is an Arabic word, it came to Nigerian (Pidgin) English most likely through Hausa. It’s derived from the Arabic “wahla,” which means fright or terror, and is now firmly established in most Nigerian languages—and in the West African Pidgin English spoken in Nigeria, Ghana, and Cameroon.

15. “Waaka.” In Nigerian Pidgin English, “waaka” is a popular insult often uttered in moments of extreme exasperation with all five fingers stretched out. It’s a corruption of the Hausa “uwar ka” (male) “uwar ki” (female). Uwa means “mother” in Hausa, so “uwar ka” is “your mother!”

16. “Mugu.” Nigerian 419 email scammers popularized this expression in Nigeria and beyond. It is understood to mean a chump, that is, a fool who can easily be tricked to part with his or her prized possessions under false pretenses. But this meaning of the word departs from its original Hausa meaning of “sadist.” Now, mugu has other variations such as “maga.”

17. “Haba!” This exclamation of astonishment or disappointment that has crept into Standard Nigerian English is native to the Hausa language. But a British linguist by the name of Roger Blench observed that “Habahaba! was a common expression of joking amazement in the US in the 1940s,” and wonders if there is any relationship between the Nigerian “haba!” and the obsolete American English “habahaba!” in light of the phono-semantic similarities between both expressions. I doubt that there is.

18. “Shikenan” (often rendered as “shikena” in southern Nigeria), the Hausa term for “that is it,” is now almost universally used in Nigerian (Pidgin) English.

19. “Shege.” This means bastard in Hausa, although it can also be used as an intensifier. It is now widely understood and used in the same context in Nigerian Pidgin English.

20. “Zobo” (short for zoborodo), a kind of drink originally limited to Hausa land is now probably the most pan-Nigerian locally produced drink. It is sold in African shops in Europe and North America.

Bonus: Turenchi, usually dogo turenchi, (which would be turanci, dogon turanci in Hausa), is now widely used in Nigerian Pidgin English and in informal standard Nigerian English to mean long, boring, ineffective harangue in English by politicians and academics.

Kperogi, is a Professor of journalism and emerging media at Kennesaw State University, USA. This article was first published on his Facebook account.