New Nigerian Newspapers Online Edition

I am extremely delighted and privileged to be the guest speaker at this occasion of the second Engineer Mohammed Bashir Karaye Prize for literature in Hausa. Many thanks to the organisers of this event for considering my humble self. This is an occasion of joy and laughter for all of us: the initiators and financiers of this prize, the winners (and even the losers) of this prize, the managers of this prize, and all who have come here to witness this important occasion.

We rejoice that the Karaye prize symbolises positive things some of which are: a recognition of the efforts and legacy of the man the prize is named after; a manifestation of the duty that the living owe the dead; recognition and promotion of the Hausa language and literature; moral and financial supports for our writers in Hausa; and a contribution to intellectual activities, especially in a nation that has little respect for intellection.

While we rejoice, I would like to bring before you a proposition which is a need to establish a dialogue between writing in Hausa and writing in English. This presupposes that the two languages are equal as individual linguistic entities. The two languages are rich in their own ways, nuanced in their services to literature, and globally recognised.

Hausa is one of our indigenous languages. English is Nigeria’s lingua franca, imposed on us through colonisation. These two languages have had reasons to clash, especially in the realm of literature. Since the 1960s, some writers, scholars and thinkers have tried to persuade us that the true African writing has to be in indigenous languages like the Hausa language. The Nigerian scholar Obi Wali, in a seminal and polemical essay entitled “The Dead End of African Literature” uncompromisingly states that “until [our] writers…accept the fact that any true African literature must be written in African languages, they would be merely pursuing a dead end.” The Kenyan novelist Ngugi wa Thiong’O has not only been the most vociferous in making a case for the indigenous languages, he has stopped writing in English, regarding it as an icon of imperialism. He now thinks and writes in Gikuyu, his mother tongue. In the premise of the pro-indigenous language argument, Hausa claims the true ownership of African literature, but it is regrettable that only few Hausas or Africans can write in Hausa compared to those who can write in English.

This is why other writers, scholars and thinkers take a different option that favours the English language. A notable protagonist of this option is Chinua Achebe who, through theory and practice, has sought to convince us that though English is imposed on us, we can use it to our advantage since we cannot develop ourselves in indigenous languages so as to write in them. In an essay entitled “The African Writer and the English Language”, Achebe concludes that: “Is it right that a man should abandon his mother tongue for someone else’s? It looks like a dreadful betrayal and produces a guilty feeling.

But for me there is no other choice. I have been given the language and I intend to use it.” Achebe’s contention, like those of the other actors on his side, sounds defeatist and patronising to the West. But it is an honest confession. Maybe the writers we are celebrating today, like Ngugi, have proved that even though English was handed down to them, they have chosen to write in Hausa.

But, ladies and gentlemen, I do not want to pursue the quarrel between Hausa and English in claiming ownership of African literature. Whether you write in English or in Hausa, your subject matter should determine if you are an African writer. There should however not be undue superiorisation of one language over the other. While some of us admit our inability to write in our mother tongues, as Achebe has done, we must recognise that the foreign language in which we write is not superior to our mother tongues. This implies that we are a linguistically handicapped people. Consequently, we must salute those among us who have developed their skills in their mother tongues and are able to write in them. The Karaye prize, as well as other efforts in this line, is an expression of the society’s gratitude to those who are keeping our indigenous languages alive. I like to state clearly that the society’s efforts in this regards are inadequate. We need more of such prizes as the Karaye Prize. We also need to explore other avenues that will enrich our indigenous languages. One of these avenues is what I term a dialogue through translation. In as much as we encourage writers to write in indigenous languages, we must also encourage translators to translate creative works from English to Hausa and vice versa. A language and its literature are not enriched by its primary speakers alone, but also by the dialogue they establish with other languages and literatures. German, Spanish, Russian, Chinese and many other languages and their literatures have been enriched with creative works from Africa, notably Things Fall Apart which has been translated to numerous languages in the world. The dialogue between Hausa and English will seek to have classic novels, poems, dramas and other literary genres translated from Hausa to English and from English to Hausa. Abubakar Imam may have been translated into English, but not all his works. Indeed the need for this dialogue by translation is more strongly felt in our generation, given the rhetoric of globalisation that bastardises roots, ethnicities and nationalities.

Nigeria is a great maker of literature. The challenge before us is to create a dialogue between writing in indigenous languages and writing in English in order to allow cross-cultural, cross-ethnic and cross-linguistic flows of ideas and philosophies. While we await Ibrahim Sheme’s translation of Things Fall Apart into Hausa, we need writers and translators who can bring to Hausa’s doorsteps other important Nigerian writers such as Wole Soyinka, Gabriel Okara, Niyi Osundare, Femi Osofisan, Buchi Emecheta, Flora Nwapa and others. Indeed the rather tragic aspect of this issue is that even such northern Nigerian writers as Atabo Oko, Ada Uga, Zaynab Alkali, Abubakar Gimba, BM Dzukogi, Maria Ajima, Abubakar Othman, Idris Amali and others who have dramatised the northern Nigerian condition in their works cannot be read by their brothers and sisters who are not literate in English. Similarly, the writers we are celebrating here, as well as other writers writing in Hausa today, need to be read in a language other than Hausa. I guess there are many of us here who may not be able to read the short-listed books because we cannot read in Hausa. Translating them into English means embracing a wider audience and enriching English with the wisdom and philosophies of Hausa ethnicity. Like Ngugi, bilingual writers who are writing in Hausa should endeavour to translate their works into English.

Beyond individual efforts, associations, organisations and corporate bodies should rise to the challenge of creating a dialogue between writing in English and writing in Nigerian indigenous languages. If the resources are there, the Karaye Prize management will indeed be doing Hausa a greater service by initiating prizes for translation works from Hausa into English, and from English into Hausa. In a few days from now, the Association of Nigerian Authors, the largest body of writers in Nigeria, will be convening in Zamfara with the theme, “Literature, Identity and Civilisation”. The trinity of literature, identity and civilisation can only be meaningful when attention and encouragement are given to the kind of dialogue I have proposed here.

As a way of concluding, let me call on the local, state and federal governments to make conscious attempt to rescue our indigenous languages from going extinct by encouraging creative writers to write in them. In addition, writers and translators should be supported to translate classic works in English into our indigenous languages and vice versa. Our languages and literatures must dialogue with other languages and literatures to expand our horizon. There is great knowledge on both sides which needs to cross the linguistic boundary.

Dr. Sule is of the Nasarawa State University, Keffi.