When we reject our origins, we become the product of whatever soil that we find ourselves planted; the colours of our leaves change as we consume borrowed nutrients with borrowed roots and, like a tree, we grow.
― Mike Norton
This house called heritage, whose foundation was selflessly laid by its forefathers, built out of bricks of togetherness, plastered with the cement of trust, roofed with sheets of decency and decorated with flowers of compassion seems to be gradually destroyed by its successive generation charged with the responsibility of preserving its originality. Sorrowfully, we are today morally misrepresenting our predecessors, socially abusing our traditional values, and shamefully disregarding our unique culture, in fact, the disappointment keeps growing almost every day. Must we keep telling ourselves that we must run away from our origin before we could gain public recognition? Must we foolishly accept that our forefathers were not as thoughtful as we are? Are we really what our forefathers thought we will be? When shall we embrace the originality of our heritage.? These, and many other questions will continue to disturb the mind of any responsible, yet concerned individual originated from Hausa land.
The communal life was such that, every father has the right to train, punish and look after when and where necessary. The family institution had the belief that every father had the utmost right to interfere in day to day activities. For our parent, hardly will someone among them sleep with an empty stomach, it was a time that launch and dinner were eaten collectively regardless of who brought it, it was a time that the richer ones would singlehandedly sponsor many children to ensure nobody was left behind, this was why the bond was so strong among both our parent and ourselves, Indeed discipline was a collective responsibility and the family institution was a great pride. This unique lifestyle is seriously decaying and keeps changing to abnormal.
Although many young men married at much younger ages than today’s, and girls were usually married off at what is agreed to be an underage marriage today, yet there was no frequent record of divorce cases like the recent, simply because, both young couples usually live together with their parent and at the same time under their watch, the wife was fully taken care of at that fragile period when they were both thoughtfully weak, and the wife will continue to be guided on how to go about with many domestic responsibilities. Every move made by the husband was under intense supervision, no decision was allowed to be taken by the husband without consultation, this would continue until the husband attain a maturity level that his decision-making skill is satisfied. This and many other socio-cultural blessings of the Hausa land are more or less becoming a history.
In the then Hausa land, both rich and average people of a community took the responsibilities of their Islamic scholars (Mallams) and their students regardless of where they come from. Mallams were collectively helped with what would feed them and their students since it was known that their basic duty was to teach, and usually not engaged in any business beside farming which was seldom. Lost of this heritage was one of the reasons why begging in the name of Almajiranci came into existence.
It was a land men and women dress in their native attire proudly and decently, men were known with their agbada (Babbar Riga) or kaftan with hand-crafted Hausa cap called Zanna, andwomen were known with their shirt and wrapper covered by their shawl, in fact, one may unknowingly argue that women of today are the offspring of the women of those ages in terms of decency. Unlike today, modesty, decency and bashfulness were a pride to every girl. Although social media is considered a contributory factor in this regard, however, advancement does not temper with heritage, it can even make it more suitable and valuable. Sadly, today it is becoming uncommon for a girl to dress decently and common to dress half-naked, even boys are not left undisturbed by this mirage of ‘I am more attractive this way’. Shamefully enough, when pictures or videos of the disgraceful outfit are posted on any media platform, any responsible person will pity our society when complimentary comments begin to rain under the rude post. On the other hand, Hausa film making seems to have contributed greatly in destroying our unique heritage, especially the so-called modern films. Even though some films do remind us of our proud heritage, but many have done more harm than good, they are most often the sources of evil dress, even if the stakeholders will continue to argue to their last breath.
Even though I was a kid, the memories of the wide acceptance of our local music will remain unforgettable. We are witnesses that our parent derived a lot of joy listening to our local music, we found it quite interesting as we grew up and we still treasure it, some of our vocabulary, quotation and style of expression are derived from there. Those days, songs of Mamman Shata, Dan Maraya, Ali Makaho, Sani Aliyu Dandawa, Haruna Uji, Garba Supa, Sani Sabulu and many more Hausa music artists were the pride of Hausa land people, even Hausa Islamic scholars were not left behind, they listened to one musician or the other because most of the songs were decent. Sorrily, it appears to be a strange thing listening to those songs today, you will even be tagged local or conservative, what makes one sociable today is his profound love and regard for English music and other culturally conflicting songs. We have abandoned our own logical, philosophical and language-rich Hausa artists all in the name of civilization. By and large, this is one of the reasons why many find it very difficult to engage in a long conversation in the Hausa language without switching to English.
Most regrettably, is how our kingdoms have been fully politicized. Hausa land Emirs palace used to be a problem-solving platform, their Turban was a symbol of knowledge, their house was a sign of courage to the masses, their voice was nothing but hopes to the people, and their decision was very selfless and community-centred, they were learned, simple, accommodating and humble, in fact, even the then political leaders do value and respect them. They fondly preserved our heritage and ensured it was not tampered with, should they be back today, our sorrowful misrepresentation would have pushed them to their early graves.
At last, we should not be deceived by the word modernity, technological advancement should not be an excuse for our heritage damage, media should not control our appearance and friends should not be our social yardstick. Since the likes of Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa and Sir Ahmadu Bello earned international respect and reputation in their ‘Babbar Riga’ why should we be ashamed of our traditional outfit. We should trace the history of our forefathers, think about why there were no serious cases like rape, banditry, terrorism and many more. Even though we cannot slice bread without making a mess, we should, however, try to keep preserving our heritage within our limit and endure to preach about this to the next generation, draw their attention to stick to their originality and tell them the unique thing about Hausa land and its heritage.
Sabo Ibrahim Hassan[email protected]
Twitter: @SaboIbrahim99
