Today’s tsaraba will
start with an apology for the unannounced absence of this contribution which is
about to make its 100th anniversary since it started as a series two years ago.
Gladly the celebration does not require a budget, nor a grand occasion to be
marked by speeches from special guests. In fact the 100th anniversary will save
you the burden of travelling to my home state of Kano, let alone commit a
political blunder that will require the political Juggernauts in the city to
come and sweep it away.
In the course of the
absence of this column, I met two brilliant individuals, one of them a retired
senior administrator in one of the leading universities in Nigeria, and the
other an active academic who still gives his contribution for the betterment of
our society. By coincidence both individuals are linguists with firm commitment
to their culture.
Our discussion about
the Hausa language in particular focused on the effect of using foreign
curriculum from nursery to secondary schools, and the impact of that on our
youths. Yes, it is a fashion today to take your kids to schools where Hausa is
not taught as a language, and these days it is common to hear that “kasan ban
yi Hausa a makaranta ba”, (I never studied Hausa language at school).
I told my guest about a
story that happened around 2003. I was writing a research paper on the Hausa
home video industry, in the course of that I interviewed one of the leading
actors in the industry, and he told me that one of his fans called him from
Abuja and told him that she had the word Zaure in one of the home videos
he has featured, and she asked him for the meaning?
As we continued with our
conversation, one of my guests said, that is even better, perhaps you never had
the expression “tuwon rice”. Mhm. I
never heard about it. The only time I remember we tried to use non-Hausa terms
to explain traditional food was about two years ago when we held a fundraising
dinner in Newcastle, UK to do some charity work in Nigeria by supporting
orphans and conduct some healthcare projects.
My friend and brother
Dr Mukhtar Ahmad brilliantly translated a lot of the names of Hausa food into
English for the benefit of the non-Hausa speaking contributors. Yes, I still
smile when I remember such terms like “mash rice” for Tuwon shinkafa,
and “beans cake” for Kosai, as well as ‘pumpkin sauce’ for miyar
taushe. But you see, he was
able to do that because he understands the Hausa language very well, and so
that understanding was used to benefit the people back home.
Gladly the guests
enjoyed the food fair. It was a pleasure to see a mixture of the English,
Pakistanis, Indians, Arabs and other groups enjoying African local dishes, not
just for the sake of eating, but to support a human cause.
Language is an asset we
should never play with as much as we can. Even those who live in foreign
countries try their best to ensure that their kids speak their mother tongue.
Those who allowed that opportunity to slip away ended up regretting it, for
their children are normally caught in the crisis of identity.
Indeed we live in times
when understanding a foreign language is an asset, and we should encourage
people to learn as many languages as possible, but that shouldn’t be at the
detriment of our native tongue. Language is not as innocent as we might assume.
It is important for our school administrators to understand this, particularly
private schools promoting foreign curriculum at the expense of carefully
developed content that takes care of our languages and value system.
The Chinese, the
Indians, the Malaysians, and other countries that are making progress did not
do so in a vacuum. They always maintain their culture and language, and even
work hard to export it. Today, Indian and Chinese restaurants have become
global brands. I wonder whether our kids who struggle to understand Zaure,
will be competent enough in our local languages to be good ambassadors for our
people in the future.
4:42
21.06.1435
21.04.2014
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