Exciting news! Indian publisher Blaft has published an English translation, by Aliyu Kamal, of Balaraba Ramat Yakubu’s 1990 novel Alhaki Kuykuyo Ne. Aliyu Kamal is a professor in the English Department at Bayero University and a prolific novelist in his own right. See Blaft’s blog post on the release, where they give this blog a shout out. Hard copies can be ordered from their site, and ebooks for Kindleand epub ($4.99) are also available. To read the first chapter for free, click here. (Update 9 November 2012: Two Indian news sites have also published articles about the novel and the influence of Indian films on Hausa culture: Dhamini Ratnam writes “Filmi Affair in Nigeria” for the Pune Mirror (and briefly quotes me) and Deepanjana Pal writes “How Bollywood fought for the Nigerian Woman “for Daily News and Analysis. I’m not sure Sin is a Puppy… is the best novel to use as evidence of Indian films on Hausa culture, but I’m delighted at the attention the novel is receiving in India.) (UPDATE 8 March 2013: You can read my review of the novel published by Weekly Trust and find links to a lot of other reviews of the novel on my blog here.)
Hajiya Balaraba Ramat Yakubu was one of the earliest authors of what came to be known as the soyayya Hausa literary movement or Kano Market Literature. While these books were often disparaged by critics as romance novels and pulp, Hajiya Balaraba’s novels are often muck-raking exposes of abuses that occur in private domestic spaces and make a case for women’s education and independence. Other soyayya books tell love stories from the perspective of Hausa youth and tales of the home from the perspective of women.
Alhaki Kuykuyo Ne, one of Hajiya Balaraba’s most popular and critically acclaimed novels, tells the story of the family of businessman Alhaji Abdu and his longsuffering wife Rabi, the domestic fireworks that explode when he decides to marry the “old prostitute” Delu as a second wife, and the stories of his children as they make their way in the world with only the support of their mother.
When I first read the book in Hausa in 2006, I described it as follows:
Like many Hausa novels, the title is part of a proverb: “crime is like a dog”… (it follows it’s owner). When the wealthy trader Alhaji Abdu marries an “old prostitute,” as a second wife, his family goes through a crisis. After a fight between the uwargida and her children and the new wife, Alhaji Abdu kicks his first wife and her ten [nine because Alhaji Abdu kept one daughter from another marriage] children out of his house, denies them any kind of support, and refuses to even recognize any of them in chance meetings on the street or when his eldest daughter gets married. What was initially a disaster for the abandoned wife Rabi becomes a liberating self-sufficiency. Supporting her children through cooking and selling food, she is able to put her eldest son through university and see the marriage of her eldest daughter to a rich alhaji. The book follows the story of Rabi, as she makes a life apart from marriage, and her daughter Saudatu, as she enters into marriage.
As far as I know, this is the first time a full translation of a soyayya novel has been published internationally. An excerpt of Alhaki Kuykuyo Ne translated by William Burgess was published in Readings in African Popular Fiction, edited by Stephanie Newell, but Aliyu Kamal’s full translation, while it has a few issues, is much better–not quite so stiff. That is not to say there have been no other translations of Hausa literature. There are translations of the works of early authors like Abubakar Imam’s Ruwan Bagaja/The Water of Cure, Muhammadu Bello Wali’s Gandoki, the first prime minister of Nigeria Abubakar Tafawa Balewa’s Shaihu Umar, Munir Muhammad Katsin’as Zabi Naka/Make Your Choice and others. Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino’s bestselling novel In da So da Kauna (The two part novel sold over 100,000 copies) was translated as The Soul of My Heart, but unfortunately, although the cover illustration (pictured here) was beautiful, the translation was exceedingly bad. It cut a charming novel that was over 200 pages down to about 80, turned witty banter into cliches, and translated out most of the dialogue Gidan-Dabino is so good at. The book needs to be re-translated, this time properly. I attempted to translate Gidan Dabino’s novel Kaico!, (an excerpt of the first chapter was published by Sentinel here),but stopped because of lack of time and because I felt like my translation was still too stiff and I needed to immerse in the language a little longer before attempting more translations. As the editorial of Nigerians Talk today pointed out, we need much more focus on translation in Nigeria.
[...] Hausa literature thrives. An old post on Jeremy Weate’s blog explores the disconnect between the idea of a thriving market selling up to “hundreds of thousands of copies” and a country that lives with a consensus that the Hausa don’t have a living literary establishment. Where are the top Hausa writers. How much of the content of their literature makes it into translation and out as a truly accessible text by other non-Hausa speakers? Where is the wall separating those work from the larger body of consumers all around Nigeria? What are the benefits and implications of this insularity that keeps a story locked only within a language medium, away from every other? And what is the value of such literature if it serves only a localized audience. What happened to universality? We won’t know any of this without active involvement of translators, and other conscious literary practitioners bringing us to the stories, and the stories to us. Like Achebe said, “my position…is that we must hear all the stories. That would be the first thing.”
I am very grateful to Blaft for initiating this translation and publication and hope that it will follow this novel with many more. The challenge will be finding translators. As I have said in a previous talk, I wish every Nigerian writer of English who spoke Hausa well would commit to translating at least one Hausa novel, so as to bring this literature to a larger public. And while I am excited that, as Blaft notes
It’s also, we believe, the first time a translation of an African-language work has ever been published first in India. We like the idea of South-South literary exchange, and we wish this sort of thing would happen more often.
I hope that some of Nigeria’s publishers will take up the challenge to create their own translation imprints.
In the meantime, a big congratulations to Hajiya Balaraba. Here’s hoping that the rest of her novels will be translated soon! Stay tuned for a longer review of
The excerpt comes from the first chapter of the novel, which I have completed three (rough) chapters of so far. In addition to needing to finish translating the entire novel, the translation of the three chapters I have completed still need a lot of polishing and editing. But I do appreciate Sentinel Editor, Richard Ali being so committed to start featuring translations of African-language works that he urged me to send this in as is.
Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino is the bestselling author of In Da So Da Kauna, a Hausa language novel that sold over 100,000 copies. Winner of the 2009 Engineer Mohammad Bashir Karaye Prize in Hausa Literature for his play Malam Zalimu, he is also a founding member of the Hausa film industry, and has produced or directed sixteen films in Hausa, including his most recent Sandar Kiwo, which has been shown internationally.
Here is an excerpt from the excerpt:
On Monday, the 23rd day of Ramadan, after we broke fast, my good friend Kabiru visited our house. I saw him as he came into the room, and I quickly got up and grabbed his hand.
“Kai, look who we have here in town today. Kabiru, ashe, are you around? Long time no see!” I said, holding on to his hand.
As we sat down, Kabiru said, “I traveled for a week, that’s why you haven’t seen me. You know that if I hadn’t traveled, it would have been hard to go for seven days without seeing you.”
“I was thinking maybe the fasting was keeping you from going anywhere,” I answered. “You know how the fasting wears you out when the sun is beating down.”
“Well, the sun may be hot, but there’s no sun at night. I was told that you came to my house looking for me while I was gone. Have you forgotten?”
“Oh, I know. I just asked to see what you would say.” We both smiled.
Kabiru looked at me. “Oho, so you want to catch me out, do you?”
“Ai, well, that’s why you should marry relatives. They know you. You know them. If you take the bait, it’s not my fault,” I laughed.
“Ok, well, jokes aside. I have something important I want to talk to you about.”
“I’m listening. What’s up?” I tilted my head to one side to listen.
***
Unfortunately, the English translation published by Sentinel extends beyond the Hausa that was also given, and I have currently misplaced my copy of the book, but as soon as I find it, I will put up the Hausa portion of this excerpt for a side-by-side comparison. To read more, see the Sentinel site.
Hausa novelist Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino and (translator) Carmen McCain in his office, August 2005.
Now Ziriums has released online his own album, “This is Me,” named for the track he released as a single music video about a month before. I think Ziriums may be the first Hausa hiphop musician or even contemporary Hausa musician to have released his album for sale online. (There is a sampler of other Hausa hiphop and popular music available for free at dandali.com, put together by the brilliant and prolific Hausa popular culture scholar Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu, which includes songs by Billy-O, Soultan Abdul, Abdullahi Mighty, Menne, Lakal Kaney, Neba Solo, and the “traditional” musician Dan Maraya Zamfara [actual name is Babangida Kakadawa].) Ziriums’ album, This is Me, is available for purchase (for those with credit cards) on on itunes, myspace, and amazon (UPDATE 10 September 2010, the amazon link I originally included is for the U.S., but you can also buy the album at amazon.co.uk and I imagine other national amazon sites. Just search for “Ziriums”). I bought the album from Amazon.com and it downloaded just fine (though very slowly on my internet here in Nigeria. You can also listen to a clip of and buy ”Vamoose,” the song he performed with Yoye and Sunny Man from the “Take Over” mix album. It is track 10.)
When I asked Ziriums how those in Nigeria, without credit cards, could access the album, he told me he is planning to soon release it on cd in Nigeria, but hoping to make capital from the online purchases before the pirates can get a hold of it. He also told me that he released the album online, because no one could censor material online, as they had censored “Girgiza Kai” from the radio and later banned it, unless they literally blocked the website from every browser in Kano. The songs can be listened to in their entirety on Zirium’s myspace album page. (Ziriums noted that several of the songs were by other musicians, but, as he had featured in them, he had gotten their permission to include them on his album. This includes one of my favourites, track 3, “Murja Baba” by Alfazazee, featuring Ziriums, Murja Baba, and Maryam Fantimoti; the songs in Fulfulde Ziriums sang with Tasiu;the song “Muyanata” by Osama bin Music, Zirium’s younger brother, on which Ziriums featured alongside Abdullahi Mighty, Shaga, and Ontos. “Kano ta Dabo,” was sung by Ziriums, Billy-O, and Adam Zango, when they formed the group Northern Soldiers)
During a July 2009 interview with Saman Piracha and Alex Johnson, where I was also present, he talked a little bit about the album he hoped to release and his struggle with censorship in Kano . I was given permission by the filmmakers to transcribe and post on this blog what he said:
“Maybe they are going to ban it as well, but I’m sure it is going to be on internet, my myspace address, my facebook address, and it is going to be on Bluetooth […] Bluetooth is the fastest way we use to spread our message. Because they will not air our songs on their radio stations. I can remember the time I finished “Girgiza Kai, the one they banned. I took it to radio stations; they played it once, you know. From the censorship board, they wrote a letter to them, you should not play this song again, you understand? And they stopped airing it. And from that day, no one aired my song again and later now they banned it. I think Bluetooth helps us a lot because I can put it on my phone. My friend will listen to it and say oh give me and I’ll push it to him. Then through that, it will go all over, all over, not even Nigeria, not even Kano, not even Nigeria, itself. It can go anywhere. Because now if I put it in your handset you carry it to the US. […] I’m going to release my album. I’m working on it. And when I finish it, maybe probably it is going to be sold in Kano. We’ll see how I will go behind the national constitution. I’ll go there and stand and use it. Because I am a Nigerian as well. Since Timaya and P-Square can sell their album in Kano, why not I? Why? Why can’t my album be sold in Kano? I must censor it? Who said so? I will not do that? I’m looking at myself as Timaya and P-Square and any damn artist in the country. I’m looking at myself as the same thing as them. We don’t have any differences. The only difference is that they have their albums outside. People know them. You understand? They have the opportunity that we couldn’t get. If I have the opportunity or the chance they have, I could have reached or I could have passed their level. So my album is going to be sold in Kano insha Allah. With censors or without censors.
I may include more analysis of the album at a later point, but for now, so that readers can get a taste of his music, I will include Zirium’s hot new music video “This is Me,” including the lyrics and a translation, partially by me, partially by Ziriums, and partially by Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu. I will also include the complete lyrics to “Girgiza Kai” and the translation I did with Ziriums back in February 2009. Ziriums’ “twisting” in Hausa has a punch that isn’t quite comparable with anything else in contemporary Nigerian hiphop, and I suspect it will take him far.
(Thank you to Ziriums for providing me with the lyrics in Hausa of the first two verses. He and Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu did the translation of the third. I’m also grateful to Osama bin Music, Zirium’s brother who helped me correct a few of the lines My translation is very basic and flawed, and corrections are welcome. )
[UPDATE: 26 April 2012, Ziriums has sent a few small corrections to the translations, which I have made here. It is now vetted by him.]
INTRO:
ASSALAMU ALAIKUM – ASSALAMU ALAIKUM
Peace be upon you – Peace be upon you
YARA KU FITO HIP HOP,
Kids come out to the Hiphop
MANYA KU FITO HIP HOP
Big guys come out to the hiphop
YARA KU FITO HIP HOP,
Kids come out to the Hiphop
MANYA KU FITO HIP HOP
Big guys come out to the hiphop
CHORUS:
THIS IS ME –ZIRIUMS X4
NINE NAN – ZIRIUMS X4
(This is me, Ziriums)
RAP 1:
BA’KO BABU SALLAMA MUGUNE KU BIYO SHI DA ‘KOTA,
The guest who does not greet with sallama is evil, chase him away with a stick.
NI NA AJE GARIYO DA ADDA NA DAU ‘KOTA TA MIC,
I dropped my javelin and my machet, I took up the mic (stick)
DA FARI SUNANA NAZIR
To start with my name is Nazir
BN AHMAD HAUSAWA LUNGUN KWARGWAN
Son of Ahmad Hausawa from Kwargwan neighborhood
YAYAN OSAMA BN MUSIC
Big brother of Osama bin Music
AH’ SHUGABAN TALIBAN NA HIP HOP A K-TOWN
Head of the Taliban of Hiphop in K-town
REVOLUTION ZAN NA MUSIC NA ANNABI SAY ALRIGHT (ALRIGHT x3)
It’s a music revolution. All who know the Prophet, Say Alright (Alright x3)
NINE INNOVATOR NA RAPPING DA ZAURANCE TWISTING DA HAUSA
I am the innovator of rapping with twisting in Hausa.
NINE MAI SUNA BIYAR TSOFFI SU KIRANI DA ‘DAN TALA
I am the one with the the five names, the old folks call me Dantala (a person who’s born on Tuesday)
MANYA SU KIRANI MUHAMMADU HAJIYATA TA KIRANI TACE NAZIR,
Other grown-ups call me Muhammadu, Hajiya (my mom) calls me Nazir
NIGGAS SU KIRANI DA ZIRIUMS
The Niggas call me Ziriums
SANNAN ÝAN MATAN GARI IDAN SUN GANNI SUCE NAZIRKHAN
Then the girls of the town if they see me, they say Nazir Khan
TO DUK KU KIRANI DA ZIRIUMS (ZIRIUMS. NI NE ZIRIUMS, ZIRIUMS)
TO, all of you call me Ziriums. (Ziriums. I’m Ziriums. Ziriums)
SUNCE WAI BA ZAN IYABA LA’ÁNANNU MASU HALIN TSIYA
They say I “supposedly” I can’t do it, that’s what the spiteful gossips say.
‘DARA ‘DAIRI YA ‘DIRU ‘DAIRA HATTA ZANANTU ALLAN YA HURA (BALA)
I through my kite up and up i cant even see it- it falls down (Arabic)
KOMAI NISAN JIFA ‘KASA ZAI FA’DO KAJI TIIIIIIM
Everything that goes up, will come down, you hear me (Tiiiim- a sound of falling rock)
YAU GAREKA GOBE GA SOMEBODY,MAI LAYA KIYAYI MAI ZAMANI-AH
Today it is your time, but tomorrow somebody better will come along.
CHORUS:
THIS IS ME –ZIRIUMS X4
NINE NAN – ZIRIUMS X4
(This is me, Ziriums)
CHORUS
RAP 2:
IM HUSTLING TAMKAR ‘DAN ACA’BA DARE RANA HAR SAFIYA
I’m hustling like a d’an achaba (motorcycle taxi driver), night and day, until the morning
DAMINA SANYI DA RANI DA DARI HIP HOP NI NAKE SO
In the time of the cool rains and in the hot season and in the night, it’s hiphop that I love
I WILL NEVER RETIRE NEVER GET TIRED,COS IM ROLLING LIKE A TYRE
I will never retire, never get tired, cause I’m rolling like a tyre
GABA DAI GABA DAI MAZAJE NA HIP HOP(SAI MAZAJE NA HIP HOP)
Go on go on all you hiphop guys (you hiphop guys)
DUKIYA MAI ‘KAREWACE,MULKI MAI SHU’DEWANE,HANYA MAI YANKEWACE
Wealth comes to an end, power passes away, the road is cut off
SAI MUN HA’DU CAN FILIN ‘KIYAMA ANAN NE ZAKACI ‘KWAL UBANKA
Let’s meet there in the place of Judgment, there you’ll suffer like you’ve never suffered before
BA ÝAN SANDA BA JINIYA-GA ‘DAN BANZAN GO-SLOW
No police to escort you, no siren, you’ll see a terrible go-slow
CAN GEFE GUDA WALAKIRI DA SANDA MAI ‘KAYA KAI MISTAKE YA TUMURMUSAKA
There to the side the angel of hell with a rod of thorns, if you make a mistake he’ll beat you stiff.
Then all the joints of your body, all of them will give testimony
RANAR BABU P.A DA LAWYER BALLE ÝAN BANGAR SIYASAGGA MASU
That day there will be no P.A., no laywer, much less those gangsters of politicans who
SHIGA GIDAN REDIYO SUYI ‘KARYA DAN ANBASU NAIRA,
Go into the radio house and lie to get naira (money)
INZAKA FA’DI FA’DI GASKIYA KOMAI TAKA JAMAKA KA BIYA
If you’re going to say something, tell the truth, in everything walk in the way of your forebearers
ALLAH BAIMIN KARFIN JIKIBA BALLE IN TAREKA IN MAKURE
God didn’t give me a strong body, I could have attacked your neck,
AMMA YAIMIN KAIFIN BAKINDA HAR YA WUCE REZA A KAIFI
But he gave me a sharp mouth, sharper than a razor.
YES I’M SAYING IT.
Yes, I’m saying it.
CHORUS:
THIS IS ME –ZIRIUMS X4
NINE NAN – ZIRIUMS X4
(This is me, Ziriums)
Third Verse
(translated by Professor Abdalla Uba Adamu (to the part about Dala Rock), after that it is translated by Ziriums, himself. Both Ziriums and Prof sent the translations to Alex Johnson and Saman Piracha for a documentary on Hausa hiphop, Recording a Revolution. Translations used by permission of filmmakers. I’ve made a few very small edits to both translations for a more informal feel)
CAN NA GANO FACE MAI SIFFAR LARABAWA
Then I saw a face like an Arab beauty
NA CE MATA ZO TA TAKA
I said to her, come on let’s dance
TA CE BA TA TAKU DA TAKALMI
She said she doesn’t dance with her shoes on.
SAI DAI IN TA TAKA A SANNU
But she will dance slowly
TATTAKA A SANNU
(Go ahead) dance slowly
AMMA KUMA KAR KI GIRGIZA
But don’t shake your body
DOMIN IN KI KA GIRGIZA
Because if you shake your body
RUWAN KOGI ZAI AMBALIYA
There will be a flood
SAI BARNA TA WUCE TSUNAMI
More destructive than Tsunami
HAR DUTSEN DALA YA TARWATSE
Which will destroy Dala Rock.
(From here translation by Ziriums)
TATTAKA KI TAKA RAWAR DON TAKU KI TAKE TEKU,
Dance, Dance my type of dance, so light you dance on the ocean-top
TAKE TAWA KISA MUSU TAKA TAMU AKE TAKAWA TAKA
Step like me ‘cause it’s our type of step they want to dance.
TATTASAI TANKWA DA TUMATIR ITA TASANI TONON TANA
Chilli pepper soup and tomatoes make me dig for earthworms
TATTABARU TARA NE NA TARE TUN RAN TALATA MUKE TAKAWA,
I gathered nine doves. We’ve been stepping out since Tuesday
(The following stanza is an old Hausa poem (according to R.C. Abraham’s dictionary) sung for a “children’s game of prodding heaps of sand to find things hidden there.” Zirium’s brother Osama bin Music explained that the game includes catching the hands of one on whom a twig falls. Ziriums left it untranslated, but I’ve translated the latter part, which I think I’ve understood correctly. If I haven’t please correct me!)
GARDO GARDO –GARDON BIDA
ATTASHI BIRE –KAMANIMAN
GYARAN FUSKA –DA WUYA YAKE
ZAN KAMA KA –
(I’ll catch you!)
KAMANI MAN
(Catch me, then)
KAMANI MAN
(Just catch me then)
CHORUS
THIS IS ME –ZIRIUMS X4
NINE NAN – ZIRIUMS X4
(This is me, Ziriums)
Shout outs:
Ziriums Intersection, giant beatz, Pro Okassy,Dekumzy, Solomon, Korex, Solar
In the house man You know what I’m saying?
Osama bin Music, Pastor Dan, Yo, this is Intersection,
Giant beatz K-town, baby.
Daga Kano, Bahaushe, Yeah Ziriums kar ka manta da sunan
From Kano, a Hausa, Yeah Ziriums, don’t forget the name
Exciting news! Indian publisher Blaft has published an English translation, by Aliyu Kamal, of Balaraba Ramat Yakubu’s 1990 novel Alhaki Kuykuyo Ne. Aliyu Kamal is a professor in the English Department at Bayero University and a prolific novelist in his own right. See Blaft’s blog post on the release, where they give this blog a shout out. Hard copies can be ordered from their site, and ebooks for Kindleand epub ($4.99) are also available. To read the first chapter for free, click here. (Update 9 November 2012: Two Indian news sites have also published articles about the novel and the influence of Indian films on Hausa culture: Dhamini Ratnam writes “Filmi Affair in Nigeria” for the Pune Mirror (and briefly quotes me) and Deepanjana Pal writes “How Bollywood fought for the Nigerian Woman “for Daily News and Analysis. I’m not sure Sin is a Puppy… is the best novel to use as evidence of Indian films on Hausa culture, but I’m delighted at the attention the novel is receiving in India.) (UPDATE 8 March 2013: You can read my review of the novel published by Weekly Trust and find links to a lot of other reviews of the novel on my blog here.)
Soul of My Heart, but unfortunately, although the cover illustration (pictured here) was beautiful, the translation was exceedingly bad. It cut a charming novel that was over 200 pages down to about 80, turned witty banter into cliches, and translated out most of the dialogue Gidan-Dabino is so good at. The book needs to be re-translated, this time properly. I attempted to translate Gidan Dabino’s novel Kaico!, (an excerpt of the first chapter was published by Sentinel here), but stopped because of lack of time and because I felt like my translation was still too stiff and I needed to immerse in the language a little longer before attempting more translations. As the editorial of Nigerians Talk today pointed out, we need much more focus on translation in Nigeria.
