By; USMAN NASIDI, Kaduna.
The World International Hausa Day is a recognised day, set aside to celebrate the culture and language of the Hausa people, which is widely spoken in Africa, especially in the West African sub-region and are blessed with rich and attractive culture.
Hausa Day is usually observed on August 26 annually, celebrating the Chadic language spoken by over 50 million people in Nigeria. The day is also observed to highlight the contributions of the ethnic group to the global peace and development.
However, Hausa language is also the lingua franca in parts of West Africa, while it has gained popularity among academics, the diaspora, and Social Media users.
During this year’s event organized by the Kaduna State Centre For Development Of Hausa Literature at the Ahmadu Bello Stadium on Saturday, a lot of cultural and traditional activities have been displayed to showcase the history and achievement of the Hausa language.
Speaking at the event, the Kaduna State Commissioner of Human Services and Social Development, Hajiya Rabi Salisu explained that the International Day of Hausa is a festivity that is being celebrated around the world because it is not celebrated only in Kaduna or Nigeria, but across the globe anywhere that people speak Hausa language.
She added that, It is historic and they’ve rich culture through the traditional institutions and traditional heritage, while as the government, they are the custodians of culture and tradition, so they were there to celebrate with their youth and people that speaks Hausa language across the world.
She said, “today, we have witnessed a lot of things ranging from the Hausa traditional clothing, the foods that are being taken, all the instruments for farming, because we have rich farming history in Kaduna State, as well as major producers of food in the country.
“We have seen the display of the blacksmith that if you are not from them, you cannot exercise the blacksmith work, just as the display of fire which the blacksmith touches with his bare hands. So if you are not from the family, you can not practice it because it is a Hausa tradition that one can see it as magic, but it’s not.
“From the things we have seen like the traditional food produced, a lot of the youth are not aware of it because most of our women cannot prepare it, while it is a rich culture that we have read in the past through the history of the Northern novels of Hausa extraction like Ruwan Bagaja, Magana Jarice and all the story telling from our elderly people that have been telling us, and now we came here to see it as a reality show.
“This is a very fantastic event that is historical and kaduna state government will always support such advancement culture, whereas anywhere we see any advancement culture, we will partake in it. We also have creational programmes that has to do with culture and traditions in the state which will happen very soon.” Haj Rabi noted
According to her, Hausa Day can only be improved by showcasing talents such as the projects that the various group of people have exhibited at the event and the media will publicize the activities which most of our nowadays kids will be seeing on televisions or on social media but coming down to see it in reality is very interestingly and will make them to partake because they wouldn’t like to be left behind without bringing culture hence culture is the way of life of people.
“It is compulsory for them to know their culture and to identify with it, so we should be proud of our culture because Hausa is a very diverse culture which is being separated across African Nations. I don’t think if there’s any language that is being spoken across the globe like Hausa because even in Nigeria, there are more than 50m people speaking Hausa because it is a very easy language to speak while it has every dialect and figures,” the commissioner said.
While responding to journalists at the event, Dr. Nuhu Umar, Director General, Centre For Development Hausa Literature, and organizers of this year’s Hausa Day Celebration in Kaduna State, disclosed that they deemed it fit to encourage people to know their culture, tradition, history, trade and leadership which is why they organized the event.
He added that people will now, see and hear the Hausa tradition and Hausa places such as the famous Hausa Bulu riding and trade, such as the blacksmith work, the normal traditional Barbing (Wanzanci) that has no equivalent in English language to be quoted, and also showcases of food, farm implements and other things.
Dr. Nuhu said, “the most important thing is celebrating days like this brings all stakeholders together so that they will sit down together to analyze and review challenges and proffer viable solutions to the challenges such as the insecurity in the Hausa land.
“When you talk of Hausa, you talk of Hausa land, you talk of the Hausa’s and the language, while all this are facing one or more very threatening challenges, and by the grace of God by coming together here, we believe everyone is happy because this is our first event of this nature and next year by the grace of God, we will see how we are going to improve in this aspect,” he submitted.
