West Africa

There are two levels of Islamic literature in African Islam, as Knappert (1990) points out. First is the scholarly level of the learned African `ulama’, fully literate in classical Arabic, who compose in that language. This literature is not essentially different from its counterparts elsewhere in the Islamic world. It probably began in copying directly from classical Arabic sources imported from North Africa and Egypt, then by making extracts and summaries. Gradually the African `ulama’ began to compose original works in classical Arabic in which they attempted to interpret the shari `ah in the light of African conditions and to explain Islamic theology against a background of prevailing African animism. Typical of such endeavors inWest Africawere the Arabic works of the nineteenthcentury Fulani Islamic reformers of Hausaland (see Musa, 1992). Local historical chronicles in classical Arabic were also written by West African `ulama’ from the seventeenth century onward.
In addition to this indigenous classical Arabic literature-and no doubt arising out of it-there also developed in the Fulfulde and Hausa languages what may be considered a subclassical or vernacular tradition of African Islamic literature. It deals exclusively with Islamic themes and is written in these vernacular languages using a modified form of the Arabic script known as ajami, (from the Arabic root ‘-j-m, “foreign”). Various diacritical marks were evolved, in addition to those already existing in the classical Arabic script, to serve the phonetic needs of these African tongues; the process in Hausa is described by Hiskett (1975).
It is uncertain when these subclassical scripts and the literatures they record first emerged. Paper perishes rapidly in the African climate, especially in the storage conditions of earlier times. Written Islamic verse in Zenaga, a language of the Saharan Berbers, can be traced back to about AH 1112/1700 CE, although it may have been extant much earlier. A written Islamic literature in Fulfulde probably emerged somewhat later, in the eighteenth century, perhaps under the influence of neighbouring Zenaga (see Haafkens, 1983, and Seydou, 1972). Hausa written literature is believed to have arisen later still, during the nineteenth century, as the Hausa peasantry were drawn more closely into Islam; it gathered force after the successful jihad in Hausaland in the early nineteenth century. The peasants were illiterate in the Arabic script in which this vernacular Islamic material was written, but they could understand it when it was read to them by the literate `ulama’, which would have been impossible if the material had remained in Arabic. A similar situation applied among the Fulani nomadic herders, for whose Islamic instruction the Fulfulde material was largely composed. Once it began, this vernacular written literature burgeoned, especially in Hausa, which now has a voluminous corpus of ajami composition.
Fulfulde and Hausa written vernacular literatures are almost exclusively in verse. Both derive from the classical Arabic genre of nazm, didactic or instructional verse. Their content is drawn from the Qur’an and from tafsir, the classical Arabic Qur’anic commentary. They consist typically of descriptions of divine punishment and reward (Hausa wa’azi, from the Arabic root w-`-z, “warn,” “admonish”). Frequent in this category are poems about dunyd (Arabic and Hausa, “`world”), which are Islamic memento mori. They personify the world as a painted harlot or as a fractious mare that throws her rider. The poet dwells on the transitory nature of worldly pleasures and on the untrustworthiness of the world. Here is an example from Hausa of this well-known genre:
We know, by God, that we shall go,
On the day that death befalls us
There is no doubt that she will attack us
For our women and our riches.
Woe to us on the day it shall be said,
`What of So-and-so? Today he has passed away’.
Everything of his has passed away,
All the heirs now drink the soup.
When the day of your death comes,
You will forget son and grandchild,
That wealth you have hidden away,
Will not ransom you, you hear?
(Hiskett, 1975, P. 29)
Equally popular in both vernacular written traditions is a category known in Hausa as madahu (Ar., madih or madh, “panegyric”). This consists of praise poems to the prophet Muhammad that closely follow the format, imagery, and content of classical Arabic verse compositions such as the Burdah of al-Busiri, the `Ishriniyah of al-Fazazi, and other North African and Egyptian panegyrics. Such prophetic panegyric is closely associated with the spread of Sufism inWest Africa. The following are examples of this genre, the first from Fulfulde and the second from Hausa.
More shining than all the pearls or rubies is Muhammad, More beauty than all gold and silver has Muhammad, More splendour than all moonshine or sunlight has Muhammad,
More sweetness than the purest honey has Muhammad, More quenching for the thirst than water is Muhammad.
(Knappert, 1990, after Seydou)
Heaven is lofty but you know it does not reach
So high as to equal the glory of Muhammad.
The throne of Heaven is beneath him in respect of glory.
Because of his glory, our Prophet Muhammad,
His light exceeds the light of the moon on the fourteenth day of the month,
Because there is no light like the light of Muhammad.
(Hiskett, 1975, P. 45)
Among the most popular categories of Islamic verse in both these West African languages are poems describing the prophet Muhammad’s isrd’, his fabulous night journey from Mecca to Jerusalem upon the mythical riding beast al-Buragah, and his subsequent mi’raj (ascension) through the seven heavens to the throne of God. The following extract is taken from a long Hausa poem that tells the story of this event.
In the night, on a Monday Gabriel came to Ahmad
[he said]
`The king greets you, He says He is calling,
You are to mount al-Buraqa, O Prophet Muhammad’,
And Gabriel it was who led him on to hear the call
To the palace where no other had been before, Ahmad.
 
There at Jerusalem he dismounted, we have heard,
 
And Gabriel brought water so that they might perform their ablutions a second time,
Then Gabriel said, `Ascend, O Muhammad’,
And a ladder had been placed there for him to ascend to heaven.
At the farthest lote tree Gabriel stopped,
And Muhammad said, `O Gabriel, do you leave me here alone?’
Gabriel said, O Trustworthy One, Muhammad,
Do not fear, you shall not fear today,
Go to the palace, the king calls you, Muhammad’,
Then he crossed screens and rivers of light
And came before the king who had created Muhammad.
(Hiskett, 1975, Pp. 53-55)
Both languages also feature didactic verse on theological subjects, known in Hausa as tauhidi (Ar., tawhid). Here is an example from Hausa:
The Lord God is One, the Unique,
Wherever you seek Him you will find Him,
Say He, Allah, is One,
Allah is He on whom all depend,
He begets not nor is
He begotten, And there is none like Him.
(Aliyu, 1983, p. 6)
Astrology is also a popular theme for this verse, often intended for an agricultural or pastoral audience. Thus a poet writes charmingly in Fulfulde:
Have patience! Patience, soon there will be change:
The dori-stars are not yet in the sky;
The geese fromEgypthave not yet returned;
The first warm drops of rain have yet to fall;
The last green grass is drying in the sun;
The sand is hot like ashes in the hearth;
No cloud, no plume or feather in the sky;
No mist that rests upon the sandy hills.
Patience, my cow with copper-coloured back;
Patience, white-bellied bull with twisted horns.
(Knappert, 1990, after Seydou)
This delightful piece is strikingly reminiscent of the preIslamic qasidahs ofArabia, which reflect nomadic pastoral life in a desert environment. A Hausa poet writes, in a more pedestrian vein:
The sun remains in each lunar mansion
For a period of eighteen days; then it goes to another lunar mansion.
This is the reckoning of the non-Arabs, you hear.
 
On the seventeenth of May is the coming in of summer,
On the seventeenth of August is the coming of the harvest season,
The cold season comes in on the sixteenth of November,
The spring is on the fifteenth of February,
Each lunar season, its lunar mansions are seven,
Start with their advent, know that they go seven, seven.
(Hiskett, 1975, p. 121)
The apparent purpose of such verse is to assist Hausa farmers to plan their planting and harvesting, though it is probably read more widely for pleasure.
There is also a tradition of unwritten vernacular Islamic literature in Fulfulde and particularly in Hausa. This consists of oral versions, often highly localized, of major Islamic folkloric cycles such as the romance of Banu Hilal, the saga of Sayf ibn Dhi- Yazan, and the Islamic version of the Alexander cycle. The Maqdmdt stories and the classical Arabic collection Qisas alanbiyd’ are also common sources for oral tales. This oral literature appears mainly to have been acquired by contacts with popular Cairene Muslim storytellers by Hausa and Fulani pilgrims and other travelers passing throughEgyptin the Middle Ages. The tales were then taken up by native storytellers and adapted for Hausa and Fulani audiences. Unlike the Swahili case, such material was seldom if ever recorded in verse in these West African languages. Verse, and the expensive paper it was written on, were reserved strictly for religious and didactic purposes, and the tales therefore continued as a purely oral tradition. Later, during the colonial period, they were written down in Hausa in the boko (English, “book”) roman script introduced by the colonial administration, not in ajami; they were then published in volumes printed and bound in European fashion. Similar recordings in Fulfulde are not known, though some may exist. Typical examples are the Alexander cycle, in Hausa Ruwan bagaja; the Maqdmdt tales, Hausa Gan doki, and the Islamic version of the Cid, Hausa Riya Dan Maikarfi. These stories are now commonly referred to as “Hausa novels,” an inappropriate term that disguises their ancient Islamic folkloric origin.
In addition to these cycles of Arabic origin, there is also a vast corpus of Hausa and Fulfulde oral narrative that is clearly of pre-Islamic folkloric origin but has picked up Islamic accretions. These color the stories but go no deeper. The genre is thus typical of the level of Hausa and Fulani society characterized by “mixed” Islam-an attenuated form of Islam syncretized with preIslamic animist culture. One example, from Hausa, is the ancient story of the monstrous pumpkin. This fantastic vegetable grew and grew, to the initial delight of the Hausa villagers who looked forward to endless supplies of pumpkin soup. But when it reached a certain size, it began to devour all the beans, then all the corn, then all the goats and cattle, and finally all the virgins. At this point the desperate villagers called in the local cult hero to save them. He drew his sword, exclaimed “There is no god but Allah,” and struck the pumpkin a mighty blow that split it asunder. At once all the goats, cattle, and virgins emerged, safe and sound. He then revealed that he was the prophet Muhammad! The story appears to be an early African wisdom tale, with the moral “Nothing is for nothing,” that acquired its prophetic twist after the introduction of Islam to West Africa. There are many such examples of pre-Islamic folkloric tales now featuring such Islamic characters as Iblis, the Mahdi, and the companions of the Prophet, especially his son-in-law `Ali.
Certain other major West African languages exhibit similar Islamic traces in their otherwise essentially African folkloric traditions, for instance Mande, Songhay, and Yoruba. These languages, spoken in the part of West Africa that was broadly dominated by the medieval Islamic empire ofMali, are characterized by the “weak”Malitradition of Islam, which largely escaped the rigors of Islamic reformism that influenced the faith in Hausaland. The early tradition of composing Islamic literature in classical Arabic certainly flourished among the Mali `ulamd’ of the Middle Ages; however, owing perhaps to the lack of a sustained reformist tendency, a vernacular written tradition never developed, and no significant ajami literature exists in these languages. Their folklore is tinged with Islam in much the same way as that of Hausa, but not to the extent that it should be regarded as a fully Islamic literary tradition.
There are at least three hundred minor vernacular languages inWest Africa. Many of these, especially those adjacent to Muslim-majority areas, contain Arabic loan words, usually in fully adapted form; most also contain Hausa loans. There is little doubt that many of these loans entered the languages during the Middle Ages through trading contacts with Muslims, especially Muslim Hausas. The Islamic reform movement in Hausaland and the jihad of the nineteenth century left behind a further accumulation of Arabic and Hausa loans. Thus the Gwaris of west central Nigeria, who remained animists until quite recently, nonetheless worship a deity they call “Allah Bango,” “Allah of the writing board,” reflecting their contacts with itinerant Hausa Muslim literates who carry the bango, a wooden slate inscribed with Qur’anic texts from which they recite; they also worship a deity they call “Mamman,” apparently derived from “Muhammad.” The oral traditions of many animist peoples of West Africa have also acquired minor tinges of Islam, but no written Islamic vernacular literatures of any significance have developed among them.
Hausa is the West African language that exhibits the richest deposits of Arabic loans. Its grammar places it unmistakably in the Chadic group, as does its native vocabulary; however, it has acquired several strata of Arabic loans that now make up a substantial proportion of its total lexicon. The first layer is an ancient one that appears to have come into the language through very early contacts with Islam viaNorth Africaand Borno. These words are often so phonologically altered that it is difficult, at first sight, to recognize their Arabic origin. Later, as the trade of the Sahara developed and encompassed Hausaland, this vocabulary of Arabic loans was enriched with words relating to commerce and associated activities. Finally, around 1112/1700, the growth of literary activities in Hausaland and the rise of centers of Islamic learning in such towns as Katsina and Kano appear to have released further Arabic vocabulary into both Hausa and Fulfulde. It seems probable that the scholarly practice of lection and commentary in these schools was responsible for this additional accretion of Arabic loans. The Muslim `slim would read his Arabic text Qur’an, tafsir, fiqh, or whatever other branch of Islamic learning he might specialize in-to his assembled students. He would then deliver his commentary in a learned variety of Fulfulde or Hausa generously larded with Arabic theological, literary, and legal terms. In time these exotic Arabic words became integrated into scholarly varieties of the indigenous languages, bequeathing to them yet another Arabic lexicon. Fulfulde in particular acquired a sacerdotal status because it was the language of the Fulani reformers of the nineteenth century; for this reason it came to be especially favored as the language of commentary in the schools of higher Islamic learning in Hausaland.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Aliyu, Muhammad Sani. “Shortcomings in Hausa Society as Seen by Representative Hausa Islamic Poets from ca. 1950 to ca. 1983.” Master’s thesis,BayeroUniversity, 1983.
Haafkens, J. Chants musulmans en Peul.Leiden, 1983. Study of the Fulfulde written vernacular tradition.
Hiskett, Mervyn. A History of Hausa Islamic Verse.London, 1975. Detailed account of the Hausa written vernacular tradition. Knappert, Jan. “The Islamic Poetry ofAfrica.” Journal for Islamic Studies, no. to (1990): 9i-140.
Musa, Sulaiman. “The Main Objectives of the Literary Works Shaykh `Uthman b. Fudi.” SellyOakColleges, Centre for Study of Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations, Papers, no. 9.Birmingham, 1992. Lists the Arabic works of the Muslim reformer of Hausaland.
Seydou, Christiane. Sildmaka et Poullori.Paris, 1972. Covers the Fulfulde written vernacular tradition.
MERVYN HISKETT