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Sufi Poetry in the Marketplace of Popular Culture in Northern Nigeria Abubakar Aliyu Liman Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria It was Terry Eagleton, that unrepentant Oxbridge Marxist scholar, who uncharitably used the notion of “the gaudy supermarket” in his acerbic attack on what he sees as the “obscurantism” and “metaphorical muddle” of Gayatri Chakaravorty Spivak’s and Homi Bhabha’s complex and convoluted writing in the highly contested terrain of postcolonial discourse.1 Eagleton’s allusion to gaudy scholarship is in reference to the superfluous use of language by the two scholars in the name of theoretical abstraction. In Eagleton’s estimation, Gayatri Spivak in particular and, by extension, Homi Bhabha2 have deliberately chosen Album cover of Hausa Sufi song artist Fadar Bege. 112 to deploy inaccessible register in their analysis of a discursive field which is more inclined to historical analysis than the speculative approach of critical theory. But what has this got to do with Sufi poetry, a type of poetry which is characterised more by its spiritual moorings, mystical issues, metaphysics and transcendentalism? Sufi poetry is always simplicated by its tantalisation with gaudy aesthetics through the use of flowery metaphors. When Sufi poetry and popular culture come together in a not so holy alliance there is no escape from the charge of verbal gaudiness. Again, poetry can be gaudy by virtue of its flamboyant diction, metaphors, imagery and rhythmic patterns. Poetic devices are apparently the mainstay of the verbal embellishments of all forms of panegyric poetry, including Sufi poetry. The origin of Sufi poetry in Hausaland, northern Nigeria, can be traced to a period as far back as the fifteenth century, with the coming of Islamic scholars such as al-Maghili from the Maghreb to the Western and Central Sudan. Scholars who were learned in advanced Islamic sciences had thronged important cities of Hausaland where they established centres of learning in such places as Gobir, Katsina, Kano and Zazzau. In Katsina, for instance, many schools of Islamic sciences were established in Hambali, Darma, Tsohuwar Kasuwa, Zangon Daura, ‘Yandoto and ‘Yankuzo.3 In the ancient Islamic schools, the verse The Annual Review of Islam in Africa • Issue No. 12/1 • 2013-2014 Sufi Poetry form was used as the most important medium of teaching, learning, as well as oral and written communication. The tradition of Sufi poetry entails poetic rendition of gnostic and mystical experiences of the awliya (saints). Karamat (virtues or ‘miracles’) of other awliya who have attained higher spiritual stations are also captured by Sufi verses. Madh poetry (poetry composed in praise of the prophet of Islam) is yet another example of the preoccupation of Sufi poets. Rasheed A. Rajihas submitted that madh poetry is essentially composed in honour of the Prophet Muhammad as, according to a Qur’anic verse, it was “the Almighty Allah Himself and His angels that had first praised him before enjoying the act upon the Muslims.”4 Hence the praise of the Prophet of Islam in beautiful verses by generations of composers across the ages. Hassan bin Thabit was recognised as the “official court poet to the Prophet.”5 In the Hausa world, “the most celebrated Madh... [is the one by] Abu Zayd Abdur-Rahman al-Fazazi, the author of the Ishiriniyat” who lived in Morocco between the twelfth and the thirteenth century.6 The Ishiriniyat is performed by individuals and groups all over Hausa society, and it is institutionalised to the extent that it is recited by groups on Friday nights in the premises of mosques, Madrasas and compounds. As far back as the seventeenth century, Muhammad al-Kashinawi b. al-Sabbagh Dan Marina, thought to be a student of the famous Timbuktu scholar Ahmad Baba al-Timbukti, taught Abu Abdallah b. Muhammad Dan Masani. The two distinguished Katsina scholars have been known as the leading Nigerian scholars in the period before the jihad of Shaykh Usman Dan Fodio. A number of works in both Arabic and Hausa ajami script were produced in the different fields of Islamic learning. Dan Marina and Dan Masani have variously composed odes and qasidahs in celebration of the holy Islamic personalities. Dan Marina, for instance, has to his credit a Sharh ala Ishiriniyat li-Abi Zayd al-Fazazi (Commentary on al-Fazazi’s Ishriniyat), Mazjarat alFityan (Admonitory poem to young people) and an ode in praise of Amir al-Mu’minin Ali b. Abi Talib.7 113 As for Dan Masani, he is reputed to have written the most famous commentary used in Hausaland on al-Fazazi’s Ishiriniyat, known as al-Nawafih alAnbariya fi hall alfaz al-Ishiriniyat in 1640.8 The tradition of Hausa Islamic verse, a poetry which transcended the spiritual and mystical genres preferred by classical Sufi poetry, is predominant and all-encompassing in Hausa society. Hausa Islamic verse, otherwise known as qasida in Arabic or wake in Hausa, includes subjects such as Wa’azi (admonitory verse), Madh (panegyric), Tawhid (theology), and many others.9 In all these aspects of Islamic learning, volumes of works have been produced in verse form, unfailingly following the rules of Arabic metre, rhyme scheme and rhythm.10 Even before the nineteenth century Sokoto jihad, which used poetry as its main medium of proselytisation in mosques, towns and village squares, poetry served as the main means of oral and written communication and knowledge dissemination. The evidence of pride of place enjoyed by the verse form in Hausa Islamic scholarship finds its most evident manifestation in the volumes of works produced by the leader of the jihad, Shaykh Usman Dan Fodio, by his brother Abdullahi Dan Fodio, by his son Muhammad Bello and by his daughter Nana Asma’u. Sufi poetry has since carved a niche for itself through the traditions of versification. The whole idea of written poetry in Hausaland is attributable to the madh poetry traditions which were popular in Hausa society where Qadiriyya and Tijaniyya Sufi Orders became wellentrenched long before the emergence of western cultural modernity. Islamic cultural practices and performances among both the Hausa and the nonHausa speaking Muslims have, to a large extent, drawn from these dominant Sufi traditions in the area. The main focus of this paper is to provide an overview of the entanglement of the old traditions of Sufi poetry in contemporary Hausa popular culture which is producing unintended consequences. First, we need to understand the trajectories trailed by Sufi poetry from its The Annual Review of Islam in Africa • Issue No. 12/1 • 2013-2014 Focus: Manuscripts & Literature sacred precinct of spiritual epiphany to the secular domain of popular entertainment. The interface of the sacred and the secular is realised through programmes such as mawlud festivities (celebrations of the birth of Prophet Muhammad) and celebrations where lyrical performances constitute a major attraction to the general public. During mawlud celebrations even Muslim individuals who do not share the spiritual orientation of the Sufi orders always look forward to the colourful ceremonies and performances in honour of the best of creation in the eyes of Muslims. Mawlud is indeed one such occasion in which rhythmic and melodious praises of the sterling qualities of the Prophet of Islam, members of his noble family, his companions and awliya (saints) are expressed. Poetry performance is used to entertain participants. Thus, several poetic recitations are performed at regular intervals by individuals or groups, including young boys and girls. In the past, there were some differences between Qadiriyya and Tijaniyya in terms of their approach to mawlud ceremonies and performances. While the Tijaniyya movement preferred oral performances of panegyric poetry in praise of the Prophet and awliya without any form of musical accompaniment, the Qadiriyya brotherhood favoured some degree of musical accompaniment in which a tambourine type of instrument known in Hausa as bandiri is used. Elsewhere the bandiri songs are described “as a special kind of Islamic performing art.”11 The migration of bandiri Islamic performances from the provenance of the mosque to the secular public sphere is attributable to the activities of ‘Usshaqun Nabiyyi, a group of “young Muslim fans of the Prophet” who have turned bandiri musical performances into a commercial venture. Wedding and naming ceremonies are now celebrated with bandiri performances for a monetary compensation. Professional performers are lavished with gifts and money during and after their performances. The songs performed on special occasions are then “recorded on audio cassettes and sold to interested audiences far 114 and near throughout Hausa speaking states and beyond.”12 This is the point of convergence between Sufi poetry and popular culture. Popular culture forms and texts in developed societies are products of mass culture which are distributed and marketed for mass consumption.13Similarly, contemporary popular culture is not only mediated by electronic media technology but would appear to be completely commercialised, if one judges the way in which its forms and texts submit themselves to the logic of “market forces of supply and demand.”14 The intensification of the relationship between Sufi poetry and the processes of contemporary Hausa popular culture has produced spectacularly surprising results. For instance, the earlier migration of Usshaqun Nabiyyi to the popular culture zone has led to the total immersion of the bandiri poets and musicians into Hausa popular culture. This is apparent from the way in which these singers and poets have abandoned bandiri musical instruments for the more secular form of instrumentation produced in computerised sound studios equipped with pianos, synthesizers and mixers. In the studio environment, written poetry is not just orally performed but is also musically accompanied. The musical rendition of songs is filtered through electronic recording devices until the desired effect is achieved. The bandiri poets started experimenting with the secular form, style and melody of the Hausa popular songs composed in the studio. Several popular songs have been emptied of their secular content which was then replaced with sacred and religious content in the same studio in which both the sacred and secular songs are produced. The melody and rhythm of a number of reigning popular soyayya (love) tunes have been disemboweled, emptied of their secular content, and then replaced with religious praises of Prophet Muhammad and the awliya. At a Zawiya Islamic school in Jaji, a town located at the intersection of Zaria and Kaduna and headed by Shaykh Adam Khalil Jaji and Shaykh Abdulrauf Ibrahim Jaji, students have parodied songs which The Annual Review of Islam in Africa • Issue No. 12/1 • 2013-2014 Sufi Poetry were originally secular love songs and have then turned their rhythms into praise qasidas which are musically accompanied in the studio. Secular lyrics are now given religious content; amorous romantic love is thus transformed into love and praise for the Prophet of Islam, his progeny, companions and awliya. In his study, Jibrin Lawal has referred to this new cultural experiment as giving global form to local content via hi-tech musical instrumentation in the composition and performance of either the sacred or secular songs.15 As a result of the recent introduction of technologically-based studio compositions, members of both the Qadiriyya and Tijjaniyya brotherhoods have energetically appropriated digital media for the composition and performance of Islamic poetry. This has happened even though in the past, the Tijaniyya brotherhood and other Islamic groups were critical of the introduction of Bandiri musical instrumentation used by the Qadiriyya group. This change of heart over musical accompaniment to Sufi lyrics, experienced by the Tijaniyya members, is not without justification. According to a prominent scholar of Zaria city, Khalifa Tijjani Abdulkadir, the consensus reached among Tijaniyya scholars is that as long as musical songs and other innovations noticed in modes of voluntary litanies (Arabic dhikr; in Hausa zikiri) are not clearly contrary to Sharia, then they are permissible.16 Sheikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi, a leading spiritual figure of the Tijaniyya order in Nigeria, has corroborated the same position elsewhere, when he has mentioned that “the fault in music lies in what it says, if it says evil about someone or calls towards sin, then it is bad, if it does not, it is permissible.”17 Following these developments, even some zikiri sessions are now musically accompanied using the new style of digitised instrumentation. A typical example of musical accompaniment of haylala zikiri -Allah la-ilaha illa Llah (the spiritual chanting - there is no god but Allah) is composed by Auwal Ishaq, as a refrain to the recording of a recitation of the Diwan of Shaykh Ibrahim Niasse. This composition is produced by the Medina Recording 115 Centre located in the premises of Shaikh Dahiru Usman Bauchi mosque at Tudun Wada, Kaduna.18 Another example is found in the popular praise songs of Bashir Dan Musa and Rabi S. Haruna, two prominent qasida performers of the Tijaniyya whose CDs are very popular across northern Nigeria. In their qasidas, soundtracks of popular Hausa video films such as Jarumai, Dawo Dawo and Sangaya have been parodied in various ways, with the Sufi version of the song creatively parodying the metre of the film songs. The hit song Labbaika Rasulillah, composed by Bashir Dan Musa and performed by Ramlatu Hafiz Kofar Mazugalis in tone, melody and rhythmic patterns a recasting of a soundtrack from a Hausa movie titled Sangaya: Hausa Text: Refrain: Labbaika Rasulillah x 2 Verse: Sarkina gwanin kyauta Allah kai nake roko Don girman Rasulillah Munka zo da dan koko Amsa min bukatata In samu in kai sako Duk maison Rasulillah Yayi ta kiran Rasulillah English Translation: Refrain: To you we come, Prophet of God x 2 Verse: My King, the most benevolent One Allah, it is You I beseech Because of the greatness of the Prophet of God We have (begging) come with a bowl in our hands Grant me my wish For me to be able to deliver the message Whoever loves the Prophet of God Should continue to recite the name of the Prophet of God. The Annual Review of Islam in Africa • Issue No. 12/1 • 2013-2014 Focus: Manuscripts & Literature Similarly, there is a form of parallel, counterpenetration from the opposite secular direction. Thus, in the same way that the Sufi poets are flirting with popular culture forms and media, popular artists are appropriating Sufi poetry. In one breath, popular northern Nigerian artists such as Aminu Ladan Abubakar (aka Alan Waka), Musbahu Muhammad Ahmad, Nazifi Asnanic, Ali Jita, Mahmud Nagudu, Binta Labaran (aka Fati Niger) have entertained the public domain with secular soyayya (love) songs; in yet another instance they can be cited performing wakokin yabon Manzon Allah (singing songs in praise of the Prophet of Islam), his family, his companions and the famous awliya. It should be noted that an important cross-section of contemporary Hausa popular singers, including Mudasir Kassim, Aminu Ladan Abubakar, Musbahu Muhammad Ahmad, Sadi Sidi Sharifai and Mahmud Nagudu are believed to have come from either Qadiriyya or Tijaniyya religious backgrounds in Kano. That also explains the manner in which they have easily switched to religious songs. reciting the song while she was pounding grain in the courtyard of his house. He then decided to compose a religious version of that song, emptying it of the vulgar insinuations contained in the original secular song.19 Also, Liman Ali Na Isa’s song Na Kara Lawali Bari Inyo Sani is a religious rendition of Narambada’s rhythmic tour de force, Baban Dodo Ba a Taima da Batun Banza, a court song which he originally composed for Sarkin Gobir (king of Gobir) of Isa, Ahmadu Abubakar. On the whole, the interplay of Islam and popular culture in northern Nigeria is likely in the future to produce even more interesting cultural experiments beyond those we have seen to date. It is expected that the possibilities offered by digital media technology will facilitate the opening up of the creative energies of what, until now, have been fossilised religious and cultural practices that have lost their appeal to young people.20 This is, of course, the sense in which the Tijaniyya movement has currently accepted the integration of music into some of its spiritual activities. Conclusion 1 Terry Eagleton, “In the Gaudy Supermarket,” London Review of Books, 21, 10 (13 May, 1999), pp. 1-14. Eagleton’s article was his immediate critical response to the widely acclaimed book by Harvard professor Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, A Critique of Postcolonial Reason: Toward a History of the Vanishing Present (Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1999). The article has generated its own set of reactions in support and criticism of Eagleton’s position. 2 Homi Bhabha, The Location of Culture (London: Routledge, 2004). 3 Abdulkareem Umar Dan-Asabe, “Islam and History of Learning in Katsina from the Jihad to the Colonial Conquest: The Case of Tsohuwar Kasuwa School, Katsina City,” in Isma’la A. Tsiga and Abdalla U. Adamu (eds.), Islam and the History of Learning in Katsina (Ibadan: Spectrum, 2007). 4 Ibid, p. 152. 5 Ibid, p. 153. 6 Ibid, p. 152. 7 Ibid, p. 155. 8 Ibid, p. 156. 9 Mervyn Hiskett, A History of Hausa Islamic Verse (London: School of Oriental and African Studies, 1975), pp. 21-24. 10 Roger Allen, The Arabic Literary Tradition: The Development of its Genres and Criticism (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2005), p. 106. Historically speaking, the contribution of Sufi poetry towards the intellectual and cultural development of the Hausa people is enormous. Most classical Hausa poets, both the ajami (Hausa in Arabic script) and Roman script composers, have mostly come from Sufi backgrounds. Famous mid twentieth-century Hausa poets including Mu’azu Hadejia, Akilu Aliyu, Ahmad Mahmud Sa’adu Zungur, Mudi Spikin and Lawal Isa Bungudu have all come from Sufi backgrounds, and have all copied or adopted secular styles in their compositions. As a matter of fact, even the earlier Hausa poets such as Aliyu Namangi and Liman Ali Na Isa have in their masterpieces parodied the melody of the secular popular songs of their times. In Namangi’s Infiraji collection, Wakar Caji which is the most acclaimed piece, is a religious parody of a traditional song with the same title which was popular at the time. It is reported that Namangi once heard his daughter 116 Notes The Annual Review of Islam in Africa • Issue No. 12/1 • 2013-2014 Sufi Poetry 11 Abdulmumin Shu’aib, “Hausa ‘Bandiri’ Songs: The Evolution, Development and Context of an Islamic Performing Art,” Harshe: A Journal of the Department of African Languages and Cultures (Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria), 2 (2004), p. 70. 12 Ibid, p. 78. 13 Allen Swingewood, The Myth of Mass Culture (London: Macmillan Press, 1977). 14 Abubakar Aliyu Liman, “A Critical Discourse on Popular Soyayya Novellas in Northern Nigeria” in Harshe: A Journal of African Languages, Special Edition, ABU at 50, Department of African Languages and Cultures, 6 (2012), p. 119. 15 Jibrin Lawal, “Global Influences on Local Texts: An Analysis of Contemporary Hausa Lyrics,” PhD Thesis (Zaria: Ahmadu Bello University, 2012). 16 This position was expressed by Khalifa Tijjani Abdulkadir in an interview with Dr. Muhammadu Mustapha Gwadabe of the Department of History, Ahmadu Bello University, 117 17 18 19 20 Zaria. According to Abdulkadir, “There are two positions regarding the use of the modern instruments of drumming. The first is that drumming is not part of Tijaniyya practices but is permissible to a Tijani if it does not contradict Sharia. The second view rejects it totally. The consensus is that since it is an important medium of reaching out to people it is accepted, although it cannot be considered as part of the Tijaniyya doctrines and practices.” The statement appeared as part of an interview conducted by the Weekly Trust Newspaper, September 7, 2001, p. 14. The composer of the song Auwal Ishaq has given his address, including the location of his studio, in the introduction of the musical song. Aliyu Namangi starts Wakar Caji, which is published in both Ajami and Roman scripts with some verses narrating the conversation with his daughter and his resolve to produce his own version of the song. John Storey, Inventing Popular Culture: from Folklore to Globalization (Carlton: Blackwell Publication, 2006). The Annual Review of Islam in Africa • Issue No. 12/1 • 2013-2014