To some Nigerians especially those from the northwest and northeast states, asking this kind of question would appear to them ridiculous and flimsy. On the other hand, many people from the southern part of Nigeria would not see anything ridiculous about this inquisition into the realism of the appellation: Hausa. Many people from the south have already incorporated the murky belief but without factual evidence that, Hausa is just of a language rather than of a people and culture. They hardly believe that there are existing real Hausa people!
Some reasons have been put forward by those in the ‘school of thought’ that believe Hausa is never of a people but just of a language which was created and then metamorphosed into the current trend as a dialect. They have Hausa in the direct comparison with the English as regarded to be more of a language than of a people. In this essence, what did they really mean by the phrase ‘being of language than of a people?’ Without clarity to this phrase, many people reading this expository piece may dwell long in ambiguity especially if such reader has a low comprehension to the proverbial or idiomatic expression of words and sentences. Hence, this phrase has been carefully elaborated and clarified in the context of the following paragraph.
Old Kano City Wall (17th Century pic)
‘More of a language than of a people’ means (but not in totality) that the subject or title in discussion is effective more of spoken or verbal expression status than being connected to the background or origin of a people and their culture. Moreover, it means that a subject in reference is connected more to the language being spoken by people than the people themselves in view of their historic background. This ideology has also been expatiated to mean that in the historical background of people, a current language as being spoken by them today, was not recorded or cannot be traced to the background of their initial or original language. It has been uncovered through research, that at least a language dies every year due to the pervasion of another stronger language. Again, a newly metamorphosed language has the prowess and strong will to consume other locally spoken languages, if such new language was imported and mandated on the ruled by stronger imposition elites in the form of emissary or colonialism.
From history, English language as being spoken by many today is understood to have been a generated and metamorphosed language. It is on record that, there were indigenous languages spoken by the people of England even before the generation of the today English, which was a combination of languages from ancient Old Nurse, Norwegian, German and French. This language (English) was formed as a result of colonial administrations and foreign invasions. Each colonial administration and invasion came with its own dialect and, when a more powerful colonial ruler overthrow the former, the language of the latter became the language of the people of England. This was how a language called English emanated and metamorphosed to what we have today as a general language of the British and majority of the world population through colonialism.
Old Kano City in 1911
Those that believe today that, Hausa is more of a language than of a people, have their beliefs based on the scenario of the emanation of English language. They have their submission to such effect that Hausa was never the original language of the people that speak the language today. This is because, today, in the cultural background and activities as associated with the people who speak Hausa, majority of such are traced to the Fulani ethnic background. Particularly, the major Emirs, Sultans and other traditional rulers of the Hausa spoken communities today are all of the Fulani origin. This issue gives more clues to the unconditional submission of those who believe that Hausa has no connection with an historic background by those who speak the language today. Such people will always ask the question: why would another known ethnic group be the ruler over another for centuries if the latter has a traceably sturdy historic background? Why would the Fulani continue as the Emirs or Sultans of many Hausa communities till date if actually there was original people of Hausa? Why does it seem as if the historic origin of the people of Hausa language has no distinct significance unless when embedded in the historic origin of Fulani? Was there really Hausa of the ancient days with concrete background and metamorphosis?
In many northern parts of Nigeria such as Adamawa, Borno, Gombe, Taraba etc, with all their many indigenous languages, have today resolved to the use of Hausa as their foremost spoken dialect. This development now left many non-indigenes of these states in perplexity as they now consider the language of these states to be simply Hausa. For instance, today in Adamawa State, which is officially regarded as the state with the highest indigenous languages in Nigeria, now has Hausa as the mostly spoken language. In localities where languages such as Mumuye, Bachama/Bata, Huba, Kwa, Marghi, Mom-Jango etc, are originally the languages of the indigenes, today now have Hausa been spoken in all their communities. Hausa is now arguably the main language of these people. They have suddenly adopted Hausa as their main language thereby heightening the blatant obfuscation of where really the Hausa people are domiciled. In fact, Fulfulde which is obviously the foremost language of the people of this state, now has its pervasion wings clipped with the invasion and speeding pervasion of Hausa which is well known as imported to that region. For this reality, people from the southern part of Nigeria now blindly mistaken Adamawa people as same people associated with Hausa (in language and culture). Someone from the Nigerian southern region will easily say that the former Vice President of Nigeria, Atiku Abubakar is an Hausa man simply because he is fluent in the language of Hausa even when it is known that he is an origin of Jada LGA of Adamawa State.
This ambiguity about the reality of Hausa origin has been a notion for too long now. People who really are around the regions where Hausa is spoken as a general language especially in the southern part of Kaduna State, are today the same people who believe that Hausa is never a phenomenal language but a generated and metamorphosed one. They do not really believe that there are people whose historic race is traced to the Hausa origin. They believe that whosoever claim to be an Hausa man simply because they speak the language fluently, must have had another indigenous dialect and culture lying idle somewhere or must have been in complete extinction due to Hausa dialect pervasion. This racial generality belief was revealed by an activist who is a current co-publisher of a new newspaper magazine which is focused on telling and exposing the history of African tribes and cultures.
After much research from different sources, both in materials and people, it is empirically revealed and virtually uncovered that Hausa is both of a people and of a language. It has a distinct origin different from that of the Fulani origin and dynasty. Even the reasons why the (current) major Hausa communities are still controlled by Emirs and Sultans who are the descendants of Fulani dynasty and origin; all are detailed in the following paragraph. The scope of this revelation is centred on Kano as the biggest city of all Hausa communities.
Before the 13th century, Kingdom of Kano was ruled by Hausa origins. It was totally a reign of indigenous inhabitants which lasted till the year 1349 AD. According to the Hausa archival chronicles, Bayajidda was the historic founder of the Hausa Kingdom although the reality of Bayajidda migration from the Middle East is still considered today as a myth. This is because some narrators believed he migrated from Egypt, while some others argued that he actually migrated from Jiddah in the today Saudi Arabia. Wherever was the real location of his migration, this still remains a cloudy myth till date. However, all the ancient and historic narrators believed that Bayajiddah was a hero who migrated from somewhere to establish Hausa Kingdom in somewhere in the today Katsina State of Nigeria. Nonetheless, no notable history could be traced beyond 999 AD when Bagaudo the grandson of the heroic Bayajiddah ascended the throne as the first notable Hausa king of Kano Kingdom. His reign lasted till 1063 AD. There has been no concrete narration of any significant event that took place between 1063-1095, so no much emphasis was laid on the reign of the king who ruled in that era. In 1095, Gijimasu, the grandson of Bagaudo ascended the throne as the third king of Kano Empire. He commenced the historic building of the city walls but which was never completed until the reign of his grandson who was the fifth king of Kano Empire. Gijimasu reign ended in 1134, and his grandson, Tsaraki who completed the city walls of his grandfather, had his reign expired before 1200 AD...
In 1349 AD, a proclamation of Sultanate was declared by King Ali Yaji Dan Tsamiya on Kano Kingdom. His reign as the first Sultan of Kano extended till 1385. During his reign, King Ali Yaji presided over the introduction of Hanifa, a religion of oneness of God propagated by Prophet Ibrahim (the Biblical Abraham). He brought holy men from a historical location of Wangara which is today considered to be a place in Mali. He launched series of religious expeditions into different towns and settlements of the Northern region. Some of such expeditions were successful while some ended in fiasco. Such fiasco expedition was that into Kwararrafa Region (in today’s Kwara State). However, this region later fell to the latter expedition and direct invasion of Usman Dan Fodio and his warriors of jihad.
At the end of the reign of King Ali Yaji, the Kingdom of Kano became extinct and gave way to the rise and proclamation of Islamic Sultanate of Kano in 1350. Islam was then made the region’s main and acceptable religion and thereafter, the traditional rulers adopted the title of Sultan as their titles.
In conclusion, Hausa is associated with people’s origin and culture. Anyone who may still be in confusion and ambiguity should know after reading the historical synopsis above that, the history here is never the full or detailed narration. As can be noticed above, the narration was not extended to the full events of Usman Dan Fodio, the historic hero of Islamic introduction to Northern Nigeria. Again, to the gloomy fact of Hausa communities still being ruled by Fulani dynastic origin; this can be exposed through the extensive narration of Usman Dan Fodio’s jihad. As a Fulani origin, during his struggle for Islamic introduction, he did fight different settlements to conquer them and forcefully mandated the people to adopt Islam as their sole religion. In each case, after displacing the king of a city or town, he introduced his loyalist (a Sultan) as the new king of such kingdom thereby mandating the rule of a sultanate on the people. This was the situation and condition of the Kingdoms of Kano, Kwara, Zaria, Katsina etc. Today people still wonder why Fulani descendants remain the traditional rulers of Ilorin in Kwara State. As already stated above, jihadists from the Sokoto Caliphate as led by Usman Dan Fodio, displaced the old King and installed one of his loyalists as Emir of Ilorin. This is still the situation of that region till today.
Contrary to the gloomy comprehension, ideally, there are people especially the Kanawas (Kano people), the Zarians, etc, whose origin and culture are solely of Hausa, and have not any other background. The language of Hausa as being spoken by the majority tribes in Northern Nigeria today, does not reflect that there are no original people of Hausa background. Therefore, we must know it today that the people of Kano, Zaria, Rano, Hadejia etc, are originally Hausas and not of Fulani, even if their traditional rulers and administrations are of Fulani background or dynasty.
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