A visit to an ace Hausa ethnomusicologist – Muhammad Kalarawi
By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu In an attempt to gauge the current popular culture market in Kano, I visited my old haunt at Kasuwar Ƙofar Wambai today, 2nd August 2023.…
Revisiting a Classic: M.U. Adamu’s notes on North African traders in Kano
By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu In 1968 I was a twelve-year-old whippersnapper and found solace in my father’s library (hate football and games anyway!). A journal, Kano Studies of the…
The Origins of the Onomatopoeic Intertextuality of Hausa Popular Culture
By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu His name was Tijjani, and nicknamed Ma’aslam. He mainly lived in the Sabon Sara ward, Kano city, but was a common sight along the Mandawari…
Rarara’s Invective Barbs: innuendoes, body shaming, and Kano politics
By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu For the past 43 years that I have been a researcher, there were two areas I stay clear of: politics and religion. If you see…
Hausa names as ethnographic identifiers
By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu It happened 40 years ago. A friend’s wife in Kano had delivered a bouncing baby boy. My friend chose Maikuɗi as the name for the…
“I Will Sell My Cows For You To Become a Pilot”: The Incidence of Babar Mai Fura, Hausa Women and International Women’s Day
By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu His name was Sadik. Perhaps about 11 years old. He walked into my newly allocated office in the old Mass Communications building of Bayero University…
Ƙoƙi and ethnographic slice of Hausa history
By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu I was rummaging through my travel pictures when I came across a picture that I am sure has not been published anywhere. I saw it…
Gender and the Disappearing Hausa Intangible Heritage: A Study of Shantu Music
By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu Hausa Intangible Heritage Revival – Overture to the Symphony When Gillian Belben, the British Council’s new Director in 2004, wanted to introduce a truly unique…
Paradigmatic Shift in Literary Ignorance: Ajami on Naira Reloaded
By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu As we enter into the ‘will they, will they not’ mode of uncertainty typical of Nigerian public culture about the change of Nigerian higher currency…
Days of Future Past: Creativity, technology and challenges of film policy in Kano (I)
By Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu Being a keynote at the Kannywood Foundation film training workshop, on 2nd October 2022, Kano A Tale of Two Cinemas In November 2007, I was…