African Public Poet

My Brief Biography

2009-11-16T06:16:00.000-08:00

I recieved many emails from German students asking about my biography, I put a brief below.

Briefly, I was born on March 9 1968 in Katsina city northern Nigeria. My primary education was at Giginyu Primary school (in Kano State) and Secondary schools were at Government Secondary Schools Koko and Zuru (Kebbi State) upt 1985. My University education is a the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, (BSc Geography: 1990), The University of Ibadan (MSc Geography: 1994) and the Bayero University Kano (PhD Geography: 2004). I specialized in Medical Geography with special interest on Maternal health and I am currently an Associate Professor of Geography at the Bayero University Kano. My other research interests include cultural geography, spatial patterns of phenomena, socio-linguistics, and healthcare delivery. You can see a list of some of my academic publications in the university's web siye http://www.buk.edu.ng/ . I am a writer as you are aware, I have published 3 novels hausa language (Idan So Cuta Ne: 1989, and Ummul-khairi: 1995, and Maza Gumbar Dutse 2007) I have also published children books namely Butterfly and other poems, My first Book of Rhymes and Animals in the Neighbourhood. I have also some poetry titles to my credit including Litters, Pregnant Skies:anthology of 50 Nigerian Poets and Landscapes of Reality. I am married with children.

MADINAH

2009-11-14T05:56:00.000-08:00

Here I am in the living city of light
The city of the holy Prophet
On whom beAllah’s peace and blessings
Here I am watching a bright moon
Yet, the moon brightness was dimmed by his holiness

Oh my dear indescribable Madinah!
You have given me a rare opportunity
To meet all races of mankind
All colours of homo sapiens species
All professing one faith in one God
All longing the presence of Muhammad

I witness pilgrims weeping in reverence
For his presence is worth more than anything earthly
The benefector of mankind I salute you
No one has achieved as much as you in a mere
Two decades and three years!

Madinah (4/11/09)

MARRAKECH

2009-10-06T07:06:00.000-07:00

For Judith Ann Walker

The gracious brick coloured city
Of traditional eminence and status
The grand city of dual splendour
Oriental golden enticement of tourists
Mid terrain between Africa and Europe

Marrakech! The red minaret of the Maghreb
Bride of the Mediterranean
And Atlas protected summer camp
Where horse cart battle engine wheels

Visitor’s fascination by your magnificence
Eternally startles me Marrakech
Marrakech, you are purely splendid!

Amani Hotel, Marrakech
September 25-26, 2009

KANO

2009-08-06T17:23:00.000-07:00

Tradition and modernity
Inseparable like a mixture
Buy and sell
The city offers more
To engage in and more to marvel at
For saints
For sinners
For the active
For the dormant
It has a place for every one.

March 1998

BAMAKO

2009-08-06T17:21:00.000-07:00

FOR MARTINE CHRISTIN

On one side stands the hill of power
On the other the light of learning
In between is a valley so they said
So calm and serene is the valley
That bears beautiful traditional face
And wears an elaborate colonial dress
A dual city of tradition and modernity
A duality that works perfectly that
One walks across space and time
As one walk through the streets of Bamako!
Grand Hotel September 29, 2006

GLOBAL VILLAGE

2009-03-21T16:02:00.000-07:00

though we are all human
we are made to be different
by forces beyond our clout

yet they want remake us
in a new image of their choice
in a village too big to be safe

the world they now call
a single village in the globe
with a big brother to match

as long as we are second class
within that large village fashioned
we should not be subjected to
someone’s standards
someone’s culture
someone’s technology
someone’s understanding
someone’s world view
someone’s theories and concepts

they try hard in harder ways
to make us part of that village
but we know we are different
and shall strive to leave outside
that fashioned unsafe village

May 7, 2001

GAZA*

2009-01-08T11:16:00.000-08:00

What befall humanity that it keeps silent?
Gaza strip is turned into a concentration camp
Israelis are committing another Holocaust
A massacre and genocide is going on
Gruesome murder is being committed by Zionists
And world leaders are afraid to take action

In Gaza, human life is made so cheap by Zionism
The mighty American and European Empires
Are under the siege of global Zionism
Arab world leaders, gutlessly keep silence
More afraid to lose their political power than their brothers

The Israelis shamelessly justify their atrocities
They cowardly defend the killing of children
The murder of women and unarmed civilians
As if their lives are worth more than other lives
They are exposing their cruelty and inhumanity
Telling the world that saves them from Auschwitz to go hell
The world must stand against global Zionism
It is a monster that humanity must confront

But after all the hypocrisy life will go on in Gaza
The will of the people is tested but also strengthened
The Zionists are afraid of what tomorrow holds
They want to change the future with violence
But the future belongs to those who resist occupation
For Zionists are destined to fail for they are unjust

They will eventually leave Gaza, empty handed

January 8, 2009

Source: http://www.monde-magouilles.com/photos_guerre/gaza3.jpg

* Thanking Aljazeera International for keeping the free world informed

THE HOLOCAUST CARD

2009-01-04T14:31:00.000-08:00

So Nazi Germany was cruel
Yes, the Nazis were brutal
They were barbaric and inhuman
Auschwitz camp was horrific
Men were reduced to numbers
Not only Jews were victims of Nazism
But anyone not Aryan in origin

For years since Auschwitz
The world became Semitic haven
The Jew is honoured by the human spirit
Spirit of rationality and brotherhood
No one dare say a word or act
That is capable of hurting the Jew
Or be labeled anti-Semitic
The West is at the forefront
The Jew is sacred, not profane.

Soon Zionists realized their strength
The Holocaust card can always be used
To do anything human or otherwise
Thus, Israel was born on borrowed land
Palestine was robed of its precious land
Let the Jews flood from all over earth
A new home for them is already secured
The Zionists are not satisfied anyway
The State of Israel must grow big and bigger

Then the Jews became “Chosen People”
Superior to the gentiles they met on the land
They became the Aryans of the Middle East
With a license to do whatever they want
Backed by a government with military might
The media they already control
The mighty dollar is under their guard
Even security agencies are in their hands

They have an open check to terrorize
They kill and maim the goyim
They steal their land and demolish their homes
They kill the goyim’s women and children
They imprisoned their able-bodied men
Their leaders are put under house arrest

They amass Weapons of Mass Destructions
That no other Middle East country can possess
Any attempt is met with the anger of their slaves
Yes, American sons are ready to fight their war
They can lay down their lives and honour for Israel
For if you dare speak against Israel you are doomed
The Holocaust card is potent with smear and label
The mark of Cain is the label of anti-Semitism
Zionists have conditioned the West to believe the myth

How I pitied the citizens of the mighty empire
Whose name is used to commit murder and theft
Whose taxes are used to protect criminals of war
Whose military might is used to justify unjust acts
Shamelessly in the name of freedom and democracy
Woe unto you the citizens of the empire
Your government's every act negates your creed
Transitory is military might in the history of man
Human spirit for freedom and justice cannot fail
Superpower status can even tomorrow be gone

Tell your emperor my dear citizens of the empire
The world is full of fear of his might
Yet, allow their resource and name be used for crimes
Tell your people it is time to stop the emperor
He is mad and his madness is too grave
He will destroy the empire or set its downfall
All the founding fathers toil will go without a fight
Tell your emperor the empire is at a brink
Of becoming a neo-Nazi of our time
Let him tell you the truth and stop telling lies
His wars are not for your protection but doom
His wars are for Zionists, the enemies of peace

And please tell Israel that the God of Abraham never sleeps
Let the good citizens of the empire rise up
Discard the Holocaust card or accept its crimes
Tell the emperor your son's lives are worth to live
You can fight for yourselves with every joy

But not for others who never appreciate your worth
Who spy on your home security and sell your secrets
Whose lobby hides under the Holocaust card
And your lads to die for their cause
And for you Israel, the land of the Jews
Remember how God has honoured you among men
Pay back with love and kindness and not with crimes
The Lord that dispersed you for your sins
Watches you committing them again and again
He does not sleep.

February 8, 2005

BLOODBATH IN JOS

2008-12-13T13:12:00.000-08:00

Your natural landscapes are painted red again
Your cool and fresh weather heated by hatred
Your once open hands of brotherhood amputated
Your loving heart for love mutilated
Only hatred is sprouting from your once green soil
You have massacred women and children
As your leaders shamelessly watch with an approval nod
Their hands are full of blood of the innocents
Oh Jos! Oh Jos!! What befell you?

I heard that you hate settlers
But if I may ask the older settlers of the Plateau
Where were they when the settlers came?
Where were they when they settled?
Where were they when the settled toiled robustly at the mines?
Where were they when they built your so-called capital?
Were indigenes on the hills busy drinking burkutu?

I heard that you are becoming puritanical
I heard that what you want is a purely Christian State
Where no other creed or belief shall flourish
Could you be self sufficient in a nation of multiple faiths?
Can you afford to be isolated by other Nigerians who share other faiths?

The nation is sensing the shadow of puritanical paganism looming
The professed faith is loosing its clasp of your hearts
The love preached by Christ is gradually being battered by hatred

Oh Jos! You cannot go on like this
Those heartless butchers must be brought to book
And the spirit of those murdered shall keep them awake for eternity
Never again! The settlers have spoken!

December 13, 2008

THE WORLD AFTER BUSH

2008-11-18T14:51:00.000-08:00

So the Bush era is ending
The chapters of his world order are closing
The Bush gospel is being discarded
The world under Emperor Bush has never been a green one
It was red, horrific, bloody
It is closing… closing for ever
Let the greenish lush of this brittle world return!

Kaduna
November 18, 2008

PALESTINE

2008-10-11T16:00:00.000-07:00

Like the destruction of a tsunami
Like the devastation of a hurricane
So the world watches your occupation and destruction
So the world lives in denial and hypocrisy
That what happens in Palestine does not happen

But for how long would the world be suppressed?
For how long would the world practice denial?
Righting what it wronged all along?
No injustice thrive forever, no matter its might
The Holocaust and Nabka are sides of the same coin

Occupation shall certainly end
Your land is your land
Forceful occupation did not change that
Land grab remains land snatch
World powers’ cowardice cannot change that

Palestine is Palestine!
Your vine and olive shall grow again
Never allow Zionism to break your spirit
Never allow Uncle Sam’s criminal support
Kill your rainbow of dreams

Just as the world liberated the Jews from Auschwitz
So shall it liberate Palestine from global Zionism
It is just a matter of time!

Kano
September 30 2008

BARKA DA SALLAH

2008-09-28T16:04:00.000-07:00

Barka da

Sallah

Eid

Mubarak

Happy

Sallah

Happy

Eid
Allah ya maimaita mana amin.

WMD & WMD

2008-09-27T14:50:00.000-07:00

For GWB & TB

It is not about Weapons of Mass Destruction
It is about an emperor
Inflicted by War Mongering Disorder
It is about show of strength
Arrogance of power
It is about greed and
Postmodern neocolonialism

It is about misleading the public
“We must disarm him to douse our thirst”
At the expense the lives of women and children
They are expendable and not human enough
After all the High Priests have approved of it

The Emperor’s greed and arrogance
Is exposing the vision of his nation
The desire of your people
Who, though proclaimed freedom & democracy
In reality it is a tyranny it means
They have betrayed their call

My dear Emperor
Watch carefully where you put your step
Look back at the map of history
Many examples abound
Where injustice and greed
Destroys the fabric of civilization

My dear Monarch
The world is tired of your madness
Better understand bluntly
No power lasts forever,
All empires are destined to is to crumble
It is from the ashes and debris of old kingdoms
New ones will emerge

You are leading your people to madness
Proving your cowardice and racism
The world watches with interest
We shall see how the drama will unfold
You will not write the next history
History will write about you in blood
It is also watching and writing.

Kano
February 15, 2003

NEW FREEDOM

2008-09-27T14:38:00.000-07:00

today’s world is enveloped
by the air of techo-aggression
shadows of hegemony are growing
freedom is being re-christened
the world techno-bullies are casting their nets
to catch the golden fishes planet-wide
in the dream of fashioning a new river in their image
to the high priests of new world order
freedoms means
abandoning all identities and creed
accepting new ‘fatwas’ from materialist priests
it means
agreeing with rednecks’ imperial hegemony
accommodating and legalizing acts of terror
by guns-and-money politics
destroying all resistance to self determination
new freedom means
believing in uncle sam’s wisdom
practicing big brother’s econometrics
but
it also means
the foolish is still dreaming

Birmingham AL
February 8, 2002

NEW IMPERIALISM

2008-09-27T14:34:00.000-07:00

New economic models
+
Loans and debt servicing
+
Military coalitions
+
Hollywood stereotyping
+
Academic brainwashing
+
Mass media tyrant’s extravaganza
+
Psychological subjugation
+
Cultural redefinition
+
New conceptual paradigms
+
Labeling monopolisation
+
Covert this & that
=
New world order
~
N e w I m p e r i a l i s m
Birmingham AL
2001

THEY CAN SPEAK ENGLISH!

2008-09-24T15:46:00.000-07:00

This article is a response to Corinna and subsequently many other German Students who want to know more about one of my poems titled THEY CAN SPEAK ENGLISH. It was Corinna who first ask some questions and I simply send the same response to all of them.

Corinna's email reads:

Hello Dr. Yusuf M.Adamu,
I'm from Germany and I'm 17 years old. In school we talk about your poem ,, They can speak English '' !
I have to do a presentation about it.
So I'have got some questions :
1. Why did you write this poem? What were your personal reasons ?
2.What do you think about English and England ?
3. Are you proud of your mothertongue and what is your mothertongue ?

I really hope you will answer my questions because it would help me alot !!!

Nice greetings from Germany !!!

Yours, sincery Corinna

My response:

1. Why did you write this poem? What were your personal reasons?

I wrote the poem in 1999 after reading another poem by Dollar Brand another African poet. Now I can’t remember what he wrote, but I can clearly remember why I wrote mine.

You see, in some parts of Nigeria, some people have taking English language to be a symbol of civilization and beyond that what makes one a full human being or a literate person or both. This opinion I did not share. But because of that perception, it becomes possible to stereotype some Nigerians whose pronunciation of certain English letters, seem to be wrong. For example, Hausa people in the north don’t have P , V and X in their letters, so most at times when they want to pronounce P, they actually pronounce F, for instance the word PEOPLE would be pronounced FEOFLE. This, makes Hausa speakers of English in Nigeria a laughing stoke by other Nigerians especially in the South. But, this does not mean that other Nigerians in the South, notably Yoruba and Ibo are any better. The Yorubas for example have problem when pronouncing A and H, somehow, the interchange them naturally. A Yoruba man will pronounce the word HEAD as EAD and the word HAND as AND, and so on and so forth. Our Ibo brothers have problem with pronunciation of the word THE, so they say DE instead of THE and the word MOTHER for example they pronounce it as MODA and so on and so forth.

Despite this, any person who cannot speak in English or read and write in English is seen by some as backward and illiterate, this is even if he can read and write in any other language. This is very annoying that some times I personally have to protest. For example, when people meet to celebrate weddings, at times English language is used as the language of communication, that prevents many from expressing their minds, so when I attend such gatherings I speak in Hausa language because that’s my language. That action always encourage other people to speak in the language without feeling bad.
In 1998, I went to the UK for an academic exchange program between my department (Geography) at the Bayero University Kano Nigeria and the School of African Studies at the University of Sussex , at Brighton . That was my first time of visiting Europe . It was during this visit that I realised that the English people are not worried about how I speak, whatever accent I have as long as I communicate, I also met other nationals who speak English in their accents, so I concluded that there is no English language, rather Englishes. So, why should any non native English speaker be more proud of the language than the native speakers. It therefore makes no sense to me that we take English language as a measure of success or civilization. My poem is therefore a reflection of these experiences.

It may surprise you to hear how my colleague and I suffered in a West African City of Abidjan from fellow Africans simply because we could not speak their colonial language of French. It was very annoying that I was coming from Kano in West Africa to Abidjan in the same region but my own brothers and sisters see me as different simply because I could not speak French. I have to tell them when they ask why that even the English language I was speaking was out of necessity, if I had chance, I would rather speak to them in Hausa which is the most widely spoken language in West Africa . It was shocking to see how the people of Abidjan takes the French language. That encounter led to the poem below.

ABIDJAN

Instead of staying for a while as transit
We were dumped by Bell view and rejected by Air Ivoire
In a land of elephants and lagoons
Of bare postcard breasts and fabulous women
A city where French language is sacred
And English could be seen as profane
Yet, Koumassi was pleasant with its baked chickens
And delicious Kef at Khamadi’s restaurant
The worshipers and the faithful abound
If not for those arrogant Air Ivoire women at the airport
Abidjan could have been a marvellous place

Grand Hotel, Bamako
(3:34pm) September 28, 2006.

2. What do you think about English and England ?

English language is today a global language. What was responsible for that include colonialism and neo-colonialism, imperialism and media. It dominates most languages in the world also because it is able to borrow and adapt new words and also because it is a language of business. But this does not make English the best language in the world, rather a powerful second language to millions. If I have choice, I would rather use my language in anything. Unfortunately, Nigeria was colonised by Britain and English is our official language, we were taught in it and we teach and do formal work in English at the detriment of our local languages. Still, English people and English speaking peoples have promoted their language through peaceful means and also through none peaceful means.

As for England , while there I visited London , Liverpool, Sven Sisters, Abury and the Stonehenge . So, I have seen their cities and country side, it is a beautiful country. I only feel that, Great Britain has not been fear to Africa , looking at what happened in the past and how things are happening today.
3. Are you proud of your mother tongue and what is your mother tongue ?

Of course yes Corinna. I am very proud of my mother tongue. Before I tell you more, I think I should first answer the other question attached to this. My mother tongue is Hausa. Hausa is a term used to describe a people and their language. A conservative estimate shows that there are over 40 million speakers of the language. It is the lingua franca of northern Nigeria and Southern Niger and is widely spoken in Benin , Burkina Faso , Ghana , Cameroon , Central Africa Republic , Chad , Sudan , Togo and Eritrea . It is the fastest growing literary language in Africa with over 200 women writing and publishing in the language. You can learn more about Hausa on the internet by searching through google.com and also from Deutsche Welle, where Hausa is one of the languages broadcast.

Now to my relationship with my mother tongue, I take my mother tongue so seriously that I was the only Social Science student learning Hausa language and literature at my first and second year during my undergraduate studies at the University. I was a member of the Hausa Cultural Society and rose to the rank of Secretary General. I ensure that I not only write in the language, but also promote its use. I have so far published 3 novels in Hausa language namely Idan So Cuta Ne, 1989 (literal: if love is a disease), Ummul-khairi, 1995 (mother of goodness) and Maza Gumbar Dutse, 2007 (Men are a cake of stone) and have finished the following which are now awaiting publishing Dukan Ruwa, 1988, Gumakan Zamani, 1992 and Son Zuciya Bacinta, 1987 (Hausa play). I personally teach my children to read and write in Hausa language and have been a leading Hausa author and promoter of Hausa literature. Very soon I would dedicate a blog to the teaching of Hausa language.

Well Corinna, this is what I am able to get for you. I hope it would be useful and hope you won’t mind if I share this with others on my blog in the near future. I wish you success and hope that we would keep in touch.
The poem, They can speak English is reproduced below:

They Can Speak English
(After Reading Dollar Brand's Western Influence)
red-eared mentogether brought us
to live as nations
their languageto us they introduced
with it we communicate officially
later we even think in it
mother tongues second classed
stereotyped
back benched
if you speak english
you are civilized
praised, recognizedand respected
but in england
my pronunciation they bother not
my grammar they care not
if only they could understand me
i communicated well
but why should a black-eared red-ear one
be so proud to speak english
even at the expense of mother tongue
be proud not because you speak english
be proud only if in your mother tongue
be it hausa ashante or berber
swahili masai or kwa zulu
sango ashante or arabic
you can think and
express your thought

July 23, 1999

GLOBAL VILLAGE: What I mean!

2008-09-03T20:09:00.000-07:00

What follows was a correspondence between me and a German High School Teacher over a poem of mine titled Global Village which was published in Across Cultures, a German High School English Text. Enjoy

Arne’s email

Dear Mister Adamu.

My name is Arne Opitz, I'm an English-teacher at an private school in germany. I'm very impressed by your poems especially by the "global village". If it is possible, I would use this poem in a class test next month. But there's a problem: there are several interpretations and several/different thoughts about the meaning of the poem by teachers of our school. I would be very pleased, if you are able to send me your interpretation of the poem so I could use this in the classtest. Many greetings Arne Opitz

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My response

Dear Arne,

I am so sorry to have taken this long to send you my interpretation of “Global Village” I was involved in organizing an annual convention of the Association of Nigerian Authors in my State, where I happen to be the Branch chairman, it is over now and here is my response.

I wrote Global Village in May 1999, as a result of a sudden realization that globalization is not just about making the world an easier place to communicate and interact, it is not about making nations to relate more closely or harmonizing world affairs in such a way that mankind would begin to feel a sense of belonging wherever he may be on the planet. I came to understand that Globalization is about other things that would in the end not necessarily be beneficial to the whole of mankind, but to some.
Now to the basics:

GLOBAL VILLAGE
though we are all humanwe are made to be differentby forces beyond our clout
Here, what I am trying to argue is the fact that although every human being on the planet is here not by choice but by design, we are created differently, what I mean here is the fact that we were created into different races and sexes. None of us decides of what race he or she was to be created, therefore, our making into different races and nations is a fate we all have to share as we do not have control over that. This is in the understanding that I belief in the existence of God the creator. Most importantly, we became also different based on where we are created and how our culture evolved. It then means that different people have different cultures and beliefs thus different world views. Despite all the differences we as humans and inhabitants of the planet earth share one common thing: Humanity!
yet they want remake usin a new image of their choicein a village too big to be safe
Despite the diversity in our world view, beliefs, culture and social backgrounds, some people (nations/countries/races/class) are now trying hard through various means (media, economy, politics, intimidation) to make everybody think and act like them. Everyone is now being influenced by some ideas and concepts, by decision made by some cliques and indeed every human being is becoming vulnerable to the decision of some countries (these countries are the economically and technologically more advanced). In this way, the whole world would one day become a super-state and countries may end up as local councils as any decision taken is binding on all nations and peoples.
the world they now calla single village in the globewith a big brother to match
The world as argued elsewhere is becoming a super State. I used Gorge Orwell’s concept of Big Brother used in his 1948 novel titled 1984. The idea here is countries like the United States is assuming a position of policing other countries, by so doing having a say on how countries are run politically. With their economic tools; The IMF and The World Bank, they dictate to countries (especially developing) how to manage their economies (whether the dictation is good to them or bad) as long as that in the end would benefit them (US & its allies). America has therefore become the Big Brother of the Global Village and as you know “The Big Brother is watching” always.
as long as we are second classwithin that large village fashionedwe should not be subjected tosomeone’s standardssomeone’s culturesomeone’s technologysomeone’s understandingsomeone’s world viewsomeone’s theories and concepts
Once developing countries accept the ideology of Globalization, they would definitely become susceptible to the ideas of these nations in such a way that their lives would be entirely dependent on whatever is decided for them. Developing countries would become second class citizens of the global village. Granted, developing nations may have to be within this village, if so, they should be allowed to be what they are or want to be, and must not be subjected to certain parameters set by others. For example, Developed countries should not imposed on the rest of the world what they things is good for them MUST also be good to others. They should not say for example their human rights standards must be so everywhere. They must not feel that their way of life is superior to that of other people and whosoever live contrary to their way is backwards. They must not insist that developing countries must modernize to be relevant, modernization comes in phases and developing countries should be allowed to follow those phases. Our world view and understanding may be related to our backgrounds, cultural and religious beliefs. Because of that, it is very impolite and unfair for someone born and bred in the occidental to begin to assess the way of life of some one in the oriental vis-visa. This is what bred intolerance and unnecessary labeling. Why should someone in the US for example tell a Muslim in Iran to be moderate, in essence, trying to re-interpret Islam to Muslims. Why should Israel refuse to abide by many UN resolutions and left unchallenged by the UN veto powers at the same time insisting that Iraq must abide by same UN resolutions and disarm or be face the consequences and insisting that the world must agree with this view as politically correct and civilized view. Finally concepts and theories may not necessarily have universal application, developing countries should not be “forced” to use theories conceived and develop elsewhere.
they try hard in harder waysto make us part of that villagebut we know we are differentand shall strive to leave outsidethat fashioned unsafe villageThe media is constantly being used to propagate to the world, the new worldview; the High Priests of this global village want to impose. People who resist this worldview are label as conservatives, terrorists, fundamentalists, racists, backward, dictators, enemies, and so on and so forth. People who accept the new worldview are seen and propagated as civilized, progressives, moderates, allies, friends, and so on.
Despite all the labeling, some principled peoples continue to resist any new world view or idea that is judged to deprive them of their identity. For example while some Muslim societies are viewed as Fundamentalists and uncivilized by some, an Egyptian intellectual Syed Qubt (now late) in his seminal book Milestones argued that any society that an Ignorant society takes the “form of a society in which belief in God is denied and human history explained in terms of `dialectical materialism’ and `scientific socialism’ becomes its system. Sometimes it appears in the form of a society, in which God’s existence is not denied, but His domain is restricted to the heavens and His rule on earth is suspended”. Qutb’s view is an alternative not a sole view, that is how other views must be weighted.

Finally, the poem is a protest against a single worldview and a hope that as diverse as human cultures are, so are their worldviews and understanding that is what would make the global village safe for everyone not its re-making in someone’s point of view.

Mr. Arne, this is a brief interpretation of the poem as I conceived it, however as I earlier wrote to you, the poem may have more meanings some of which I may agree with some of which I may not, but the final meaning rests with the reader as argued Robert Penn Warren “Every poem is in one sense a symbol, Its meaning is always more than it says to you-the writer, and more than it specifies directly to a reader”.

I hope you would be satisfied with the little explanation I am able to make, and as earlier requested, I would be pleased if you may wish to share with me the views and interpretations of the poem by other English teachers and your students, I would be glad. I look forward to hearing from you soonest.
Keep in touch.
Best wishes,

Dr. Yusuf Adamu

Note: Mr Arne had a ghastly motor accident, I am not sure if he survived it, but someone wrote to tell me so in 2005. I pray he made it. -Yusuf

A Review of Landscapes of Realities

2008-08-25T16:06:00.001-07:00

By
Richard Ali
www.richardali.blogspot.com

Not being a cricket, this piece should not be considered a work of cricketism; it is rather a sanarwa, news, a review, and an acclamation of a newly published poet. Once every few years a collection of poems comes along that so definitive it can only be reviewed on its own terms. Dr Yusuf Adamu has provided us with just such a collection with the publication of his 2008 Poems, Landscapes of Realities. This review is meant to offer lovers of verse everywhere a studied opinion of this latest offering from the generally considered literary-arid northern Nigeria.The poet is a football aficionado and geographer, he lectures at the Department of Geography, Bayero University, Kano. This background proves important in considering his poems. His literary grounding is in the Hausa language where he has published three novels; Idan So Cuta Ne {If Love Is a Crime}, Ummul Khairi and Maza Gumabr Dutse. He is also a blogger of note; {http://www.africanpublicpoet.blogspot.com/}, {http://www.tagarduniniya.blogspot.com/}.

Landscapes of Realities is a very slim volume of fifty six pages comprising forty three poems written entirely in free verse. The poet has conveniently divided them into three thematic hubs; “Innocence”, “Places” and “Realities”, comprising five, seven and thirty-one poems respectively. The poems included in Landscapes were written during the years 1997 and 2000 and perhaps their being published in 2008 is an acknowledgement by the writer that the content and context of his poems have remained relevant over the last decade.The arresting individual characteristic of each poem in Landscapes is leanness – an almost anorexic control of diction such that each poem renders a chosen reality starkly, without the confusion of ambiguous words or an obscurantist style. The collection, taken as a whole, betrays an acute social conscience that is prescient but not overly sentimental in its comment, exhortation and, more often, denunciation.

The bareness of geography, where a hill is a hill and a plain is a plain, have been transposed successfully into the poems of Dr. Yusuf Adamu, where Nigerian realities – the motorcyclist, eclipsed dreams, the corruptions of power and time – are rendered in severe relief.The five poems comprising “Innocence” – “The Child”, “Truth”, “Childhood Dreams”, “Almajiri” and “Happiness” adequately reflect the bare template of each Nigerian, before experience ups and happens to them. The innocence of childhood and truth, the beauty of a child’s dreams are captured in their fragile ephemeralty. This nostalgia is punctured by the poem “Almajiri”, about the agonizingly human fodder, child-scholar-beggars, that have become an embarrassing fixture in the cities of Northern Nigeria. The blight of Innocence, occurring in “Childhood Dreams” –. . .they wake up growinginto a world full of malicefalsehooddiminishing glory and shame. . .guilt replaces innocenceancient dreamsbarely materialized-is given a context in the lines from “Almajiri” below –he is very young an frailthe economy is biting hardthe Mallam cannot sustain him. . .he must hunt for himself.The second part of the collection, “Places”, comprising seven poems, are poetic descriptions of Kano City, Jos City, the Plateau, Kura falls, Wembley Stadium and the town of Sussex. They are simple poems. However, a poignant question is sneaked in which forms the prelude to the next part of Dr. Adamu’s poems, the poet asks –Where shall we beIf there is no geography?“Realities”, comprising thirty-one poems, provides a rich mine for critical exploration. The poet-persona in these poems is above the fray of the realities being described yet we can feel the organic, umbilical relationship between the two. “Realities” probes maternal mortality and poverty, germane issues in the North, with the poems “Child Birth” and “Malnourished Child”. “Fuel Scarcity” and “Motor Cyclist” critique the nature of government insensitivity vis a vis the devious and oftentimes, dangerous, “survival” activities of the Nigerian citizen. Beggary, another social problem in Northern Nigeria is given the treatment of clinical satire in “Professional Beggars”; “Career Beggars” on the other hand denounces the beggars for their ignorance, however, it doesn’t stop there, the poem ends –their minds are enslavedby false beliefs and ignorancechained by lazinesstheir minds may never be freeuntil the society decides to set them free.

On the late General Mamman Vatsa, he says –His sprit shall forever beNourishment for his memory never ceasesAs the living drink from his linesIn the same spirit of the Ecclesiasticus, of paying respect to “great men and their fathers who begat them”, he honors the “Ancient Revolutionary”, Akhenaten {1338-1358 BC} and a “Brave Captian”, Sultan Attahiru of Sokoto who defeated by the British, was subsequently killed at Burmi, on his way to join forces with El-Kanemi or Rabih in the Sudan –Maxim gun he hasn’t gotCan he remain on the throne?. . .our glory has fallen and broken.Perhaps in correcting the conservative and reactionary stereotype of Northern Nigeria, Dr Adamu has in a series of poems affirmed that the radical, revolutionary streak has been in the north long before the south knew of cause and anti-cause, I speak of men like Muhammad Rumfa, Shehu dan Fodio, Sa’ad Zungur, Aminu kano, Hamza Abubakar. In the poems “Strike”, “Rebellion”, “Smash Them” and “Speak Out”, he idolizes revolt in the face of malevolent power. Says he –But if they are unjustIf they oppress youDay and nightIf they mismanage your fundsIf they deny your rightsThen rebelFight in the openAnd in the closeDo not fear their mightFor God is not on their side.However, even judging this collection by its standard, there are shortcomings. On the ground of “leanness”, there are poems laden with prosaic fat so much so that the poetry of the poem is lost. Examples of this are the poems “Problem” and “Kindness” which read too much like penny motivational tracts. Secondly, the poet’s style involves the breaking of sentence syntax and while this stylistic preference has in the main worked superbly, it has not so worked all though. An example of the jarring and unaesthetic effect of this is the line “His colleagues he betrayed” from “Driver’s View”, “For, truth they represent” from “Kayan Sarki” and the first stanza of the poem “Frankenstein”.Another critical charge, this time of complacency may be laid against the poet.

Instances abound where the non-printing of a single letter, “s” or “’s”, have discontextualised poems and hurt the flow of their line. One inevitably pauses at such a point. An example is the first stanza of the otherwise correct “The Sun”. On another limb, “The Poet Died” is rendered unwieldy for its sheer and abrupt vacillation between past and present, sample –The power of the gun/He knew quite well/Yet it is the power/Of the written word/He believes in/I have no doubt that General Vatsa for whom this poem is in memoriam “believed”; but he cannot “believe” {L4 excerpt above} because that would imply living contemporaneity and Vatsa, we know, has been dead for decades.These shortcomings can easily be overcome during the expected reprint of this Poems. They do not much hurt the beauty of the collection or derogate the sincerity of the poet behind the lines. Among the emerging voices in Nigerian poetry, Dr. Yusuf Adamu’s Landscapes of Realities would definitely find a niche for itself

REVIEW OF Yusuf Adamu’s Landscapes of Reality.

2008-08-25T15:35:00.000-07:00

By
Alkasim Abdulkadir

Only few people posses the kind rich of vistas like the picturesque thoughts inherent in the mind of geographer, this is made more poignant when the said explorer of landscapes is a poet.
To share in the wealth, anguish, hopelessness, beauty, heroism and sometimes the commonness of this land, one needs to transverse the pages of his new oeuvre, Landscapes of Reality published by Adamu Joji Publishers to measure the temperament and pulse of the poet in relation to his immediate environment.

He is a scenic writer, but one couldn’t have expected less from one who is a scholar of the rather unusual sector of Medical Geography, and at the same time a creative writer and columnist of varying experiences. Aside being a part of the new fad of tribesmen called bloggers who maintain a diary on internet blog sites, he is also a children’s writer, an editor and publisher. Most importantly his capacities to write in his indigenous Hausa language, has marked him out as contemporary bilingual writer of reckon.

The book Landscape of Realities opens with the section titled Innocence; the poet takes us on a reflective trip back to what sages call the age of Innocence. The section contains poems like The Child, Truth, Childhood dreams, Almajiri and Happiness. In the latter on page 12, he compares the joys extracted from the mundane aspects of life to the worldliness we attach too much significance toD. He begs us to reflect and engage him on which of the comparisons can give one more fulfilment. In Almajiri on page 11, he takes a swipe at the migrant Almajiri scholar who ekes out a living far from his abode through begging for morsels of leftovers, the poet describes him as young and frail, in another line he writes that he must hunt for himself. The poet ends the poem by posing a question at the Ulama by the rhetoric how could he learn with a empty stomach?

In the section titled places the Poet pays a tribute to his love for explorations, first he pays obeisance to his profession as the seeker of mountains, plains, deserts, and winds, cities, and villages and he ends by the declaration Where shall we be if there is no geography? The poem ‘Kano’ continues the tradition by poets to pay tributes to the spaces they inhabit; he singles out Kano and its centennial old histories of commerce, he proclaims its renowned religiosity and share of decadence -when he says it’s a place for saints and sinners. He denies its exclusivity to any shade of paradigm, when he writes finally -it’s a place for everyone. Other Poems in this section are The Jos Plateau, Kurra Falls dedicated to Geography students, Wembley Stadium, Seven Sisters dedicated to a certain Cherith. This section goes to prove the point, that writers can not be separated from the spaces they live in for the places provide the breeding ground for their ideas and the stimulation of their minds. Someone once said that each poet must adopt a City to love, and truthfully don’t all of us have places we are married to in our hearts?

The must poignant section of the book is the one where the writer goes on a reality check. The section is aptly named Realities. Yusuf Adamu takes us on a trip through our collective failures as a nation, he reminds us of our deep sea of inadequacies. The poems provide a vista of how we failed yesterday, and are failing today, and alas not ready to remedy the situation tomorrow. From Page 22, where he writes about the needless death of women through maternal mortality in the poem Child Birth, he proceeds by reminding us that even when the child is born his suffering begins for he lives a life exemplified by being Poverty-Stricken to being Malnourished with feeble bones in the poem Malnourished Child on Page 23. Other poems are Fuel Scarcity, Motor Cyclist, Career Beggars, Professional Beggars, Government Hospital, Government School, Poetry, The Poet Died dedicated to Mamman J. Vatsa, where he remembers the late Soldier-Poet –The power of the Gun/He knew quite well, yet it is the power of the written word/he believed in. He also confirms the immortality of every writer when he says nourishment of memory never ceases/as the living drink from his lines.

Poets have often be referred to renegades, rebels with a cause, most at times a cause for the common good of all, the following can be glimpsed from Driver’s View, Strike, Kayan Sarki, Rebellion, Smash Them, Military Chemistry, Military Coups, Power and Speak Out.
Yusuf Adamu’s like other poets of his generation is a social crusader, at odds with the limitation of the potentialities of his vast country riddled by several years of systemic malaise. He has done his bit; the lessons are left for us to take away.

alKasim Abdulkadir is the Head of Programs Zuma 88.5 FM Radio Abuja.
+234-805-2858345 +234-703-6684411 alkasim.abdulkadir@yahoo.com

Poetry Books

2008-08-22T03:00:00.000-07:00

Pleased to announce Landscapes of Reality, one of my poetry collections. Others would be uploaded soon.

BAGHDAD

2008-07-31T14:12:00.000-07:00

You were first among equals
A golden nest of learning
A navel of diversity and tolerance
A living book of history
A cradle of human civilization

If not for the vultures
The inglorious invaders
If not for their greed
The shameless subjugators
If not for their cowardice
The looters of people’s peace
If not for embarrassing the free world
By technological bullies
Baghdad would have still been serene

Despite all the senseless killings
The rapes and tortures
The certain uncertainties
Your air and glorious past
Your Tigris and Euphrates
Still keeps your citizens attached to you
They continue to stand by you with their blood

These hard days would not last forever
Baghdad rejoice while in tears
For the killings and rapes would cease
The vultures would ultimately leave
Their cowardice would betray them
Their hypocrisy would expose them
And they would leave unceremoniously

Baghdad!
Bleed only for a little while
Your glory is just beginning
Your moon is yet to be full
When I cry and shade tears for you
God would relieve you from the Hyenas

23/3/2007

GITMO!

2008-07-28T13:42:00.001-07:00

A spaghetti flash of shame
In a naked dance of sham
What happened to freedom and liberty
In the land of the brave?

July 27 2008

THE MIGRANTS

2008-07-23T16:31:00.000-07:00

For Sally

In a world that is continuously flattened
Frontiers are being more tightened
Opportunities become unequally spread
Earthlings ride on the ray of wheels
Riding to find the end of the rainbow
Greener pastures are found in the otherness

When an earthling is displaced or moves
The flat world turns into a round Earth
Its palms though wide open becomes closed
He or she that moves out sometimes made it
He or she that moves out most times lose out

In the otherness of the other and in our otherness
Humanity must find a common ground
For our Earth is also our World

September 20, 2007 Accra , Ghana

IMMIGRATION LAWS

2007-07-03T08:36:00.000-07:00

Why do you insist on crossing the rim?
Only to work on jobs they could not do?
Yet they don’t want you in their terrain
Why can’t you be contented and stay
Where God created you in the first place?
Let every one remain in his poverty or affluence
In his backwardness or forwardness
And see who blinks first!

KANO
April 22, 2006

INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY

2007-10-10T04:38:00.000-07:00

A community of nations of the world
Where every member is a family member
Where every member is a stakeholder
A community where we are all humans
As if telling the extra-terrestrials to keep off
We are the most advance civilization in the Cosmos
That’s the community that’s truly international

Not an International Community of the Neocons
A community of wolves and vultures
A stage for vampires and scavengers
Where only the Big dance the music of policy
With brutal insensitivity and disgusting arrogance
And weaker nations are only spectators
Who must applaud very wretched choreography.

Instead of the contemptuous scripted drama
Let the Big declare ‘we are the international community’
So that when the Neocons and their apologists
Say ‘International Community’ we know
They are talking of only the ‘Big’
And the rest of us can have appropriate label
‘International commoners’

June 24, 2007/ 11:23 p.m.