A Poem on Marriage in Hausaland (Waƙar Aure a Ƙasar Hausa)
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| Title | A Poem on Marriage in Hausaland (Waƙar Aure a Ƙasar Hausa) |
| Author or Owner | Aminu na Baban (author), Umar Falke (owner) |
| Subject | Marriage, Hausaland, Traditional Rituals, Love, Courtship |
| Content | As the name implies, Waƙar Aure a Ƙasar Hausa focuses on traditional marriage in Hausaland, emphasizing its most problematic aspects, specifically, the imposition of demands by the bride’s parents on the groom. The poet is critical of this and asks to bring sanity into the traditional requirements for marriage. He notes that after the first step towards the marriage consummation, which is called na gani, ina so (I have seen and I love) or ‘Knocking at the door,’ the parents of the girl request a lot from the husband-to-be. The husband-to-be then must provide kayan-zance (courtship gifts). The kayan-zance may include new clothes, expensive cosmetics, jewelry, rings, necklaces, handbags, and so on. The poet further noted that the kayan-zance are distributed to relatives of the bride, her friends, well-wishers, and children running errands for her. The poem cautions that kayan-zance is a burden that causes dissolution of marriages and needs to be revisited for sustainable marriages in Hausaland. |
| Genre | Poetry |
| Language | Hausa |
| Script | Hausa Ajami |
| Manuscript condition | 2 leaves. 18 x 24 cm. // 4 pp., first and last blank. Condition: Paper damp-stained and unevenly cut at edges. Text on the margins is cut away, making the second page of text indecipherable. Therefore, only the first page has been transcribed and translated. |
| Type | Handwritten |
| Publisher | Unpublished |
| Provenance | Kano, Nigeria |
| Source Reference | Aminu na Baban, “Waƙar Aure a Ƙasar Hausa” (1968/9). Courtesy of Northwestern University Libraries. Click here for the source link. |
| Access condition and copyright | These materials are subject to copyright and are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-Non-Commercial 4.0 License, which permits non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. For use, distribution or reproduction beyond these terms, contact Professor Fallou Ngom (fngom@bu.edu). |
| Contributors | Jennifer J Yanco, Mustapha Hashim Kurfi, Garba Zakari, Lori deLucia, Babacar Dieng, Rebecca Shereikis, Daivi Rodima-Taylor, Alison Parker, Mark Lewis, Shawn Provencal, Eric Schmidt. |
| Required citation | Fallou Ngom (PI), Jennifer Yanco, Mustapha Hashim Kurfi, Garba Zakari, Babacar Dieng, Daivi Rodima-Taylor, and Rebecca Shereikis. 2022. “A Poem on Marriage in Hausaland.” http://sites.bu.edu/nehajami/the-four-languages/hausa/hausa-manuscripts/falke-0734-wakar-aure-a-kasar-hausa/ |
Manuscript
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Transcription and Translations
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