{"id":447,"date":"2021-04-09T10:47:27","date_gmt":"2021-04-09T14:47:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ria\/?page_id=447"},"modified":"2025-01-22T09:03:45","modified_gmt":"2025-01-22T14:03:45","slug":"hausa-unit-4","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ria\/hausa\/hausa-unit-4\/","title":{"rendered":"Unit 4: Prof. Sadiya Omar"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Title<\/td>Conversation with Professor Sadiya Omar<\/td><\/tr>
Interviewer<\/td>Malam Nasiru Abbas Babi Sokoto<\/td><\/tr>
Subject<\/td>Her biography, her struggles as an orphan, and the development of her interest in writing biographies of Muslim women clerics in the Sokoto Caliphate, including Nana Asma\u2019u and her Yantaru Movement and Modibbo Kilo.<\/td><\/tr>
Content<\/td>Professor Sadiya Omar <\/strong>(also known as Sadyia Umar) was born in 1952 at Kiru Local Government, Kano State.  Her father was a great Islamic cleric and a Qadi<\/em> (Judge), who was posted to Kiru by His Eminence the then Sultan of Sokoto. Her mother, Hajiya Fatima (Goggon-Takai), was learned in Islam as she was the daughter of the renowned Sheikh Usman Salihu. It was the love for Islamic knowledge that led to the union between Sadiya Omar\u2019s father and mother. However, Sadiya was orphaned at three, which deeply affected her. From early childhood, Sadiya was engaged in the peripatetic Islamic learning system. This entailed the memorization of the Qur\u2019an, which positively impacted Sadiya throughout her life. Sadiya had a younger brother who was attending a Western school. She would cry and follow him to school for the love she had for education. A teacher in the school sympathized with her and pleaded on her behalf that she should be enrolled too. With the consent of her guardians, Sadiya was enrolled. At the age of fifteen, Sadiya was married off to her paternal cousin who was also an orphan. However, she never liked him and soon after divorced. While being a divorced woman in Hausa society is frowned upon, she resisted the pressure to remarry in favor of furthering her Western education. 

Sadiya Omar was fortunate that, despite all the odds, she was able to proceed to the Government Girls\u2019 Secondary School (GGSS) Dala in Kano. And, with the influence and mentorship of Professor Kabiru Galadanci, in 1978 Sadiya graduated from Bayero University, Kano with a Bachelor of Arts in Hausa and Islamic Studies. At the time, she was going through a divorce from her then husband. Later, she met and married Dr. Omar Bello, a member of the Sokoto Caliphate royal family, a son of Sultan Abubakar III. Like Sadiya, Omar Bello had been educated in both Islamic and Western systems, and both of them worked as academics, lecturing at the Usman \u0257an Fodio University, Sokoto. Omar Bello and Sadiya Omar both applied and were accepted for Master\u2019s programs-\u2013he in London, and she in Khartoum. Sadiya then forfeited her admission and joined her husband for his Master\u2019s program in London. A year later, Sadiya applied and was accepted to the University of London Master\u2019s program in Arts and graduated in 1984. Upon return to Nigeria, they both continued teaching and she enrolled in a PhD. program at Usman \u0257an Fodio University, Sokoto. After decades of marriage, and being blessed with children, Dr. Omar Bello, her husband and colleague, passed away. It was yet another devastating moment for Sadiya. But she picked up and moved on with her research and writings on Muslim women clerics in the Sokoto Caliphate. 

Professor Sadiya Omar is one of the most influential and prolific Hausa woman writers on the Sokoto Caliphate, especially on gender issues. She has extensively written about Nana Asma\u2019u bint Shehu Usman \u0257an Fodio, both in Latin script Hausa and Hausa Ajami. She wrote about The \u01b3antaru Movement, of which she is currently President, holding the title \u201cUwar \u01b3antaru\u201d (The Modern Mother of Yantaru). She has also written \u201cForty Women Clerics of the Sokoto Caliphate\u201d; and on other topics, as well. She was a past national \u201cAmeerah\u201d (President) of the Federation of Muslim Women\u2019s Associations in Nigeria (FOMWAN). She remains very active in various important committees of the Sokoto Caliphate, Jamatu Nasril Islam<\/em> (JNI), and Usman \u0257an Fodio University.<\/td><\/tr>
Language<\/td>Hausa<\/td><\/tr>
Script<\/td>Hausa Ajami<\/td><\/tr>
Location<\/td>Department of Hausa Language, Usman \u0257an Fodio University, Sokoto<\/td><\/tr>
Pedagogical content\/application<\/td>Includes relevant linguistic, stylistic, and cultural skills as identified in our assessment guidebook\/ ACTFL guidelines<\/td><\/tr>
Access condition and copyright<\/td>These materials are subject to copyright and are distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 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).<\/td><\/tr>
Contributors<\/td>Fallou Ngom, Jennifer Yanco, Mustapha Kurfi, Daivi Rodima-Taylor, Alison Parker, and Frank Antonelli.<\/td><\/tr>
Required citation information<\/td>Fallou Ngom (PI), Jennifer Yanco, Mustapha Kurfi, and Daivi Rodima-Taylor. 2023. \u201cConversation with Professor Sadiya Omar.\u201d https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/ria\/hausa\/hausa-unit-4\/<\/a><\/td><\/tr><\/tbody><\/table><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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