When Will The Hausa Be Free?
The Oasis Reporters
June 16, 2018
The rich history of Hausa in West Africa has been eclipsed by the Fulani and Muslim religion as if they never had one of their own. Hausa not only survived the civilization of the great Empires of Ghana, Mali and Songhai, some were rulers. The most famous were Sonny Ali of Songhai and Queen Amina of Zaria. Unlike now, Gobir and Katsina never lied down and play dead to Fulani. Hausa subversion by religious Fulani fanatics and Arabs has turned our North into a killing field.
For how long are we going to witness carnage in the North? It started with different ethnic groups when the warnings were loud and clear that it was going to turn within and the same Hausa were going to be used against themselves. When you look at the image of the Boko Haram leader, you see the features of an African speaking alien language of terror but on religious drug championing the causes of terrorists destroying Iraq, Afghanistan, Libya, Syria and others.
Love it or not, Sharia just like Christian and traditional religions are here to stay. As long as we are engaged in religious hypocrisy, worse than drugs, people would be overwhelmed by order from their God which no man can defy. Many corrupt governments are still better than some religions. One is supposed to take orders from people while the other takes order from God.
Most people around the world got independence but not the Hausa from Fulani radical form of Muslim religion. Though Fulani were few, they exploit many of the masses’ grievances amongst the Hausa that were already fed up with the brutality and corruption of the powerful rulers and their cronies. So they joined the Fulani and toppled their own chiefs. Same tactics used for centuries.
We have urged the Sultan of Sokoto to order Fatwua on fanatics perpetrating carnage on Hausa lands. When he finally came out, he pleaded with them to stop killing Muslims. Many people took it differently as a code to kill others but Muslims. Whatever religious circle we fall into, we were brothers and sister before foreign religions. We come from the same house, even from the same mothers and fathers. Why then would a brother give up his sister for a religious calling?
Hausa traditional worshippers of Maguzawa and Bori that resisted the Islamic faith or mix it up with their religions stood the chance of being wiped out by Shehu Usman Fodio which is no different from Boko Haram today or Maitatsine yesterday. Violence is violence by force.
Enough people have died in the North because of religious riots. Nobody has the gut to ban all extraneous religions introduced to Africa to “civilize” while using the same religions as weapon of mass destruction to wipe out homes, communities, brothers, sisters, fathers, mothers and children in the same families. Religions can be deadly diseases we must watch as auto-immune malignant cancers that rot from the head down. Even Christians lured as converts sucked it up.
Rich Mosques and Churches paying taxes is just the beginning of checking too much religious power in Nigeria. One has to realize the common denominator of religious men is forcing their morals on majority by force or (starve to) death. So are the religious rights in so called civilized Christian countries demonstrating the exact intolerance of the mullahs in Muslim countries. It is not enough to preach separation of church and State but mixing them up when it favors us.
Minority Fulani have relied on the same tactics they used in the 19th century to extort money from the Hausa while impoverishing them to beg for arms from the rest of Nigeria in the South. The National Council for the Welfare of Destitute (NCWD) puts the current population of the Almajirai at about 7 million. One can imagine 7 million potential teachers, lawyers, accountants, engineers etc. missing their services to their States while recruiting foreigners to fill the void.
As Almajiri system of Education in Nigeria teaches Arabic culture and language, Karatun Boko, western education was introduced and funded neglecting rich Hausa culture and history for self-confidence. Most Africans including this author have Arabic or African names, proud to be called Christians or Muslims but ashamed to be labelled worshipper of traditional religions.
It is difficult to say if Sanusi was pacifying the riots around his palace or if he was trying to dampen the anger of religious fanatics consuming our brothers and sisters in the North presently. By announcing he was going to be guided by Sharia, Sanusi himself is no stranger to fanatics since he was once implicated during a riot under Abacha, only to be saved by the royals. Anyway, this is not the time to encourage jihad or crusade. Has any elite ever been subjected to Sharia law.and punishment ?
It has blown up in the faces of those that preach mayhem if they do not get their ways. So the new Emir must assume the position of a pacifier, not pandering to destructive elements. It was Sunny Okosun that sang: all the bad bad things I used to do, I do them no more. He had changed to become a man of God.
It is ironic that religions that are supposed to ameliorate Africans are now used by Africans to kill Africans by orders from outside of Africa. A house divided within.
Anyone, no matter how far from the North, watching the scourge of killing from Sambisa evil forest or the present day Zamfara killings must wonder why we have turned against ourselves. So much so, that we need help from outsiders to contain the evil men that have usurped our land in the name of religions. Some of the politicians claim that they are fighting international terrorists, not just local fanatics. If that is true, it takes enemies within to bring in enemies from outside. Hausa are killing Hausa again!
We already have multitude of problems in Africa, in Nigeria, north and south. There is no need to import more from those who did wonders in their communities, while neglecting our heroes at home. We do not have National holidays for Maguzawa, Bori, Igbo Ukwu, Ogun and local wonders written and studied by world scholars. They are too close for comfort. If you want to embarrass an African, call him a local worshipper. No! Africans are international worshippers.
(First published in 2014, slightly updated and still relevant today).
Written by Farouk Martins Aresa