Guest Paper Presented to the University of Warsaw, 10th May, 2012, Department of African Languages and Cultures, University of Warsaw, Poland.
Al-Hausawi, Al-Hindawi: Media Contraflow, Urban Communication and Translinguistic Onomatopoeia Among
Hausa of Northern
Nigeria
Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu
Department of Mass Communications
Bayero University, Kano – Nigeria
(Vice-Chancellor of the National Open University of Nigeria)
auadamu@yahoo.com
Introduction
In general, the purpose of translation—searching for cultural and semantic equivalents—is to reproduce various
kinds of texts—including religious, literary, scientific, and philosophical texts—in another language and thus making
them available to wider readers. However, the
term translation is confined to the written, and the term interpretation to the spoken (Newmark 1991: 35). Within this in
mind, comparing text in different languages inevitably involves a theory of
equivalence.
Equivalence can be said to be the central
issue in translation although its definition, relevance, and applicability within the field of translation theory have caused heated controversy, especially as the target text can never be equivalent to the source
text at all level. Thus many different theories of the
concept of equivalence have emerged, the most notable of which were by Jakobson (1959), Catford (1965), Nida and
Taber (1969), House (1977), Baker (1992)
and Vinay and Darbelnet (1995).
Catford (1965: 1994), for instance,
argues for extralinguistic domain of objects, emotions, memories, objects, etc. features which achieve expression in a
given language. He suggests that
translational equivalence occurs, when source texts (STs) and target texts
(TTs) are relatable to at least some
of the same features of this extralinguistic reality. However, according to Jakobson (1959), interlingual
translation involves substituting messages in one language for entire messages in some other language. Thus “the
translator recodes and transmits a
message received from another source. Thus translation involves two equivalent messages in two different codes” (Jakobson 1959: 114).
For Nida (1964)
there are two different types of equivalence, formal equivalence—which in the
second edition by Nida and Taber (1982) is referred to as formal correspondence—and dynamic equivalence. Formal correspondence 'focuses attention
on the message itself, in both form and content',
unlike dynamic equivalence which is based upon 'the principle of equivalent effect'
(1964:159). Formal correspondence consists of a target language
(TL) item which represents the closest equivalent
of a source language (SL) word or phrase. Dynamic equivalence is defined as a translation principle according to
which a translator seeks to translate the meaning of the original
in such a way that the TL wording will trigger the same impact on the target correspondence (TC)
audience as the original wording did upon the
source text (ST audience). Nida and Taber (1982: 200) further pointed
that ‘frequently, the form of the
original text is changed; but as long as the change follows the rules of back transformation in the source language, of
contextual consistency in the transfer, and of
transformation in the receptor language, the message is preserved and
the translation is faithful.’
Baker
(1992) provides a more detailed
list of conditions upon which the concept
of equivalence can be defined.
These conditions include: equivalence occurring at word level and above word level, when translating from one language
into another; grammatical equivalence, when referring to the diversity of grammatical
categories across languages; textual equivalence, when referring to the equivalence between a source language text and a target language
text in terms of information and cohesion; and pragmatic equivalence, when referring to implication and strategies of avoidance during
the translation process.
Finally, Vinay and Darbelnet (1995)
view equivalence-oriented translation as a procedure which replicates the same situation as in the original, whilst
using completely different wording.
This, in a way, is a transmutation of the original into target audience
cultural realities. Thus equivalence is therefore the ideal method when the translator has to deal with proverbs, idioms, clichés, nominal or
adjectival phrases and the onomatopoeia of animal sounds. Vinay and Darbelnet’s categorization of translation procedures is very detailed. They name two ‘methods’ covering
seven procedures: direct
translation (which covers
borrowing, calque and
literal translation) and oblique translation (which is transposition,
modulation, equivalence and adaptation).
There are three main reasons why an exact equivalence or effect is difficult to achieve. First,
as Hervey, Higgins
and Haywood (1995)
noted, textual interpretation is dynamic, and thus it is
difficult for even the same person to have the same interpretation of the same
text. Secondly, translation is often
a subjective process—if the objectivity of the text is non- contentious, then the subjectivity of the translator is not. Third,
time gap between
the original source
text and the equivalent translation leaves the translators uncertain about the impact of the original
source text on its audience
at the time of primary
contact.
Religious Text, Hausa Shamanism and British Translation Bureaus
The meaning of a given word or set of words is best understood as the contribution that word or phrase can make to the meaning or
function of the whole sentence or linguistic utterance where that word or phrase occurs. The meaning of a given word is
governed not only by the external object
or idea that particular word is supposed
to refer to, but also by the use of that particular word or phrase in a particular way, in a particular context,
and to a particular effect
– even if not conveying the same
meaning as the source text. This is where onomatopoeia comes in as a handy conceptual framework. According to Hugh Bredin (555-556),
The
strict or narrow kind of onomatopoeia is alleged to occur whenever the sound of
a word resembles (or "imitates") a sound that the word refers to. The words "strict" and "narrow" suggest
that the sense in question is a kind of original usage or
practice, in respect of which other senses of onomatopoeia are metaphorical or perhaps
extensional enlargements.
In his analysis
of onomatopoeia, Hugh Bredin (1996) created three categories of the translation device: direct onomatopoeia (the denotation of a word as a class of sounds,
and the sound of the word resembling a member of the class),
associative onomatopoeia (conventional
association between something and a sound and conventional relationship of naming between a word and the thing named
by it), and exemplary onomatopoeia (amount and character of the physical
work used by a speaker
in uttering a word).
In my use of the word
"onomatopoeia", I would want to the word to refer to a relation between
the sound of a word and something
else, and not connoting the meaning of the base word, or associative
onomatopoeia. This same understanding is used by Hausa shamans
who started using selected verses
of the Qur’an as vocal amulets in ritual healing
in Hausa
communities of northern Nigeria.
In his work on Hausa shamanism, Bello Sa’id refers
to the use of onomatopoeia in religious contexts among the Hausa as
“kwatanci-faɗi” (similar utterance). I refer to these religious-sounding utterances as vocal amulets. The following are few examples
(after Sa’id, 1997).
Example #1
Vocal amulet for winning a legal case – Qur’an (Shura) 42:13.
Original Qur’anic
transliteration: SharaAAa lakum mina alddeeni
mawassa
Onomatopeic Hausa version: Shara‘a lakum minaddiini maa wassee…”.
Original’s translation: “The same religion
has He established for you as that which He enjoined on Noah.”
In this vocal amulet, the shaman
focuses on two words – Shara’a, and wassee. The first, shara’a,
is familiar to Muslim Hausa as referring to Shari’a, the Islamic law; while the second word, wassee, sounds similar to the Hausa words, wasa (playfulness) and wasar (ignore, make redundant). Thus
this vocal amulet is meant to scatter any dispute involving the law in which the defendant is not sure of winning
the case. The shamans advocate
using only part of the original verses to fit in
with their perceived properties as amulets. It is clear that the verse refers
to a more historical incident;
and yet the shamans use the vocal similarities of the shortened verse as an amulet.
Example #2
Vocal amulet for locating a lost goat – Qur’an
80 (Abasa). 1, 2
Original Qur’anic
transliteration: AAabasa watawalla, An jaahu al-aAAma
Onomatopeic Hausa version: Abasa wa tawallee,
An jaa’ ahu la ‘amee.
Original’s translation: “ (The Prophet) frowned and turned away, Because
there came to him the blind man (interrupting).”
The key word in this vocal amulet is amee – which
vocalized in a high-pitched voice
sounded like a goat
bleating. The amulet is therefore used to locate a lost goat by being recited
over and over again. The word amee is
expected to be the main expression that will bring the goat back to its owner
by using the sound resonance of the bleat
embedded in the word.
Example #3
Vocal amulet for winning a wrestling match – Qur’an
105 (Fil): 1:
Original Qur’anic
transliteration: Alam tara kayfa faAAala rabbuka bi-as-habialfeeli
Onomatopeic Hausa version: Alam tara kai…kayar shi
Original’s translation: “Seest thou not how thy Lord dealt with the Companions of the Elephant?”
In this amulet the beginning of the
expression is taken up to a point where a word appears with a Hausa equivalent, kai (you);
the word is shortened only to the point where it bears similarity with the Hausa word, then the shaman adds completely
new words to create a meaning,
kayar shi (throw him down; defeat him) – even though the new words were not part
of the original Qur’anic text (one of the many reasons the shamans are
shunned by Hausa Islamic orthodoxy). The amulet is used to empower wrestlers
– any wrestler reciting this over and over during an encounter is likely to
win the match by putting a hex on the opponent. A draw will probably
result if both opponents recite the same vocal amulet!
It is significant to note that the
Hausanized versions of the Arabic words—or associative onomatopoeia (Bredin 560)—used by the shamans
are not translations of the original
Qur’anic words, but serve “as the nexus of acoustic properties which
constitutes them as objects of consciousness for a normal
speaker of the language.” (Bredin
557). This is more so
as such onomatopoeia is governed by convention, not just the natural resemblance of the two words. This is illustrated, for instance, by a vocal amulet that serves as a warning
to Qur’anic school
pupils not to cheat:
Example #4
Vocal amulet to warn against grade skipping in Qur’anic education
– Qur’an 78 (An-Nabaa): 30 Original Qur’anic transliteration: Fa dhuuquu falan naziyadakum illaa ‘Adhaabaa Onomatopeic Hausa version: Fa zuƙu
falam nazida kumu illa azaba
Original’s translation: "So taste ye (the fruits
of your deeds); for no increase shall We grant you, except
in Punishment”
The keys to this amulet are zuƙu (skip, cheat), and illa (except) and azaba (harsh punishment). The Hausa onomatopeic use of
this verse is to discourage Qur’anic school pupils
from skipping a portion of their Qur’anic studies (a cheating process referred
to as zuƙu), and if they do cheat that way, they will face punishment (azaba). In this amulet two words are actually
translated, into the Hausa words – illa (except, but) and azaba (punishment) which share the same meaning
in both Arabic and Hausa. The Hausa shamans thus shift the focus of translation from
source text (ST) to target sound (TS)—for the
shamanic rituals are not written
but vocalized.
Consequently, common sense dictates
that any medicinal value attached to the original expression (if indeed
it had any in the context it was quoted
by the shaman) would be lost in the re-working of the expression into Hausa shamanistic language since the same meaning
is not conveyed in the
translation. Thus the Hausa shamans – considered little more than charlatans working on spiritual
gullibility of ignorant
Muslims, and thus occupying a narrow space in Hausa public
discourse – resort to vocal interpretations of selected expressions in the Qur’an to create a new meaning not
intended by the original source. As Walter Benjamin (1969: 71) argues,
Translatability is an essential quality of certain
works, which is not to say that it is essential that they be translated;
it means rather that a specific significance inherent in the original manifests
itself in its translatability.
The
translatability of the shamans’ interpretation of the selected
words and expressions in the Qur’an
for medicinal purposes
in this case appeals to less discerning members of the Muslim Hausa
public sphere who accept the shaman’s medicine
as curative – essentially because
it is derived from the Qur’an.
The Colonial Translation Bureau in Northern Nigeria
A second stage that was set for whole scale translations of popular
culture in northern
Nigeria was the antecedent set up by the British
colonial administration. When the British
colonized what later became
northern Nigeria in 1903, they inherited a vast population of literate citizenry, with thousands of Qur’anic
schools and equally thousands of Muslim intellectual scholars. A modern Western-oriented schooling system was created
in 1909. However, it lacks indigenous
reading materials. To address this problem the British set up a Translation Bureau initially in Kano in 1929, but
later moved to Zaria in 1931. The objectives of the Bureau were, amongst others, to translate books and materials from
Arabic to English, and later to
Hausa. Arabic was chosen because of the antecedent scriptural familiarity of
the Hausa with Islamic texts. This
saw Hausanized (roman script) versions of local histories in Arabic texts, notably
Tarikh Arbab Hadha al-balad
al-Musamma Kano, or Kano Chronicles as
translated by H. R. Palmer (1908). The Hausa translation was Hausawa Da Makwabtansu.
This was followed by a translation of
Arabic Alf Laylah Wa Laylah, a
collection of Oriental stories of
uncertain date and authorship whose tales of Aladdin, Ali Baba, and Sinbad the Sailor have almost become part of Western
folklore, and translated into Hausa by Mamman
Kano and Frank Edgar.
Similar strategies were adopted
by the British in India.
Modi (2002), argues
that as part of the British
East India Company's attempts to propagate western thought and education in the country, three universities were
established on western models—in Bombay, Calcutta and Madras. Through these universities, British drama began to be
introduced with an emphasis on the study of Shakespeare whose plays—in English
—began to be seen in various parts
of India and attracted new
audiences. This phenomenon also began to attract the attention of some Parsi businessmen who believed that
local adaptations of Shakespeare and even of
popular stories could be a source of potential profit. The result was
the establishment of several theatre
companies—known by all simply as Parsi Theatres because of the Parsi ownership—on a commercial basis. Their model was the many Victorian
commercial theatres in
operation in England. The first two of these new Indian groups were the
Victoria Theatre and the Alfred Theatre,
both established in 1871 and both of which ultimately toured widely. Other groups grew from these two
including the New Alfred Theatre and the Original Theatre. As audiences increased, Victorian-style theatre
buildings soon went up in many of India's larger cities, most of them copies of the Covent
Garden and Drury Lane in London.
Thus in India, as in Nigeria, there was
a studied attempt to encourage the popular culture of the Other especially through translations, which provided a
template for creative writers. In Nigeria,
the most exhaustive of the translators in Hausa prose fiction was Abubakar
Imam, who translated over 80 books,
poems and short stories from Middle Eastern, Asian and European tales into Hausa language in 1936. The result was Magana Jari Ce (talk is a virtue),
which became an unalloyed classic of Hausa literature. Malumfashi (2009)
provides a close look at how each
story was painstakingly transmutated into Hausa to convey not only the realities
of Hausa society,
but also its cultural parameters in stories that were never probably intended for other cultures.
The
original sources of the narratives in both Ruwan Bagaja (a frame novel stitched
from 19 different story sources by Abubakar Imam
in 1933) and Magana Jari Ce were
identified as Alif Laila, or Book of the Thousand
Nights and One Night (the
1839 edition translated by Sir William
Hay MacNaghten, although
other editions were also consulted
by Imam), Panchatantra (a book of Indian fables and folktales), which came to
Imam through the Arabic Kalilah wa Dimnah as translated by
Thomas Ballantine Irving (1980), Bahrul
Adab, Hans Andersen Fairy Tales, Aesop
Fables, The Brothers Grimm Fairy
Tales, Tales from Shakespeare, and Raudhul Jinan.
The northern Nigerian translation
activities therefore provided a further legitimate bases for translations – whether direct,
or in equivalence mode – of works of popular
culture. Subsequent
translations included Iliya Ɗan Mai Karfi
(translated from Ilya Muromets, a Russian folk poem), Sihirtaccen Gari (from a collection, Ikra, by Sayid Kutub), Abdulbaƙi Tanimuddari (A story of a hero –called
Abdulbaqi Tanimuddari) – translated from Arabic, Saiful Mulk, Hajj Baba of Isfahan
and the odd English book or so, such as Littafi Na Bakwai
Na Leo Africanus (The Seventh
Book of Leo Africanus), Robin Hood, Twelfth Night, Animal Farm and Baron Munchausen. Thus translation, whether
onomapoeic, equivalent, or regular, is a fully established mechanism
in Hausa popular
religious, literary, and as we shall now see, popular
culture.
Cinematic Antecedents in Northern Nigeria
Having
established a translating antecedents in Hausa
religious and popular
literature, I now turn
my focus to global media flows. In his essay on the current epoch of
globalization, Modernity at Large, Arjun Appadurai (1996) argues that globalization is characterized by the twin forces of mass migration and
electronic mediation, which provides alternative ways of looking at popular
consumption patterns. Appadurai
posits five dimensions of global cultural
flows, referring to them as ethnoscapes, mediascapes, technoscapes,
financescapes, and ideoscapes to connote that these dimensions take the form of roughly
fashioned landscapes. It is
in and through the disjunctures of each of these dimensions that global flows
occur. Mediascape, for instance,
points to the circulation and distribution of music media (tapes, CDs, MP3 files), networks of transmission
(satellite TV channels for music videos), and the flow of content itself. Consequently, the effect of such transnational
sharing is a greater diversity of music cultures, especially in traditional societies.
Appadurai therefore considers the way
images—of lifestyles, popular culture, and self- representation—circulate internationally through
the media and are often borrowed in surprising
and inventive fashions. This is reflected in the popularity of Hindi songs from films shown in cinemas and television stations
in northern Nigeria.
Cinema houses in northern Nigeria were
established by resident Lebanese merchants who, during the British colonial rule of Nigeria (from 1903 to 1960),
screened predominantly American and
British films, essentially for colonial officers. Despite being screened in a language few of the local audiences
undertood, neverthemeless cinema going became established as a social
activity, an experience that was always much more than the viewing of the film itself. This is reflected, for instance, in a letter
to the Secretary, Northern Provinces, Kaduna, by the then
Colonial Resident of Kano, E.K.
Featherstone who noted, while commenting on Film Censorship in Kano:
“Frequently
when I see films in Kano which I know are going to be shown on subsequent
nights to African audiences I realise how little suited
they are to an African
public. Among a large youthful
class of Kano City, Fagge and Sabon Gari which has money to spare in its pockets it has become the thing to do to go to the Cinema quite regardless
of whether they understand what they see and hear or not. For example, the other night I saw a large
African audience sitting attentively through an exhibition of “Night Boat to Dublin”. The next day an
educated Hausa admitted to me that he had been unable to understand what he had heard and seen in this film but that he
went regularly to the cinema to be seen and
to see his friends.” E.K. Featherstone, Resident, Kano Province, 13th January
1948 (Kano No G.85/94).
Thus whether they understand the plot
of the films or not, the mere process of going to cinema provided urban Hausa youth with a focal point of social
convergence that was to make the
spectacle of the cinema a central catalyst in the transformation of the popular culture
of the Muslim Hausa.
All cinemas in Kano before Nigeria’s independence in 1960 screened
American and Europeans films exclusively. No films from
either the Middle East or Asia were screened—
principally because the initial concept of the cinemas was targeted at
Europeans and settlers from other
parts of West Africa, who were not interested in non-European films. Thus the standard
fare was either
war, Roman history,
cowboys or historical films.
When Nigeria became independent from
British colonial rule in 1960, the Lebanese cinema owners took the unilateral decision to reduce the number of
European films and show films from
Asia, particularly India. It was not clear what motivated this decision; however,
it was likely that this was forced
on them by reduced European clientale and more interest from newly independent local residents – thus forcing
a rethink on the film screening policy.
There was an Indian community of sorts
in Kano. However, this remained aloof from the
local community, very much unlike the Lebanese who became heavily
involved in local commerce and indusry and learnt the Hausa language.
The Indian community
was predominantly made up of professionals – teachers, engineers, doctors – imported
during the economic prosperity of Nigeria
in the 1970s. They were not cultural
merchants, and had little interest
in the spread of their
culture – via an independent route – to the local community. A few,
however, did eventually got involved in retail trading of media products,
principally Hindi films on video tapes which
they imported from Dubai.
The Lebanese who owned the cinemas in
Kano at the time, and who decided what was screened,
were Christians, and the few Muslims amongst them were Shi’ite Muslims in contrast
to the dominant Sunni Islam of northern
Nigeria. The Lebanese
thus had little
reason to promote
Islamic films from the north
Africa (especially Egypt).
Since the main purpose of setting
up the cinemas for the local popular was entertainment, Hindi films with their spectacular sets, storylines that echo
Hausa traditional societies (e.g. forced marriage, love triangles of two men after the same girl, or two co-wives
married to the same man), mode of dressing
of the actors and actresses (hijab and body covering for women, long dresses
and caps for men), as well as the lavish
song and dances
would seem to fill the niche. Rex cinema (established in 1937) led to the way to
screening Hindi cinema in 1961 with Cenghiz
Khan (dir. Kenda Kapoor, 1957).
Thousands of others
that follow in all the other cinemas
included Raaste Ka Patthar (dir. Mukul Dutt,
1972), Waqt (dir. Yash Chopra, 1965),
Rani Rupmati (dir. S.N. Tripathi, 1957), Dost (dir. Dulal Guha, 1974) Nagin
(dir. Rajkumar Kohli, 1976), Hercules (dir. Shriram, 1964), Jaal (dir. Guru Dutt, 1952), Sangeeta (dir. Ramanlal Desai, 1950), Charas (dir. Ramanand
Sagar, 1976), Kranti (dir. Manoj Kumar, 1981),
Al-Hilal (dir. Ram Kumar.
1935), Dharmatama (dir. Feroz Khan,
1975), Loafer (dir. David Dhawan, 1996),
Amar Deep (dir. T. Prakash Rao, 1958), Dharam Karam
(dir. Randhir Kapoor,
1975) amongst others. From
the 1960s all the way to the 1990s Hindi cinema enjoyed significant exposure
and patronage among
Hausa youth.
And although predominantly based on
Hindu culture, mythology and traditions, there were very few Hindi films with an Islamic content
which glosses over the Hindu matrix, and which the Muslim Hausa readily identify with.
These faintly Muslim films (most adapted from
Arabian stories) included
Faulad (dir. Mohd. Hussien
Jr.,1963), Alif Laila (dir. K. Amarnath 1953),
Saat Sawal (dir. Babubhai
Mistry, 1971), Abe Hayat
(dir. Ramanlal Desai, 1955), and Zabak (dir. Homi Wadia, 1961) among
others. Interestingly, despite the strong influence of Pakistani Muslim scholars on Hausa Muslim youth in the 1970s
(especially through the writings of
Maryam Jameela, Syed Abu A. Maudodi), films from Lollywood (Lahore, Pakistan) were not in much favor, at least
in Kano. Thus by 1960s Hindi popular culture, at least what was depicted in Hindi films, was the predominant
foreign entertainment culture among
young urbanized Hausa viewers, and when the Hindi film moved to the small
screen TV, housewives at last became recognized in the entertainment ethos.
The increasing exposure to
entertainment media in various forms, from novels and tales written
in Arabic, to subsequently radio and television programs with heavy
dosage of
foreign contents due to paucity of
locally produced programs in the late 1950s and early 1960s provided more sources of Imamanci (Abubakar Imam’s methodology of adaptation) for Hausa authors.
The 1960s saw more media influx into the Hausa
society and media in all forms—from the written word to visual formats—was used for political, social and educational purposes.
One of the earliest novels to incorporate these multimedia elements—combining prose fiction with visual media—and departing from the
closeted simplicity of the earlier Hausa novels, was Tauraruwa Mai Wutsiya [The
Comet] by Umar Dembo (1969). This novel reflects the first noticeable influence of Hindi cinema on Hausa writers who
had, hitherto tended to rely on
Arabic and other European literary sources for inspiration. Indeed, Tauraruwa Mai Wutsiya is a collage of various influences on the writer,
most of which derived directly
from the newsreels and
television programming (Abdullahi, 1978). It was written at the time of media coverage of American Apollo lunar
landings as constant news items, and Star
Trek television series (first
created by Gene Roddenberry in 1966) as constant entertainment fodder on RTV Kaduna. The novel chronicles
the adventures of an extremely energetic and
adventurous teen, Kilɓa, with a fixation on stars and star travel,
wishing perhaps to go “boldly where
no man has gone before” (the tagline from Star
Trek TV series). He is befriended
by a space traveling alien, Kolin Koliyo, who promises to take him to the
stars, only if the boy passes a series of tests. One of them involves magically teleporting the boy to a meadow outside the village. In the
next instance, a massive wave of water approaches the boy, bearing an exquisitely beautiful smiling maiden, Bintun
Sarauta, who takes his hand and dives with him to an undersea city,
Birnin Malala, to a lavish palace with jacuzzi-style marbled bathrooms with equally beautiful serving maidens. After
refreshing, he dresses in black
jacket and white shirt (almost a dinner suit) and taken to a large hall to meet
a large gathering of musicians (playing
siriki or flutes) and dancers.
When the music begins—an integrative
music that included drums, flutes, and other wind- instruments, as well as hand-claps; all entertainment features
uncharacteristic of Hausa musical styles
of the period—a singing duo, Muhammadul Waƙa (actually Kolin Koliyo, the space
alien, in disguise) and Bintun Waƙe serenade his arrival in high-octave (zaƙin murya) voices, echoing singing
duets of Hindi film playback
singers, Lata Mangeshkar and Muhammad Rafi—the
Bintun Waƙe and Muhammadul Waƙa of Tauraruwa Mai Wutsiya.
This scene, unarguably the first
translation of Hindi film motif into Hausa prose fiction, and which
was to give birth to Hindinization of Hausa video films, displays
the author’s penchant
for Hindi films and describes Hindu temple rituals; in Hausa Muslim
music structures, limamai (priests) do not attend
dance-hall concerts or participate in the dancing. In Hindu culture,
however, they do, since the dances are part of Hindu rituals
of worship. Other Hindi films
that lend their creative inspiration in the novel’s
dancing scene included
Hatimtai (dir. Homi Wadia, 1956) and Hawa Mahal (dir. B.J. Patel,
1962) with their
elaborate fairytale-ish stories
of mythology and adventure.
Starting in 1976, the local TV station,
NTA Kano, started showing Hindi films at its “late night movies” slots on Fridays.
These films were sponsored by local manufacutirng companies, owned by resident Lebanese merchants, producing
essentially domestic goods – detergents, cleaners, food items, bedding
materials etc – targeted at housewives. Thus a link between Hindi cinema on the small
screen and the domestic space of the Muslim Hausa hold was established. Eventually, since Muslim women were banned
from going to theaters,
houswives partook in the same urban
culture of Hindi cinema as their male counterparts through the small screen
medium of television.
Within a year, and spurred by
advertising returns, more companies had shown interest in sponsoring the screening of Hindi films as
a platform to advertise their products. Thus from 1977 to 2003, Unifoam sponsored the showing of Hindi films on
NTA Kano, while Dala Foods Ltd sponsored the Hindi film screenings from 1982 to 1985. Between
the two of them, the firms made it possible for NTA Kano
to broadcast 1,176 Hindi films through television from October 2nd 1977 when the first Hindi film was shown (Aan Baan), to 7th June 2003.
Hindi
films gained greater
prominence because they were shown not just for a longer period
of time on television, but also on days and times guaranteed to gain
maximum audience attention (Fridays
and weekends). No films from other parts of Africa (e.g. Senegal with its vibrant film culture) were shown; and
other Nigerian features were restricted to the drama series. Ironically enough there was even no attempt by the
Lebanese firms (especially Dala Foods
Ltd and Unifoam Ltd) who sponsored the airing of the Hindi films (and who also distribute them through other subsidiaries) to encourage showing
of the cinema of the Middle East on local channels, especially from
Pakistan or Egypt, the latter of which had a vibrant film culture with which the Hausa could identify with,
especially with the presence of the Egyptian
Cultural Center in Kano. However, as pointed earlier, out that the Lebanese
film distributors in Kano were not mainly
Muslim; and indeed
the few Muslim Lebanese in Kano subscribed to Shi’ite brand of
Islam—which further created a religious spasm between their community and the predominanlty local Sunni community. Consequently, the Lebanese
had no compelling reason to promote
Islamic cinema in Muslim Hausa
northern Nigeria.
Westown inn
To further facilitate this
Hindinization of Hausa entertainment was the repeated plays of songs from popular Hindi films on Hausa
radio request shows targeted at women. Listeners to the programs send greetings to each other and often request for specific songs to be played. The list of the songs played had heavy dosage of Hindi
film and Sudanese
music—along with Hausa
music, giving legitimacy to the view that Hindi,
Sudanese and Hausa
music are all the same. No music from southern
Nigeria is played
in these shows.
Screen to Street—Hausa Adaptations of Popular Hindi Film Music
Hindi films became popular simply
because of what urbanized young Hausa saw as cultural similarities between Hausa social behavior and mores and those
depicted in Hindi films. Further,
with heroes and heroines sharing almost the same dress code as Hausa (flowing saris,
turbans, head covers, especially in the earlier historical Hindi films
which were the ones predominantly shown in cinemas throughout northern Nigeria in the 1960s) young Hausa saw reflections of themselves and their lifestyles in Hindi films, far more than in American films.
Added to this is the appeal of the soundtrack music, the song and dance
routines which do not have ready equivalents in Hausa traditional entertainment ethos. Soon enough cinema-goers started to mimic the Hindi film songs they saw and hear during repeated
radio plays.
Four
of the most popular Hindi
films in northern
Nigeria in the 1960s and which provided
the meter for adaptation of
the tunes and lyrics to Hausa street and popular music were Rani Rupmati,
Chori Chori (dir. Anant Thakur,1956),
Amar Deep and Kabhie Kabhie (dir. Yash Chopra, 1976).
The first of this entertainment cultural leap from screen to street was made by predominantly young boys who, incapable of
understanding Hindi film language, but captivated by the songs in the films they saw, started to use the meter of the
playback songs, but substituting the
“gibberish” Hindi words with Hausa prose. A fairly typical example of street
adaptation was from Rani Rupmati, as transcribed in Table 1.
Table 1 – Itihas Agar Likhna Chaho Transcription
Itihaas Agar… (Rani Rupmati) |
English Translation |
Hausa playground version |
Translation |
Itihaas agar likhana chaho, |
If the chronicles |
Ina su cibayyo
ina sarki |
Where are the warriors and the King |
Itihaas agar likhana chaho |
If the chronicles |
Ina su waziri
abin banza |
Where are the warriors and the King |
Azaadi ke mazmoon
se |
of the freedom
of our land are to be recorded |
Mun je yaki mun dawo |
We have been
to the battle and return |
(Chor) Itihaas agar likhana
chaho |
(chor) If the chronicles |
Mun samu sandan
girma |
We have come
back with a trophy |
Azaadi ke majmoon se |
…of the freedom
of our land are to be recorded |
Ina su cibayyo
in sarki |
Where are the warriors and the King |
To seencho apni dharti ko |
Then be ready
to give your
lives |
Ina su wazirin
abin banza |
Were is the Vizier, the
useless cad! |
Veeroon tum
upne khoon se |
To your land |
|
|
Har har har mahadev |
Let each of us sacrifice ourselves to Mahdeev |
Har har har Mahadi |
Har har har Mahadi |
Allaho Akubar |
Allah is the Greatest |
Allahu Akbar |
Allahu Akbar |
Har har har mahadev |
Let each of us sacrifice ourselves to Mahdeev |
Har har har Mahadi |
Har har har Mahadi |
Allaho Akubar… |
Allah is the Greatest |
Allahu Akbar… |
Allahu Akbar… |
The Hausa translation—which is about returning
successfully from a battle—actually captured the essence of the original song,
if not the meaning which the Hausa could not
understand, which was sung in the original
film in preparations for a battle. The fact that the lead singer in the film and the song, a
woman, was the leader of the troops made the film even more captivating to an audience used to seeing women in
subservient roles, and definitely not in battles.
A further selling point for the song
was the Allahu Akbar refrain, which
is actually a translation, intended
for Muslim audiences of the film,
of Har Har Mahadev, a veneration of Lord Mahadev
(Lord Shiva, the Indian god of knowledge). Thus even if the Hausa
audience did not understand the dialogues, they did identify
with what sounded
o them like Mahdi,
and Allahu Akbar (Allah is the Greatest, and pronounced in the song
exactly as the Hausa pronounce it, as
Allahu Akbar) refrain—further
entrenching a moral lineage with the film, and
subsequently “Indians”. This particular song, coming in a film that opened the
minds of Hausa audience to Hindi
films became an entrenched anthem of Hausa popular culture, and by extension, provided
even the traditional folk singers with meters to borrow.
Thus the second leap from screen to
street was mediated by popular folk musicians in late 1960s and early 1970s led by Abdu Yaron Goge, a resident
goge (fiddle) player in Jos. Yaron
Goge was a youth oriented
musician and drafted by the leftist-leaning Northern Elements
People’s Union (NEPU) based
in Kano, to spice up their campaigns
during the run-up
to the party political campaigns in the late 1950s preparatory to Nigerian independence in 1960 (for more on Abdu Yaron goge and other fiddlers,
see DjeDje 2008).
A pure dance floor player with a troupe
of 12 male (six) and female (six) dancers, Abdu Yaron Goge introduced many dance patterns
and moves in his shows in bars, hotels and clubs in Kano, Katsina, Kaduna and Jos—further
entrenching his music to the moral “exclusion
zone” of the typical
Hausa social structure, and confirming low brow status on his music. The most
famous set piece was the bar-dance, Bansuwai,
with its suggestive moves—with derriere
shaken vigorously—especially in a combo mode with a male and a female dancer.
However, his greatest contribution to
Hausa popular culture was in picking up Hindi film playback songs and reproducing them with his goge, vocals and kalangu [African drum] often
made to sound like the Indian drum, tabla.
A fairly typical example, again from Rani Rupmati, was his adaptation of the few
lines of the song, Raati Suhani, from
the film, as transcribed in Table 2.
Table 2 – Raati Suhani Transcription
(Raati Suhani) |
Translation |
Hausa adaptation (Abdu Yaron
Goge) |
Translation |
Music interlude, with tabla, flute,
sitar |
|
Music interlude, with tabla simulation |
|
|
Mu gode Allah, taro |
People, let’s be grateful to Allah |
|
|
Mu gode
Allah, taro |
People, let’s be grateful to Allah |
|
Verse 1 |
|
|
|
Raati suhani, |
In the beauty of the night |
Duniya da daɗi, |
This world is a bliss |
djoome javani, |
My maidenhood gently sways |
Lahira da daɗi, |
The afterworld is also a bliss |
Dil hai deevana hai, |
My heart boils with love |
In da gaskiyar ka, Lahira da
daɗi |
If you are truthful, the afterworld will be a bliss |
Tereliye… |
Because of you |
In babu gaskiyarka, Lahira da zafi |
If you’re not truthful The afterworld will be hell |
The Hausa lyrics was a sermon to his
listeners, essentially telling them they reap what they sow when they die and go to heaven (to wit, “if you are good,
heaven is paradise, if you are bad, it is hell”).
It became his anthem, and repeated radio plays
ensured its pervasive presence in Muslim
secluded households, creating
a hunger for the original
film song.
In both the adaptations of the lyrics,
the Hausa prose has, of course, nothing to do with the actual Hindi wordings.
However the meter of the Hindi songs became instantly
recognizable to Hausa
audience, such that those who had not seen the film went to see it. Since women were prohibited since 1970s from entering
cinemas in most northern Nigerian cities, radio stations took to playing the records from the popular Hindi
songs. This had the powerful effect of bringing Hindi soundtrack music right into the bedrooms
of Hausa Muslim
housewives who, sans the visuals, were at least able to partake in this
transnational flow of media.
Such popularity eventually found its
way even into Hausa religious space, and Hindi film songs became easily adaptable to local song meters and patterns, especially by religious poets
who were conviced that they can
substitute the Hindi references to Hindu gods in Islamic- themed replacements praising
Prophet Muhammad. In this way, the first to appropriate Hindi film songs were Islamiyya
(modernized Qur’anic schools)
school pupils, who started adapting
Hindi film music.
Some of the more notable
adaptations are listed in Table 3:
Table 3 – Islamic Hindinization of Hindi film soundtrack songs
Song from Hindi Film Hausa Adapted
Islamic Song
Ilzaam (dir. Shibu Mitra, 1986) Manzon Allah Mustapha [Messenger of Allah,
Mustapha]
Rani Rupmati (1957) Ɗaha
na Ɗaha Rasulu [Muhammad the Pure] Mother India (dir. Mehboob
Khan 1957) Mukhtaru Abin Zaɓi [Muhammad the Chosen One]
Aradhana (dir.
Shakti Samanta, 1969) Mai Yafi Ikhwana? [What is better than
Brotherhood?]
The Train (dir. Ravikant
Nagaich 1970) Lale
Da Azumi [Welcome,
Ramadan]
Fakira (dir. N.N. Sippy, 1976) Manzo na Mai Girma [My Reverred
Prophet] Yeh Vaada Raha (dir. Kapil Kapoor 1982) Ar-Salu Maceci na [The
Prophet, my savior] Commando (dir. Babbar Subhash,
1988) Sayyadil Bashari
[Leader of the People]
Qayamat Se Qayamat Tak (dir. Mansoor
Khan. 1988)
Sayyadil Akrami
[Reverred Leader]
Yaraana (dir. Rakesh Kumar, 1981) Mu Yi Yabon sa Babu Kwaɓa
[Let’s Praise him purely]
Dil To Pagal Hai (dir. Yash Chopra, 1997) Watan Rajab
[The month of Rajab]
These
adaptations, which were purely vocal,
without any instrumental accompaniment, were principally in the 1980s and 1990s
during particularly religious resurgence in northern Nigeria post-1979 Iranian Islamic revolution which provided a
template for many Muslim clusters to re-orient their entire life towards Islam in Muslim
northern Nigeria. Entertainment was thus adapted to the new Islamic ethos. Thus while not
banning watching Hindi films – despite
the fire and brimstone sermonizing of many noted Muslim scholars – Islamiyya school teachers developed all-girl choirs
that adapt the Islamic messaging, particularly love for the Prophet Muhammad, to Hindi film soundtrack meters. The
basic ideas was to wean girls and
boys away from repeating Hindi film lyrics which they did not know, and which could contain references to multiplicity of gods characteristic Hindu religion.
Having
perfected the system that gets children to sing something
considered more spiritually meaningful than the Hindi words in Hindi film
soundtracks,
structured
music organizations started to appear
from 1986, principally in Kano, devoted
to singing the praises of the Prophet
Muhammad. These groups
– using the bandiri (frame drum) – are usually
led by poets and singers, and
they are collectively referred to as Ƙungiyoyin Yabon Annabi [Groups for Singing the Praises of the
Prophet Muhammad]. The more notable of these in the Kano area include Ushaqul Nabiyyi (established in 1986),
Fitiyanul Ahbabu (1988), Ahawul
Nabiyyi (1989), Ahababu Rasulillah
(1989), Mahabbatu Rasul (1989), Ashiratu Nabiyyi (1990) and Zumratul
Madahun Nabiyyi (1990).
All of these are led by mainstream Islamic poets and rely on conventional methods of composition for
their works, often performed
in mosques or community plazas (Isma’ila 1994). Most are vocal groups, singing a capella, although a few have started to use the bandiri (frame drum) such as Rabi’u Usman Baba, and Yamaha piano-synthesizer, such as Kabiru Maulana,
as instruments during their performances.
The most unique, however, is Ƙungiyar Ushaq’u Indiya [Society for the
Lovers of India] (Larkin 2004).
Although they are devotional, focusing
attention on singing
the praises of the
Prophet Muhammad, they differ from the
rest in that they use the metre of songs from
traditional popular Hausa music and substitute the lyrics of
these songs with words indicating their almost ecstatic
love for the Prophet Muhammad.
However, upon noticing
that Islamiyya school pupils were making hits, as it were, out of Hindi film
soundtrack adaptations,
Ƙungiyar Ushaq’u Indiya quickly changed tack and re-invented itself as Ushaq’u Indiya,
focusing its attention on adapting Hindi film music and substituting the Hindi
lyrics with Hausa lyrics, praising
the Prophet Muhammad.
Notably, the Ushaq’u Indiya singers rely significantly on
onomatopoeia to appropriate equivalent
elements from the Hindi film songs to adapt via Hausa poetics. For example, ‘Kuchie-Kuchie’ from the film Rakshak
became ‘Kuci Muci’ in Hausa [you eat, we also eat]. Like the Hausa shamans who create new translations of the
Qur’an by adapting it into Hausa vocal
amulets, the Ushaq’u Indiya singers and poets also use vocal harmony
to create equivalent renditions of Hindi film songs
in Hausa. These renditions, of course, are not
‘direct’ in the sense that there is no semantic relationship between the Hausa versions and the Hindi originals — in fact Ushaq’u Indiya
were not trying to ‘translate’ the Hindi songs; rather, they exploit the metres and sounds of Hindi songs and
lyrics to publicize their art among
an audience already enamoured with Hindi film songs. Table 4 is a small sample from over 200 Hindi film song
appropriations by the group, based on
intertextual analysis of their archival recordings obtained during fieldwork.
Table 4 – Hindi film appropriation by Ushaq’u Indiya (Lovers of Indiya).
Hindi Film |
Film Song |
Ushaqu Indiya Hausa
Appropriation |
Rakshak (dir. Ashok
Honda, 1996) |
Koochie – Koochie |
Kuchi Muchi |
Rakshak (dir. Ashok
Honda, 1996) |
Sundra – Sundra |
Zahra-Zahra gun ki nazo bara |
Yash (dir. Sharad
Saran, 1996) |
Subah-Subah Jab kirki kole |
Zuma-Zuma mai garɗi |
Lahu ke do Rang (dir.
Mehul Kumar, 1997) |
Hasino Ko Aate Hai |
Hassan da Hussain Jikokin Nabiy
na |
Dil (dir. Indira
Kuma, 19900 |
Humne Ghar Choda
Hai |
Manzon Allah Ɗahe |
Anari (dir. Hrishikesh Mukherjee, 1959) |
Diwana me Diwana |
Rasulu Abin dubana |
Kala sona (dir.
Ravikant Nagaich, 1975) |
Se Sun Sun
Kasam |
Sannu Mai Yassarabu ɗan Kabilar Arabu |
Coolie No 1 (dir. David
Dhawan, 1995) |
Goriya churana mera
jiya |
Godiya muke wa sarki ɗaya |
Ragluveer (dir. K. Pappu, 1995) |
O Jaanemann Chehra Tera |
Na zo neman
tsari ceto |
Johny I love
you (dir. Rakesh
Kumar, 1982) |
Kabhi-Kabhi Bezubaan Parvat Bolate |
Kabi – kabi Annabi mu in ka ki shi za ka sha
wuya |
Boxer (dir. Raj N. Sippy,
1984) |
Janu Na jaane kab se Tujhko
pyar |
Yanu-na yanu na ba wani
tamkarka |
Hum (dir. Mukul
S. Anand, 1991) |
Jumma Chumma
Dede |
Zuma- zumar bege mun sha |
Abe Hayat (dir.
Ramanlal Desai, 1955) |
Main gareebon ka dil hoon |
Na gari mu ke yabo Shugaban Al’umma |
Shaan (dir. Ramesh
Sippy, 1980) |
Janu meri jaan metere
kurbaan |
Jani – babuja ba tamkar
kur’an |
Like all the other songs in their
repertoire, the songs are not based on attempts to translate the original meanings of the titles of the
Hindi film songs; rather refrains, chorus, and main lines are identified and their Hausa substitutes used in
rendering the original song. Thus the double meaning
of ‘interpretation’ (Newmark
1991, 35), which is both the technical
term for spoken translation but also hints at the
act of transformation that occurs in the example I have given here, comes to
the fore in the Ushaq’u Indiya singers’ translations of Hindi film songs.
The Hausa youth obsession with Hindi
language and culture was further illustrated by the appearance, in 2003 of what was possibly the first Hausa-Hindi language primer in
which a Hausa author,
Nazeer Abdullahi Magoga
published Fassarar Indiyanchi a Saukake —
Hindi Language Made Easy as shown in Fig. 1.
Fig. 1 – Hausa-Hindi Phrase Books
The
author is pictured
wearing Hausa cap among Bollywood super stars on the covers
of the books. Like most Hausa, the author equates “Hindi” with Indian, not acknowledging that India is a political expression comprising many ethnic
and language groups.
For instance, 14 languages
are mentioned in the constitution of India. There is thus no singular “Indian” language
as such., much as there is no singular “Nigerian” language.
These books become all the more
significant in that they are the first books in Hausa language that show the vivid
effects of media
parenting. It is thus through
the books that we learn the meanings of some of the titles
of 47 popular Hindi films such as Sholay (Gobara,
fire outbreak), Kabhi-Kabhie (wani sa’in, other times), Agni Sakshi (zazzafar shaida, strong
evidence), Darr (tsoro, fear), Yaraana (abota,
friendship), Dillagi (zaɓin zuciya, heart’s choice), Maine Pyar Kiya (na faɗa
cikin soyayya, fallen in love) and others. Volume 1 also contains the complete transliteration of
Hindi lyrics translated into Romanized Hausa, of Maine Pyar Kiya and Kabhi-Khabie.
Magoga started
working on the first volume, Fassar Indiyanchi in
1996, and when the Hausa
video film boom started in 2000 he published the book. He has three others planned;
a second volume of the books in which takes the
language acquisition to the next level—focusing on culture and customs of India (or more precisely, Hindu). The
other two books, still planned are
“song books”, Fassarar Waƙoƙin Indiya (Translations
of Hindi Film Songs) in two volumes.
In an interview I held with Magoga on March 19, 2004 in Kano, northern
Nigeria, the author
narrated how he became deeply interested in learning the Hindi language
from watching thousands of Hindi films,
and subsequently conceived of the idea of writing
a series of phrase books on Hindi language. In 2005 he was
given a one-hour slot on Radio Kano FM during
which he presents Mu Kewaya Indiya
[let us visit India], a program in which he translates Hindi film songs into Hausa. His fluency
in Hindi language
was such that in 2007 it attracted
BBC World Service,
London, which held a live-on-air interview with him about his life with an
Indian journalist, Indu Shekhar Sinha, in Hindi. This attracted so much
attention in India that the BBC
Delhi office sent a crew to interview Magoga in Kano in July 2008. The crew was led by Rupa Jha who recorded
the entire interview
in Hindi language
at the Tahir Guest Palace hotel in Kano and which was
broadcast in India. Subsequently Magoga became a singer in Kano, holding concerts (‘majalisi’) during which he
sings the praises of venerated Sufi saints
as well as local politicians in Hindi (often dressing in Indian clothes).
He was also given a slot at
Farin Wata, an independent Television Studio in Kano during which he presents a ‘request program’ in which
viewers request for historical details of a particular film and request
a particular song. The screen
shots in Fig. 2 shows how Magoga
dresses for the part.
Fig 2. Nazeer Magoga Presenting ‘Bollywood Stan’ in a Local
TV Studio
By 2012 Magoga has been given a series
of slots in various radio and TV stations across northern Nigeria where he translates Hindi lyrics into Hausa and
holds continuous fluent conversation
in Indi with phone-in listeners. He also became a singer, releasing an album in September 2012 which contain various
Islamic devotional and political songs in Hausa and Hindi.
Hausa Appropriations of Popular Hindi Film Music
Hindi films became popular simply
because of what urbanized young Hausa saw as cultural similarities between Hausa social behavior and mores and those
depicted in Hindi films. As Brian Larkin
(2004, 100) noted,
Many
Hausa, for instance, argue that Hausa and Hindi are descended from the same
language—an argument also voiced to me by an Indian
importer of films
to account for their popularity. While wrong in terms of linguistic evolution, this
argument acknowledges the substantial presence of Arabic and English loanwords in both languages, a key
factor in creating this perceived sense of similarity and which helps many Hausa “speak Hindi.”
Bettina David (2008) records similar
observations about the cultural relationships between Hindi films and Indonesian public culture, where she notes that
for many Indonesians, “Bollywood still seems to represent something
similar to their own culture
in being distinctively non-Western.” (183).
Further, with heroes and heroines sharing almost the same dress code as Hausa (flowing saris, turbans,
head covers, especially in the earlier historical Hindi films which were the
ones predominantly shown in cinemas
throughout northern Nigeria in the 1960s) young Hausa saw reflections of themselves and their lifestyles in Hindi films,
far more than in American
films. Added to this is the appeal of the soundtrack music, the song and dance routines which do not have ready
equivalents in Hausa traditional entertainment ethos. Soon enough cinema-goers started to mimic the Hindi film songs
they saw. The next nexus of Hausa popular culture to adopt the Hindi film format therefore was the Hausa
video film.
Screen to Screen – the Hausa Video Film Soundtrack
Hausa video films as a major
entertainment focus started with the production of the first Hausa film on cassette in March 1990. It was Turmin Danya (dir.
Salisu Galadanci). The first Hausa video films from 1990 to 1994
relied on traditional music ensembles to compose the soundtracks, with koroso music
predominating. The soundtracks were just that – incidental background music to accompany the film,
and not integral to the story. There was often
singing, but it is itself embedded in the songs, for instance during
ceremonies that seem to feature in
every drama film. However, the availability of the synthesizer keyboards such
as the Casiotone MT-140 and Yamaha
PSR, as well as pirated music making software such as FruityLoops Reason 3.0, and editing software such as Cool Edit
and Adobe Audition, the Hausa video
film acquired a more transnational pop focus and outlook creating what I call Hausa Technopop music – a genre of music
that departed considerably from its antecedent
African acoustic roots, and embraced Hindi film melodies exclusively, if
retaining Hausa language lyrics.
This follows a
trajectory similar to the evolution of Indonesian popular music, dangdut, “a hybrid pop music extremely popular among the lower classes that
incorporates musical elements from
Western pop, Hindi film music, and indigenous Malay tunes” (Bettina David 179). In Indonesia Hindi films were
shown after independence in 1945 as entertainment for Indian troops that were part of the English contingent.
Subsequently, the films were shown massively
on local television and thus the eventually served as a model for the
development of Indonesian films – just as the Hausa video
filmmakers adopt Hindi film templates in their films, in addition to appropriating many Hindi films directly into Hausa language
versions.
While a lot of the songs in the Hausa
video films were original to the films, yet quite a sizeable are direct
appropriations of the Hindi film soundtracks – even if the Hausa main film
is not based on a Hindi film. This, in effect means a Hausa video film can
have two sources of Hindi
film “creative inspiration” – a film for the storyline (and fight sequences), and songs from
a different film.
Table 5 lists the Hindi inspirations for few of the 128 Hausa video films appropriated from Hindi films. This was
based on analysis of 615 Hausa home videos and
discussions with producers, cast, crew and editors from 2000 to 2003
during fieldwork for a larger
study.
Table 5 – Inspirations from the East:
Hindi as Hausa
Film Songs
Hausa Film |
Playback Song |
Hindi Film |
Playback Song |
Hisabi |
Zo Mu Sha
Giya |
Gundaraj (dir. Guddu
Dhanoa, 1995) |
Mena Meri Mena Meri |
Alaqa |
Duk Abin
Da Na Yi |
Suhaag (dir.
Balwant Bhatt,1940) |
Gore Gore Gore Gore |
Alaqa |
Sha Bege |
Mann (dir.
Indra Kumar, 1999) |
Mera Mann |
Darasi |
Tunanin Rai Na |
Mann (dir.
Indra Kumar, 1999) |
Tinak Tini
Tana |
Farmaki |
Suriki Mai Kyau |
Kabhi Khushi
Kabhie Gham... (dir.
Karan Johar, 2001) |
Surat Huwa Mat Dam |
Hisabi |
Don Allah Taho
Rausaya |
Angrakshak (dir. Ravi Raja Pinisetty, 1995) |
Ham Tumse Na Hi |
Shaida |
Na Fi Ki Yi Haƙuri |
Darr (dir.
Yash Chopra, 1993) |
Jadoo Tere
Magal |
Laila |
Laila Laila Laila |
Zameer (dir.,
Ravi Chopra, 1975) |
Lela Lela Lela |
Gudun Hijira |
Ga Wani Abu Na Damun
Shi |
Josh (dir. A Karim, 1950) |
Hari Hari Hari |
Aniya |
Gamu Mu Na Soyayya |
Josh (dir.
A Karim, 1950) |
Hari HariHari |
Gudun Hijira |
Ina Ka ke Ya Masoyi
Na |
Mast (dir. Ram Gopal Varma,
1999) |
Ruki Ruki |
Gudun Hijira |
Gudun Hijra |
Dhadkan (dir. Dharmesh Darshan, 2000) |
Dil Ne He Ka Ha He Dil
Se |
Ibro Dan Indiya |
Sahiba Sahiba |
Rakshak (dir.
Ashok Honda, 1996) |
Sundara San |
Tasiri 2 |
Kar Ki Ji Komai |
Wardaat (dir. Ravikant Nagaich, 1981) |
Baban Jayi |
UmmulKhairi |
Ina Wahala |
Mohabbat (dir.
Reema Rakesh Nath,
1997) , |
Mohabbat Ti He |
Kasaita |
Ni Na San Ba Ki Da Haufi |
Major Saab (dir.
Tinnu Anand, 1998) |
Ekta He Pal Pal Tumse |
Darasi |
Duk Girma
Na Sai Kin Sa Na Yi |
Hogi Pyaar
Ki Jeet (dir.
P. Vasu, 1999) |
Ho Dee Bana |
Taqidi |
Ni A’a |
Ayya Pyar |
Jodi Pyar |
Al’ajabi |
Ayyaraye Lale |
Ram Balram
(1980) |
Ka Ci Na Gari Mil Gay |
Jazaman |
Ai Na San Mai
So Na |
Lahu Ke Do Rang
(1997) |
Awara Pagal
Dibana |
There is a radical difference in the
translation styles used between Ushaqu and Hausa video filmmakers. Whereas the Ushaqu singers
attempt a poetic
vocal harmony between
the source sound and treating
it as text, and target sound, Hausa video filmmakers use only the musical harmonies of the source
sound, ignoring its textual properties. In fact in my repertoire of over 50 re-renderings I could locate
only one track
from the Hindi
film, Zameer (dir. Ravi Chopra, 1975) which had onomatopoeic property with its corresponding Hausa version, as highlighted in Table 5. Leila/Layla are both common female names among Muslim Hausa. In a
way, therefore, the Hindi film songs in Hausa video films are cover versions
rendered locally. The originals
do not simply disappear because a local one is available—for the purpose was not to displace the transnational originals; but to prove prowess in copying the transnational songs.
The Hindi originals are increasing becoming
available on DVDs stuffed with often over 100 songs in MP3 format and sold for less
than US$1 if one bargains hard enough from street media vendors selling
them in push carts and wheel barrows.
Thus besides providing templates for
storylines, Hindi films provide Hausa home video makers with similar templates for the songs they use in their
videos. The technique often involves picking
up the thematic elements of the main Hindi film song, and then substituting with Hausa lyrics—creating translation equivalency. Consequently, anyone familiar with the Hindi film song element will easily
discern the film from the Hausa home video equivalent. Although this process of adaptation is extremely success because the video film producers
make more from films with song and
dances than without, there are often dissenting voices about the intrusion of the new media technology into the film
process, as reflected in this letter from a correspondent:
I
want to advise northern Nigerian Hausa film producers that using European music
in Hausa films is contrary to
portrayal of Hausa culture in films (videos). I am appealing to them
(producers) to change their style. It
is annoying to see a Hausa film with a European music soundtrack. Don’t the
Hausa have their own (music)?...The
Hausa have more musical instruments than any ethnic group in this country, so why can’t
films be produced
using Hausa traditional music? Umar Faruk Asarani, Letters
page, Fim, No 4, December 1999, p. 10. (My translation of original Hausa language source).
Interestingly, other musical sources
are often used as templates. Thus a Hindi film template can often have songs borrowed form a totally different source.
Ibro Ɗan Indiya (pr. Nasiru ‘Dararrafe’ Salisu, 2002) for instance,
with had an adaptation of a song from Mohabbat (1997, dir. Reema Rakeshnath) contains an adaptation of a composition by Oumou Sangare,
the Malian diva, Ah Ndiya (Oumou
Sangare 2003). This was appropriated as “Malama Dumbaru” in the Hausa video
film version, and remains the only African
rendering that I am aware
of.
Conclusion
In this paper I looked at three styles of vocal performances in the domestication of transnational source
text into Hausa.
The first was the onomatopoeic use of selected
Qur’anic texts by Hausa
shamans for their public culture clients who seek cure for one problem or other. In the second and third instances,
this provided a ready template for the use of both onomatopoeia and equivalence as translation devices by purveyors
of the Hausa popular culture industries in musical performances and video films in their appropriation of transcultural
entertainment products, which they rework for their local clients. However, a transitory route was via official
translation of selected Middle Eastern stories into Hausa language—thus conferring on Hausa popular culture
a transcultural base.
In trying to determine what constitutes global culture, John Tomlinson (1999, 24) argues that
The
globalised culture that is currently emerging is not a global culture in any
utopian sense. It is not a culture
that has arisen out of the mutual experiences and needs of all of humanity…It
is, in short, simply the global extension of Western culture.
The problem with this view, as argued
by J. Macgregor Wise (2008, 35) is that it assumes that
the
process of globalization is a one-way flow: from the West (read: America) to
the rest. Especially in the 1970s,
media scholarship supported this view, giving evidence of how the West
dominated the global film and
television industries as well as the international news services such as the
Associated Press and Reuters…It also assumes that this process
is uniform and occurs in the same way everywhere. That is, it assumes that the
world will become homogenized, that it will look the same wherever
you go.
However, there are other mediascapes
besides Western. In South America, the Brazilian Telenovelas were spectacularly successful within not only South
American continent, but also across
the world. As Benaivdes (2008,
2) suggested,
It
is a testament to the telenovela’s success that many of the plot lines are
reused or that a telenovela will be rebroadcast in different countries
after being adapted to their national language
and cultural
configuration.
This transnational element is only heightened by the
incredible export success of telenovelas throughout the Americas
(including the United States) and all over the world. Latin American telenovelas have been exported,
with extraordinary cultural implications, to Egypt, Russia, and China, as well
as throughout Europe.
In a similar way, Hindi films have
provided powerful alternatives of imagined realities to Western mediascape (e.g. Vasudevan 2000, Kripalani 2005,
Mehta 2005, Larkin 2003). Thus, for many
non-Western countries,
Over the decades, Hindi films emerged
as an accessible, visual and ideological alternative to prescriptive,
evolutionary patterns of development advocated by some Hollywood films and
other select First World countries. (Shresthova, 13).
In Indonesian popular culture,
Contemporary
Indonesian public culture increasingly reorients itself, looking to other
non-Western social, cultural, and
religious forms as alternatives in the struggle to define a modern identity
without becoming totally
“Westernized.” (David, 195).
In Africa, the Nigerian film industry,
Nollywood, has emerged in recent years as a powerful pan-African film industry not only in the individual countries of Africa, but in Black diaspora (see for instance, Ebewo 2007, Haynes,
2000, Haynes and Okome 1998, McCall 2004, Offord
2009, Omoera 2009, Postcolonial Text,
“Nollywood: West African Cinema,” Vol 3, No
2, 2007, and Film International #28,
“Welcome to Nollywood: Africa Visualizes,” August 1, 2007).
Consequently, as Arjun Appadurai (1996)
also argued, globalization is not a single process happening everywhere in the same way. Thus globalized culture
does not always have to mean Western culture, especially as the influence does not have to be vertical (from North to South), but could also be horizontal (from South to South). In northern Nigeria,
as indeed in other countries
sharing similar postcolonial experiences, the transcultural flow is in a different direction. It is this
multidirectional flow of transnational media influences that see the ready translation—using as many
devices as possible—of transnational popular culture into Hausa urban public culture.
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