SOAS Hausa Day – Celebrating Hausa literature and translation

We will celebrate Hausa literature with Hausa novelist and poet Sa'adatu Baba Ahmad and examine how Nigeria's universities are building translation infrastructure with Prof. Yakubu Magaji Azare, Director of the Centre for Research in Nigerian Languages, Translation, and Folklore, Bayero University

Schedule

• 2.00pm: 'A conversation on Hausa literature with Sa'adatu Baba Ahmad and Carmen McCain'
• 3.30pm: 'A decade of refocusing the Centre for Research in Nigerian Languages, Translation, and Folklore: Promoting Translation as a new mandate', Professor Yakubu Magaji Azare

The event will be followed by refreshments.

Speakers

Professor Yakubu Magaji Azare is the Director of the Centre for Research in Nigerian Languages, Translation, and Folklore, a Professor of Hausa Linguistics and Translation at Bayero University, Kano, and the editor-in-chief of two journals Algaita Journal of Hausa Studies and Harsunan Nijeriya. A linguist by training, he is a translator between Hausa, English, and Fulfulde and researcher of translation, including a recent examination of language equivalence in Hausa translations of Shakespeare. Among his translations are translations of “Selected writings and speeches of Mallam Aminu Kano” and ten books for Adolescent Health and Information Project and other foundations. 

He has written and co-edited 7 books, including Idioms in English-Hausa published by Ahmadu Bello University Press. As director of the CRNLTF, he has innovated online translation training programmes for professional translators and is currently coordinating the Bayero University portion of the online Hausa language programme for SOAS, University of London.

Sa’adatu Baba Ahmad is a novelist and poet who has written 23 novels and two books of poetry in addition to other poetry publications. In addition to her literary achievements, she has written weekly columns for Albishir and Aminiya newspapers and has also served as a staff writer for Leadership Hausa newspaper and as an editor for the online papers Zuma Times and Rahotannin Gaskiya. 

Professionally, Sa’adatu serves as the Public Relations Officer at Kano Emirate Council and as a Media advisor to the Kano emir. She is currently on leave from her position at Skyline University, Kano, while she pursues her PhD at the Institute for Humanities, Education, and Art Research at the University of Bedfordshire. Nine of her books are available for reading in the SOAS library Furniss Collection.

Event Series

This event is brought to you by SOAS Centre of African Studies, CAS in collaboration with the SLCL Tafsiri Research Culture Group co-led by Dr Ida Hadjivayanis and Dr Carmen McCain, and the ISPF institutional support grant (ODA). It will run both on campus and online.

It is part of several planned events this year which aim to promote Hausa language and culture and draw attention to the online Hausa language classes being offered at SOAS in collaboration with the Centre for Research in Nigerian Languages, Translation, and Folklore, at Bayero University, Kano.

The event is free, but please register on Eventbrite so we can plan refreshments. Registering on Zoom will enable you to attend the webinar.

Image: Sa'adatu Baba Ahmad's novels held in the SOAS library special collections (SOAS Library Special Collections)