Read his piece below...
In the northern part of Nigeria two vessels
were used as vehicles for conquest by the
Fulani: religion and language. Islam was
imposed by the force of arms and the use of
the sword by Sheik Usman Dan Fodio whilst
hausa, the language of the conquered people
of the old Habe kingdom, was adopted as the
official language of the new Fulani caliphate.
As brilliant and calculating as ever, the Fulani
ruling class insisted that Fulfulde, their own
native language, was spoken only by the
Fulani themselves.
To them their's was the language of emperors,
kings and conquerors and they refused to
allow their subjects and vassals to speak or
learn it because they considered them to be
nothing more than serfs and slaves.
For the conquered it was hausa that was to be
spoken and not Fulfulde because the latter
was considered to be too good for them.
There are over 100 distinct and independent
ethnic groups in northern Nigeria, each with
their own cultural and historical heritage and
distinct language, yet they are all compelled
to speak hausa.
Some of them have even forgotten their own
native language or never learnt to speak it in
the first place. Others do not know who they
are or where they are coming from.
Some do not even know that they ever had a
language or heritage of their own. Everything
for them, from beginning to end, has become
hausa. This speaks volumes.
Ironically the white Boers of apartheid South
Africa, who were originally from Holland,
adopted the same strategy of linguistic and
cultural conquest when they arrived in
southern Africa and established their
hegemony and racist enclave in the 17th
century.
Their native language was Afrikaans (which
was a local derivative of the Dutch language)
and, like the Fulanis of northern Nigeria, for
many generations they ensured that only they
were allowed to speak it.
The black South African natives were not
taught Afrikaans and they were not allowed to
speak it because it was considered to be the
language of the elite ruling class and their
racial masters.
Allowing them to speak it would bear the
implication that they were on the same level
as their religious, racial and cultural masters
and that was unacceptable.
They were only allowed to communicate in
their own native African languages and
english. This was very effective and it
essentially kept the conquered in their place
whilst it exalted the conqueror. That is the
power and secret of language and linguistic
conquest.
It is for this reason that the people of France,
for example, refuse to speak english with you
when you are in their country even though
their english may be fluent.
They recognise the fact that once they adopt
another man's language as being the one that
is commonly used in their own land it is an
acceptance of subjugation.
They acknowledge the fact that such a
concession or, to use a more appropiate word,
"submission", is essentially an acceptance and
wholehearted espousal of a sinister and subtle
form of cultural and linguistic imperialism.
Worst still it is symptomatic of the fact that
your own culture and language no longer
bears any relevance or has any value.
The English, who are undoubtedly the masters
of the game when it comes to the art of
cultural and linguistic imperialism, did it
successfully to the Scottish, the Welsh and the
Irish, all of whom had and spoke their own
distinct languages until they were conquered
and subjugated and turned into vassal states.
Today few of the Scottish, Welsh and Irish
people are able to speak their native
languages anymore. The language that they
all speak now is english, the language of their
oppressors.
Those that imposed and established hausa as
the lingua franca in the north and those that
seek to establish it as the lingua franca of
Nigeria know what they are doing and why
they are doing it: and so do their British and,
more recently, American friends and allies.
There is a long-term game plan unfolding and
a not-so-hidden agenda. Yet sadly it is only
those that are discerning, insightful, incisive
and historically-literate that can possibly
grasp or see it.
It is not for the dull, the unenlightened, the
uneducated or the slow. Such souls cannot
possibly grasp or understand such complex
issues and one can hardly blame them for
that because they are simply ignorant.
It is points like this that those in our country
that know no better and that believe that
hausa is just a "unique language" which
should be spoken and adopted by all in our
nation fail to comprehend.
Such people fail to appreciate the fact that if
you take a man's language and faith away
and super-impose another on him, for
whatever reason, that man loses his identity,
his heritage, his culture and his history and he
becomes absolutely nothing.
Once that is achieved he is successfully
stripped bare of who and what he once was
and all memory of the past is erased. That is
tragic.
From the 18th century when the Caliphate was
established in northern Nigeria the forceful
imposition of islam and the hausa language
were used by the Fulani as tools of conquest
and what the French describe as the "raison
d'etra" (which means "rationale") to dominate
and rule over the people of that region.
They used both to reduce the so-called
"minorities" of the north to slavery and
servitude. They also used both to humiliate
them and bring them to their knees.
It was brutal and ugly and it continued right
up until the time that there was no more
resistance and it was accepted as the norm.
Now they want to do the same thing to the
rest of Nigeria. Many fail to appreciate or
recognize this because they are shallow.
Yet a failure to fully grasp or appreciate such
things will eventually lead to nothing less
than slavery.
May God open our eyes, may He continue to
guide us and may He give us courage and
understanding. Shalom.
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