Article Citation: Abdullahi Sarkin Gulbi (2019). Cultural Endangerment and Renaissance: A Survey of Some Endangered Cultures and the Needs for their Revival in Hausaland. DEGEL: The Journal of the Faculty of Arts and Islamic Studies, Vol. 17, No. 2. ISSN 0794-9316
CULTURAL ENDANGERMENT AND
RENAISSANCE: A SURVEY OF SOME ENDANGERED CULTURES AND THE NEEDS FOR THEIR
REVIVAL IN HAUSALAND
By
Abdullahi
Sarkin Gulbi
Abstract
Cultural endangerment is a universal
phenomenon. In every society there exists a unique culture associated with
people, but it gradually changed, or even vanished or lost with time. Cultures
survive, spread, develop, and then change or get extinct in totality. This
paper is therefore intended to examine some endangered cultural heritages in
Hausaland. What motivates the researcher to carry out the research is the rapid
deterioration of our cultural values and the importance attached to the
documentation of such cultures for the benefit of scholars in the field of
Anthropology, in particular, and our younger generation in general. The paper
has attested to some possible reasons for the endangerment and need for the
revival of such cultures. The methodology and theoretical framework used in
carrying out the research is the Social Change Theory. It makes reference to
all the available documented materials on the subject under review. It is envisaged
that the expected findings of the research will contribute to knowledge and
scholarship in the area of Hausa Cultural studies.
Introduction
The culture of a people represents or encodes
their identity as it affords them due recognition. This paper is aimed at
examining the causes and consequences of rapid erosion of cultural values in
Hausaland. Social Change Theory was used as the guiding framework of the paper.
The study found out that there is a positive relationship between social forces
such as colonialism, westernization and cultural endangerment. It was also observed
that there is a positive relationship between the local family structure and
the foreign cultures. The study concludes that forceful imposition of foreign
culture undermines the existence of native or local cultures in Africa.
In sub-Saharan Africa, for example, peoples
and cultures are inseparable since there is no denial of the fact that what
makes any human society is, its culture. For a society to exist it must be
based on its cultural foundations; therefore, society and culture are
inseparable. In the same vein, going by the theory of environmental
determinism, the culture of any society is largely determined by its geography
or environment.
According to Linton (1945): “The culture of a
society is the way of life of its members, the collection of ideas and habits
which they learn, share and transmit from generation to generation.” He further
points out that: “Culture is a means for living held by members of a particular
society”.
The culture of a
people is their identity as it affords them due recognition. It is their
underlying distinguishing factor from other peoples and cultures. In fact, all
societies across the world have various and divergent cultures which they value
and practice. Nevertheless, no two cultures, when compared are completely the
same as attested to by ethnographers[1]. In
order for a society to operate functionally and effectively, therefore, they
must ensure and maintain strict and constant adherence to the various
components of their culture.
Tylor (1871) asserted that: “Culture is that
complex whole which includes knowledge, belief, arts, morals, customs, laws and
other capabilities which are learned, shared by men as members of society, and
transmitted from one generation to another.” Any laxity exhibited by its
custodians would result in rapid endangerment and disappearance of the
uniqueness of the people and their culture. Since the genesis of culture is as
old as man himself, without it man is reduced to an animal. Culture therefore
has two essential qualities: First, it is learned and second, it is shared
among members of a given society.
Sociologically, many
activities of members of any society such as eating, music, dancing,
occupation, education (formal, and non formal), visiting friends, courtship,
marriage (its forms and types), beliefs, naming and burial ceremonies,
entertaining friends and guests, greetings, and system of government, all are
found within the confines of non- material culture which is exclusively
preserve and concern of this study. Material aspects of culture which comprises
the physical and concrete elements or objects such as wears, pots, cutlass,
building, etc., is also important and complementary to our research paper.
Cultural Endangerment
This refers to a situation whereby some
cultures are gradually being eroded to some extent by members of a given
society. Cultural endangerment is closely related to migrating and
acculturating of culture either for a short or very long periods of time. The
resultant effect of which is cultural diffusion and endangerment.
Reasons for Cultural
Endangerment
There are many factors responsible for
cultural endangerment, but the most pronounced reasons are highlighted below;
- Economic factors: These are sometimes considered as
causes for cultural endangerment. They include inadequate economic
opportunities, on-going industrialization, rapid economic transformations,
migrant labor, resource depletion, forced changes in subsistence patterns,
communication with outside regions, resettlement, dispersion, migration,
destruction of habitat, and globalization, among others.
- Political factors: This
is something related to the
vitality of languages all over the world. These involve discrimination,
domination (as in the case of schools where use of native languages was
forbidden and punished), and due to official language policies.
- Subjective attitudes: (motivation) the attitudes of
some members of society in handling our native cultures also serve as a
threat to our cultures. This is because many Africans tend to percieve
foreign cultures as superior to their indigenous cultures. Yet, no culture is superior or inferior
to one another.
- Institutional support: This is more of the vitality of a
language. The absence of it can influence speakers to shift away from a
minority language. Institutional support includes representation in
schools, government, and the media. For example, Hausa language being a
lingua-franca in sub-Saharan Africa, deserve to be a national language in
Nigerian context, but due to lack of institutional support it is yet to be
considered as national language.
Each of these factors affects members of the society,
particularly younger generations, to have access to their indigenous cultures.
Lack of access can limit ability to acquire the cultural core values and can
drastically discourage members from using or learning the endangered cultures.
The Needs for
Cultural Renaissance
Indeed, Africa (particularly Hausaland) is in
serious need of a cultural renaissance. When one takes a critical look at the
African society of today, this need grows even more urgent. The average African
youth today appears to oppose his or her cultural roots and background. Take
the women folk, for instance, where in almost every street in African township
(Hausland inclusive) is dotted with a so called beauty salon, where women folk
spend most of their time fixing false hair and nails, bleaching their bodies
and practicing how to speak and sound un-African.
The
African youth of today has dropped the traditions and cultures of their
ancestors and ready to embrace western ways of life, just as they struggle to
take citizenships of western nations. Prostitution and other social vices have
become fashionable in many places. Respect for elders is declining in Hausa
society and generally Africans are behaving as people without cultures,
traditions, and heritages.
Despite the large numbers of mosques and
proliferation of religious preachers all over Hausaland, immorality,
corruption, greediness and other social vices have reached their peak, and all those
who wish the land well must be worried at this turn of events. As far as
indigenous languages are concerned, the Hausa youth of today is no longer sure
that his mother- tongue will remain relevant for communication in the future.
The official languages adopted in schools, media and parliament are languages
of our colonial masters, which have already begun endangering our local
tongues, at very fast rate.
Considering the prevailing situations, there
is a strong need to revive our cultural heritages, in order to compete with the
developed nations of the world, and our languages remain a priority in this
case.
Methodology and
Theory
Social Change Theory is adopted in carrying
out the research paper due to its relevance. Odetola (1978) sees social change
as primary change in social relations. Concisely he explains social change to
mean change in social structure, within the framework of such structural
changes, in social institutions.
Basic institutions
perform function for the society, thus these basic institutions are dynamic and
adaptive to change. It should be noted that the environment of social structure
requires certain amount of persistence in some of their features in order to perform
that expected function. Social change could either bring about progress for the
members of a society or visit them with retrogression. As human beings
collectively adapt themselves to their environment, they bring about changes to
their ways of life.
Survey and Analysis
of some Endangered Cultures in Hausaland
In this paper, we considered social change
that affects the dispersion of our culture both material and non material
aspects. Below are some selected endangered traditions in Hausaland.
Marriage
Procedures
Most of the cultures found in Hausa marriages
are not from the inherited cultures; they are neither Islamic nor traditional.
Take, for instance, the courtship (the period of a romantic relationship before
marriage). Preferably, it is the parents of the bridegroom who are responsible
to choose his bride to-be. This can be done after making due consultations with
the family members of both sides. But what is happening today is something
different. Both the bridegroom and his bride to-be will start their
relationship for a very long time without the consent of their parents. They
only involve them when they found it very necessary, without considering the
eligibility or otherwise from the side of the parents. In contemporary setting,
one of the easiest way by which our youth of today are making relationships
with girls is through schools, workplaces, and social media platform (facebook,
twitter, email, instgram etc). But the most important thing is that both
culture and religion (Islamic religion) have warned us to be very careful while
making decision on category of women to look for marriage, hence the laid down
criteria are very clear. Because of the endangerment of this culture, nowadays,
some parents give out their daughters in marriage without even knowing the
actual parents of the bridegroom.
Criteria
for Authenticating the Virginity of a Bride
This is an old tradition in many African
societies. The virginity or otherwise of the bride can be made known to the
public during her first night in matrimonial home. It is something to be proud
about for the entire family members that their daughter is a virgin, as such
she does not exposed the shame to the family, she maintained her virginity till
her marriage. The philosophy behind this aspect of culture is to protect our
young girls from involving in any act of sex before marriage. The reason for
the extinction of this culture in Hausaland is because of the modernity and
religious inclination that prohibits married couple from narrating what has transpired
between them to the third party. The consequence for the disappearance of this
culture from society has resulted in having unwanted abortion by our young
girls before marriage.
Calling
Husband’s Name
The culture of Hausa generally prohibits a
wife to call her husband’s name both at home and in public gatherings. This is
an indication of a feeling of shyness and level of dignity and respect to the
husband. But many women of today see nothing bad in it to address their
husbands with their proper nouns in public without due regard to their culture.
Even though there are some who coined special names to their husbands like
Honey, sweetheart, dear, Abban Ahmad, etc to represent their proper nouns due
to modernity. This culture is being eroded in our societies, except in rural
areas where our core cultural values are still in practice. Traditionally there
is a special name coined for the husband by his wife popularly known as “Sunan
kurya[2]”.
Naming a Child after
Birth
Naming ceremony can take place when a newly
born baby has reached his seventh day in the world. Family members, friends and
well-wishers will converge in the morning to attest his proper name after
scarifying an animal mostly a ram. After confirming the name to the public, the
mother of the child (if it is her first birth) is then prohibited to use the
proper name of the child. Whenever she addresses him or her with the name, she
will be considered as shameless. Today, this culture has faded away, because
they can affirm the names and even play with the babies.
Facial Marks
Facial or tribal marks are identifications
shown on the face or entire body of the person in a given culture (Sallau,
2010:27). Facial marks can be for medicinal purposes, identification, and for
pleasure and passion. In Hausaland, for example, facial marks serve as an
identity of an individual in all circumstances. It also helps in distinguishing
various tribes in Hausaland at war and confrontations, which was one of the
reason for its viability in the past. Facial marks today have begun to vanish
away due to modernism and religious inclination attached to it; as such it is
endangered culture. The logic behind its preservation is because of it
important in cementing unity and sense of togetherness.
State of
Neighborliness
People who live near each other or in a
specific neighborhood are what this paper refers to as neighbors. The issues
surrounding culture of togetherness in Hausaland and some parts of Hausaland
today is quite unusual. In the past, people live by example; they display the
cultures of love and concerns to one another. One may hardly see a situation
where neighbors are rising a negative fingers to each other talk less of
fighting. They eat together, discuss their family issues where necessary and
above all circumcise their children together in a happiest manner. But what is
happening today is what many people term as “Everybody is on his own” meaning
we don’t bother to know the worries and the suffering of our neighbors, in
fact, we don’t even know the names of our neighbors, we only assemble in
mosques for congregational prayers and move away. This culture should be
revived so as to have a better and organized society. This culture is absent in
urban cities, but one can notice it in remote villages because they are the
custodians of our cultural heritage.
Dietary Habits
Dietary habits refer to the habitual
decisions of individuals or group of people or culture in regarding what foods
they eat or prefer most. (Sarkin Gulbi, 2015:8). Hausa people like any other
tribe of the world, has a typical food preference which they prefer most and
hence distinguished them from other tribes. The most common food that they
prepared for their daily consumption are those made from grains, such as
sorghum, millet, rice and maize which are ground into flour for a different
kinds of dishes. Their popular food is popularly known asTuwo food in Hausa language. Apart from those foods that were
prepared as solid foods, there are liquid foods which are produced in liquid
form normally from grains. Such foods include porridge (Fura) and pap (Koko) they
also drive food from their domestic animals like milk (Nono ) and meat (Nama)
mostly from cows, goats, sheep’s, camels etc.They also eat from vegetables
which are found throughout the year in Hausaland in large quantity, such
vegetables include tomatoes, onion, okro, pepper etc.
Hausa’s usually take
their breakfast in the morning with leftover food that remained in the night (Zazafe or Dumame[3]in
Hausa language) and sometimes they drink pap and sugar with cake. They also
serve their lunch with porridge and cow milk (Fura da Nono) during the day time because of the lightness of the
food usually at farm or sometime at home when it is in the dry season. Their
major food in the night is Tuwo which
is solid in nature Bunza (2006:111).
Another aspect of
their dietary habits is in their ceremonial foods. They usually prepared
different kind of dishes to facilitate their functions. This type of food is
what they call Gara in Hausa. Gara[4]
as known in Hausland is categorized into that for marriage ceremonies, naming
ceremonies as well as Sallah festivities, etc.
In contrast to the
above discussion, one may ask some fundamental questions that how many
household in Hausaland are abiding with the dietary habits of their ancestors?
Are we still taking Dumame as our
best breakfast? Are Fura and Nono serving as our favorite food? Many
people concentrate on foreign foods and abandon our food culture.
Traditional Attires
This refers to the actual native dress system
as obtained by culture. The attitudes of many of our youths (especially the
females) today prefer to be in foreign dress code as oppose to traditional
system of dressing. Traditional attires are only used on certain occasions like
Sallah festivals, Friday prayers, and wedding ceremonies and cultural nights to
mention just a few. Youth of today don’t like to put on caps on their heads to
show their identity. These attitudes toward our culture have contributed
immensely to the rapid erosion of our cultural heritage today.
Traditional Singers
Professional singers in Hausaland are
disappearing and replaced by western style of singing. Let us consider the
demise of Narambada, Mamman Shata Katsina, Dan Anaci, Salihu Jankidi, Aliyu
Dandawo, Musa Dankwairo Maradun and many professional singers have no
replacement today, they go with their wisdoms that are full with classical
vocabularies. The only hope we have is the way and manner these songs were
reproduced in the studios and some radio stations.
Native languages
As far as indigenous African language are
concerned, the African of today is no longer confident of using his/her mother
tongue in communicating with his peer groups. This is why a greater percentage
of them when communicating they prefer to do so in a foreign tongue or code
switch to foreign languages mostly the language of their one-time colonial
masters, which is mostly English. As if that is not enough, most schools in
Hausaland and beyond met out punishments for pupils who speak in their local
tongues and indigenous languages. This gradually affects our native languages
to the point of extinction or endangerment.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the research paper has
discussed culture as the moral fiber of development of any society; hence there
is an urgent need to revive and protect it from any form of destruction,
extinction or endangerment. The findings of the paper therefore believe that
some cultures of Hausaland are on the verge of extinction and endangerment
specifically both the material and non material cultures. The paper has come up
with issues and procedures on courtship before marriage, virginity or otherwise
of the bride, the concept of shame among marriage couples, facial marks,
Neighborhoods, dietary habits, our dress code, traditional music and oral songs
as well as our native languages are considered to be culture at the risk of
endangerment.
References
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[1] A
branch of anthropology concerned with the description of ethnic groups.
[2] A name usually assigned to the
husband which can only be use by the wife alone and no more. Such name includes
Jarumi, ba sauki, ja dadi, Zakin fama, etc.
[3] These are leftover foods that are
usually boil or re-cooked in the morning for comsumption.
[4]These are dishes prepared
especially during occasions and ceremonies such food include Masa (corn cake), flour cake and
chickens. Therefore, Gara is
abundance of the varieties of food awaiting hungry mouths.
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