Reformism as a Theme in Hausa Religio-Political Poetry

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Periodical article

Title:	Reformism as a Theme in Hausa Religio-Political Poetry
Author:	Aminu, Muhammad Lawal
Year:	2006
Periodical:	Journal of African Cultural Studies
Volume:	18
Issue:	2
Pages:	235-245
Language:	English
Geographic term:	Nigeria
Subjects:	poetry political action Hausa Islam Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Literature, Mass Media and the Press Religion and Witchcraft Politics and Government
External link:	https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/13696810601106176
Abstract:	The author analyses Hausa religio-political reform poetry. The group whose work is under review here, Jama'atu al-tajdidil Islam (JTI, Movement for Islamic Reform), looks back to Usman Dan Fodio - the founder of the erstwhile Sokoto Islamic caliphate - as its source of inspiration. The movement conducts preaching in the open air where the reform poems are normally chanted in chorus to mobilize as well as to entertain followers. The poems can be grouped into two broad categories, viz. spiritual - which encompasses a range of moral and ethical subthemes - and political - which includes three subthemes, viz. attacking Nigeria's political structure and its operators; proposing the Dan Fodio model; and attacking Shi'a ideology. The author illustrates his argument with fragments of reform poems in the original language with an English translation. Bibliogr., sum. [ASC Leiden abstract]