Prof. Abdalla Adamu, the Vice-Chancellor of National Open University of Nigeria (NOUN) has said that Almajiris are not illiterates contrary to widely held view.

Adamu expressed this viewpoint while answering questions from newsmen at the sidelines of the opening ceremony of the 11th Edition of Literature in Northern Nigeria Conference on Monday in Abuja.

The theme of the 4-day conference being hosted by NOUN in collaboration with Kwara State University is “Literature and Contemporary Developments in Northern Nigeria.

Adamu said that one of the aims of the conference was to bring to the fore the fact that Northern Nigeria produced a huge mass of literature in indigenous languages.

According to Adamu, Northern Nigeria literature is about writing in local languages but majority of Nigerians think of literature only in English Language.

“Literacy goes beyond ability to read and write English; literacy is the ability to read and write inany language.“Examples of people who are literate and who aretaken for illiterates are the Almajiris. They are not just beggars; they are scholars; they have been sent from place to place to learn.

“Almajiris means somebody who moves from one place to another searching for knowledge. “They learn in Arabic and can read and write in Arabic; they can read and write Hausa language using Arabic scripts; they do not go western conventional schools, so they do not write ABCD,’’ he said.

The vice-chancellor said that Northern Nigeria scholars had been writing novels in indigenous languages as far back of as 1932 under British colonial tutelage.

Adamu said that another essence of the conference which had been going on for 11 years was to draw attention to thriving Northern Nigeria literature.

He regretted that most often, Northern Nigeria was judged in terms of performance in examination.

In his keynote address, Prof. emeritus, Graham Furniss, School of Oriental and African Studies, University of London, said that Hausa Language studies overseas had been in the decline in the US and Uk.

He said that the model currently established was built around strong and growing departments and research centres in Nigeria which were able to establish collaborative arrangements with centres abroad.

Furniss said that the collaborative model would be important for the future in order to maintain Hausa studies beyond West Africa.

“While research and publication in Hausa is now firmly anchored in Nigeria and Niger, with original studies being produced by new generations of MA and PhD students as established scholars, there is an emerging task that goes beyond the building of Hausa studies in Hausa.

“There is an international intellectual discourse about world literature, global trends in literary and cultural production that examines, for example, writing cultures in Indian sub-continent, in East Asia, in the Middle East.

“While there is an increasing amount of materials translated into Hausa, there is very little material translated out of Hausa, whether into English, French, or indeed into Yoruba, Igbo or nay other language,’’ he said.He said there was need to develop a body of the best writing translated out of Hausa.

The professor emeritus said that such body would make Hausa cultural production accessible on the international and national stage in a way that would help both to increase the interest in and knowledge of Hausa to oriental and international audience.

In his remark, the Emir of Suleja, Malam Muhammad Ibrahim, said that technology and social media had impacted negatively on students.

Ibrahim said that students spent a lot of time on browsing the social media to the detriment of meaningful studies and intellectualism.

https://www.dailytrust.com.ng/news/education/almajiris-are-scholars-not-beggars-vc/212068.html?_e_pi_=7%2CPAGE_ID10%2C8987905545

cc lalasticlala, mynd44, OAM4J, fynestboi

They are not only scholars but professors... No wonder they are so enlightened and civilised...

I will only take these people serious when their elites start taken their children to almajiri schools


by the way, what skills are they acquiring in the so called almajiri schools
.

So sarrki my brother na scholar I see

In Nigeria, almajiri's are scholars who go about begging and joining boko haram

a

hahaha

Does Prof Abdalla Adamu have a son who is an Almajiri?
If yes, I would agree with him.
If No, then, he's a hypocrite.

Is that the sort of education they are giving to their own children?


How can this country make progress with such mindset?

Nice, proudly Almajiri.

eezeribe:
They are not only scholars but professors... No wonder people from that region are so enlightened and civilised...

The slaves to European culture take any Nigerian who can't read and write in European languages as illiterate. Surprisingly, they call the Almajiri (who can read and write in Arabic) illiterate, but they wouldn't dare call a Saudi, an Egyptian or a Kuwaiti an illiterate.

SOFTENGR:
Does Prof Abdalla Adamu has a son who is an Almajiri?
If yes, I would agree with him.
If No, then, he's a hypocrite.

He may not necessarily have in the sense you view Almajiri. But what he's saying is that literacy should not be equated only with reading and writing in English, as our own case portrays.

Laugh no allow me to write

After learning Arabic, what do they do?

MalcoImX:
He may not necessarily have in the sense you view Almajiri. But what he's saying is that literacy should not be equated only with reading and writing in English, as our own case portrays.

I quite agree with that point. Literacy is not about reading n writing in English alone. But the fact is, the VC reads and writes in English. His wife and children do. He's a VC today, not because he reads and write in Arabic, but in English. As an academic, he knows the truth, but decides to cajole his people into believing they are okay once they read n write in Hausa or Arabic and not in our lingua franca.

MalcoImX:
He may not necessarily have in the sense you view Almajiri. But what he's saying is that literacy should not be equated only with reading and writing in English, as our own case portrays.

I agree.
But after learning Arabic, from their Mallam, what do they do next?

MalcoImX:
He may not necessarily have in the sense you view Almajiri. But what he's saying is that literacy should not be equated only with reading and writing in English, as our own case portrays.

Nonsense. These are Northern Literates

They learn Arabic as a weapon.... Oh na wah oh. Even their professor

SOFTENGR:

I quite agree with that point. Literacy is not about reading n writing in English alone. But the fact is, the VC reads and writes in English. His wife and children do. He's a VC today, not because he reads and write in Arabic, but in English. As an academic, he knows the truth, but decides to cajole his people into believing they are okay once they read n write in Hausa or Arabic and not in our lingua franca.

That's not the case. He's trying to correct a misconception. The word Almajiri is an Arabic word which means one who seeks or searches knowledge, often in distant lands. The worst thing about it is that those who went to conventional schools and acquire degrees in Hausa or Arabic we don't dare call illiterates, but you find that those, especially, who studied Arabic outside the formal system could sometimes be more proficient in that field, but still are referred as illiterate.
.
I am currently grappling with this on a research I am engaged in. In my questionnaire, the entries for educational background mentions 1) Illiterate 2) Primary edu. 3) Sec edu and 4) Higher edu.
I thought it unfair that there are people who can read and write outside the formal arrangement and are labelled illiterate. I had thought of ways to accommodate that but couldn't find. My conscience won't go with the misperception but I had to leave it at that with the proviso (in my mind) that, that entry on illiteracy meant NOT educated in the WESTERN sense.

Nukualofa:
Nonsense. These are Northern Literates

And you are what they call 'educated illiterate.'

na siddon look I dey

And who still think by now, that we deserve to be in the same nation with these people whose elites share a mentality full of hypocrisy and awkwardness.?

eagleeye2:

I agree.
But after learning Arabic, from their Mallam, what do they do next?

Some become Mallams, or businessmen. Others who've combined the studies with formal system can go on for higher education. and become great businessmen or government employees. Surprisingly, most of the rich men in northern Nigeria have in. one way or the other been Almajiri. I bet you that Dangotes dynasty and extended family have been Mallams and Almajiris.

Omeokachie:
Is that the sort of education they are giving to their own children?


How can this country make progress with such mindset?

Ignorant!
apart from English, French, Arabic is the third Language in the world
It's the second international language in Nigeria.
I wonder why it wasn't included in our school curriculum!

Now I believe that some people's brain is just 1kb

Prof has added another twist.

Instead of calling a spade a spade, hin say na agricultural tool.

He should tell us how many of the northern elites' children dey that school.

Intellectual beggars indeed.

oladeebo:
Ignorant! apart from English, French, Arabic is the third Language in the world It's the second international language in Nigeria. I wonder why it wasn't included in our school curriculum!

This is why most of you are said to be unemployable.

Read the question and try again.

Report has it that the Vice Chancellor (VC) of the University of Calabar, Calabar (Unical), Prof. Zana Akapgu has been awarded “Best Performing” VC in Nigeria in the last one year by a London based news platform, ‘The Nigerian’ and the ‘Nigeria Print Journalism Magazine’.

https://greatlimited.com/best-vc-award-won-unical-vice-chancellor-zana/