LITERARY ADAPTATION IN HAUSA
PROSE-FICTION
Introduction
daptation is a universal literary process that has been in practice for hundreds of
years. The Adaptation of a literary material from one source to another is
common and historically, one literary genre such as a novel can be adapted into
another genre such as play or even adapted into other mediums such as music or film to
suit particular purposes. This literary process has also been in practice in Hausa oral and
written literature. Although literacy in Arabic has been part of the Hausa culture for
centuries, and it has been the language and letters of poetry, the reality is that novel
writing in Hausa is indeed a recent development. The first generations of Hausa novels
came into being in the early 1930’s’, according to Skinner, (1980); Yahaya, (1988);
Furniss, (1996) and Mukhtar, (2004). Hausa people have used Arabic alphabets to write
Hausa which is known as Ajami, and which has been around for centuries and have been
used for religious and other literary purposes, according to (Hisket 1975 & Skinner,
1980). While Arabic and Ajami have been used for centuries, the idea of creating a
fictional prose was not employed until the colonial period. Poetry was the main tool
popularised by Islamic scholars especially during and after the 19th century Sokoto Jihad.
Hence, the novel and drama were not developed until the colonial time.
According to Skinner, (1980), Yahaya, (1988), and Mukhtar, (2004) the first prose
narrative forms in Hausa were the collection of tales in the early 19th century, out of
which stories in Hausa were created. Examples can be found in collections by Schon,
Edger, and Tremearne. There were a handful of ‘Tatsuniyoyi’ which were later published
by the Translation Bureau. In the colonial era, when Hausa was written with Ajami and
the Roman script, the order did not change. Works that emerged were written poetry in
Hausa and Fulbe, educating the people on religion. Literacy was abundant in Hausa land,
but little or none of it was used in writing the novel, or anything in the narrative form.
According to Mukhtar, (2004) efforts to provide stories in Hausa were the works of the
Translation and later, of the Literature Bureau in the late 1920s. Dare Dubu da Daya a translation from Arabic, and Labarun Da da Na Yanzu, and Labarin Hausawa da
Makwabtansu, are some of the pioneer works of the agencies. Works of the Translation
Bureau was to publish reading materials especially entertaining stories that will attract
new readers in the Roman script. These early works encouraged and inspired the authors
that wrote the first generation novels in Hausa.
Hausa fiction has benefited from both translation and adaptation or the combination of
the two. A good example of translations with some amount of adaptation is Mutanen
Kogo which was a translation of Tawfiq El-Hakim’s The Cave, by Sabir in 1976. The
book was a dramatization of the eighteenth chapter of the Qur’an, (The Cave). Sabir then
translated El-Hakim’s adaptation into Hausa, as Mutanen Kogo. Mutanen Kogo was also
meticulously adapted, the cave, their conversation over the length of time they have
stayed in the cave, and their plight as to whether the world outside their cave would even
know them. Also, for how long have they been in that cave? Sabir did all these nicely
such that you cannot trace the source. Not all translations however can be assessed as
good translations as argued by Malumfashi (1987). Because early Hausa novelists and
fiction writers were exposed to Eastern and Western stories that were published as fiction,
it was normal for them to adapt a foreign story or drama into Hausa. The idea was to
show them how stories are written from one’s imagination, and that has worked. It was
this process that produced earlier authors such as Abubakar Imam (Adamu, 2010).
Other than adapting one gene into another or translating it, one can retell a story from a
different culture and situate it within his culture without losing the essence of the story.
For example, when we have a creative work that we want to represent to another cultural
setting, we can adapt. For this, Cuddon, (1977:15), explains adaptation as, “a literary
process which accounts for both continuity and the variety of literary creations
throughout the ages: An attempt to achieve individual expression through the medium of
an inherited material.” In this definition we learn that adaptation is best done in a literary
framework, and the materials so involved are inherited, therefore, they belong to a
different period entirely. In yet another definition, Hutchinson, (2002), says adaptation
“is a term in music and literature which is used to denote the modification of a particular
art form to allow its suitable expression in another form. For example, the adaptation of
a play from a novel, or the adaptation of a piece of music for a different type of
instrument.”
Another dimension to the definition of adaptation in Hausa studies now is the concept
referred to as Baddala. This concept seems to go beyond the concept of inter-genre
adaptation to the adaptation of a creative work from one cultural context to another.
Unlike the concepts of juya (to turn) to refer to adaptation of drama into prose or
prose-fiction into drama, the process of transforming a story from one cultural context to
another is no longer seen as Juyi but Baddala as argued by Malumfashi (1987). There are
also arguments about the differences between translation and adaptation, so that while Malumfashi (1987) asserts that, adaptation is different from translation, from the
perspective of Hausa literary studies, literary adaptation as opined by Malumfashi
(1987:9) is seen as:
Abin da a ke nufi da Baddalawa shi ne juyawa ba kuma kamar juye wani
zube zuwa wasan kwaikwayo ba ko makamancin wannan. A’a, baddalawar
da ake nufi a nan ita ce a juya wani zance ya koma kan wata al’umma da
ita a ke magana akan ta.
Translation
What we mean by adaptation is turning something into something else, it
doesn’t refer to changing prose into drama or the likes, rather, adaptation in
this context refers to transforming say, a story from one culture to another
This perspective provided a new framework for our understanding of adaptation in Hausa
literary studies. It allows us to appreciate the skills of Abubakar Imam on the stories he
adapted in Magana Jari Ce, for example, how he adapted the story of Karen Bana shi ke
Maganin Zomon Bana from the story of Merchant of Venice which has a European origin,
into Hausa, which is both an African language and culture. Most importantly is his ability
to erase traces of the original story that was set in an entirely different culture.
Malumfashi (1987) has therefore provided a new perspective that has widened the
concept of adaptation in Hausa literary studies
Adaptation therefore, is turning a certain work of art, from one form to another, for
example from prose to drama, or vice versa, while maintaining the message, and it is
usually practiced to suit a particular purpose. The apparent norm of adaptation is from
one form to another, example, prose to drama, or from one period to another, as in the
case of music. It has some characteristics such as name change, for instance, Imam did
not insist he must use Shylock and Antonio; he came up with names suitable to his
culture, and most easily understood by his people. He also adapted the setting to suit his
environment; he did not stick to the European setting of Venice and Belmont. The
changes of form and medium are also part of the adaptation process.
Adaptation to and from Drama
It is worth noting that the foremost African playwright Wole Soyinka adapts some
techniques from other plays in the process of writing his own plays. He uses the style of
The Bachae by Eupirrides in his play Bachae of Eurripides; He also adapts the style of
John Gay in his play The Begger’s Opera; to write Opera wonyosi; Ola Rotimi, adapts
the themes of Sophocle’s Oedipus Rex to write his play, The Gods are not to blame. In
Hausa, there are books that were adapted to drama from prose, for example Shaihu Umar
by Umar Ladan and Dexter Lindersay; Ruwan Bagaja by Inuwa Dikko. Kitsen Rogo by
Dangambo, have also been adapted into drama. But there are also works from other
languages that were adapted into Hausa. One example of such adaptation, is the one done by Imam, from a translated Egyptian One Act Play, by Denys Johnson Davies. Many
novels were adapted into play, notably the adaption of Wusasa and East’s Jiki Magayi
into play by Abdul, M.Y. (1988). Katsina’s Turmin Danya was also adapted into drama by
Abubakar Y. (1989) Ka’oje’s Dare Daya was also adapted to drama in 1989 by Ladan,
while another novel by Sulaiman Ibrahim Katsina Mallakin Zuciyata was also adapted to
play in 1990 by Lawal, S. One common feature with all the adaptations into Hausa,
including that of Sabir, is that they are from prose to drama. The first two Adaptations,
that is, that of Abdul, M.Y. (1988) and that of Abubakar, Y. (1989) have adhered to some
dramatic conventions, which make their works artistically appealing. The style they used
made it easier for their adapted plays to be staged. Ladan Lemu, B. (1989) is also
impressive, he had only five acts, but with one of the acts having nine scenes, and the
others sixteen.
In all, it is a daring endeavour, a very interesting one too. There are however drama
adaptations that have not received good acclaim from literary scholars, such as
Malumfashi who argued that Matsolon Attajiri which is supposed to be a translation of
Merchant of Venice, was not well translated. According to him, instead of translating the
play into Hausa, the author changed the meaning of the theme as Shakespeare conceived
it. Kofoworola, (1987) shows how prose can be made into drama, for performance on the
stage, and how a written drama, can be staged to make the author’s plot real. Thus,
Malumfashi argued that the way Idris translates the quotation is an adaptation and not a
translation. In the main text of The Merchant of Venice, Shakespeare did not merely
mention these people without any motive; there was a massage he was communicating in
mentioning these specific nationals, even now, which is not the same as the relationship
between Katsinawa and Gobirawa.
Thus, Idris actually adapted the play; it was not a translation, according to Malumfashi
(1987). It is worth noting however that the two plays by William Shakespeare that were
translated into Hausa, are Twelfth Night, by Ibrahim Yaro Yahaya, as Daren Sha Biyu and
The Merchant of Venice, by Idris Ibrahim, as Matsolon Attajiri. Both plays were extolling
the Christian virtues of justice and mercy against the wickedness and inhumanness of the
Jews. Since, the new readers are Hausa and Muslim who may not find the stories in their
original form amusing, so the translators had to make several adaptations for the stories
to be acceptable by the new readers. In addition to this challenge, the English language
used in the originals of the stories is a bit difficult to understand, these and other factors
might have discouraged literary endeavour on further translations and adaptations of
Shakespeare’s works.
Abubakar Imam adapted One Play by Tawfik El-Hakim’s The Donkey Market, to produce
Labarin wani Bakauye da wasu ‘Yan birni. Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice, is
another source of one of Imam’s stories titled Karen Bana Shi Ke Maganin Zomon Bana
in Magana Jari Ce, Vol. III. The story has its root from an Italian tale, il percorone, that was adapted by Shakespeare. William Shakespeare naturally took control of the material
by making some additions, such as the casket scene, the elopement, and the scene forcing
the Jew to adopt the Christian faith, to his own text.
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