(c) John Edward Philips
"Hegel remarks somewhere that all facts and personages of great importance
in world history occur, as it were, twice. He forgot to add: the first time
as tragedy, the second as farce."
-Karl Marx, _The Eighteenth Brumaire of Louis Bonaparte_
BARGERY'S DICTIONARY
Even before its final edition had been sent to press there were
complaints that Robinson's dictionary was obsolete. His Excellency the
Governor was less than enthusiastic about revising or replacing it. He
couldn't spare anyone from administrative work. It would take between
three and five years to compile a dictionary.
Bargery himself would later claim in the introduction to his dictionary
that "This book owes its inception to Sir Hugh Clifford, G. C. M. G., G. B.
E., who, while Governor of Nigeria, decided that a Hausa Dictionary should
be prepared and produced under the auspices of the Government, and he
entrusted to me the work of its compilation." In fact Bargery had already
been compiling a dictionary on his own.
This time the standardization of the orthography was supposed to be
done carefully and scientifically by a committee. However, not a single
native speaker of Hausa was a member. Professors Westerman and Jones issued
a report suggesting something along the lines of the International Phonetic
Alphabet (IPA).
Even this simplification was too much for some colonial officers and
missionaries, who complained that double vowels and phonetic symbols for "sh"
and "ch" would be confusing, and that if the orthography were changed
everyone would need to be retaught. Westerman had in the meantime decided
to come to Lagos, but not the North, to help with the development of
orthographies. It was suggested that some Advisory Committee members could
meet him there.
Once again the ultimate authority, in this case Lieutenant Governor
H. R. Palmer, had already made up his mind. Nevertheless Walwyn and Miller
would meet Westerman in Lagos. Miller felt he couldn't do much to help but
would go only if no one else could be found. "There is no one else." was
the remark in the files, although the question was also raised of why two
were needed if a decision had already been made. The Government could pay
Miller's railroad fare although that might cause an overrun of the
appropriation for fares. Miller still asked that someone better qualified
than himself be chosen to go.
Two days after the request to Miller Acting SNP Hamlyn noticed that
almost a year earlier Captain R. C. Abraham (Assistant District Officer, Kano)
had written a letter to the resident in Kano: "I have drawn up a scheme of
orthography which has already been submitted and which Mr. Bargery wishes me
to discuss with Professor Westermann." Hamlyn suggested that Abraham be sent
to Lagos with Walwyn and Miller which was immediately agreed to by the
Lieutenant Governor. Miller, apparently unaware that Abraham had been added
to the trip, also agreed to go.
At the Lagos meeting Westerman agreed that simplicity and uniformity were
the main concerns and no new symbols should be introduced unless they were
absolutely essential. The committee also wanted to avoid "drastic changes"
but to use a phonetic transcript in brackets. The use of 'ch' (when 'c' alone
did not otherwise appear in Hausa) was clumsy, especially when doubled, so
it was decided to use 'c.' The new system was "completely simple and should
present no difficulty to either past or present pupils in the schools or to
Europeans who are required to learn the language."
Next month Bargery sent his appraisal to the Director of Education, who
forwarded a copy to the Secretary, Northern Provinces. Bargery regretted the
lack of trained education officers or native teachers at the meeting. He
still held out for special vowel signs and other characters. Writing the
letter "c" instead of ch "for many years must cause considerable confusion"
so he wanted a "definite government ruling" on this.
PALMER'S FINAL DECISION
The most contentious issue of all proved, surprisingly, to be the
question of "c" vs. "ch." Bargery wanted to keep "ch," although the Director
of Education and his Deputy, Annetts, disagreed, as did Mr. L. Maxwell of the
Sudan United Mission. Subject to the approval of the Governor, Palmer had
made the final decision after discussions by Westerman etc.
The final agreement was summarized as follows:
The goal was to make the script as simple as possible, so that it
could be used for all future publications. The Governor quickly added his
approval to the recommendations. Finally the dictionary was printed with
the new orthography as it had been finally approved after many long
discussions among so many European experts.
CONTINUED PROBLEMS
The new orthography did not meet with universal approval among
administrative officers. Many administrators were no more willing to adapt
to the new orthography than a previous generation of administrators had
been willing to adapt to the existing Ajami orthography. The administrators
were preparing this dictionary for themselves, not for Africans, whom they
were often reluctant to see educated in any language or script at all. The
comments of one are typical in sentiment, if extreme in expression.
In 1932 Acting Assistant Director of Education Bienemann suggested that
the Translation Bureau and the News Sheet (Jarida) use the new system, but
quickly reversed himself on the grounds that the revisions had really been
for European learners, not Hausa people themselves. The Director of
Education also had much literature on hand, some of it recently printed.
Since the world economy was now in the Great Depression and money was tight,
he didn't want to print more in the revised spelling. But of course the new
spelling couldn't be used in the News Sheet until it had been brought up in
the schools.
Another suggestion that surfaced around this time was that all English
loanwords be printed in their original spelling. Rupert East had little
trouble talking the administration out of that.
Then there were the questions of place names and Hausa examinations.
Should they use the new orthography as well? The decision taken in Kaduna
was that the dictionary was to be considered "eccentric" and that the
government would not be bound by its own decision of only a few years before.
Once again, the ruler of Northern Nigeria had made up his mind, and would not
listen to advice. The major difference this time was that a committee had
been appointed to decide on the best orthography, and enormous amounts of time
and effort had been expended to assure that the new orthography would be the
best possible. The new decision was also not made public.
PUBLIC CONTROVERSY
Complaints of administrative officers against the new orthography even
reached The West African Review. A. Y. Daniels in Sokoto wrote to insist
that the magazine should write "ch" not "c." If the government had decided
on c, why was the official Jarida still being printed with ch? Daniels
insisted that Bargery's dictionary didn't contain only "c," and that the
verdict of scholars in Nigeria had been "unanimous" for "ch."
The West African Review's Hausa correspondent replied that "c"
for "ch" in Bargery's dictionary had been decided by a committee, that there
was in fact no instance of "ch" in the entire dictionary, and that if Bargery
had disagreed "then the Government probably made an express ruling and issued
definite instructions to him." The West African Review was "only complying
with the wishes of the Nigerian Government." It was regrettable that the
Translation Bureau and Jarida were not following these same suggestions.
Bargery, by this time Hausa lecturer at the School of Oriental Studies
of the University of London, wrote to the Secretary of State for the Colonial
Office enclosing the debate from The West African Review. To him it was
"strange" for the Education Department to want its rulings obeyed but then
"deliberately fail to comply with the wish of the Nigerian Government so
clearly expressed when the Dictionary was in course of preparation." If
they had reversed their decision after consulting Westermann then Bargery
wished to be so informed, and thought that so should the editor of the West
African Review.
But Bargery's dictionary had not only failed in its goal of meeting the
needs of colonial officials. Linguistic specialists were critical of the
dictionary for not adhering more closely to the International Phonetic
Alphabet, and particularly for not using more vowel signs. There was little
possibility of pleasing everyone.
THE HAUSA BIBLE REVISION
A member of the Hausa Literature Committee of the Conference of Missions
in Northern Provinces wrote to Kaduna about this problem of orthography. By
this time there were three Boko orthographies in use: the Hausa Bible's,
Bargery's, and the Translation Bureau's. He thought the Government had made
a decision for Bargery's, why had not the Translation Bureau?
Lieutenant Governor Browne said that the Translation Bureau and other
Government agencies were still using the old spellings despite the
dictionary.
Farrant would not give up, and continued to press his questions. He
suggested taking Bargery as the standard, since it was "used almost entirely
by Europeans, who could easily make the adjustment required" by the fact
that "certain of his symbols [e.g. "ch"] have been disallowed". He also
pointed out that it would be easy to get uniformity now, while so few were
publishing Hausa. He suggested a meeting be called to agree on "minor
modifications". The immediate response in the files was blunt in its
simplicity: "No".
More detailed reasons for the refusal were soon forthcoming:
Once again the administration seems to have missed the point. In
Chaucer's time there were no printing presses, but with the appearance of
mass produced literature there inevitably emerged a standard spelling.
Publishing Hausa in such a standard spelling would no more kill dialect
forms than Caxton's printing presses could have killed the Scots dialect
of English. The Lieutenant Governor and his assistants, like Lugard before
them, simply did not understand what these people were talking about and
could not be bothered trying to learn.
EVERYONE JOINS IN
But others did care. The West Africa Review continued its coverage of
the matter: "in seven books that have been published for the Education
Department of Nigeria this year the Government's own ruling has been
ignored." If the government had rescinded it the public should be informed,
otherwise the "Education Department should be directed to comply". In the
meantime "our own Hausa Notes will conform to the Government's original
ruling" until it has been "officially rescinded".
In the same issue A. Y. Daniels in Sokoto had another letter, sending copies of his correspondence with E. L. Mort, Acting Chief Inspector of Education, Northern Provinces, which, he said, "should convince your Hausa correspondent that writing 'c' for 'ch' is an untenable anomaly." Daniels had written to Mort arguing that the matter was not insignificant because a committee had been appointed to investigate it. Bargery's was the only book using 'c', while most [European?] students preferred 'ch'. Mort replied that "The use of 'c' to represent the 'ch' sound in Hausa has not been adopted by this Department" but that The West African Review's orthography was, after all, their own affair.
Now everyone seemed to get into the act. The SNP's office wrote to the Chief Secretary in Lagos to note its opinion that the decision reached had only concerned the dictionary, while the "production of literature [was] a matter of internal economy" and therefore none of the committee's business.
In 1932 the Assistant Director of Education had said that the purpose of the dictionary was to help Europeans, but most literature readers were Hausa and so changes would be "very perplexing" to those who had learned the old way. The Lieutenant Governor informed Lagos that "it has definitely been decided not to adopt the orthography of the Dictionary as regards the replacement of 'ch' by 'c'." There could be "no artificial solution" but to wait for a second edition of the dictionary when "the difficulty may solve itself". The Lieutenant Governor claimed that demanding strict uniformity "might well set unnatural limits to its future expression in literature".
Westerman and Rupert East submitted a formal memorandum about the matter. They noted that several systems of Roman transliteration coexisted. The differences were not many, but could "cause considerable confusion, particularly to the African" and so the orthography should be standardized. It was most suitable to deal with this project now, since the Bible was being revised, but the Bible Society hesitated because of the "confused state of the Hausa orthography". An agreement between the Government and the missions was thus necessary. From the African point of view and for future generations the script should be kept simple and easy to read as well as unambiguous. For the government's purposes it should be economical for printing. In cases of other languages Africans had had less trouble adjusting to changes in the official orthography than had Europeans. Therefore they proposed to stop using dots, but to use hooks on "b," "k," and "d," and to write "'y" with an apostrophe. The digraphs "ch" and "sh" should be single letters, especially since they are often doubled.
APPEALS FROM LONDON
Early in 1936 Hans Vischer wrote to the Lieutenant Governor as "My dear Browne," to inform him that he had received a letter from Rev. E. W. Smith of the British and Foreign Bible Society, which wanted to use the best orthography to publish a revised Bible. "I cannot bear these new signs," Vischer admitted, perhaps because he was used to the others (which he had, after all, invented himself). Vischer pointed out that the dictionary was mainly for Europeans and other non-Hausa speakers and "never could be or was intended to be a complete Oxford Dictionary of the Hausa Language, which no doubt the Hausa mallams themselves would one day publish."
Miller joined the attempt to talk sense to "My Dear Browne", asking him to use his influence to support the new orthography. He pointed out that it wasn't Browne alone but he too who was being asked to adapt to modern methods. "I know East strongly approves of" the new orthography he said, and enclosed a few pages. "Don't be shocked at first!"
APPEALS FROM NIGERIA
Since the Lieutenant Governor had already expressed his opinion it was difficult for others to speak up, and East asked only for "an open mind" for these proposals. The Lieutenant Governor should please try to consider them "purely and solely from the African point of view", since that "is the only thing which really matters", the number of Europeans using Hausa being tiny compared with Africans. "C" for "ch" was "undoubtedly distasteful to Englishmen" but there could be "no question" that one symbol for one sound was easier for Africans. "It is indeed difficult to find any argument against it, beyond that of English preference." Mistakes were never made by Hausas writing Ajami but by English speakers. African poetry, letters etc. were written in dialect but "we must decide on . . . a single dialect" for publishing, otherwise not only would there be inconsistency but it will be more difficult for Africans. "Our own hopelessly impractical system of spelling, the result of the haphazard methods which have been advocated for Hausa, is surely a poor example of what we wish to leave for African posterity."
The matter refused to die. "The spectre of Hausa orthography is with us once again." wrote the Secretary. Officials in Lagos also joined in the attempt to reason with the Lieutenant Governor. Browne was beggged to please consider this new system for Hausa, and to please show it to educated Hausas. Lagos was "not presuming to decide how Hausa should be written" but simply asked Kaduna to please "seriously consider" a change.
The Lieutenant Governor had already made up his mind. He had decided not to use "c" for "ch" in official publications. Transcriptions of Russian or Japanese didn't need special characters. Anyway, the Lieutenant Governor said, "All languages are not phonetically spelled." citing the English example of Magdalen [pronounced 'maudlin'] College Oxford. It seems not to have occurred to these opponents of reform that Russian and Japanese are almost never published in Roman script, or that the illogical spelling of English is hardly a model anyone in the world wishes to emulate. Of course these highly educated Englishmen also refused to consider Noah Webster's reformed orthography of their own language, though by this time it was preferred by a majority of native speakers of English.
AFRICAN OPINIONS
Finally someone decided to ask some Hausa speakers for their opinions about this mess. Zaria sent the most detailed response. Mallams there were "generally in favour" of the new system and gave detailed responses and suggestions. Most of these suggestions have an air of practicality and common sense lacking not only from the suggestions of officials but from the "scientific" suggestions of the professional linguists as well. It was absurd to write Hausa without distinguishing some sounds from others as many colonial officers wanted to do. Yet it was equally absurd to buy standard English type, throw away all the "q"s, "x"s and "v"s, and then order custom type faces to replace them. Had anyone been listening to Africans' opinions about their own language, those of us who try to write Hausa on ordinary off-the-shelf typewriters and word processing software would not continue to have problems with the orthography. These suggestions of the Malams would also have met the objection that telegrams would be difficult to send in the new orthography. Indeed, even today linguists wonder about the purpose of hooked "k," since "q" was used by Abraham in two textbooks, and the Arabic "qaf" is regularly transcribed with that letter in English.
But the summary of the suggestions found in the files only noted that the mallams all agreed with "c" for "ch," that most of them preferred the hooked letters, but some did not like the new character for "sh," and that they were divided on the question of double vowels. "Some mallams go further and make additional suggestions." was the only mention of their proposals, which were dismissed as "academic rather than practical".
THE "FINAL" DECISION
This decision was as foregone as the previous decision to Romanize the script had been. "His Honour is not in favour of the proposals." Of course this didn't satisfy the reformers. Since there were then three scripts in use, which "present script" the Lieutenant Governor was prepared to defend was still in question. East wanted the orthography of the dictionary to be accepted as standard. His Honour was prepared to agree to all changes, except that "sh" and "ts" should be left as is, since others wished it.
But it was too late. The Governor in Lagos had notified the British and Foreign Bible Society against any changes as impractical. It was now too late to suggest any new orthography, since a telegram was not sent regarding the compromise between East and the Lieutenant Governor, and by the time news of the compromise reached Lagos the governor had already made his decision public. Regrets were expressed, but it was also decided not to raise the issue again unless asked. East publicly accepted the decision but noted that he wished to be notified if the matter were raised again.
Shortly thereafter the matter was raised again by Reverend Miller, who said he had been very interested in Hausa orthography "since 1900 when I fought for the Roman character". Once again the Governor said to keep the existing orthography. Miller received thanks for his letter, but the same reasons were advanced for rejecting the new orthography. The use of different systems was not a problem, and he was not justified in reopening the matter. The Bible could be printed any way the missionaries wanted.
THE FINAL FINAL DECISION
Now the British and Foreign Bible Society joined the fray again. They wanted a definite decision to avoid confusion. The Assistant Director of Education proposed East's compromise again. The Chief Secretary then wrote to the British and Foreign Bible Society agreeing to the compromise, with the proviso that if these changes were accepted they would be final. The British and Foreign Bible Society agreed to the changes as final, but wanted a formal announcement. A notice about the new orthography was placed by Dr. East in the Nigeria Gazette. Apart from the substitution of hooked letters for apostrophes, "in all respects the system employed in Bargery's Dictionary is to be followed." The new orthography was also announced in Europe.
THE TRIUMPH OF BOKO
Of course all the problems of Hausa orthography had not been solved. Even East admitted that "Hausa orthography is imperfect as a phonetic script, and is meant chiefly for native readers." And of course the original Ajami script had not faded away either. Even missionaries were still publishing in Ajami at the same time that they were demanding a standard be adopted for Boko. After all, in 1938 there were still only 216 government schools (including 10 middle schools and 1 secondary school) with 3,549 students, together with 338 mission schools, all teaching Boko. This still did not approach the educational establishment of even the precolonial period, much less the continued growth of the Qur'anic schools in the twentieth century. Into the 1950s Sokoto and Zaria continued to use Ajami to record court records. Even today all Nigerian paper money has the denomination printed in Hausa Ajami, the only indigenous language to be so used.
The predominance of Ajami began to end when Gaskiya ta fi Kwabo was founded. It was the first Newspaper in only Hausa, and the first mass circulation newspaper in the Northern Region. With war clouds gathering over Europe and the Pacific, rumors started that the British intended to turn Nigeria over to Hitler as part of their appeasement policy. To allay possible panic in the population, the Northern Nigerian government issued Gaskiya, to get the truth ("gaskiya" in Hausa) out to the population at large. The very first issue, in January 1939, carried an explanation of the new orthography, as well as assurances that there was no intention of handing Nigeria over to Hitler. With the outbreak of war in Europe later that year, Gaskiya became an extremely popular medium of information about the fighting, especially in the Pacific theater where Nigerians were serving. It has continued to the present to be the leading Hausa newspaper. More than any other factor its popularity is responsible for the present dominance of Boko over Ajami.
With the mass literacy campaigns and the formation of a Hausa language board in the 1950s, Boko spread even farther. A guide to Hausa orthography was published in 1959, all in Hausa and authorized by the Federal Government. Gaskiya Corporation began publishing its own Ajami books in 1948. In the 1950s Neil Skinner at NORLA began publishing Ajami in order to subsidize the less profitable Boko. With the spread of this subsidized Boko Hausa during the 1950s the dominance of Romanized Hausa has become permanent.
CONCLUSION
Many linguists are not yet satisfied. As one said "Impressionistically it seems to me that the Gaskiya-Nigerian conventions are not even as good as those associated with ajami."
Surely the very idea of English speakers telling other people how to write their languages is absurd. We suffer with one of the world's most obtuse and idiosyncratic, not to mention clumsy, orthographies. After so many centuries of writing our own language, we cannot even
agre among ourselves on standard spellings.
The story of the adoption of the present Hausa orthography is not the usual imperial tale of divide and rule. Maintaining Ajami would have been more effective in dividing the North from the South, and the creation of two scripts for one language has not been able to divide the Hausa the way it has divided Serbo-Croatian speakers into different tribes. This history is rather a typically British tale of "always muddle through." The British left a muddle with their confusing, bureaucratic decisions made by people with no understanding of the issues involved and no real stake in them. The Nigerians were left to clean up the mess. The unwieldly Hausa orthography (really two orthographies) in present use is simply one minor legacy of a confused system of British misrule.
Lugard's insistence on Romanizing Hausa had been a tragedy, uselessly marginalizing the existing educational system, throwing scholars back into the ranks of illiterates. Browne's refusal to listen to anyone's advice (especially that of Africans) was a farce. It is a shocking contrast to the systematic and considered way in which the independent Somali government chose a script for the Somali language.
"It has definitely been decided not to adopt the orthography of the
latter."
He thought the new orthography was unfortunate, but in the meantime urged
Farrant to continue the old spelling "in the usual way." Which way was
supposed to be "usual" he didn't say.
Therefore it would be simple to check the correct spelling by comparing it
with careful pronunciation. "it seems to me that what he [Farrant] is really
suggesting is a standardisation of the pronunciation rather than of the
spelling, or alternatively a standardisation of the spelling which would
divorce the written from the spoken word. . . . the creation of an
artificially hide-bound literary standard with no
basis in common speech" would be a "bad beginning for Hausa literature."
After all, in Chaucer's time the same word had been written in
different ways.