HAUSA ORTHOGRAPHY IN THE TWENTIETH CENTURY, PART I: ROMANIZATION John Edward Philips philips@akeihou.ac.jp THE ORIGINS OF WRITTEN HAUSA Writing in Ajami began in the 17th century, increased in the 18th and 19th centuries and continued into the 20th. This traditional Ajami script never died out although it has become greatly overshadowed by Romanized Hausa, or Boko. Boko writing began later, with the first European studies of Hausa in the 19th century. LUGARD'S LANGUAGE POLICY With the declaration of the Protectorate of Northern Nigeria on January 1, 1900, colonial rule began in Northern Nigeria. High Commissioner Lugard faced the problem of choosing a language of administration, and of training clerks in that language. On August 2nd, 1902, Lugard asked the missionary Dr. W. R. S. Miller to translate proclamations into Hausa. At about the same time came the first intimation that Lugard intended to replace Ajami with Romanized Hausa. On October 29, 1902, in reply to a resident who was worried that the forthcoming language examinations for colonial officers might contain a section of Ajami, the Secretary to High Commissioner Lugard revealed that the new administration intended to use Romanized Hausa rather than Arabic for administrative correspondence with Africans. Lugard's policy of compulsory language examinations for colonial officers led some to complain that requiring a knowledge of Ajami in addition would be too great a burden. C. W. Moloney even claimed that Ajami was a missionary invention almost unknown among Muslim scholars. Among both missionaries and administrative officers some argued for the use of Ajami. Lugard's temporary replacement, Acting High Commissioner William Wallace, under the influence of Charles Robinson, ordered all residents to begin using Ajami. Nevertheless he did hold out the hope that "before long" Roman characters could be used. At the same time at least one missionary was misrepresenting either the nature of Ajami writing or his own ability in Arabic. J. D. Macintyre from the C. M. S. mission in Lokoja argued that Hausa Ajami was not true Arabic writing. He enclosed a specimen of "Algemie" (actually not Hausa at all, but the Surat al-Fatihah from the Qur'an in Arabic) with "pure Arabic writing underneath". In another letter Macintyre claimed that African scholars knew little Arabic, and that Arabs could not read their letters. Lugard himself was so ignorant of Arabic that he didn't notice that Macintyre's "Algemie" was nearly identical to his "pure Arabic writing" directly under it. Lugard wrote that he preferred "national" development using Hausa in Roman characters to "Arabic Mohammadan progress" and "Algemie, - (a spurious Arabic)". Lugard also offered his opinion that Arabic characters were not suited to Hausa, and that therefore it was "absurd to introduce Algemie, a third system of writing". Administrative officers need learn only one "language" not two if Roman characters were used for writing Hausa. He stated his real objective forthrightly: "I hope that, in course of time, this [policy] may result in the formation of a class of people who can read and write Hausa in the Roman character, though unable to speak English." Of course this meant that a new educational system would have to be created to teach Romanized Hausa to Africans. By Lugard's own admission there were at this time about 25,000 Qur'anic schools with about 250,000 pupils, but from this time on the education they offered would be useless for those seeking employment with the administration. Lugard's struggle against the Arabic script went to absurd lengths. At one point he actually wrote a letter to Khartoum, in the Anglo-Egyptian Sudan, asking whether anyone had yet succeeded in publishing Arabic books in Roman script! There is no record of any response in the files. It would be easy, but unfair, to portray Lugard as an idiot who had no understanding of the issues and who could not even tell the difference between a language and the script it was written in. Brigadier F. J. D. Lugard was not a linguist sent out with recording devices and a knowledge of comparative phonetics to determine the best method of writing African languages. Neither was he an educator sent out with slates and textbooks on a civilizing mission to bring western education and its benefits to the benighted inhabitants of the Dark Continent. He was a military man sent out with maxim guns and seven pound cannons to bring the people of a territory under British rule. Perhaps he was not a military genius on the order of Napoleon, Hannibal, Robert E. Lee or Chaka Zulu, but he did his job effectively. He had a military understanding of the importance of languages in intelligence work, and thus wanted to ensure that his men could understand what Africans said, while he opposed educating Africans to understand what the British were saying in English. Lugard erred by ignoring his own weaknesses and by refusing to listen to better advice. His success in ordering the Romanization of Hausa seems to be an illustration of the American saying "There are three ways to do anything: the right way, the wrong way, and the army way." Robinson and Burdon were obviously right. They used facts and logical arguments. Not only would the expense and trouble of setting up a new educational system have been obviated, but printing of government documents in Arabic script would have been almost as easy as in Roman script. Macintyre was obviously wrong. While there are arguments in favor of Romanized Hausa, he did not come up with them. Lugard was little influenced by any advice. Lugard's mind had already been made up, and it was not about to be confused by mere facts. Lugard's way was the army way: bureaucratic, not necessarily efficient, and totally unaffected by reasoned argument. High Commissioner Lugard had given an order and it would be obeyed.