UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff PPrreettoorriiaa eettdd,, AAddeeoogguunn AA OO ((22000066)) CHAPTER FOUR AFRO-ISLAMIC MUSIC EDUCATION IN NIGERIA 4.1 Islamic music education in Nigeria This chapter discusses the introduction of Islam to the geographical area now known as Nigeria and the influence of Islam on music education in some of the Nigerian provinces. 4.1.1 Islam: the root(s) of Islamic music education in Nigeria Islamic educational system is grounded in Islam. 'Islam' is an Arabic word that signifies ‘peace' or 'submission’ (Rudolf, 1978: 117). It is a religion that stands for a commitment to surrender one’s will to the overriding will of Allah. One who submits to the will of God, according to the teachings of Mohammed, is a Muslim. 'Islam and knowledge can be said to be synonymous, not so much because of Islam’s emphasis on knowledge and respect for human intellect as for the practical step it takes in making the search for knowledge obligatory on every Muslim, male and female' (Bugaje, 1997: 80). This is because Islam makes no distinction between religion and social life. As a religion, Islam includes everything that one does, and is not composed of a few rituals. Islam is a complete way of life concerned with every facet of life of its followers. Every Muslim thus, often strives to become a good and devoted follower by learning the Koran as the first thing. The Koran itself, derived from Arabic word meaning ‘reading’ is a revealed precept on how to live in a community of believers (jamma). To a Muslim the Koran, as Diop puts it, 'is the sum total of all that existed, past, present and future, the whole universe' (Diop cited in Katsina, 1997: 37). This is because the Koran not only sets out the basic principles of life for the Muslim but also urges the Muslim consistently to acquire more knowledge. The first revelation of the Koran is concerned with learning, reading and writing. Some of verses of the Koran read: 4 - 1 UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff PPrreettoorriiaa eettdd,, AAddeeoogguunn AA OO ((22000066)) In the Name of the Lord who created man from a cloth. Read thy Lord is most bounteous. Who teaches by the pen, teaches man that which he knew not? (Holy Koran, 96: 1-5), and say: My Lord! Increase me in knowledge (Hk, 20: 114). Thus, learning is made mandatory on all Muslim. Dagama says, 'acquisition of knowledge is an obligation upon every Muslim' (Dagana cited in Lawal, 1997: 70). Islam as a religion of learning, thus, places a very high premium on education, essential purpose of which is to prepare individuals for life within a jamma (community. The sharia (traditional Islamic law) is also important not only because it provides guidance for religious and civic duties but also for every aspect of individual and social life. Sharia, meaning the broad path which all Muslim are supposed to follow, is based on four main foundations: the Koran, the hadith literature (the recorded deeds, and utterances of the prophet Mohammed not directly and manifestly reflected in the Koran), qiyas (analogy), and ijma (the consensus of the learned and spiritually wise within the Muslim community). The Islamic oriented policies are based on sharia principles. It places high premium on both scholarship and learning. It asserts that the truth can be pursued and the ummah mobilized to establish an Islamic socio-cultural order. Indeed, it was this kind of policy on scholarship and learning that enabled Islamic civilizations to grow from the time of Prophet Muhammad, through the Umayyads, the Abdassids, the Fatimids, the Ottoman empire to the Sokoto caliphate.In Islamic civilizations, the world is almost invariably apprehended religiously. Religion governs the day-to-day lives of the believers, and Allah is the sole determinant of things. There is no God but Allah and Mohammed is messenger or prophet. The Islamic life is based on five pillars of Islam, which are the religious duties of, and ethical demands on believers. These include the profession of the shahadah (Islamic faith), the salat (statutory daily worship), the sakat 4 - 2 UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff PPrreettoorriiaa eettdd,, AAddeeoogguunn AA OO ((22000066)) (compulsory alms tax), the sawn (Ramadan fasting), and the hajj (pilgrimage to Mecca which a Muslim should perform at least once in a life time, but preferably yearly) (Rudolf, 1978: 118). Spiritual concerns and rituals permeate life activities as well as socio-political order. Much authority is vested in the Islamic scholars and missionaries. The mosque, Koranic/Kuttals schools and the Islamic law courts remain the most important socio-religious institutions of Islam. Religion is at the heart of Islamic education. Secularization is anathema to religious ideals in Islam. Islamic policy encourages the development of education by individuals, community and state. Education is seen as what enables individuals to study their religion well and know what Allah demands of them in order not to drift away from the true path. ‘All knowledge’ Halstead (2004:524) says, ‘has religious significance and should ultimately serve to make people aware of God and of their relationship with God’. Art functions for integrating the believers with the vital force of Allah and for identifying the believers with their Islamic community. The essence of the musical art is mainly to interpret only human experience religiously. Hence musical art functions simultaneously to improve and reflect the quality of Islamic way of life and to worship, honour and praise Allah and to proselytize Islam. In an Islamic context, Mahmoud Saleh suggests that educational policy should lay emphasis on the following general aims of education. The purpose of education is to have the student understand Islam in a correct comprehensive manner, to plan and spread the Islam creed, to furnish the student with values, teachings and ideals of Islam; to equip him with the various skills and knowledge, to develop his conduct in constructive directions, to develop the society economically, socially and culturally, and to prepare the individual to become a useful member in the building of his community (Saleh, 1986:19). 4 - 3 UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff PPrreettoorriiaa eettdd,, AAddeeoogguunn AA OO ((22000066)) Reagan (2000:667) puts Saleh’s ideas in another way by saying that ‘the purposes of (Islamic) education are three: ahdafjis miyyah (physical), ahdaf rhyyah (spiritual) and ahdaf’ aqliyyah (mental). Taken together the Islamic educational policy sought to educate and assimilate professed Muslims (no matter their nationality) into Islamic culture. C.N Ubah identifies five basic values that Islamic education teaches each believer in order to achieve the purposes: those acts which from the standpoint of faith were obligatory (wajih). Those which are recommended (mandub), those which were merely permitted (mubah), those which were reprehensible (makruh), and those which were absolutely forbidden (haram) (Ubah, 1977: 123). In the Islamic tradition, any subject or skill to be taught or learnt has its attendant ‘dos’ and ‘don’t’’. This is because Muslims are only educated in subjects, which contribute to the spiritual and moral upliftment of humanity and inculcate humility by recognition of Allah as the creator and custodian of knowledge. That is to say, purposefully, Islam and Islamic education link the good society with the godly society. Music, in the various ways it might be islamically defined, is an integral part of Islamic education. It is subjected to Islamic educational policies. The orthodox Muslim, therefore, seeks for and acquires music education only for the sake of Allah and uses it to serve humanity with the purpose of worshipping and getting the pleasure of Allah and His reward. 4.1.2 The evolution of Afro-Islamic music and music education in Hausaland/Northern Nigeria The introduction and spread of Islam and Islamic scholarship in Nigeria have been well documented (Trimingham, 1959, Ajayi and Espie, 1965). According to these sources, Bornu has the oldest history, in terms of Islamic practice, among all Muslim communities in Nigeria. Islam, a product of trade and commerce with North Africa, got to Kanem-Bornu during the reign of Umme Jilmi (1085-1097) towards the closing decades of the eleventh century. The Muslim king of Kanem and his successor, Dunama (1097- 4 - 4 UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff PPrreettoorriiaa eettdd,, AAddeeoogguunn AA OO ((22000066)) 1150) were said to have made repeated pilgrimage to Mecca and even built a hostel in Cairo (Egypt) for the welfare of Sudanese pilgrims and students. In no time, Kanem-Bornu Empire became a centre of Muslim culture with several Muslim institutions and an Islamic political facade with strong ties to the rulers of Tunis. Bornu, in the fifteenth century, led by a number of energetic mais (kings) superseded Kanem and made some parts of Hausaland vassals to Bornu. During the sixteenth century, Bornu had close relations with foreign powers such as Ottoman Turkey and Sharifian Morocco (Martin, 1977). Kanem- Bornu lasted as an independent state that kept on influencing Hausaland until the end of the nineteenth century when the British incorporated it into the Nigerian colony. Neighbouring the Kanem-Bornu was a vast territory simply called kasar Hausa - the country of Hausa language. The first inhabitants of the territory were the Hausa groups called the Maguzawa (Turaki, 1999:13). During centuries of migrations and assimilation kasar Hausa has expanded in all directions to encompass non-Hausa people especially the Zabarma/ Djerma and the Fulani/Fulbe who entered the territory and settled. On the ability of the Hausa to assimilate others, Adamu observes: Throughout history, the Hausa ethnic unit has shown itself as an assimilating ethnic entity and the Hausa language, a colonizing one to the extent that many people who were not originally Hausa and did not use the Hausa language later became Hausa through assimilation (Adamu, 1978:2). Sutton sees the Hausa’s ability to assimilate others not only as a cultural process but also as an ecological one: Being Hausa implied belonging to a wider, more open and receptive system, rural indeed but not rustic, one in which the countryside could support and interact with semi-urban centres where markets gradually developed and political power was increasingly focused…Hausaness was thus a rejection of the rugged hills and backwoods with their small archaic 4 - 5 UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff PPrreettoorriiaa eettdd,, AAddeeoogguunn AA OO ((22000066)) and very local tribes and myriads of old separate languages, such as have persisted in the Jos Plateau and in the “middle belt”, in fact all around the south- eastern and southern borders of Hausaland (Sutton, 1979: 183). This ecological perspective lends credence to the wide geographic spread of the Hausa along the vast northern savannah belt. From a geo-political perspective, the Hausaland was strategically situated between the Sahara desert and North Africa, to the north; and the forests and west coast to the south. Its open savannah made travel much easier and encouraged the development of agriculture and trade. The term Hausa as the ethnonym for the people has appeared in the written sources only since the sixteenth century (Turaki, 1999:40). Until that time, the people of the territory were simply known by the names of their particular cities and kingdoms like Katsinawa, Gobirawa and so on. Before the establishment of authochonous cities and kingdoms in Hausaland, there were several centres serving religious and political purposes. Bala Usman identifies Dala, Gwauron Dutse (in Kano), Kufera, Madakarch and Turunku (Zazzau) among the ancient centres of religions and political influence in Kano and Zazzau (Usman, 1974:34). These centres served as rallying points for bringing the people together for festivals, ceremonies and provided the foundation of the corporate form of the Hausa musical tradition (Kofoworola, 1988:70). Thus, from the earliest time, the Hausa communities recognized no political authority but it found a unifying force in the religious beliefs of the iskoki (spirits) 'which are some of the active beings which directly influence human affairs' (Usman, 1974:38). The bori adept refers to the spirit world as jangare and it is believed that ‘each supernatural spirit which resides therein is inviolable as a force through which forms of life crises could be solved' (Besmer, 1973:15). Among the circles of adept in Kano, Besmer says, Sarkin Makada (the chief of drummers) is a 'leader in the spirit world 4 - 6 UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff PPrreettoorriiaa eettdd,, AAddeeoogguunn AA OO ((22000066)) followers invoke regularly in performance’ (Besmer, 1973:16). Bori music was performed to achieve communication with the iskokiland to enhance the audience’s appreciation and pleasure in such ‘life-crisis events such as namings and weddings’ (Besmer, 1973:16). Between the tenth and the eleventh centuries, kasar Hausa witnessed the growth of many independent states such as Kano, Katsina, Daura, Gobir Zazzau (Zaria), Zamfara and Kebbi, which were bound together by a common language and (musical) culture and linked by trade routes. These states were independently established as Habe dynasties. The Habe dynasty began in Kano at about the eleventh century when Bagauda became the first Sarki (king), marking the establishment of the sarauta system in Hausaland (Burdon, 1972:22). The last kingdom was established in Zamfara at the beginning of the sixteenth century (Mahadi cited in Kofoworola, 1987:2). The Hausa’s successful effort to establish the Habe dynasties would appear to have been due to some extent to increasing contact with the outside world and to the introduction of novel instruments of coercion. Between the twelfth and fifteenth centuries, the Kano Chronicles records that shields, iron helmets, coats of mails and guns were introduced into Hausaland (Palmer, 1928:32) by traders from North Africa. These instruments enabled the Hausa to vest political authority in the hands of some hereditary rulers who established the coercive powers of the government in many states, such as Kano, Katsina, Daura, Zazzau (Zaria), Gobir, Zamfara, and Kebbi. The growth of these states was further stimulated by outside commercial cultural and religious contacts. The establishment of the Habe dynasties in Hausa states led to the development of centralized authority, administrative machinery and judicial institutions. Walled cities were built and palaces were constructed where the kings reside. The cities with centralized administrative organizations served as a nucleus of power under which settlements near and far not loyal to the 4 - 7 UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff PPrreettoorriiaa eettdd,, AAddeeoogguunn AA OO ((22000066)) king were subdued. They were developed into some kind of centres of trade and commerce where different kinds of materials were brought from long distances for trade transactions. It seems musical instruments were part of material carried from long distances for trade transactions in Hausaland. The royal courts bought some of the musical instruments like tambari, kakaki, kaho and kuge and made them part of the exclusive regalia of the Sarki’s office. Habe royal courts became the centres of authority with the Sarki (king) as the custodian of the central authority. Royal music was developed as an essential part of the political machinery of the Habe dynasties. Rok’ on fada (state ceremonial music) emerged as a symbol of state power as some musical instruments were reserved for the exclusive use of the royalty. Imported tambari and kakaki became the most prestigious of the royal musical instruments that confirm the central placement of the Habe Sarki within the political hierarchy of his kingdom. There were also chiefs in addition to the Sarki. The chiefs were representatives of ‘some distant ancestor of family around which the clan developed… the clan heads belong to such which were known for their specialization on particular kind of trade or craft-guild that existed in all the socio-economic system of the people’s organization’ (Kofoworola, 1987:25). The chief in charge of royal music performances was an integral part of the political structure of the Habe dynasty. Describing one of the major divisions of the central administration of the Habe dynasty in Katsina, Bala Usman writes: Within the palace was also the Tamburan Katsina, the head of the royal drummers who played on the ancient Tambura (Kettle drum) on special occasions; and various court artistes like the Makadan Taushi (small kettle drum players) Makadan Kotso (players of open hourglass drum), Masu Kakaki (head of kakaki players), Masu algaita (head of reed pipe players and the Sarki Mahaukata (royal jester) (Usman, 1974: 80). 4 - 8 UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff PPrreettoorriiaa eettdd,, AAddeeoogguunn AA OO ((22000066)) Central to the establishment and the consolidation of the dynasty in Hausa states was organized warfare system. The Hausa chieftains used warfare to establish their authority over a wide expanse of territory. They were constantly at war with the aborigines on their borders to ensure a steady supply of booty as well as human resources in form of slaves. The Habe dynasties developed martial music not only ‘as an important realm of their political machinery but also as a pre-determined practical measure to provide reason and justice to whatever inarticulate sense of injustice is registered on the body politics though such military action’ (Kofoworola, 1987:29). The major musical instruments utilized in course of active military service to the royalty were Tambari, Kuge and Kaho. These were used as means of rallying together a strong support of the military requirement of the royalty in times of warfare. Of these musical instruments, Tambari was the most important. Tambari was usually beaten wherever there was a warfare crisis to make ‘a formal declaration of war and a symbolic demonstration of the fearlessness of the people to face the war… Soldiers also took Tambari to war and “its capture marked a symbolic record of warfare achievements of any royal kingship”(…). The tamburi of the Emir of Bauchi’s palace are said to have been captured from the Borno warrior during the inter-ethnic warfare of the former time (…). The tamburi is exclusive regalia of the Sarki’s office. Again, the royal musical instruments were used to communicate messages to the royal personage. Kakaki in played as a form of herald to the aristocracy and the common people concerning the Sarki. One of the most common translations of the sound of Kakaki is “Gashi, gashi a fill” which means “Here is he, behold the king” (Kofoworola, 1987: 32, 34). The use of the musical instruments reinforces the central position of the Sarki in the political structure of the Habe. With the establishment of the Habe dynasties, the Hausa society became stratified according to cleavages of wealth, privileges and status corresponding to the distribution of power and authority. The society was polarized into the ‘sarakuna (chiefs) and masu sarauta (office holders) on the one hand, and the talakawa 4 - 9 UUnniivveerrssiittyy ooff PPrreettoorriiaa eettdd,, AAddeeoogguunn AA OO ((22000066)) (subjects, commoners), on the other’ (Smith, 1959:24). The socio-political stratification in Hausa society was based on a lineage or descent system. The musical arts in Hausa tradition were made to reflect the stratified structure of the society. Consequently, two patrons of the Hausa music emerged: the aristocracy and the commoners. Two main categories of music performing groups also emerged. These include the court musicians group, which belong to the aristocracy, and the non-court musicians group, which was patronized by the talakawa. Music performance was developed into a form of tradecraft hereditary family tradition. This brought about the obligatory relationship between the musicians who perform for aristocratic patrons and those who perform for the social guilds, such as those for butchers, traders, hunters, blacksmiths, hunters and long-distance traders (fatake). Organized clientage system was also introduced into all aspects of the Hausa socio-economic organization. The clientele system ‘provides for patronage, economic security and involves the exchange of protection for personal loyalty and obedience’ (Whitaker in Turaki, 1999:25). The system is based upon mutual socio-economic benefits between unequal persons. Its social function rests on its ability to exercise influence in proportion to the rank and position in the socio-political hierarchy. In this system of partnership of unequal, an influential official enjoys the allegiance of less influential persons below him/her and owes allegiance to a more influential person above (Whitaker in Turaki, 1999:26). The clientele system enables a partnership relationship between the patrons and their client-musicians and has led to a situation whereby most Hausa musicians are hardly fully free to stand on their own except they associate with a powerful lineage in the community. As Habe dynasties were being established, Islamic influence came to Hausaland from many directions and by many means such as the pilgrim traffic, trade relation with North Africa and Western Sudan and the political 4 - 10