When culture, heritage echoed through the ancient walls of Zazzau in book, art feast

By Aliyu Danladi

THE inaugural edition of Zazzau Book and Arts Festival (ZABAFEST) 2025, which had as theme ‘Legacy Reimagined’, did not just live up to its name, it challenged the very concept of legacy and how arts, literature and history define our lives, thoughts, decisions and actions within a certain sociocultural context. For the participants of the festival, who sat quietly in the Sultan Muhammad Sa’ad Hall of the historic Barewa College, Zaria on the morning of Saturday, April 26, 2025, it was best to imagine that the term ‘legacy’ meant different things to each individual. To the older ones, it could mean the poetry of sages such as Abubakar Ladan who sang for the unity of post-colonial Africa or the fame of Ahmadu Bello University and Barewa College which drew students and future leaders from different parts of Nigeria to the ancient city of Zaria, also knowned as ‘Birnin Ilimi’, for its scholastic tradition. This nostalgic feel became animated thanks to the rich verses of poetry presented by young poets from Kano like Aisha Indabawa and Hidayah Mahmud.

The keynote speech, delivered after the poetry presentations and the conferment of a lifetime achievement awards to the titan of Hausa creative industry, veteran actor, author and filmmaker, Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino, dwelt on the role of arts in preserving culture. Using insightful examples, the speaker, a professor of Comparative Literature and Creative Writing from Ahmadu Bello University, Zaria, Audie T. Giwa, spotlighted the cultural significance of some Hausa traditions, including games that most of the attendees grew up playing.

“Does anyone know the meaning of ga’da?” he asked in one of the instances. When the reply came in the negative, he explained that the simple game demonstrated trust in the act of a player repeatedly swinging backwards believing their playmates would be there to hold and thrust them up while cheering them with songs and laughter.

Commenting on the aesthetic beauty of the arts, Prof. Giwa expressed concerns about how society perceives the arts usually from a narrow lens, adding, “How many of you had listened to the recent Hamisu Breaker’s song banned by the Hisbah Board in Kano?” he enquired, pausing for effect.

“What is the song saying?” he asked rhetorically after confirming many raised hands. “Rather than being provocative as alleged, the song is simply celebrating love and consummation in marriage”, reciting the Hausa verses fluently to the amazement of the audience.

Prof. Ibrahim Malumfashi (left); Ado Gidan Dabino; Safiyyah Jibril Abubakar and Abba Abubakar Jibril during the panel discussion ‘Ma’abota Al’adu: Muhimmancin Marubuta Wajen Kiyaye Gadonmu‘

Hosted by a journalist and writer from Jos, Abba Abubakar Yakubu, Zazzau Book and Arts Festival had a wide range of subthemes on the history and evolution of Hausa literature, recent trends in the Hausa creative industry, and the future of creative writing in the face of digital media in the first panel Ma’abota Al’adu: Muhimmancin Marubuta Wajen Kiyaye Gadonmu – (‘Custodians of Culture: The Role of Writers in Preserving Literary Heritage’).

While authors Safiyyah Jibril Abubakar and Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino focused on industry dynamics, Ibrahim Malumfashi explored the issues from a more scholarly perspective, tracing the roots of contemporary Hausa literature to epics and adventure inspired by Arabic literature to popular romance novels previously predominating book markets such as Kurmi in Kano before the rise of contemporary forms. A professor of Hausa Literary History from Kaduna State University, Malumfashi had been an active contributor to Hausa literary theory, often holding moralist ideals prominently in the famed Kano Market Literature debates of the late 1990s.

During the question and answer session, I wanted the professor to speak to the potential danger of the seed of discord being sown between Hausa and Fulani as was now common on social media.

“Forget those agents of chaos and division,” Prof. Ibrahim Malumfashi responded. “As you observed, most of them are anonymous internet users likely on contract to achieve political goals. Because, how would you try to separate a society that has lived together for years and intermarried and transacted peacefully among themselves…? Take for instance, I am Fulani by ancestry, but I hardly speak fluent Fulani; same as my children. How do you now categorize me?”

The next panel discussion echoed a similar message. Moderated by Ibrahim Ahmed, it had Sani Abdulrazak and Dr. Isma’il Bala deliberating on ‘Cultural Amnesia: What Happens when We Forget our Culture?’ Versed in poetry and the arts generally, Dr Bala spoke in his characteristic scholarly depth that marked all the sessions he participated in, including the book chat on his collection of poems Ivory Night, and moderated by the poet Abduljalal Musa Aliyu before lunch break. Abdulrazak was equally enthusiastic about the role of literature in history, and emphasized the need for contemporary writers to document past and present events.

Three other panel discussions were held, featuring speakers from different backgrounds and specializations. Together with the Chevening Doctoral Alumnus, Namse Peter Udosen and moderated by Mujahid Ameen Lilo, Ahmad Tanimu Mubarak and I discussed ‘Ethics of AI-Generated Arts: Authorship, Ownership, and Creativity.’ Udosen and Ahmad Mubarak expressed fears that artificial intelligence would lead to a decrease in creative acumen especially among the younger population who happily outsource tasks as simple as assignments and letter writing to Chat GPT, Deep Seek and other similar AI models.

Drawing from prior research, I addressed the issue thus, “For ownership, as far as legal implications are concerned, AI-generated works belong to the prompter except otherwise stated by the AI developer. Authorship, however, could be considered on a joint or sole credit depending on the extent of the AI’s contribution…”

Tanimu nodded, remarking, “Yes, just like we have co-authors and even ghostwriters among humans.”

On the place of creativity, we all reached a unanimous position about the superiority of human creativity over any machine which could only mimic what is it finds on the web and semantics, but not emotions, feelings and moral standards like humans could.

An interesting panel session focused on women animated the festival audience who took a keen interest boh with the topic and the panelists. It was ‘Women, Arts, and Activism: Use of Creative Expression in Promoting Social Justice’, moderated by Aisha Indabwa, Nana Sule and wife of former Kaduna State governor Mrs. Hadiza el-Rufa’i discussed the importance of arts in correcting biases and liberating the womenfolk. Mrs. el-Rufa’i highlighted some initiatives she personally founded as a philanthropist and former first lady of Kaduna State, including Yesmin el-Rufa’i Foundation that is focused on promoting female literacy and mentorship for young writers.

The last panel discussion on ‘The Role of Arts in Conflict Resolution and Peacebuilding’, and hosted by journalist and creative writer Aliyu Jalal, featured Salim Yunusa, Nasiba Babale, Ameer Lukman Haruna and Sani Muhammad.

While Yunusa and Babale, as founder and creative director of Poetic Wednesdays Initiative respectively, discussed the inherent role of arts in promoting peaceful co-existence, Haruna brought in an additional hands-on experience in the peace initiatives he led across Plateau State where storytelling and drama were utilized as tools to portray the consequences of ethno-religious bigotry and the benefit of dialogue and understanding between and among communities. In the same vein, Muhammad offered insights into the nexus between creativity and development policy in peace and conflict resolution, using Rwanda’s Gacaca Courts as an example.

Prof. Ibrahim Malumfashi (left) and Alhaji Ado Ahmad Gidan Dabino in the audience at the opening ceremony of the festival

As the suns began to set on Sunday, April 27, Zazzzau Book and Arts Festival (ZABAFEST), which brought together writers and artists from some seven states, shone like a golden sway akin to the mystic whirls of the Afro-Dervish performer Husayn Zaguru, symbolizing the fusion of the physical with the divine. In addition to the first session with Dr Bala, two other book chats were held on the last day, and it featured Prof. Giwa’s Zabba’u and Mrs. el-Rufa’i’s An Abundance of Scorpions. It was hosted by Mubarak and Babale respectively.

As the interlocked hands of a couple united in love and matrimony, poetry filled up the spaces between the conversations, chats and discussions. Both emerging and known talents within and outside Zaria performed during the poetry and music evening, evoking the rhythm and flow experienced during the Abubakar Imam Poetry Slam staged the previous evening where Faisal Ahmad Smith, the winner of Mudi Spikin Poetry Slam held at Kano International Poetry Festival 2024, added another crown to his championship in a showdown of emotions, rhymes and rhythm interwoven in a touch of English and Hausa.

In retrospect, I found resonant to the festival the verses of a promotional video released before the festival: “The walls in Zazzau don’t just stand, they whisper. They tell stories of queens who rode into battles, of poets who carved verses into the soul of the people, of craftsmen whose hands held generations… This land, ancient and alive is more than a dot on the map. Zazzau is a living canvas. Here, culture is not curated, it’s celebrated…”

Reflecting on the moments and memories of the festival, I found the walls of Zazzau not just whispering, but echoing truths about the past, the present and the future we envision for our society.

* Danladi, Project Lead, Jewel Literary and Creativity Foundation, writes on arts, culture, youth engagement and capacity development