Music maestros, please: Freedom Fasaha championships
Of all the entertainment industries available to the Hausa of northern Nigeria, contemporary music would seem, given the slow critical recognition of musicians, to be the latecomer. And yet Hausa ‘contemporary’ music has been around since the 1960s when bands such as The Super Ants, The Elcados, Bala Miller, and cross-over musicians such as the […]
Of all the entertainment industries available to the Hausa of northern Nigeria, contemporary music would seem, given the slow critical recognition of musicians, to be the latecomer. And yet Hausa ‘contemporary’ music has been around since the 1960s when bands such as The Super Ants, The Elcados, Bala Miller, and cross-over musicians such as the Ghanaian Hausa disco musician, Sidiku Buari (‘Karambana’) and hosts of others played the club circuits in Kaduna, Jos and Kano – using Hausa lyrics over disco and funk beats played live with real instruments. In Kano many people remember the School of Music, the first professional musical school in Nigeria directed by the late Bala Miller in the early 1970s.
It is sad that, despite this history, Hausa musicians seem to be the least group of Hausa popular culture purveyors to enjoy the attention of critics and academics. Contrast this to the recognition given to writers and filmmakers, who have had, between them, over 15 award ceremonies from 1980 to 2010. The main reason for this is tied to the ambivalence of the Hausa towards music. It is often vilified as ‘roko’ (begging), in addition to various differing religious interpretations about musical validity in the Islamicate public sphere. Succor was to come, however, in the shape of Freedom Radio FM, Kano.
On 3rd December 2003 a new private, independent FM radio station, Radio Freedom (with its station ID as ‘Muryar Jama’a’ – community voice), was opened in Kano. Not the first private station (that slot was taken by RayPower FM in 2000), but certainly the most popular, within a short time the station proved catalytic in showcasing the increasing pool of Hausa ‘modern’ musicians who were emerging as a result of the Hausa video film industry which uses singing and dancing as backdrops in its storylines. What made the musicians modern in their perception was the use of a Hindi film music template and Yamaha synthesizer music samples to compose catchy bubble-gum pop sounds as accompaniment to duets. These songs, which almost always include high-pitched female voices, proved massively popular as emergent urban music.
The backup singers and instrumentalists of the Hausa film industry eventually became independent ‘super stars’ on their own and started releasing songs, not necessarily connected to any film, in a genre they tagged ‘Nanaye’. Freedom Radio instantly became their public outlet, especially since Hausa musicians (especially the women) are restrained from club and college circuit concerts and performances. Thus Freedom Radio, more than any station in Kano, gave emergent Hausa musicians the creative platform lacking in the Kano entertainment fabric.
What made it work was the pioneering approach of the Managing Director of the station, Alhaji Faruk Dalhatu who had been on the forefront of strategic and business innovations in Kano. Freshly trained in the United States (Ohio University, 1984), when Faruk Dalhatu returned to Nigeria, he came with an innovative new business management perspective that saw him occupying managerial positions in various service sectors in Kano for over 25 years. His coming to Radio Freedom consolidated his strategic focus on contemporaneity of youth cultures.
On 3rd December 2011 Freedom Radio was to celebrate eight years of existence and had planned a low-key internal celebration until Faruk Dalhatu, the MD, was approached by Inuwar Fasaha, a musicians’ collective in Kano. The musicians wanted Freedom Radio to help them organize an award ceremony, the financial sponsorship of which would come from the radio station as part of mutually beneficial partnership between the station and musicians. This was accepted and what emerged became the first Freedom Fasaha Contemporary Hausa Music Championships, held in Kano on Saturday 10th December (a week after Freedom Radio was to have celebrated its eighth anniversary).
The event was graced by a team of Chinese and Canadian investors. Also in attendance were researchers on Hausa popular culture from the University of Florida, Gainesville, led by Prof. Susan O’Brien. Prof. O’Brien and her team had come to Kano in 2009 to shoot a documentary film, ‘Recording a Revolution’ which chronicles the development and acceptance of Hausa rap music among the youth. This film is in fact being premiered free to the public today (17th December) at Mambayya House theater in Kano at 8.00 p.m.
The Freedom Fasaha event was called ‘contemporary’ rather than ‘modern’ to emphasize its inclusive nature of incorporating Hausa traditional music—a dying genre to the youth. The perception of modernity in Hausa popular culture is based on the assumption of using Western sound technologies to generate music– mainly samples from Yamaha synthesizer (which the musicians call ‘kidan fiyano’ – piano music). Most modern Hausa musicians do not (and cannot) play Hausa traditional acoustic musical instruments, preferring the Yamaha synthesizer ‘fiyano’ sound to project an impression of modernity (‘zamani’). However, the Freedom Fasaha Award organizers insisted on creating categories for traditional music or poetics (e.g. a capella songs).
The approach used in judging the contest’s winners was based on the Grammy Award template, which uses judges from the music industry, rather than relying on sales figures or popularity as done in other music awards. This was because of the lack of commercially available sales outlet for Hausa musicians. Very few can afford to release their works on CDs, relying on radio play and viral messaging to spread their songs. If it were left to sales alone, the ‘super stars’, being most aurally visible, would dominate. Using a structured template that relies on technical excellence judged by music industry insiders and musical analysts created a level-playing field for all, regardless of fame.
As a first-of-its-kind event, the championships focused critical attention on Hausa contemporary music. However, the awards most significant contribution to Hausa music studies is the creation of a 14-genre grouping of the various types of Hausa music which will now provide a sharper focus and professionalization of contemporary Hausa music. Let the music play!