Islamic arguments for Western education in Northern Nigeria: Mu'azu Hadejia's Hausa poem, 'Ilmin Zamin'

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Periodical article

Title:	Islamic arguments for Western education in Northern Nigeria: Mu'azu Hadejia's Hausa poem, 'Ilmin Zamin'
Author:	Umar, Muhammad S.
Year:	2002
Periodical:	Islam et sociétés au Sud du Sahara
Issue:	16
Pages:	85-106
Language:	English
Geographic terms:	Nigeria Northern Nigeria
Subjects:	Islam modernization education poetry
Abstract:	In many parts of the contemporary Islamic world, Western-educated Muslims are increasingly becoming a new religious elite competing with or even displacing the ulama as the leading Islamic religious authorities. This essay contributes toward understanding the phenomenon of 'the new ulama' by examining the Hausa poems of Mu'azu Hadejia (1915-1958) as an early prototype of the Western-educated new ulama of Northern Nigeria. The exact number of Mu'azu Hadejia's poems is unknown, for when he passed away his family burnt all his papers. The anthology of eleven poems first published in 1955 is the most accessible collection of his poems. Of the eleven poems, three are on education. Based on a critical reading of the poem 'Ilmin Zamani' ('Modern education'), this essay argues that Mu'azu Hadejia exemplifies a general trend of modernizing Islamic thought while at the same time Islamizing modernity. A translation of the poem is included. Bibliogr., note. [ASC Leiden abstract]