WHO DEFINES THE HAUSAS?The Hausas themselves, or outsiders, settlers, and invaders?

WHO DEFINES THE HAUSAS?The Hausas themselves, or outsiders, settlers, and invaders?

WHO DEFINES THE HAUSAS?The Hausas themselves, or outsiders, settlers, and invaders?

WHO SHOULD TELL OUR HISTORY?

There is a simple truth every people should understand: if you do not write your own history, someone else will write it for you.

And when those who took over leadership in the name of jihad write your history, what will they write? Will they tell the whole story, or will they write what protects their own interests? They may put themselves above you, make you look smaller, and present themselves as greater.

In the end, even your language, culture, traditions, and experiences can be described through their own perspective, assumptions, interests, and misunderstandings.

So, who should define the Hausas?

Should it always be outsiders, travellers, colonial writers, settlers, or researchers who happened to encounter Hausa society at different points in history?

Or should the Hausa people themselves also write, preserve, and explain who they are?

This is not an argument against serious research by outsiders. We should welcome honest historians and researchers who study our past carefully. But their writings should not be the only record of who we are.

The Hausa people have a long and complex history. We have our kingdoms, cities, rulers, scholars, merchants, farmers, craftsmen, warriors, religious traditions, literature, architecture, languages, customs, and social institutions.

But when history is not properly recorded, it can easily be misunderstood, misrepresented, simplified, or even forgotten.

If we leave the story of our past completely in the hands of others, future generations may grow up reading descriptions of the Hausa that contain misunderstandings, missing information, and interpretations shaped by someone else’s point of view.

That is why Hausa scholars, historians, writers, journalists, academics, and ordinary people need to start documenting our history seriously.

We need to preserve our oral history.

We need to listen to and record the memories of our elders.

We need to study our old manuscripts and historical sources.

We need to document our languages, names, places, institutions, and traditions.

We need to preserve old photographs, letters, artefacts, and family histories.

And most importantly, we need to be honest about what we know, what our sources tell us, and what we are still not certain about.

Writing our history does not mean creating a perfect or glorious story about ourselves.

It means telling the truth about our past—our achievements, our struggles, our mistakes, our changes, and everything that makes our history what it is.

Because history is not only about the past.

History shapes how future generations understand who they are.

If we fail to document ourselves, someone else will fill the silence.

And when they do, we may one day ask:

“Who told them that this is who we are?”

And the answer may be:

“Because you never told your own story.”

So write.

Document.

Preserve.

Research.

Question.

Correct.

Let the Hausa people tell the story of the Hausa with evidence, honesty, and courage.

Our history should not disappear into other people’s interpretations.