By Aliyu Usman Tilde
If the 9th Century Abbasids can boast of the prolific, itinerant Abu Tammam, Africa has his match in Abubakar Ladan Maccido.
Like Abu Tammam, Abubakar Ladan's legacy apparently bore "a grudge for every part of the earth or yearning for every part".
His travels across the continent — penniless, as poets are wont to, but armed with the gift of poetry and adventure — took him to all but eight countries of Africa.
By the time he was discovered somewhere in East Africa and persuaded to return home, he had gathered enough information about the continent to compose a collection of four lengthy poems that can rightfully qualify him as "The Poet of the OAU (Organisation of African Unity)".
Born in the northern Nigerian city of Zaria in 1935, Abubakar had little interest in leading a sedentary life, just like his Fulani ancestors.
He worked at United Africa Company in Kano after his secondary school for two years before crossing the border to Niger for a short visit. It did not take him long time to leave, again through Niger, and never to return for several years.
Except for Gamal Abdel Nasser's Egypt, where he resided for nearly a decade, and during which he composed the concluding poem of his Africa collection — Al’ajubban Masar — Abubakar was always on the move.
He went from one country to another, meeting its people, understanding the complexity of their society, their issues, the mindset of their leaders and so on.
Academic contribution
Abubakar met hundreds of chiefs and composed for most of them verses that were often repaid with a token big enough to carry him to the next destination. Nasser was exceptionally close to him, and he had interactions with the leading poets of Egypt.
The call for African unity, especially in the 1960s, turned Abubakar into a veritable encyclopedia of the continent.
The master poet wasted no time in taking the lead. He composed the finest poems about nationalism and continental unity in the Hausa language, widely spoken in West and Central Africa.
These poems were rendered with his uniquely beautiful and inspiring masculine voice on the airwaves of various radio stations, including Nigeria's Radio Kaduna in the 1960s.
Abubakar sometimes injected Arabic words and sentences into his poems, testifying to his mastery of the Arabic meters is extensive travels and deep familiarity with Mother Africa.
The poems have since been a study material for prosodists at universities and colleges, especially in the language departments.
His stanzas have been memorised by millions and inspired many to become poets. Abubakar's masterpiece on African unity — Yarda, da Abota, Soyayya, meaning "Trust, friendship and love" — is a poem that articulates the post-independence dreams of Africans and the core values of the OAU, which to him was the perfect regional political structure for the realisation of that goal.
Pan-Africanism
The OAU is an organisation that William Wilberforce, on whom Abubakar lavished four stanzas of praise for abolishing slave trade, would probably have loved to form, protect and nurse to fruition.
The OAU came into being in 1963, which is 80 years after Wilberforce's death, and the actualisation of its objectives fell on the shoulders of African leaders.
The Pan-Africanist in Abubakar individually reached out to each of these leaders in 1969, appealing for the unity and progress of the newly independent Africa.
His concept of Africa's progress hinged on joint ownership of the continent; the common, colonial and exploitative history of its people; and the need— or hope — to catch up with other nations by getting rid of poverty, illiteracy and indolence under a purposeful, patriotic and transparent leadership. On the concept of ownership, he wrote as translated:
On the concept of ownership, he wrote as translated:
Africa, Oh Africa!
Country by country, everything's ours
Our oil, gold and diamond
Our coal, iron and tin
And our silver and even our bronze
We now control our mineral resources
Though Africa was mostly independent when the OAU was formed, Abubakar didn't lose sight of the fact that only unity within and across its nations could make the rest free and guarantee meaningful development. He wrote:
The colonialists have left
We are done, with no debts
Africa reproaches colonialism
Unity is what will end it
A formidable foundation is found...
Remaining Mozambique and Angola
And Guinea, still in suffering
The biggest whip is unity
Once we strike,
The rest will naturally go away.
Back then, the independence of Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe), Namibia and South Africa appeared to be a tall order.
But Abubakar saw unity as a formidable tool in solving problems and realising the OAU's objectives:
If affection is found, with no envy
Then friendship will follow
Once a challenge comes up
It’s decided to be faced
Or resolved it be sourced
Unity is the great tool for it.
In different stanzas, his dream of a unified Africa could be graphic. This one envisioned an Africa connected by a network of highways, allowing free movement of its citizens:
Africa should be improved with highways
(On which) you travel without fear
From Asmara to Kayi
From Khartoum to Mauritania.
Half a century later, apart from independence of the whole continent, the dream of a truly united Africa is beginning to pick up with regional projects like common currency, international highways, visa-free movements and a single passport, among other things.
Not without challenges
Although he praised its leaders, as would any poet whose objectives matched his, the realist Abubakar did not discount the forces that would work against the realisation of the OAU's core values of peace, brotherhood and progress of the continent.
He saw threats in the form of external interference, internal schisms, selfish leadership and indolent citizenry.
Abubakar was unsparing of the stooges of foreign powers “who collect a lot of funds” to cause crises, repeatedly emphasising the need to be guarded against such troublemakers:
Crisis is asleep, benign
God curse who awakens it
And those who aggravate it.
Witness to a chequered history
Abubakar lived long enough to witness the development and setbacks suffered by Africa in the half-a-century that followed his Africa poem.
While thousands of schools, hospitals and roads were built, the continent also had its fair share of crises.
Despite the efforts of its leaders, ridding the continent of poverty in the face of skyrocketing population proved harder to achieve than he wished.
He left behind for Africa a classic that perfectly captured its dream at independence, a song that will continue to inspire its leaders to progress on the traditional African values of brotherhood, trust, hard work and independence.
Abubakar lived a simple life of contentment despite his fame. When I visited him a week before his death on December 24, 2014, I met a poet who was seriously ill, but whose brain was still alert enough to follow me in the recitation of some verses I had composed.
Knowing that he might not live much longer due to his advanced age, I was inspired to pick the baton from him and move on. It is a difficult task.
May Abubakar Ladan's soul rest in peace. May Africa continue to prosper and be united.
The writer, Aliyu Usman Tilde, is a public affairs commentator based in Nigeria and a friend to late Abubakar Ladan.
Disclaimer: The viewpoints expressed by the author do not necessarily reflect the opinions, viewpoints and editorial policies of TRT Afrika.
