Kano is not a place you reduce to a headline or dismiss with a stereotype. It is a city with too many layers for that- too much memory, too many voices. This is the Kano of Muhammadu Rumfa, the ruler who gave it form and vision, and of Ibrahim Dabo, the scholar-king. The Kano of Kundila and Dangote, where wealth meets ingenuity.
It is the Kano the British once described as the ‘London of Africa,’ the Tripolitans praised as ‘a city like a thousand others’, each one magnificent—and its own people, knowing its complex social and ideological chemistry, named tumbin giwa, the intestine of an elephant: vast, winding, and full of hidden depths.
Kano has always carried many lives at once. It is the home of Shehu Tijjani Na Yan Mota and the sanctuary of Abdullahi dan Fodio when he felt the revolution had been betrayed. It is Madinar Mamman Shata and the home of Aminu Ala, the author of the philosophical Shahara and masterfully composed Bara a Kufai. This is the same Kano that made Dauda Kahutu Rara, the master of invective lyrics, and Rabiu Usman Baba, the Jagaban of Sha’irai.
Here, contradictions do not cancel each other, they coexist. It is the city of yan hakika and yan shari’a, of Izala and Tariqa, of Shaykh Rijiyar Lemo and of Shaykh Turi. It is the Kano where people will argue passionately about doctrine, then share tea afterward. Where silence and speech, mysticism and reform, are all part of the same long interesting yet boring conversation.
This is the Kano of the diplomatic Emir Ado Bayero and combatant Muhammad Sanusi II. Of Rabiu Kwankwaso, the red-cap-wearing jagora, and of the agreeable Ibrahim Shekarau. It is that same Kano of the incorruptible Malam Aminu Kano and Dollar-stuffing Ganduje. The cosmopolitan city of Sabo Wakilin Tauri and of the saintly Malam Ibrahim Natsugune.
If not Kano, then what other city could birth Barau Kwallon Shege, the bard of the profane, and welcome Shaykh Ibrahim Nyass, the towering saint of the mystics? Where else but Kano would you find Shaykh Nasiru Kabara- scholar and Sufi master- sharing the same cityscape with Rashida dan Daudu and all the remembered and forgotten Magajiyoyin Karuwai? This is the Kano of yan jagaliya and attajirai, of the sacred and the profane, the pulpit and the street. The Salga and of Sanya Olu and Ibedi streets. Kano has never pretended to be a city of one truth, its greatness lies in the multitude it carries.
So when people speak carelessly about Kano, they miss the point. Kano is not a relic. It is alive. It debates itself. It holds its tensions with pride. And like Adamu Adamu said, “the story of this enigmatic city is simple and straight backward – and , in the end one can only say Kano is Kano because Kano is Kano - and that’s all; for; it is its own reason for being.”
You don’t explain Kano. You respect it.
Huzaifa Dokaji
Thank you for your feedback.
What that mosque printed is true and violates no authentic Scriptural beliefs. It only offended church dogma, which are ideas that emanate from a congregation rather than Scripture.
Yeshua, Whom you call Jesus, is not God. It is an abomination to call Him God. He is the Way to God-John 14:6. But He is not the Destination. There is only One God, and He has no equal or partner-Deuteronomy 6:4.
It is that One God who sits on the Throne, and He is above Yeshua-John 14:28. Yeshua never called Himself God. John 1:1 does not mean He is God. He Himself prayed to God-Matthew 27:46, Matthew 26:39, John 11:41-42. Yeshua is also subject to God-1 Corinthians 15:28.
Finally, if you say, 'I do not believe in prophet Muhammad's message', no Muslim will be offended. But if you insult their prophet, they may find out your true identity (your identity here is obviously fake), take action, and I will NOT condemn them!
Thanks again, and may God give us wisdom.
“OKONJO-WAHALA”
(The Woman With Many Firsts)
She and her six siblings were raised by her grandmother whilst their parents were studying in Europe on scholarship.
By the time she was 9, she had learned to cook, fetch firewood, and manage the household.
The civil war in 1967 disrupted her education and exposed her to difficult times as she was eating one meal a day, saw children dying around her, and slept on the mud floor, so she had to learn how to live “economically” even as a kid.
“ADVERSITY IS ONE OF LIFE’S GREATEST TEACHERS”
#OdogwuTales
Not Seychelles, not Mauritius, not Cape Town, not Hawaii ,not Maldives, not Tarkwa Bay, not even Oniru beach - this is Aiyetoro Beach in Ondo State, the sunshine state with the longest coastline in Nigeria.
Ondo State, so rich, so blessed.
FCT’s Jabi Lake project to cost $21 million, says ICRC
The Infrastructure Concession Regulatory Commission (ICRC) has said, the proposed Jabi Lake project in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), will gulp $21 million.
https://t.co/oiPiqrFh45
@officialncdmb@wabote_simbi Happy Birthday, please take a look at Intels in Onne.,we know your relationship with GX Ian sure you understand my language. Nigerian Local Content no get meaning here o