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[1]
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 22:24:55
From: Nikolai A. Dobronravin, St. Petersburg University
<nikolai@ND1506.spb.edu>
Concerning nicknames, etc.: In Northern Nigeria, most British
colonial officers had them, usually not too different from common
Hausa nicknames (not necessarily mocking ones). Some of these
names were mentioned in Mani's Coming of the Europeans to the
North (published in Hausa in the 50s, the list probably taken
from a British source). It is worth mention that the British were
usually aware (if not proud) of their names and mention them in
their memoirs.
As to the songs, I saw a Hausa song on Mai Jimina (Mr. Abadie)is
in the Arnett papers in the Rhodes House Library in Oxford.
Unfortunately, I don't have a copy. Other songs can also be found
in British publications.
By the way, it seems to me that the French were not so proud of
their nicknames. They should have some, but I haven't seen any
reference to such names used in the Hausa-speaking areas of
Niger.
[2]
Date: Tue, 21 Mar 2000 14:26:37
From: Bob White, McGill University
<bwhite1@po-box.mcgill.ca>
Two examples that come to mind are Vail and White's work on Paiva
songs in Mozambique (for one example see Karin Barber's 1997
_Readings in African Popular Culture_) and the work of a
Congolese historian named Osumaka Likaka. I don't know if these
stories are mentioned in his recent book _Rural Society and
Cotton in Colonial Zaire_ (Wisconsin 1997), but I know he wrote
and presented an extremely interesting paper at the University of
Michigan in the Spring of 1997 on the subject of colonial
nicknames.
I believe it was published as a working paper in their center for
African and African-American studies. If not, you can probably
locate him where he works at Wayne State University. The
well-known song 'Salongo' which accompanied most of Mobutu's
forced work campaigns during the authenticity period is believed
to have originally been a song which mocked colonial authorities
during forced labor campaigns under the Belgian colonial regime.
I hope some of this is helpful.
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