The Hausa International Book and Arts Festival 2023 runs in Kaduna, Nigeria from December 14 – 16, 2023. The festival theme is ‘Hausa Diaspora.’
The Hausa International Book and Arts Festival was first run in Kaduna in October 2021. It was founded and curated by Sada Malumfashi to showcase the best of contemporary African literature, poetry, music, art, film, and theatre in Hausa to a target audience of thousands of youths across West Africa. It was reprised for the second time in 2022.
The 2023 edition will open up the diaspora of the Hausa-speaking world both from the within and the outside. It will query how the Hausa people managed to establish themselves so firmly in foreign lands thousands of kilometres away from their homes; what gave the Hausa language the ability to adopt and adapt in every nook and cranny even without political control; why migrant traders throughout West Africa whether of Hausa origin or not use Hausa as a language.
Sada Malumfashi, Curator of the festival said, “Since the fourteenth century, many categories of people had left Hausaland and ventured into various parts of West Africa, some returned, some settled. In the 18th and 19th centuries, Hausa diasporas were scattered across continents in their Zangos – settlements. Appearing as “Afnu,” “Husa,” “Housa,” “Houssa,” “Ussa,” “Hausa,” “Aussa,” “Aoussa,” “Haoussa,” or “Kashna” in European language sources of the times.
Some of the featured guests are Korede Azeez, Dr. Idris Hamza Yana, Temidayo Odutokun, Abu Bakr Sadiq, Salihu Mahe, Zakiyyah Dzukogi, Suleiman Usman Yusuf, Nasiba Babale, Aliyu Mustapha, Ismail Bala, Husayn Zaguru, Nana Sule, Bakr Al Jaber, Aminu Ladan Abubakar (ALA Alan Waka), Heedaya Mahmoud, Antoinette Yetunde Oni, Qalbsaleem Muhammad, Hassana Maina, Bashaer Hawsawi, Sumayah Fallatah, Zainab Hassan, Suraiya Banu, Dimi Chami, Alhaji Souleman Yahaya, Alhaji Garba Anasse, Alhaji Murtala Ajuma, Muhammad Rabi’u Abu Hidaya, Amira Souley, Nana A’isha Hamissou, Roukayya Sadissou, Djazouli Salissou, Mahmoud Ragab Ali Sayed, Prof Ibrahim Bello-Kano Maikuɗi Abubakar Zukogi, Fatima Isah (AKA) Teemah Efeezy, Nasiru Wada Khalil, and many others.
The festival is supported with funding by the British Academy, the University of Bristol, the British Council, and the Kingdom of the Netherlands. For program information, please visit the official website.
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