Ruwan Bagaja literally meaning "Water of Cure" is a debut novel written in

Hausa language Hausa (; /; Ajami: ) is a Chadic language spoken by the Hausa people in the northern half of Nigeria, Ghana, Cameroon, Benin and Togo, and the southern half of Niger, Chad and Sudan, with significant minorities in Ivory Coast. Hausa is a member ...

by Dr

Abubakar Imam Abubakar Imam O.B.E C.O.N L.L.D (Hon.) N.N.M.C. (1911 - 1981) was a Nigerian writer, journalist and politician from Kagara, Niger in Nigeria. For most of his life, he lived in Zaria, where he was the first Hausa editor of Gaskiya Ta Fi Kwabo ...

at the age of 22 years, He presented the book during a literature bureau competition organised by Rupert East in the year 1933 in Zaria. Abubakar Imam won second prize for his presented book, thus marking his territory as an author to contend with. With the acclaim from ''Ruwan Bagaja,'' he went on to publish nearly 20 other Hausa books including the celebrated three-volume collection of stories ''Magana Jari Ce''.

History

Abubakar Imam was a primary school teacher in Katsina Middle School. At the age of twenty two years, he went to Zaria from his state of origin Niger State to participate in a contest which was organized by Rupert East. He settled in Zaria for six months where he wrote the novel ''Ruwan Bajaga'' as his debut novel to present in the contest in the year 1933.

Publication

The book was first published in 1934 by the Literature Bureau in Zaria and later by the Northern Nigerian Publishing Company Limited. A school-reader translation into English was published in 1971. It has also been translated into Russian as ''Zhivai︠a︡ voda :povestʹ.''

Plot

In the beginning of the novel ''Ruwan Bagaja'', it starts with a quest story of a young man who set out on an adventure to find ''Ruwan Bagaja'' (Water of Cure). He travels through many places, kingdoms, deserts and saw many wonders of Earth. At some point, he was told that no human had ever been able to reach it for centuries and due to this dry spell without actual contact with it, the reality of ''Ruwan Bagaja'' slowly faded away into a myth, becoming a fairy tale as if it never existed. The protagonist however insisted that if the water of cure did indeed exist, then he sees no reason to give up searching for it. He left everything behind in search of ''Ruwan Bajaga.''

Legacy

Since 1934, Ruwan Bajaga had been held in high regards among Hausa books for its authentic lexical structure of the Hausa language. It remains part of the teaching curriculum in many educational institutions across Nigeria and West Africa. The book has been narrated in audio format for listening.

Bibliography

References