Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1895-05-10
AN AFRICAN ASSOCIATION
Organized for the Civilization OF
HausalGnd,
An Important Movement for the study
of = Comparatively Unknown Lsr-
guex~--The Most Typical of
s Negro Peoples.


When white men decide to push their
enterprises into new lands they seldom
begin by making long preliminary
study of the languages They move
into the country and learn the Ian
guages while they are buying products
or teaching the natives. A movement
is now well advanced, however, for
making a thorough study Of great
African language while yet there is not
a missionary in the field and scarcely a
trader Everybody who knows the
facts thinks this is the best step that
can be taken towards getting a foot
hold in the great and populous regions
of the central Soudan, just south of the
Sahara desert
This region, says an eastern ex-
change, also known as Hausaland, is
odottedrover with numerous towns rand
has millions of inhabitants. It covers
an area Of half million square miles,
and is one-sixth as large as the United
States, exclusive of Alaska. The only
widely-spread language there is the
Hausa, and it is spoken by not less than
one one-hundredth of the human race.
1t is one of the richest and most culti-
waited languages in Africa, and is not
only the vernacular where the Hausas
live, but is the lingua franco in wide
regions beyond it's own home. Far
south and west of the lower Niger,
Hausa is coming to be more and more
spoken. In big coast towns like Lagas
and Badagry, wherever Mohammedans
are found, Hausa is the dominant Ian
guage. The reason is that the Hausas
are the leading commercial people of
Africa. Their caravans are found from
the Mediterranean states to the wild
regions west of the Gulf of Guinea, and
wherever they go they spread the
knowledge of their language.
1t was decided long ago that the
study of this language was of great inn
portance to philologists, traders and
missionaries, and SO, in 1892, the Hausa
association was formed in England,
with the object of obtaining a complete
knowledge of it. Well-known repre-
sentatives of science and philology
formed the committee and a pro-
gramme of work was adopted. The
first step was to send student to
Tripon and Tunis to get preliminary
knowledge of the tongue from the
Hausa caravans which visit those
cities. Mr.. Charles Robinson was Sc
lected for this work, and he has carried
it on with enthusiasm and excellent re-
suits. He has mingled intimately with
the Hausa visitors to North Africa He
has acquired knowledge of their hab-
its of thought as well as of their Ian
guage, both of which are essential con-
dittons to useful residence in the con-
trail Soudan. He has translated some
of the Gospels into the language with a
view, simply, to providing a useful aid
to white students In fact. the mis-
siouaries, while interested in the work,
are taking no active part IN 1t, and 1t Is
being carried on solely by an eclectic
body of scientific men, with such sup
port as the public are giving them.
Mr.. Robinson has now started for the
central Soudan with a number of as
sistants, including physician who has
picked up good deal of Hausa at
Tunis, and It is expected that he will
be particularly useful, for 1t is known
that doctor can often obtain access to
circles in Hausaland to which an ordi-
nary traveler would not he admitted.
Their headquarters will be at Kano,
the Manchester of central Africa
but they will also visit other important
towns, where somewhat different dia-
lects OF Hausa are spoken, SO that the
proposed vocabularies may be of serv-
ice to future residents in various parts
of tbs Hausa states. Mr.. Robinson and
his assistants will complete among the
Hassss people the work that they began
in Noysh Africa. The purpose is to
bring back material for copious die
tionary and grammar of the language,
and this is c0ly the beginning of the
work that tia association has in view.
They intend, for instance, to print sim
pie, Illustrated books on agriculture in
the Hausa language, and other works
instructing the people in the best meth
DDS we know of carrying on the pnr-
suits in which ehey already excel other
African people.
There is probably no work now doing |
among the natives of Africa which
promises such good results as this. The
Hausas are called the most typical Of
all the negro psople, and in their intel
lectnal qualities they hold the very
foremost rank among negroes. They
are fine agriculturists, and although
the great mars of them have been
affected by foreign influences
they are conspicuous for the variety
and excellenca Of their manufactures,
such as the making Of cloth, mats,
leafhar md oAss