Library Weekly

In 1793, Fulani scholar, poet and educator Nana Asma’u was born in a village called Degel in what is now Northern Nigeria. She was in particular devoted to the education of women. Her Yan Taru, a programme aimed at making education accessible to all, especially women, continues into the 21st century.

Like her father, the founder of the Sokoto Caliphate, Usman dan Fodio, Nana Asmaʾu was educated in tafsir (Qur'anic studies). She was well-versed in three different languages: Fulfude, Arabic, Hausa – all using the Arabic script. She also spoke the Taureg language Tamachek. Among her more than 60 surviving works written over 40 years, Nana Asmaʾu left behind a large body of poetry. Many of these are historical narratives, but they also include elegies, laments, and admonitions. Asmaʾu witnessed many battles of the Fulani War and wrote about her experiences in the prose narrative 'Wakar Gewaye', 'The Song of Wandering'.

Around 1830, Nana Asma’u created a cadre of women teachers called 'jajiss', who travelled throughout the Caliphate educating women in their homes. In turn, each of these 'jajis' used the writings of Nana Asmaʾu and other Sufi scholars, usually through recited mnemonics and poetry, to train crops of learned women called the Yan Taru, or 'those who congregate together, the sisterhood'.

Asma'u passed away in 1864/5 .

(Source: Wikipedia)

Selected publications

Educating Muslim women : the West African legacy of Nana Asma'u (1793-1864) / Jean Boyd; Beverly Mark. - Oxford : Interface Publications Ltd, 2013

Muslim women's knowledge production in the greater Maghreb: the example of Nana Asmaʼu of Northern Nigeria / Beverly Mark.
In: Gender and Islam in Africa : rights, sexuality, and law, 2011, p. 17-40

Feminist or Simply Feminine? Reflections on the Works of Nana Asmā'u, a Nineteenth-Century West African Woman Poet, Intellectual, and Social Activist / Chukwuma Azuonye.
In: Meridians (Middletown, Conn.), 2006, Vol.6 (2), p.54-77

The Essential Nana Asmā'u / Jean Boyd. - Yan Taru, 2005. Accessed on 21 December 2022.
http://www.yantaru.com/books/The%20Essential%20Nana%20Asma'u.pdf

One woman's jihad : Nana Asma'u, scholar and scribe /  Beverly Mark; Jean Boyd. - Bloomington, Ind. : Indiana University Press, 2000

Collected works of Nana Asma'u, daughter of Usman 'dan Fodiyo (1793-1864) / Nana Asma'u; Jean Boyd; Beverly Mark. - East Lansing : Michigan State University Press, [1997]
For excerpts see: https://hdl.handle.net/2144/42722

The Caliph's sister : Nana Asma'u 1793-1865 : teacher, poet and islamic leader / Jean Boyd. London [etc.] : Cass, 1989

Timeline of Nigerian women poets via DBpedia and Wikidata