Ruwan Bagaja

Ruwan Bagaja Hausa pronunciation [Ruwan Bagaja] (listen) meaning "Water of Cure" is a debut novel written in Hausa language by Dr Abubakar Imam at the age of 22 years, He present the book during a literature bureau competition organised by Rupert East in the year 1933 in Zaria. He have successfully won the contest with Ruwan Bajaga as his represented book, the novel that makes Abubakar Imam famous with more courage from people to publish other novels like Magana Jari Ce.^[1][2][3] After Publishing Ruwan Bagaja, Abubakar Imam have published nearly 20 Hausa Books.

History[]

Abubakar Imam was a primary school teacher in Katsina Middle School, at the age of twenty two years, He came 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 month were He wrote the novel Ruwan Bajaga as his first debut novel to present in the contest in the year 1933.^[4]

Publication[]

The book was first published in 1933 by Zaria, Northern Nigerian Publishing Company Limited, later on with different publication in different languages like English and Russia.^[5] Translated and published in Russia as Zhivai︠a︡ voda :povestʹ.^[6]

Plot[]

In the beginning of the novel Ruwan, it starts with a quest story of a young man, the hero experience many adventures on his various travels to get water of cure, He travels across many places, kingdoms, desserts and seen almost all the wonders on Earth, only in search of Ruwan Bajaga, which he was told that no human have ever been able to get it for about centuries, due to the years taken without Water of Cure, Water of Cure become myths, and was only heard in fairy tales and myths as if it never existed. The hero insist that if the water of cure exist, He see no reason for him not to looking for it. The hero left everything behind in search of Ruwan Bajaga the The Water of Cure.^[7] with no magnitude nor direction of were to find it.

Legacy[]

Since 1933, Ruwan Bajaga was considered as a standard Hausa Novel book which contain authentic lexical structures of Hausa dialect to be thought in education institution across Nigeria as part of studying Hausa Language in various stages of education.^[4] especially in secondary Schools and Universities, the book was also narrated in audio format for listening.^[8]

See also[]

• Abubakar Imam
• Magana Jari Ce
• Northern Nigerian Publishing Company Limited

Bibliography[]

• Furniss, Graham (1996). Poetry, prose and popular culture in Hausa. International African Institute. Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press for the International African Institute. ISBN 978-1-4744-6829-9

References[]