Artist

LOCATION:West Africa
Approximately 24 million people in Africa now speak the Hausa
language, from Western Africa across the continent to Eritrea. However,
it’s in northern Nigeria and the country of Niger where you’ll find
the majority of speakers. It is an Afro-Asiatic language, which means
it’s in the same general family as
Berber languages and the Arabic of
Egypt – languages spoken in the northern part of the continent. It can
be written in an Arabic script, known as Ajami.
As far as research shows, the first commercial Hausa recordings were
made in the Britain in the late 1920s when the Zonophone company, by
then an arm of HMV, began releasing the very first recordings for
African consumption (as opposed to ethnographic recordings made for
study, or for the amusement of Europeans) – most if not all of
Zonophone’s releases were actually recorded in England by native
Africans, with the records being shipped back to West Africa for sale.
There was also at least one Hausa song, recorded in Britain by native
Hausa speakers, released on the small Duophone label as well. Odeon may
have recorded Hausa material as well, on location, in the late 1920s.
In the 1930s, 5 more Hausa recordings were made by Parlophone (by then
also an HMV company) on their PO series – raw, rural music featuring
the Hausa people’s fiddles, the goje or the kukkuma,
with titles written in both Roman characters and Ajami script on the
labels. HMV continued releasing Hausa recordings on their JZ series
from 1937 onwards.
By the early 1950s when this record was made, HMV had been joined by
a cavalcade of competitors in the West African 78rpm market: mainly
French labels such as Philips, Fiesta, Le Chant du Monde, Voice of
Africa, Africa Vox, but also Decca, and near-lost independent labels
such as Bassophone, Palmo-Tone, Nugatone…it’s quite amazing. There was
a tremendous amount of recording going on, particularly in Ghana,
Nigeria, and Sierra Leone. But labels also went beyond the popular
Creole groups of Sierra Leone and the high-life bands of Ghana and
Nigeria, presumably to satisfy emerging markets, or simply smaller
ones. HMV’s green-labeled TM series added recordings from Togo, as well
as those in less-popular West African dialects like Adangbe and Awuna.
Which brings us to this Hausa recording, made for HMV and on the TM
series. The guitars show an influence of West African pop, but the
voices sound real and unpolished. The singers are accompanied by two
(?) guitars, drum, and percussion (perhaps a bottle). Alas, I could
find no information on Salifu Titah.
Technical Notes
Label: HMV
Issue Number: TM.1084
Matrix Number: OAB-3699-1
For more on the story of West African recording, there is Craig Taylor’s Savannaphone website, Paul Vernon’s article on the subject, and John Cowley’s excellent piece, “uBungca (Oxford Bags).”
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