Almajiri: A New African Poetry

Almajiri is a collection of poems that explore the voices of Almajiri, the street beggar-poet among the Hausa/Fulani and the Yoruba to address contemporary local and global issues. These include the continued socio-economic hardship in Nigeria despite its abundant human and natural resources, current cultural and economic issues facing Africans in the Diaspora, African development matters, human rights crises around the world, standard vs. dialect language debate, and others. Almajiri is a book of performance poetry and includes many refrains in Hausa and Yoruba languages. It emphasizes simplicity of language in creativity, and takes strength from the womb of Hausa/Fulani and Yoruba oral traditions.
While engaging African readers/listeners/observers familiar with images, proverbs and metaphors explored from their common cultures, Almajiri hopes to teach young and adult Africans in the Diaspora, and anyone interested from around the world, Hausa and Yoruba in songs, and in performance. Adages and strong metaphors are explored directly from the two cultures so that interested Africans in the Diaspora and others can learn traditional African expressions through poetry.