Abstract  

The traditional Qur’anic school, known as Tsangaya in Hausa language, traces its origin to the old Timbuktu Scholastic tradition.  This system predates the western system of instruction in Northern Nigeria .  Many people in this part of Nigeria , including public servants, traditional rulers, political leaders, e.t.c, are either products of this system or happened to go through it at least once in their lifetime.  Though some people identify it with dependency, destitution and begging the Tsangaya carries within itself mechanisms for self reliance and self employment, which many scholars hardly notice.  This paper seeks to bring out and explain these salient self-reliance features which may, perhaps, have played a significant role in safeguarding the existence of the system over a long period of time.  

Introduction

The traditional Qur’anic school, known in Hausa language as the Tsangaya, has been in existence in Northern Nigeria for centuries.  It has been a source of inspiration and awareness for the Muslims.  It has also survived the onslaught of colonialism and the neglect of the post-independence leaders such that neither the teachers nor the pupils have ever surrendered or retreated from the quest to uphold and protect the system from total collapse.  From the attainment of independence to date the Tsangaya has been completely side-lined from the scheme of things at federal, state and local government levels.

This paper attempts to peruse into the Tsangaya system, bringing thereof elements of self-reliance inherent in it.  Emphasis is laid on the original nature of the system.  A brief history of the emergence of the system is given.  Literal and technical meanings of the concept are also given, including its types and some of the self-reliance features in it.  

Defining Tsangaya

The literal meaning of this word is ‘study centre’. However, it is given a variety of technical definition.  According to Abubakar (2001) Tsangaya refers to the traditional Qur’anic school because of what is largely visible in it i.e. wooden plate.  It is called in Hausa ‘Makarantar Allo’ (wooden plate school), ‘Makarantar Alkur’ani’ (Qur’anic school), ‘Makarantar Muhammadiyya’ (Muhammadan school), ‘Makarantar Toka’ (ash school) etc.  

Abbas (1978: 126) defines it as an area or place where the Qur’an is taught and which is characterized by an assembly of a conglomeration of children, most of whom carry their individual wooden plates, around a single teacher, most of the time with whip in his hand.  

Imam (2002) explains that Tsangaya refers to any place, be it a room, balcony, veranda, hut, guest room, tree shade, e.t.c where a mixture of male and female children gather for the purpose of learning the Qur’an.  The distinguishing feature is children reciting loudly from their wooden plates.  

To round it up, Tsangaya is a system of instruction in which both the teacher and the students travel out of their places of origin, and sometimes remain there, for the purpose of learning, mastering and memorizing the Qur’an, ready and prepared, in the process, to face the hardships and tumults of life.  

Brief History Of The Tsangaya System

Islamic education in Northern Nigeria, allude Ozigi and Ocho (1991), has a continuous history going back many centuries and which was firmly established long before the advent of Western system of instruction which was first brought by Christian missionaries.  This type of education has produced scholars, architects, historians philosophers, geographers, mathematicians and scientists.  

Qur’anic schools originated in the lifetime of Prophet Muhammad (upon whom, be peace) as he was the first teacher in Islam and the curricullum was the Qur’an and Sunnah (prophetic precepts). Lessons were formerly carried out in the mosques. Later, schools were separated from it in order to safeguard its sanctity (Ilori: 1981, 32-33).    

When Islam was introduced to Kanem Bornu and became a state religion, Bornu gradually became the center for Qur’anic recitation.  The Tsangaya system enjoyed a great support and encouragement from the Mais (a title for Bornu rulers).  It originated in the reign of Mai Ali Gaji (1503 AD) who encouraged and supported the establishment of such centers in many areas for the spread of literacy (Yola: 2000).  

After the success of the Jihad, Shehu Uthmanu Dan-fodio directed all those who are learned in the Qur’an to spread themselves and impart its knowledge in order not to remain idle, on one hand, and, on the other hand, to rescue the populace from continuously wallowing in the river of ignorance.  They complied and started gathering students for this purpose.  Parents, then, considered it a part of their own contribution to hand over their wards to teachers with a view to enhancing and entrenching the Jihad by having children learned in the Qur’an (Maibushira: 2005).  

Both teachers and students were then adequately catered for. The Jihad leaders continued to spread and encourage this system of education.  This trend continued up to the advent of the colonialists who completely disregarded the system and rendered it irrelevant.  

As to the eastward movement of the teachers and their students Abdulhamid (1998) explains that it may not be unconnected with the encounter between Sultan Attahiru I and the colonialists.  As a result of this encounter, Qur’anic scholars began to sneak away to the North-eastern boarder of the present day Nigeria in order to escape from the evil of colonialism and western system of instruction.  Henceforward, migration in search for Qur’anic knowledge came to be known as ‘kaura zuwa gabas’ in Hausa language, meaning ‘migration to the east.  

Type Of Tsangaya

The Tsangaya is of different types, though they share many things in common.  Galadanci (2005) explains that according to available statistics the number of these schools in Kano state alone is twenty eight thousand.  

There are basically two types of tsangaya i.e. the resident and the mobile one.

1.                The resident Tsangaya: This is most of the time situated in the town whether in the rural or urban area.  Students are enrolled from the neighbouring houses.  The school has two sessions i.e. the morning session, which begins from 9.00am to around 11.00am , and the afternoon session, which normally starts from around 4.00pm to sunset.  

2.                The Mobile Tsangaya: This is the one, which has no permanent location.  The teacher along with his students, move from one place to another.  It is of three types: the bush one, the suburbs one and the town one.  Those who enroll themselves or their children do so on the belief that one cannot fully concentrate on his studies if he stays in his hometown.  Moreover, one even risks loosing his retentive power if he does so (Yahya: 2005).  

Elements Of Self Reliance In The System

It is interesting to know that the Tsangaya contains within itself elements of self-reliance which, to a larger extent, help in eliminating the notion of waiting for the system to provide employment after the graduation.  The following are some of these elements:  

Securing a Place

Securing a place to serve as school is one element of self-reliance in the Tsangaya system.  An inherent and conspicuous feature of this system is that teachers travel out along with his students in search for a place to stay.  When a suitable area Is realized, the teacher takes a stroll around it in order to ascertain which part of the neighbourhood is harmless and which part is harmful.  He then warns his students against going to the latter.  He also shows them where to fetch water.  

The recitation zone (Kiskali), toilet, night prep area, benches (Gargari) and dormitory are all constructed by the students themselves, under the teacher’s guidance, without any external assistance.  Thus conducive learning atmosphere is created through the combined efforts of the teacher and the students.  

Boosting the Morale of Students

Means of encouraging students to face their studies squarely are devised in such a way that material incentive is rendered irrelevant.  There is therefore no need for organizing speech and prize-giving days which entails incurring high expenditure and in which external assistance must be sought as a matter of necessity.  Here variety of means are employed by the teacher to boost the morale of students.  

The teacher sometimes asks hardworking student to accompany him whenever he is invited to an occasion of Qur’anic recitation.  The teacher also appoints a bright student as his deputy whenever he happens to be away or is too busy.  

Procurement of Food

Sourcing food through subsisting farming is another element of self-reliance.  Here, both students and their teacher engage in farming in order to produce what they can survive on for a complete year or more without necessarily resorting to begging which is originally detestable in the system.  

It is pertinent here to say a word or two with regard to begging in the Tsangaya system.  Not all beggars on the street are products of this system.  We believe that some students do beg for food.  However, it should be noted that this begging is not a life long one but circumstantial. if we agree that it is driven by circumstance then there is no basis for holding the Tsangaya system alone responsible and exonerating the so-called formal system.  This is because while the Tsangaya students beg only at the lower level, that of the higher level is he prerogative of the western instructed students.  Those who book appointment with high government officials only to lodge their personal complaints and those who always champion the cause of the so-called continuity in both military and democratic dispensations are nobody other than anointed beggars.  Similarly those who move from one office to the other praise-singing the office-holders and those who confer commercial degrees, devoid of any academic aroma, are none other than first-class beggars.  Moreover, those who take pleasure in organizing shady book launchings are another set of beggars, over whom nobody ever raises an eyebrow.  We have to be sincere in our approaches to issues that directly affect the life of others.  

A student of the Quran must, as a rule, behave responsibly and respect himself.  However, begging negates the two attributes.  It is considered a necessary evil which should only be resorted to in times of necessity.  

The firewood to be used in preparing food is realized by the students.  On Tuesdays and Wednesdays students make heaps of firewood in the bush and carry it to the school.  What is so far realized is expected to last for sometime.  No external hand is necessarily needed in doing this.  

Avenues for Exhibiting Versatility and Erudition

Costless and non-boring means are devised to achieve this.  Conferences, seminars or symposiums need not to be organized in order to create a competitive atmosphere. Financial burden of inviting guests participants and hosting which needs a lot of dependency is therefore averted.  

A certified reciter of the Qur’an is expected to be versed and erudite.  A number of avenues are made available in the Tsangaya system for all experts to prove that their power of retention and mastery over Qur’anic recitation are unquestionable.Some of these avenues include:

i.                   Ability to write the Qur’an from memory without resorting to copying this is called ‘Satu’

ii.                 Ability to some times rely o copying to write down the Qur’an from memory.  This is referred to as ‘Barawon satu’

iii.               Daily assembly of expert reciters of the Qur’an solely for the purpose of recitation.  ‘Zaman Tukuri’ is the name given to it.

iv.               Occasional assembly of expert reciters such as wedding consummation, graduation, naming ceremony e.t.c occasions.  This is named ‘Musaffa’.

v.                 Ability to master and convert into memory the number of words, phrases letters, diacritical marks, vowels, e.t.c contained in each portion, chapter or in the complete Qur’an and tell instantly whenever requested to. This is called ‘Harji’.

Income Generation

Financial expenses are comfortably met without running helter-skelter for governmental assistance. The Tsangaya has four major sources of income.  This include the following:

i.                   Money generated through the students’ and teacher’s involvement in many occupations such as manicure, cap-making, embroidery designs, cap washing, e.tc.

ii.                 Alms given directly to the teacher by the individual members of the society, requesting special prayers thereof.

iii.               The Eid al-fitr, Eid al-adha and Eid al-Maulud vacation fees.  These are collected whenever students are going for holidays of one of these three occasions.

iv.               The weekly fees collected on Wednesdays.  This is a negligible amount which ranges from fifty kobo to five naira paid by individual students to the teacher, Fafunwa (1974) adds that such fees are paid in cash and kind and there is no fixed amount as this varies from teacher to teacher.  

GRADUATION

The graduation itself is another emblem of self-reliance in the system.  This is because a student is not issued any paper certificate with which to secure a job as knowledge is considered to be separate from occupation.  Knowledge in this system is held to be an act of worship the acquisition of which only stops with one’s death and not an occupation.  The latter, on the other hand, is regarded as a means of sustenance and a support to knowledge acquisition.  The issue of what kind of job one gets after graduation does not therefore arise at all.  Student had already learned the occupation of his family which may be farming, smiting, dyeing, tailoring, etc. He therefore exercises no fear of unemployment as this is not the aim of his studies.  He engages himself in this occupation, being fully contended with the fact that he has achieved what he wants i.e. learning the Aqur’an, and that his post-worldly life is now safe.  It is only a handful of these graduates who deviate and dater turn into hooligans.  It is important, to note that even the much-touted western system of instruction is not devoid of these undesirable elements.  

SUMMARY

Attempt is made in this paper to bring into light some elements of self-reliance in the Tsangaya system.  Both its literal and technical meanings are given along with its history and types.  Some aspects of self-reliance the system contains are enumerated and explained.  Six of these elements, which are more glaring, are briefly and concisely explained in this paper.  

CONCLUSION

From the foregoing it can be concluded that the Tsangaya system, in its original form, is far away from breeding begging and destitution.  It rather instills the habit of self-reliance in both the teachers an their students.  If given the proper care and attention it deserves the system will help in entrenching and strengthening the government’s policy of making Nigerians self-reliant rather than always rely on government to provide employment.  

Recommendations

This study wishes to recommend the following:

1.                That government recognizes this system of learning as a historic and distinct one which enabled a large segments of Nigerians to read and write even before colonialism made its debut. So long as the government will look at these schools as outdated, outfashioned and debris of primitiveness the stakeholders in the system will vehemently continue to repulse any move on its part to correct the system.

2.                 That henceforth, any programme evolved by the government to address the problems of these schools must include the stakeholders in the system (the Mallam ,the Gardi, the Alaramma etc). In the past charged with the responsibility of reforming the system did not know anything with regards to these schools. This is because neither themselves nor their children have any first hand information on the schools as they have never studied in it. The Mallams are in a better position to know the problems of these schools and how they can be solved.

3.                That in the course of addressing these problems, the curriculum should never be tampered with. The Qur’an should continue to be the curriculum without a mature of English or maths or figh etc.

4.                That the government designs a feeding programme ion which it provides either breakfast and lunch or lunch and dinner to both the students and the teachers at their respective place. This will at least check the problem of begging for food and students becoming overcome with hunger.

5.                That affluent private individuals, corporations and organization be given some of these schools to provide them with either breakfast, lunch or dinner at least three times a week.

6.                That products of these schools be introduced to a post-graduate vocational education. This will help them acquire many skills on which to subsist and become self-employed. This will serve two purposes. On one hand, they are protected against becoming hooligans by being self-employed and on the other hand they are made useful and productive members of the society.