Group starts to render top Persian publications into Hausa - managing director

1390/02/25-08:30

IRI-Nigeria Friendship Group has started to render top Persian publications into Hausa, a major language spoken across Africa, the group's managing director and founding member told Iran Book News Agency (IBNA) Friday.

 

Native speakers of Hausa are mostly to be found in the African country of Niger and in the north of Nigeria, but the language is used as a trade language across a much larger swathe of West Africa (Benin, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo, Cote d'Ivoire etc.), Central Africa and western Sudan, (Chad, Central African Republic, Sudan, Equitorial Guinea), particularly amongst Muslims.

 

Rahim Shini-Moqaddam told IBNA that the group has 200 members fluent in Hausa and that a book on the lifestyle of Imam Khomeini, the late founder of Islamic Republic of Iran has already been rendered into the language in a joint project by IRI Organization of Islamic Culture and Relations (ICRO).

 

The IRI-Nigeria Friendship Group put on show several items in the 24^th TIBF event, namely Nigerian indigenous handcrafts (mostly wooden statuettes) as well as number of titles translated by members of the group from Persian.

 

The publications on show in the pavilion were a new print of the Holy Koran in Kufi script, biography and lifestyle of Imam Khomeini in English (official language of Nigeria), biography and lifestyle of Imam Ali (A.S.) in Hausa, rendered jointly by Mr. and Mrs. Pezeshk, Rayuwar Ma’aurata (on marriage), authored by Abd al-Qader Mubarak as well as several other religious titles.

 

In another section of the pavilion, the friendship group was presenting its activities and goals to visitors and absorbing new members. That interestingly received a solid welcome.

 

Mr. Moqaddam said some 60 percent of the 200m-strong Nigerian population was Muslims and they speak in Hausa and English. He said the friendship group was selecting and rendering different publications for the population, mostly on religious themes.

 

A group of Nigerian people too are honorary member of the group and engaged in translation into Persian of several titles in Hausa, the managing director added

 

The IRI-Nigeria Friendship Group has been pursuing to establish a board on Persian language in Nigerian universities, Mr. Rahim Shini-Moqaddam told the agency.