Course Spotlight: First Semester Hausa

A traditional Hausa dignitary in Niger. Photo by Connie Stephens
A traditional Hausa dignitary in Niger. Photo by Connie Stephens

Course Description

Hausa is a Chadic language (a branch of the Afro-Asiatic family) spoken by more than 34 million people in parts of Nigeria, Niger, and Chad, and as a trade language by another 18 million people throughout West Africa (especially Benin, Ghana, Cameroon, Togo, and Côte d’Ivoire), Central Africa (Chad, Central African Republic, Equatorial Guinea), and northwestern Sudan. It has a rich literary tradition in both Arabic and Roman scripts, as well as a thriving oral tradition and a huge film industry.  This course is an introduction to the language through conversation, reading, writing, listening, cultural practices and multimedia.

Enrollment details

African Languages and Literature 361: First semester Hausa
4 credits for graduates, 5 credits for undergraduates
M-F 8:50am, location pending
Fall 2014

About the instructor

Nura Abubakar Saad is a Fulbright Foreign Language Teaching Assistant (FLTA) from Nigeria. A graduate of Gombe State University in Nigeria, he is an experienced language teacher, a creative writer, and a blogger who writes about Kannywood, Nigeria’s booming Hausa-language film industry.