The Scholar Who Shaped My Journey: A Tribute to Abdalla Uba Adamu By Muhsin Ibrahim Growing up surrounded by books at home, I aspired to be a writer. In 1999, as an adjunct teacher at a local Islamic school, I received my first-ever salary, which I spent on books. Many experienced writers advise that you must be a reader to become a writer. So, I read as much as I could, especially back then, to realise my dream. At some point in 2005, Freedom Radio, Kano, invited Prof. Abdalla Uba Adamu for an interview. As a versatile academic, he spoke at length on various topics, including their Yahoo! group and the KanoOnline forum. I became very interested in both. That was the year I finished secondary school, and I was eager to improve my English to pursue my writing dreams while also preparing for higher education. I wanted to contact Prof. Abdalla via email, which I noted when he mentioned it on the radio programme, but I was unsure whether he would reply. When I finally gathered the courage...
Dear Donald Trump, we are not apes By Muhsin Ibrahim We could not sleep one night in 2008. Instead, we sat in front of the TV, watching and praying for ‘our’ favourite candidate to coast to power and be declared the winner of the election. We wanted to witness history, not of any relative winning any election in Nigeria, but of Barack Obama winning the United States presidential election. Of course, we witnessed the history of the first non-white man becoming the president of the most powerful country in the world. We were delighted. We thought that, henceforth, black people would be more respected globally. Henceforth, our race would not be associated with backwardness. Henceforth, we would have more opportunities not only in the US but far beyond. We also thought President Obama would do more for Africa (where his father came from) and for Muslims (his father’s ‘relatives’), especially in the Middle East. Again, his association with towering academics, such as Edward Said and Rashid ...