Barmani Choge - Sakarai Ba Ta Da Wayo [ver. 2]

The main purpose of this Playlist is to preserve the works of Hajiya Sa'adatu Barmani Choge, the last of Hausa female traditional performing artists from northern Nigeria. She passed away in 2013. Contrary to numerous newspaper reports of her death at 80 years, when died at 65. Her grandchildren have continued with her musical tradition as performing artists (she mentioned some of them in "Gwarne Ikon Allah". In my interview with her in 2008 she insisted she does not want any of her progeny going into music industry - but yet it is in their genes. I hope one day to record them and include them in this playlist.

This list merges BarmaniChoge Channel which I have deleted in March 2020 due to low patronage. I have, rather painstakingly, re-upped all the BarmaniChoge Channel videos on this Channel - Visually Ethnographic Networks. I feel this is a better platform for people to see Hausa performing arts at its best. This therefore puts Barmani Choge's musical works alongside other performers -- some famous and others not so famous; but all capturing the disappearing traditional arts of the Hausa.

I have written a tribute to Hajiya Sa'adu Barmani Choge. Titled, "Tribute to Hajiya Sa’adatu Ahmad Barmani Choge, Griotte, northern Nigeria, 1948-2013", it was published in The Annual Review of Islam in Africa • Issue No. 12/13, pp. 166-172• 2015-2016. (South Africa). The picture accompanying the article, which was used widely, was personally photographed by me at her home in Funtuwa.

Barmani Choge's music epitomizes the ancestral memory of Amada music and its significance as a form of entertainment for Hausa women in purdah in northern Nigeria. There are many Barmani Choge recordings on YouTube, most of them pinched from the defunct BarmaniChoge Channel, but that's okay - the idea is to share her music, her genius and her performance.

The tapes were sourced from street vendors, some of which were poor re-recordings of EMI original cassette tapes. Having being copied multiple times, the quality degraded. Some were from actual EMi back catalogue tapes that I was able to get my hands on. These sound much better because they were professionally recorded in a studio. Either way, enjoy what has now definitely been a well-lived life as a performer. I am glad there are many others uploading other stuff on Barmani on YouTube - so let's keep her memory alive forever!


Abdalla (www.auadamu.com).