ELEMENTS OF SELF

RELIANCE IN THE
TSANGAYA SYSTEM

BY

AHMAD YAHYA
Ph.D/EDUC/1930/2009-2010

BEING

A SEMINAR PAPER PRESENTED ON EDUC 803: EDUCATIONAL THOUGHT

AND PRACTICE, DEPARTMENT OF EDUCATION, AHMADU BELLO
UNIVERSITY, ZARIA.

LECTURER
DR. RAYMOND B. BAKO

ELEMENTS OF SELF RELIANCE IN THE TSANGAYA SYSTEM

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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, politicians, 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 most
people hardly notice. This paper attempts to bring out and explain these salient
self-reliance features which may have played a significant role in safeguarding the
existence of the system over a long period of time.

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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 I this part of the country. 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

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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 curriculum 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
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

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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 what they perceived as 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

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 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
because of 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:

1. 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 condusive
learning atmosphere is created through the combined efforts of the teacher
and the students.

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2. 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 is 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.

3. 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.

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.

4. 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

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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 systems 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’.

5. Income Generation
Financial expenses are comfortably met without running helter-skelter for
governmental assistance. The Tsangaya has four major sources of income.
This includes 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.

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 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.

6. 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 Qur’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 modern
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.

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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 and 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.

References
Abbas, M.J. (1978) Al-Madd al-Islami fi Ifriqiyyah Cairo: Al-Mukhtar al-Islami
Abdulhamid, A. (1998) ''The Problem of Eastward Movements in Northern Nigeria:
Some Geographical Significance to the Children Migration for Qur’anic
Education''. (An unpublished paper presented at the School Seminar Series of
the School of Arts and Social Sciences, Federal College of Education, Kano.
Abubakar, M. A. (2001) ''Makarantun Allo da na Ilimi a Kasarmu a Yau''. (an
unpublished seminar paper presented at Kano State Education Week).
Fafunwa, A.B. (1976): History of Education in Nigeria. London, George Allen and
Unwin L.t.d.
Galadanci, B.S. (2005). A phone-in programme broadcast by Freedom Radio, Kano
State. Sunday 26th January 2005. Galadanci is currently a commissioner of
the Ministry of Science and Technology, Kano State.
Ilori, A.A. (1981) Nizam al-ta’lim al-arabi wa tarikhuhu fi al-calam al-islami. Beirut:
Dar al-arabia
Imam, Y.M.(2002). ''Appraisal of the Historical Development of traditional Qur’aic
Schools in Northern Nigeria''. Kano: Federal College of Education
(unpublished PGDE project)
Maibushra, I.M. (2005). ''Matambayi ba ya Bata''. Radio Kano, Thursday 11th March
2005.
Ozigi, A.and Ocho, L.(1981) Education In Northern Nigeria UK: George Allen and
Unwin (Publishers) Ltd.
Yahya, A. (2005). ''Content and Methodology of Traditional Qur’anic Schools: A Case
Study of Fagge Local Government''. Kano: Federal college of education
(unpublished PGDE project).
Yola, J.H.(2002). ''A Comparative Analysis Between Traditional Islamic Institutions
and Government Islamic Schools in Some Northern States of Nigeria''.
(Unpublished paper presented at the International Seminar jointly organized
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