“O Lord, Sovereign over all Humankind”: An English Rendition of Muhammadu Gawo Filinge’s “Ya Rabbi, Sarki Mai Jima’a”
This paper presents an English rendition of the Hausa song “Ya Rabbi, Sarki Mai Jima’a” composed by the Nigerien Hausa poet Muhammadu Gawo Filinge (1938–2016). The song, structured in twenty-one stanzas, reflects on the events surrounding Apollo 13. In the composition, the poet responds critically to the perspective of the renowned Nigerian singer Mamman Shata, particularly regarding enthusiasm for space exploration. Instead, Filinge advocates that global superpowers redirect their scientific and technological advancements toward addressing pressing socio-economic challenges in Africa, especially agricultural development and poverty reduction. The aim of this paper is to provide comparatist scholars with access to a translated version of the song and to disseminate its thematic and cultural insights to audiences beyond Hausa-speaking communities. The authors transcribed and translated the song after carefully listening to the recorded performance and documenting the lyrics as rendered by the poet. During the transcription process, informants were consulted to ensure the accuracy and reliability of the data. The translation retains the original structural features of the song, following approaches adopted by other translators of Hausa oral poetry and musical compositions. In preparing the translation and contextual background, the authors consulted a number of written sources, including materials on the biography of the poet. Linguistically, the song incorporates lexical borrowings from several languages, including French (e.g., Tarezu), Arabic (e.g., Kursiyyu, Al-Hayyu Al-Qayyum etc), and English (e.g., Eleven). Beyond its linguistic diversity, the composition serves as a cultural repository of Hausa worldview and Islamic metaphysical perspectives. The singer’s Francophone ideological orientation is particularly evident in his playful critique of the Anglophone tradition associated with Mamman Shata, a Nigerian artist. Furthermore, the song situates the theme of space exploration within the broader geopolitical context of the rivalry between the United States and the Soviet Union during the Cold War.
Keywords: “Ya Rabbi, Sarki Mai Jima’a”; Muhammadu Gawo Filinge; Apollo 13; Apollo 11; Cold War.
