Ajami and Boko: two ways of writing Hausa

Long before the colonial period, Hausa scholars adapted the Arabic alphabet to write their own language. This script is called Ajami. It was used for chronicles, legal notes, prayers and, above all, poetry, including the praise and teaching poems that were chanted and copied by hand.

Hausa poets also borrowed Arabic metres for their verse. Scholars such as Graham Furniss have described how classical Arabic patterns were adapted to the tones and rhymes of Hausa, one of the clearest examples of how a Muslim literary culture became thoroughly local.

In the early 20th century the British, led in this field by the colonial education officer Hans Vischer, introduced a Latin-letter spelling known as Boko. Today most newspapers, school books and websites use Boko, while Ajami remains alive in religious teaching and in a growing digital revival. The word boko came to mean Western-style schooling in general, which is the meaning behind the name of the militant group Boko Haram (“Western education is forbidden”).