Allo Kafii Gida: Secret Qur'anic Boards from Northern Nigeria
- 192 pages
- 7 hours of reading
Secrecy characterizes the allo kafii gida Qur'anic writing boards used by the Hausa of northern Nigeria. Owners often hesitate to reveal the auspicious epigrams on these artefacts, while also avoiding images of animals and humans that could provoke backlash in an iconoclastic Islamic environment. Possessing an allo kafii gida can lead to severe punishments, including the death penalty, from fervent Moslems. Each board featured in this work would have faced destruction by Islamic fundamentalists if not preserved in some way. The artisans who decorated these Qur'anic tablets were more than mere illustrators; they were troubadours, capturing the cosmic connections of their society on wooden panels. Over time, ideas from distant lands were woven into the Hausa worldview, transforming these boards into cosmological time capsules. In this complex cultural landscape, the owners act as 'curators' of these secret boards, which, while serving Islamic purposes, also document Hausa cosmology. The artefacts showcased are unique in the realm of extra-European art and originate from a private collection developed over twenty years of dedicated research.
