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By Henry Akubuiro
It never rains but it pours for prolific Nigerian author, Dr. Bukar Usman, the immediate past President, Nigerian Folklore Society.
When Dr. Usman turned 81 two years ago, the Northern Nigeria Writers’ Summit (NNWS) under the Chairmanship of Prof Abu Sabe of the Umaru Musa Yar’adua University, Katsina, decided to honour him by inviting others to join in commemoration of the event. About 500 persons from all walks of life responded with write-ups. Their responses were eventually categorised into three volumes.
Recently, volumes 1 and 11 in English were published with the following titles: Literature, Orature and Language: Academic Articles in Honour of Bukar Usman and Vol.11 – In the Eyes of the Public: Appraisals in Honour of Bukar Usman. However volume III, in Hausa, is still in press with the title: Madubin Basira:Tunanin Masana kan Bukar Usman da Ayyukansa. The Forewords to all the volumes are written by Lt Gen TY Buratai.
Literature, Orature and Language: Academic Essays in Honour of Bukar Usman, a 843-page book, is edited by Professor Idris Amali, Prof Asabe Kabir, Saleh Abdu, Prof Bashir Abu Sabe, and Isma’il Bala, and published in 2026 by the Northern Nigerian Writers Summit under the NNWS Book Series.
The second book, In the Eyes of the Public: Appraisals in Honour of Bukar Usman, Vol. II, is edited by Professor Idris Amali, Murtala UBA Mohammed, Bello Shamshudeen, Khalid Imam, Mahmud Zukogi, and Benson Ogbe. Also published in 2026 by the Northern Nigerian Writers Summit, the book is a 505-page book under the NNWS Series.
Literature, Orature and Language… is a book in three parts. Part 1 contains fifteen essays on Literature written by fifteen scholars on the writings of Bukar Usman and other writers from Nigeria and beyond. The second part contains 19 essays on Orature by scholars, while the third part on Language contains seven articles. Professor Asabe Kabir Usman legs with two essays here.
Writing in the Foreword, Lt General TY Buratai, former Chief of Army Staff and former Ambassador of Nigeria to the Republic of Benin, describes the book as a testament to the breadth of Dr. Usman’s intellectual curiosity and the depth of his contributions. He believes that this volume is more than a contribution to one man but rather a celebration of the values he embodies, including intellectual rigour, cultural pride, selfless service, and unwavering humanity. Those who contributed essays included associates.
Unlike the first book with omnibus essays on multiple writers, the second volume of In the Eyes of the Public… is solely dedicated to Bukar Usman. The book assembles the voices of academics, literary critics, posts, journalists, folklorists, and cultural thinkers, who reflect on the themes, values, and esthetics that define Dr. Usman’s body of works, from language, moral philosophy, identity, oral narration, traditional institutions, gender, to the representation of cultural memory in literature. They include tributes, interviews, poems, and reviews.
As part of the efforts of the Bukar Usman Foundation to promote reading culture in Nigeria, many copies of the new books were freely given to delegates that attended the 2026 ANA Convention recently held at Mamman Vatsa Writers’ Village, Abuja. The two new books are published in hardcopy and paper back editions.
