Adaptation.

I have lived in different places at different times. I was born in Kaduna, had lived in kogi, Edo(though I was still little), Abuja and now Kano. For my non-Nigerian readers these are states in Nigeria. One thing I have reaffirmed while living in all these places is that our environment, the language that's spoken therein and the people have a strong influence on us, if we live long enough in that place. For a person like me who is very observant, I tend to observe things quickly and try my best to blend in as one of the commons, and that has helped me a lot. As someone who's born and spent significant amount of years in Kaduna state, there are differences depending on which part of the state you reside in due to its diverse cultures. Luckily for me, the part I lived in had an almost equal distribution of both hausa-speaking Muslims and Kaj-speaking Christians, so I have unconsciously adopted the mannerisms of both ethnic groups which had become part of me.

When I moved to kano and was put in a boarding school, it was like a whole new world for me. Although the hausa speaking people of kaduna and the hausa speaking people of kano share many similarities, there's still a mild difference in dialect and pronunciations. While that wasn't something I couldn't easily pick up, it still felt strange to me because I had thought that hausa was a unified language. Apart from that, their mannerisms and behaviors are different, like I can differentiate between a kano hausa man and a kaduna hausa man. Kano people are generally more street smart, more direct amongst other things while their kaduna counterparts are more approachable, have a softer demeanor and I think kinder lol.

Pidgin English is mostly spoken in the streets of Nigeria and even some households like mine. In my household we speak pidgin English, hausa, Edo(my dialect). Everyone in my household knows how to speak at least two languages, even the little children. This is because my area, even here in kano is littered with different tribes and it makes it much fun to live in. You can get a general idea about people from other states without having lived in that state before. People who live in Lagos can best attest to this.

One of the advantages I have gained as someone who knows how different tribes react to different things is that I can relate to almost everybody. In my school, Bayero University, the hausa are the most populous tribe because apparently the school is in Kano and sometimes, there's a rift in communication among them and other students who got admitted from the southern part of the country. Most relationships even among course mates of different tribes end in class. People who aren't hausa form study groups together, eat together and do other things together while the hausas do theirs together too. But me, I can be in either of the two groups without feeling out of place in either. There are hausa people who don't know that I am not hausa till date because of my fluency in the language and my mode of life. People from other states gradually learn the mode of life of the state they are in, and that in general improves one's understanding of others an creates unity among all tribes in a country.

Thanks for reading.

Yours Layly,

❤️❤️❤️❤️