Baba of Karo

Witness History

BBC

Society & Culture, Personal Journals, History

4.5 • 1.6K Ratings

🗓️ 23 August 2018

⏱️ 12 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The story behind the groundbreaking autobiography of a woman who grew up in 19th century pre-colonial Nigeria. The book is the story of Baba a Hausa woman, who lived in the farming hamlet of Karo, when the region was part of the Islamic empire, the Sokoto Caliphate. Baba's account was written down by an English woman, Mary Smith, in 1949, while she was working in northern Nigeria with her husband, the anthropologist, M.G Smith. The book became a key text in studies of pre-colonial Africa. Alex Last has been speaking to Mary Smith about her memories of Baba.

Photo: Baba as an old woman in northern Nigeria in 1949 (credit: Mary Smith)

Transcript

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1:05.1	Sounds.
1:06.1	Hello and welcome to the Witness Podcast with me Alex Last.
1:10.5	Now today's episode is a story not well known, but it's about two remarkable women
1:16.0	and takes us back to the hinterland of West Africa over a century ago.
1:21.0	And it's the story of a book, Baba of Caro, which was published in 1954 and at the time
1:28.1	there was nothing like it because it was a groundbreaking autobiography of an African village woman
1:34.8	who grew up under the Socator Caliphate in 19th century pre-colonial Nigeria. Just one or two people in life that you remember
	...

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