As we round off our national gossip on the recent travail of the former Sarkin Kano, Malam Sanusi Lamido Sanusi, I realised that my interest on a certain subject perfectly matched with his. I have therefore chosen to discuss this point of interest just in brief.
It’s not about the kingship or royalty, because I am not in a hurry to climb the throne. It’s also not about his eloquent radicalism, for I am as gentle as the Arabian lamb. Malam Sanusi is a public intellectual and I am not one. I am a mere Al-Majiri striving to survive in my own world.
But my interest matched that of the former Sarkin Kano in the area of his book collections. Indeed, a peep into Sanusi’s library was a great delight. What s a magnificent collection of books that humbled the pride of my own library.
All my life, I have adored books. I cherish beautiful ideas concealed in books. Books are my first love. Those who have interacted with me know it well. My romance with books is far beyond my feelings for wives and delicious food. To my wife, I am the hubby; but books are my own hobby.
I am the wife of my own books. My books have always impregnated me with beautiful ideas which I have continued to deliver in words and actions. You can now understand how I felt seeing Sanusi’s books ejected from the palace – the kind of empathy felt by a wife when her fellow woman is forcefully ejected from her home ..
This magnificent prince of Kano who had spent in Naira and dollar to shelve ideas in colourful titles can not be confined to the four walls of the palace. With this burden of knowledge, he would ever be restless. The mountain of ideas buried in Sanusi’s breasts is yearning for pragmatic actions.
If a Play boy Prince is taken from the street and honoured with the throne, he would always fight and dance like a maniac on the throne of his father. But this scholarly Prince is taken from cave hirah, he was never patient in the new conservative enclave of the palace.
In the history of mankind, more than 130 million books have been published. A heavy reader, like Sarkin Kano, must have gone through a little above 10,000 books. Most of them won’t be much fun or very memorable, though. One thing is clear – We celebrate his knowledge at a time of regret!
Books are like people; we meet many but fall in love with a few of them. Only thirty books will perhaps ever truly make and mark us. They will be different for each of us, but the way in which they affect us may somehow be similar.
Today, as I celebrate the Sarkin’s library, I must also celebrate all authors of good books – Not hungry authors. Great writers are the ones who build bridges to people we might otherwise have dismissed as unfeasibly strange or rather unsympathetic.
Of course, they cut through to the common core of experience. In the Quranic style, Allah calls the attention of His Messenger to the books of the earlier Prophets, detailing their experiences so that he could learn. The holy Quran begins with a command to “Read” and Adam was taught the names of all things!
By selection and emphasis, good writers reveal the important things we share. They show us where to look. They help us feel. Oftentimes, we want to be good, we want to care, we want to feel warmly and tenderly – but we can’t just do it. But good writers help us out. I can tell you this.
As for good books, they are primarily domiciled as potential ideas in author’s mind and then transformed as books of knowledge, in a reader’s’ shelf. Indeed, Sanusi’s collections are amongst the numerous blessings of Allaah over His servant. Mine is also my greatest asset!
With a rare blessings of those books, well chanelled oratory, the riviledge of royalty and the favour of Islam – Sanusi is blessed. Readers are never lonely in the company of scholarly books. So, weep not the king!
