Overview
- Lesson Title: Rising Costs and Firewood-This is a report about the people of Gombe State facing a shortage of firewood.
- Language: Hausa
- Topic: Economics/Politics
- ILR Level: 1+/2
- ACTFL Proficiency: Advanced-Mid, Advanced-Low, Intermediate-High; This ACTFL rating is an approximation based on the ILR level
- Modality: Listening
- Learning Objective: Maintenance & Improvement
- Subject Area: Language
- Material Type: LLO
- Publication Year: 2009
- ObjectID: T8LHA06
Transcript
| Original | Translation |
|---|---|
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Alumar Jihar Gombe sun shiga tsaka mai wuya. A: Al’umma’ar jihar Gombe sun shiga tsaka mai wuya, gwamnati ta qyale a ci gaba da sare itatuwa wadda daga bisani zai janyo kusantar hamada da zaizayar qasa, ko dai a ci, a ji da rayuwa irin ta yau? B: Mu ne talakawa za mu qona itace, kuma mu xin aka hana. Duk wata doka da za ta taso a kan talaka za ta qare, a wa’yannan kwanankin wasu gidajen ba ai tuwo ba, saboda babu itacen. C: A yanzu muna sayen shi naira xari, saboda matsalolin wannan wahalar itacen. Ina gasa nama da shi ne, da ina amfani da itace kaman dami biyu, zuwa dami uku amman yanzu dole zan yi malejinsa ina xan xebe, saboda ba itacen. Ka ga a maimakon in zan gasa kaman cinya, to ba zai, ba zan sami daman gasa cinyar ba sai in gasa rabi, saboda me? Saboda itacen ya yi wahala. D: Am sana’a na shayi ne, da dai ina dan dafa shayi kamar garwa uku huxu, biyu, yanzu a takaice an wayi gari sai dai a dafa daya ko rabi, saboda matsalar itace da babu. Itace yanzu za a saye shi naira dari, da muna sayen shi talatin da biyar zuwa arba’in. E: Harka ta saida itace ina da tsada, wata rana ba za mu iya saye ba, wata rana kuma za mu iya saye ina da tsada. Eh mun rage, itace dami daya naira dari , ai dama muna dafa mudu biyar, yanzu kuma muna dafa mudu biyu, tuwo muna dafa uku, masa da muna dafa da bakwai, shida yanzu kuma muna dafa fudu. F: Mutane suna cikin wani yanayi ne na talauci, ba kowa yake samu a yi abinci ma sau uku a gidansa a jere ba kaman da safe, da rana da dare kuma, sannan kuma ga wahaler itacen, yanzu kamar ni da na taso daga, daga Arawa neman itacen, kuxin acaba kawai da mutum zai biya daga Daba zuwa can Arawan, naira hamsin mutum zai biya, hamsin zuwa, hamsin dawowa. Sannan kuma ga shi itacen da ake sayar da shi naira talatin da biyar ko arba’in ya koma naira tamanin. Don wani zai iya mutuwa ma saboda ba a dafa abinci a gidansa ba. G: A gas, Wasu magidanta da kuma masu sana’a a garin Gombe ke bayyana halin da suka sami kansu ciki, sabili da karancin itacen girki dake gallabar mazauna garin. Alhaji Hassan {Emir [English]} Herwa Gana, ya shafe shekaru talatin a harkar sayar da itacen girki, ya yi bayanin yadda harkar take a da, da kuma abin da ya kamata a yi, don shawo kan matsalar. H: Gaskiya a wannan lokacin, itace muna samunsa da sauki, domin daga nan zuwa Akko ma yawanci a bakin hanya muke ajiye motocinmu, leburori suna mana itace, muna lodawa a mota. Yanzu ana wahala a kan maganan itace, ya kamata gwamnati, ta shigo da wani tallafi wanda za ta ka wa talakoki, duk Najeriya gaba daya, da su risho, da su gas {cooker [English]} a rinka taimakawa, su kwal-kwal haka a irin wanda ake amfani da shi, in suna so, sahara ya yi sauqi. |
The People of Gombe Found Themselves in a Sticky Situation A: The people of Gombe State have found themselves in a sticky situation: Will the government turn a blind eye to continued deforestation that will eventually lead to desert encroachment and soil erosion, or will it allow people to continue with their daily lives? B: We’re just less priveledged people who are using firewood, that’s why the government is stopping us from burning firewood. Any law that’s imposed only affects us. These days, some households can’t even make porridge because there’s no firewood available. C: Currently, we’re buying firewood for one hundred naira on account of this shortage. I roast meat with it, and in the past I would use, say, two or three bundles, but now I will have to measure it very carefully and reuse the burning embers because there’s no firewood. You see, before I would roast a whole cow thigh, but I can’t now; I can’t get enough wood to roast a whole thigh, so I can only roast half of one. Why? Because of this firewood problem. D: I sell brewed tea, and I used to brew two, three, four pots of tea, but now, to make a long story short, I only brew one pot or a half a pot in the morning, due to the scarcity of firewood. We’re paying a hundred naira for it now, whereas before we could buy it for thirty-five or forty naira. E: Buying firewood has become very costly, so some days we can’t buy it, while other days we can buy it, but it’s expensive. A bundle of firewood costs a hundred naira, so we’ve cut back. Before, we used to cook five bowls of grain, but now we only cook two to make three bowls of porridge. We used to cook six or seven fried bean cakes, but now we only cook four. F: People are in very impoverished circumstances. Not everyone gets three meals a day at home—breakfast, lunch, and dinner—and then there’s this firewood problem. Nowadays, when I go to look for firewood in Arawa, the motorbike fare from Daba out to Arawa is fifty naira alone. Fifty going, fifty coming back. Then there’s the wood; they used to sell it for thirty-five or forty naira, but it has gone up to eighty. People could die because they can’t cook food at home. G: Other householders and shopkeepers in the town of Gombe have described their situation in light of the firewood shortage that is weighing on the town’s residents. Alhaji Hassan, the emir of Herwa Gana, has spent thirty years in the business of selling firewood, and he explains what the business was like in the past and what must be done to overcome the problem. H: Actually, in those days, it was easy to get firewood. We could park our trucks on the side of the road almost anywhere from here to Akko, and there'd be workers to get the firewood for us, and we’d load it onto the truck. But today, people are having trouble getting firewood, and the government should provide some ongoing assistance to people by importing stoves, gas cookers, and coal that they could use if they wanted. This would certainly provide some relief from the desert. |
Glossary
| Hausa term | English meaning |
|---|---|
| tsaka mai wuya | have found themselves in a sticky situation |
| daga bisani | eventually |
| zaizayar qasa | soil erosion |
| kusantar hamada | desert encroachment |
| hamsin zuwa, hamsin dawowa | fifty going, fifty coming back |
| shawo kan matsala | overcame the problem |
| acaba | (lit: wreckless) motorbike |
| tallafi | assistance |
Notes
1. The Economy of Gombe State
The economy of Gombe State is based mostly on agriculture and natural resources. The state’s administration has been working recently to promote investment, social and economic development, and good governance practices.
2. More Information
a) For general information about Gombe State, visit the Nigeria Exchange Web site at:
http://www.ngex.com/nigeria/places/states/gombe.htm#mineral
b) To learn more about the agricultural sector in Gombe State, you may wish to read Gilbert Malchau’s study, “Cultivation and Marketing of Farm Products in the Hinterland of Gombe, NE-Nigeria,” available online at the following link: