Since when the late super Hausa song-bird departed this world to the great beyond on Friday 18th June 1999 nothing was done by governments to immortalize the hero. Shata’s legacies and legends will be put under frustrations and die slowly if care is not taken to arrest the situation. Although time is too short to make any critical assessment on weather Shata’s history and recorded songs documented at Radio houses( about 10,000 songs) will prosper and persist or not, but indications have started signaling me that Shata’s historical documents and deeds or events will seize to exist in the future for future generations purpose. Strong reasons are behind these observations.
First and foremost is the idea of transforming Shata’s more than 10,000 songs from cassettes and tape forms to modern CD way of restoration. This idea of cassettes transformation was brought about by former Honorable Minister of Federal Capital Territory, Abuja Dr. Aliyu Modibbo Umar who had talks with us at his Kano residence when he was about printing our Shata’s biography, Shata Ikon Allah in 2006. Amidst discussions, he discovered I had about 3,000 recorded songs of the late music icon he promptly invited me to meet him at Abuja with the whole cassettes under my custody. He planned sending me to China with the cassettes, for them to be converted to CD plays. Forget about the recent conversion of some Shata’s songs to CD’s in Mallam Kato square, Kano by some local cassette dealers. This is done locally and will never last longer because they are not done under high powered technology. I consider them as rubbish and inappropriate. Another fact is that efforts are not done by the Radio Houses to convert his songs into CD’s because majority of those who will do the job are not interested in Shata’s songs. They consider them as outdated and old fashion. Cassettes can hardly last longer than 60 years, even if they do they will rot or fade away not steadily but slowly.
Secondly, we, the authors of Mamman Shata’s biography have received so many amounts of annihilations and molestations from Shata’s sons because of the delay in the recovery of pledges and promises of money during the launching of the book from some notable Nigerians. In fact, the money are still not recovered. A couple of weeks back my co-author of the book, Ibrahim Sheme visited me at Funtua during fasting period. On his way coming, he passed in front of Shata’s house, where the late musicians sons immediately hunted and attacked him, and me too. They planned to burn our cars and fight us. They abused me and my wife severely. I cannot wonder, considering their level of illiteracy, heinousness and millitantness. They cannot wonder how somebody will work tirelessly for more than 13 years in trying to document the entire life of their father.
Personally, we wrote Shata’s book for non-material benefit, but they always insist we must give them the share we promised giving them, after all we too are not paid. One of them insisted he will write our fathers biography too. Later, Ibrahim Sheme and I planned to write or publish the English version of Shata’s History for his life to gain larger momentum, to be understood and be used by larger populaces beyond Africa: Academic Institutions and other Universities in US, Europe and far Asian Countries. We have now dismantled our plans. We are no longer writing anything on Mamman Shata again.
Thirdly, I am currently engaged in writing another Hausa biography on Shata (of more than 780 pages) torching many virgin areas of his life that were not previously torched in the earlier book, and were it overlaps the academic corner of Hausa literature.
Recently, Sanusi, the last son of Mamman Shata who was a close ally and associate to me stole my motor cycle, costing about N43,000. The worst part of the scene here is that he personally produced a fake paper indicating an agreement of sales between he and I, where he forged my signature, that I sold the cycle to him. I cannot go to court because of forty-three thousand naira. Due to that I am now planning to discard the book I intended producing, and have closed everything on Shata again. Granting any interview on Shata again in any Radio House is now a closed chapter. Let somebody do it. I am to also whisper Aliyu Modibbo that I am not going to China even if he sends me on that mission. Can Shata’s book make me rich? Richness and poverty are divine injunctions from Almighty God.
There is no gain in somebody trying to make that hero Dr. Shata a legendary human being of the century but his family members do not appreciate. Although we gather and we are living witnesses that even at death Shata is the greatest but since our courage and determinations are killed by members of his families we now retreat back our intensions of getting him immortalized. This is a completely new era of the 21st millennium were we saw the invention of new devised mediums and technologies and that new-era songs are emerging with western outlook. Shata’s songs are no longer exciting to many youths in Nigeria. They are mostly in dire need occasionally, or during ceremonies to remember our hero’s. With our retreat, I doubt very much if his deeds and records of thousands of albums would be carried forward for future generations to use and understand the Hausa literature from his talents. If not us: I, Dr. Aliyu Modibbo and Ibrahim Sheme, nobody else can strive to do something to document Mamman Shatas legacies because nobody can tolerate nonsense from those ex-communicated and rif-rafs who cannot differentiate between great men of well coordinated sought or philosophers or great thinkers like Shata and those who often do other peoples wish who are downgraded foolish men who cannot live above their names. Shata lived above his name.
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