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Yusuf M. Adamu lectures in the department of Geography, Bayero University, Kano, Nigeria. Currently with the School of Public Health, University of Alabama Birmingham as a Fulbright visiting researcher. He got his first degree in Geography from the Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto, Nigeria and his Masters degree in the same discipline from the University of Ibadan. Currently a Ph.D. candidate at the Bayero University Kano working on maternal mortality in Kano State.

A bilingual writer, he has published in both English and Hausa language. His Hausa titles include Idan So Cuta Ne (1989) and Ummul-Khairi (1995), while his English titles include Butterfly and Other Poems (1995), my first book of rhymes Litters (2000) and Landscapes of Reality (in press). He has also published critical essays on Hausa literature, short stories and poems in various newspapers and journals including Okike and ANA Review. Yusuf Adamu is currently a member of the Association of Nigerian Authors national executive and its Kano State branch chairperson. He is married with children.

Poems by Yusuf M. Adamu

Common Man

called common
common is he
he is the majority

his immense faith in God
that predicaments are from God
destiny always lies with God
kept his spirit alive

in the place of my birth
he is de-ideologized
made too submissive
never raise an eyebrow
hardly point an accusing finger
phobia of those uncommon men

the uncommon are crude
they dislike the common man
with no sympathy for him
to his suffering theyÂ’re insensitive
but always pretending fighting his cause
using him only as front

but the common can be uncommon
as bakin-wake dealt with the prince
uncommon act shall he stage
to make it a common play

July 15, 1999