Abstract
This study examines the figural representation of the Almajirai (Teen itinerant Islamic scholars) phenomenon in Songs of Almajiri (2021), a relatively recent poetry anthology, to demonstrate a specific instance of the pervading dynamics and potency of the poetic mode in apprehending a disturbing socio-political enigma of grave religious and social dimensions. The study deploys the critical insights of close textual analysis to guide the interpretation of the selected poems in the anthology; while purposeful sampling technique is administered to select the relevant and appropriate number of poems to be analyzed in the study. While the practice has been studied from different network of discourses, the contention here is that it is when placed in its aesthetic context, as it is the case in this study, that we can glean the inner dynamics and nuances of the politics of Almajiranci (Itinerant Islamic scholarship) in northern Nigeria.
Keywords: Almajirai, Almajiranci Reader response, Northern Nigeria, anthology
DOI: 10.36349/alqajolls.2025.v01i01.029
author/Isah Ibrahim (PhD)
journal/AL-QALAM JLLS 1(1) | December 2025
