"...Garba ya na Rimaye, ya komo bakin hanya, na huta da shiga daji, sai in biya in karɓa in wuce...Ya komo bakin hanya, Garba Sukuntuni, Habu nau ya na Rimaye, to! to!! to!!!" Shata.
Translation:
"...Garba is now in Rimaye, he has relocated and is now by the roadside, so I don't have to go into the bush. All I have to do is stopover, collect (money) and proceed on my journey".
Today, I start my anecdote with the above quotation from a song by the late Dr. Mamman Shata Katsina, the legendary Hausa singer, because I attended a wedding fatiha in Rimaye, Kankiya Local Government Area, Katsina State, yesterday, at late Alhaji Abu Sukuntuni's house.
The above stanza was specifically referring to late Alhaji Abu Sukuntuni, who Shata praised in his famous song, "Bakandamiya", one of his, "Best of the Best" songs.
In the song, Shata used a variety of the man's name as in Hausa Language, the name, Abubakar, has different varieties such as Abu, Habu, Garba, Bubakar, etc. And late Shata displayed his dexterity and expertise in the song by using variations of the name interchangeably as he often does in other songs.
Late Alhaji Abu Sukuntuni was, arguably, the richest man of his time in Kankiya Local Government Area and environs. The song helped in further popularising the man, although he was popular in his own right by virtue of being one of the richest in the area.
I was invited to the wedding fatiha because my wife is related to the family (Jikan Mujaddadi a wajen matashshi 😀 - Shata). So, in that family, I have an "Aunt-in-law" and "Cousins-in-law", if there are such expressions in the English Language...😀, and if there aren't, like Chinua Achebe, I've domesticated the language and created them.
I was together with one of my "cousins-in-law", Abbas Abu Sukuntuni, who is also my facebook friend.