Personality Profile by Dalhatu Yola

    But one's reaction surely would not have been so stereotyped, were the amiable American to walk straight up to you in his forthright manner and address you in flawless Hausa language.

    Though that is not exactly what happened in reality, the circumstances of our meeting  more or less occurred in nearly the same manner.  For it was during the questions and answers session in the aftermath of lecture presentations at a seminar conducted under the aegis of Kano State History and Culture Bureau at Daula Hotel last Saturday that an announcement was made to effect that an expert on Japanese affairs wishes to share some of his experiences with the audience.

    A Caucasian in a visor cap and dressed only in white T-shirt and well-worn blue jeans got up and moved with pert briskness to the high table.  One could imagine the audible groans of the audience, what in the world would this seemingly self-assertive "Bature" ever say, particularly since the theme of the seminar was about arts, society and development.

    After he had taken possession of the microphone, to the astonishment and amazement of all, the Bature started proffering apologies for his ill manner of dressing - in Hausa!  Indeed, save for the tonal inflections, his command of the language was almost flawless.  Having registered such a profound impact, the American went on to narrate how the Japanese adopted Western technology to the extent of giving western nations a good run for their money.

    Thereafter in the true fashion of news hounds, we accosted him with an invitation for a chat, to which he readily obliged.  When we finally got together at our company premises last Tuesday, Mr. John Philips pulled another joker on us, by admitting that he is an assistant Professor at Akita University of Economics and Law in Akita, Japan.

    As we sat with mouth agape, Dr. John Philips told us that he was born in 1952 and hailed from Michigan in the United States.

    According to him he "discovered" Africa while in the 7th grade (which is the equivalent of first year in junior secondary school) during a history lesson on Ancient Middle East and Europe.

    Until that time, he declared, his conception about the African continent was very limited.  Indeed he mistakenly believed that it was only "discovered" by Stanley and Livingstone, admitting that "I had not even heard of Mungo Park."

    Sometime in 1964 while preparing a presentation of Islam in Africa, he stumbled upon Encyclopedia Britannica and read for the first time about the ancient West African kingdoms such as Ghana, Mali, Songhai, Timbouktu, Kano, all of which, according to him, appeared to have common history of slavery and development of cities.

    Ever since that time Philips had been keenly interested in African history, a passion which eventually led him to major and specialise in African history.

    Thus, before enrolling in post-graduate studies at UCLA (naturally to do a program in African studies) in 1976, Philips utilised a greater part of the year 1974 to undertake extensive tours of Togo, Benin (then Dahomey), Ghana and Nigeria.   He returned again to Kano in 1982 to attend an intensive Hausa course at Bayero University, Kano.  It was during that occasion, he narrated, that he first visited the premises of The Triumph.  Between 1984/85, John, who by then speaks Hausa language quite fluently, was in Sokoto for the exclusive purpose of undertaking a Ph.D. research programme on the RIBATS (fortified cities) of the Sokoto Caliphate.

    Since the past five years "I have been teaching English at Akita University of Economics and Law" Dr. Philips explained.

    He further expressed that he is in Nigeria at the moment on a group research project in conjunction with the Japanese Ministry of Education.  His assignment is to write on the "influence of colonial languages (mainly French and English)" but with particular reference to "colonial language policy in northern Nigeria especially as regards Hausa".

    About the lessons Nigeria can learn from the marvellous Japanese experience in terms of her phenomenal technological development, Professor John Philips replied that it was not at all miraculous, but was a result of sheer hard work, high savings rate and long term planning by the bureaucracy.

    As he put it, Japan is an educational society.  The people are obsessed with the procurement of all kinds of knowledge and skills and that teachers over there were accorded a lot of esteem and highly paid.

    In addition to these all, there is a good industrial climate which has led to the evolution of a popular adage that "a key time not spent sleeping should be spent working".  The literal meaning of good morning in Japan is "let's be early (to work)" he stressed.

    And unlike most colonised people elsewhere, the Japanese, in spite of the seven-year American occupation in the aftermath of the second world war, "never developed the habit of stashing money abroad nor the habit of preferring imported goods to the detriment of home products" Professor Philips observed.

    But despite this veneer of modernity, the Japanese are still very traditional.  They prefer to sit on the floor while eating and remove their shoes while entering residential homes.   As a matter of fact, their mode of writing and system of education are by and large still traditional, he insisted.

    His adopted Hausa name is Yahaya Danjuma.  For, as he told us, John is same as Yahaya in Hausa and that he reflected the name of Danjuma because he was born on Friday.

    Professor John Philips is married to a Japanese lady, Ritsuko Miyamoto, and her adopted name is Halima Asabe (she was born on a Saturday).

    She too, is an expert on African affairs, as she has studied Hausa and Fulfulde in Japan and America.  The couple are blessed with two children, Amina and Joe.