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NOTA BENE:

This is NOT a vanity press!

West Africa	Japan Times	Japanese
Hausa	L.A. Times	others

These are links to various essays etc. that I have published elsewhere. Nothing here was written especially for the website. It's all been published somewhere else by someone else, but since I sometimes get requests for this stuff  I thought it would be easier to put it on the web and let people just read it here. If you want to cite anything, be warned that I have tried to correct typos, so that this is not exactly what was in the original.  If you need the original for any reason, contact me and I'll send you a copy. -John

West Africa magazine (website: http://www.westafricamagazine.co.uk/)

"Conference Report: West meets East" 21-27 June 1993, page 1046
[the Japan Association for African Studies came to Hirosaki and I wrote it up]

"The Need for Japan"  21-27 March 1994 pages 502-503
[Westerners aren't the only ones who could benefit from increased understanding of Japan]

"Chances for Cooperation" 14-20 February 1994 page 263,
                    and 21-27 February, pages 303-304
[the second of two meetings between Japanese and American Africanists]

West Africa magazine can be contacted at 43-45 Coldharbour Lane, Camberwell, London SE5 9NR.  Their phone and fax numbers are +44(171)737-2946 and +44(171)978-8334.



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Roots of Nigeria's sectarian strife run deep [published December 13, 2002 as a "Special to the Japan Times" column]

A northern Nigerian scholar working in the United States had the following to say about this article: "Your article, though very short, is the best and most informed analysis of the actual situation in Nigeria that I have read. Allah ya biya. I recommend it to anyone still confused about what is happening re Allah ya biya. I recommend it to anyone still confused about what is happening regarding Sharia (and other recent events) in Nigeria. Pls published it in Europe and America."

 


Making the most of TICAD II: Africa and Japan are still worlds apart [published December 28, 1998 as a "Guest Forum" column]

 
    The Japan Times reports on the Second Tokyo International Conference on African Development (TICAD II) emphasized the goal of integrating Africa into the world economy.  If I needed any more evidence that Japan needed to increase its study of African history, that was it.  This article became a brief comparison of modern African and Japanese histories, as well as a call for more study of Africa in Japan, as well as vice versa.
   
 

"Double-duty scholar Lafcadio Hearn a link between Japan, Black America" [published September 17, 1988 as a "Special to the Japan Times" column]
Remember the 1980s, when every few years a Japanese politician made racist remarks?  This essay was my own entry into the overheated debates of that unfortunate time.  I got "thank you" letters from Ambassador Mansfield and Sozo Honda, the father of African-American history in Japan, for writing this.

 
 

Beecher's Bibles for Bosnia - an exchange of letters [all letters were published in The Japan Times between May and July, 1994]

     This was intended to get people mad enough to do something about the situation.  It got them mad all right, but it took much longer for anything to be done. ;-(

     In the meantime the arguments about World War II got a little out of control.   I knew about anti-Americanism in Europe, but even I was shocked by the extent of anti-European sentiment I unleashed among Americans.  Here I only print the letters that directly pertain to my own and ignore the rest of the mutual shouting in the newspaper.

    


 

Japanese

I don't write academic stuff in Japanese, and the few other things I have sent in to newspapers, etc. have rarely been published.  A Buddhist temple in Akita asked me to write something, one of the monks translated it, and they printed it in their parishioners' bulletin.

"The Internationalization of Zazen"
 
 



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Hausa

These are some of the Hausa articles I have written.  They are not academic publications, but reports of historical research that readers of Hausa newspapers would be interested in, or at least that editors of Hausa newspapers thought they might be interested in.  Since most people browsing this site probably can't read Hausa I include a story about me from a Nigerian newspaper to let you know what native speakers think of my Hausa ability. I was also written up in a Hau native speakers think of my Hausa ability. I was also written up in a Hausa language newspaper, which helped my research by introducing me to people before they meet me. I include that article here, too.

Gaskiya ta fi Kwabo can be reached at New Nigerian Publishing Company, P.O. Box 254 Kaduna, Nigeria.

Triumph and Alfijir newspapers may be reached at Triumph Publishing Company, Gidan Sa'adu Zungur, P.M.B. 3155, Kano, Nigeria.

Masu iya fahimtar labarun da ke ciki, ku aika mini da wasik'ar lantirki daga na'urarku mai k'wak'walwa, k'i da so. Don Allah a gafarce ni saboda rashin bak'ak'e na musamman na Hausa Boko da Ajami kuma. Da na sami dama in gyara webpage d'in nan zan gyara har a ajiye bak'ak'e d'in.

 "Dalilin da ya sa Sarkin Musulmi Bello ya K'arfafa Zaman Ribad'i"
(Why Sultan Muhammad Bello Advocated Living in Ribats)
Gaskiya ta fi Kwabo, page 6, March 31, 1994 (with photographs)

 "Dalilin da ya sa Boko ya Tsere wa Ajami a Halin Yanzu"
(Why Roman Script Hausa Predominates over Arabic Script Today)
Gaskiya ta fi Kwabo, page 6, March 28, 1994

"'Da Wannan Abu ya Samu, da K'ila Yanzu Birnin Kano na Takai' --In Ji Alhaji Abubakar Dokaji (Kano ta Dabo Cigari)"
(Had this Taken Place, Perhaps the Capital of Kano Would be Takai)
Gaskiya ta fi Kwabo, page 6,  March 24, 1994

"Ya Kamata Mu Yi Alfahiri da Kayayyakinmu na Tarihin Gargajiya"
(We Should be Proud of our Traditional Historical Artifacts)
(Hausa in Arabic Script) Alfijir (Kano, Nigeria) May 27, 1985

"Wani Furofesa Daga Japan Ya Kawo Ziyara Ofishin Gaskiya"
(A Professor from Japan pays a visit to the Gaskiya office)
daga [by] Balarabe Ladan Lemu, Kaduna Gaskiya ta fi Kwabo, Thursday 29 August, 1991
[a writeup about my visit to the world's leading Hausa newspaper]

"Prof. John Philips - alias Yahaya Danjuma" by Dalhatu Yola
Weekend Triumph (Kano, Nigeria) , Saturday August 3, 1991
(n.b. I did not ask to speak at the seminar. I was requested to do so by a friend. Neither do I take any responsibility for any misunderstandings the reporters had of any points I made, nor do I claim to be an expert on Japan.  As the saying goes, "Hey, I just work here.")



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my L. A. (or maybe Hollywood) status symbol

"No Black Outcry" (Los Angeles Times, Calendar section, Sunday, August 2, 1981)
 

That's right! I published a letter in the Los Angeles Times Sunday Calendar section.

Hey, I'm not kidding about that being a status symbol! Shortly after this letter appeared there were letters from people saying that getting a letter published in the L.A. Times "Calendar" section was the ultimate local status symbol and wondering what they had to do to get their letter published.

As for the letter, I mentioned William Adam's book Nubia: Corridor to Africa not because it makes a big deal about the Nubians being black (it carefully doesn't) but because it is the best book on Nubia and I wanted people to read it. I got a nice "thank you" letter from Professor Adams (although I doubt if I could find it today) and several more personal "thank you"s from African-American women I knew. I always knew reading Bullfinch would pay off somehow!

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miscellaneous

"The Wisest of the Greeks" Weekend Triumph Magazine (Kano, Nigeria)
So many things in Japan keep making me think of this guy, a hero since childhood.
You probably know this story, but they wanted something and it was on my mind.
[published Saturday, September 14, 1991  p. 7]
 

"Africa: Land of Many Musics" Goldmine: the Record Collector's Magazine  I wrote this under my Hausa name, so the byline read "Dan Juma".  This was the first article I ever got paid for. It wasn't going to pay the rent, but it was enough to keep me in food for a few days.
[published November, 1984, (by which time I was back in Nigeria again!) pages 188-195]



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dex.html">Take me home! December 18, 2002