Sheet 1.
Praise be to Allah the Beneficent! Amen. We thank the kings, we thank Muhammad, the son of Amina. We thank Abdurahamani, the Christian son. We thank the sariki Musulman Mazu. Abdurahamani is the dermatologist (Dermittler) who brought us to Berlin. As we were in Berlin, he laid down, since he was sick. This illness of Abdurahamani put us in fear. Madugu Mohamman dan Mohamman and Madugu Mohamman dan Cambari (son of Cambari), we thank Allah, for the resurrection of Abdurahamani, we are very happy! Abdurahamani, you thank the Dr. A., because he is the greatest medicine man of the Berliners, you thank all the Berliners, men and women, because they love you.
Here follows a list of people, all personal acquaintances, for whom special thanks are due.
Sheet 2.
In the name of Allah. There is no God but Allah and Muhammad is His prophet and messenger. Let us thank him and all his people, the 4 wives and their children. May God have mercy on them.
We have seen good things; we have seen nothing bad in this land. The things that find themselves in this city (Berlin): Horses without end! We went and sat in a ship, which drives over the country (railroad); 30 days’ worth of travel we have driven in one day.
We saw no forest, but houses again and again houses. We saw a city called Fronkfred (Frankfurt a Main), a big city. We saw the community of this city, it is countless. People with beautiful features! We saw Kuranga*), d.h. an elevator (in the hôtel).
———————-
*Kuranga is the name given in Hausa to the way of lowering someone into a deep well with strides (striden) and pulling him up again.
Sheet 3.
In the name of Allah.
It is the emperor, the sultan in the land of the Christians. You are the great one to whom God has awarded greatness. Madugu mai baki greets you, Maduga dan Cambari greets you. Abdurahamani the Christian son greets you! We give you love and friendship. We show you all the greatness that God has bestowed upon you. We add trust and affection. We have heard that you are 88 years old today, and this is the reason for these words. We thank the happiness of God Almighty, that adds to you a lot of life, and also the happiness of this world and the happiness of that world, and to your son Jarima (d. I. Chronerbe). God Almighty, gives you good health and had in peace city and country.
Sheet 4.
We saw Victoria (the goddess of victory on the Victory Column), but what she is standing on is made of stone. We saw what aroused admiration in us, above we saw gold! One goes up and up in the everlasting round and still as in a cluster. Everywhere we saw gold, where we held on, gold. It is a house as high as a date palm.
Sheet 5.
We went to the house of the emperor (armory). We saw things that put us in fear. We saw weapons, a lot of weapons! We saw in his house weapons of every kind that exist on earth. We saw rooms full of guns. We saw big guns, as if they were from ancient times, that’s how they appeared to us. We saw rooms full of sabers, egg dresses (armors). We saw spears without end. We saw countless weapons of the chat (Chat).
Sheet 6.
We saw the house (palace of the emperor) of the Sarkin Berlin (king of Berlin), in which one puts on felt shoes (takalmin zumma), because it is very smooth and so that one does not fall. This house instilled awe in us! rooms, rooms, countless rooms of great kings! Different, different always, each room for itself in its own way. What you see in this, you will not see in the next; countless without end.
Sheet 7.
We saw a house of a great Mallam (priest). It awoke astonishment in us. Whoever saw this house without knowing that it belonged to the Mallam would believe that he had seen the king’s house. We saw the congregation of the friends of this Mallam. They greeted Abdurahamani kindly so that they could hear the news of Abdurahamani’s trip. He told them a story, all the news, and they were happy.
Sheet 8.
In the name of God, praise be to God and the Prophet. We thank our creator and the Lord. This paper is written by Madugu mai gasin baki, Madugu dan Tambari and Abdurahamani, the Christian son. We pay reverence to You. We greet you, who are the Abandawaki (literally: father of horses, the leader of the cavalry of the country, the next after the king) of Berlin with the greeting of friendship and love, and we are in awe of the greatness that God has bestowed upon you. All the world is pleased with you, all the world applauds you and believes in you. God has given you greatness and your emperor therefore esteems you highly and has therefore given you greatness in his kingdom. Your name has reached Haussa, your greatness and your goodness are known there. Your heart, it has become clear to us, loves also the followers of Islam, and the community of believers (Followers of Prophet Mohammed) and returns this love and friendship. We heard that you, the Giwa (the elephant) of Germany, celebrated your 70th Kabista (birthday). May Allah add many years to your life and well-being.
Sheet 9.
We left Berlin on Thursday evening and arrived in Hamburg on Friday morning (March 29, 1885). – We went to the house of the shipbuilder. We got Abdurahamani’s ship, which the emperor had built for him. – There are many workers there who do nothing else but build ships; the big ones as well as the small ones, all work is the making of ships.
Sheet 10.
We have seen the burial of the friend of the emperor (Prince August of Württemberg). Many horses, more that we could count. They went to the funeral house (train station??). All the riders were young people; they all had pistols in theire saddlebags. Mantamputs (cannons) we saw, in front of each of the four horses. We saw countless soldiers, who all (without exception) carried guns!
Sheet 11.
We only saw saddles and bridles. We saw a golden saddle, bridle, halter and stirrups and saddle blanket, all made of gold or silver. We saw golden saddles for the emperor and his wife, for everyone. – The Lord of Istanbul (Constantinople) gave these saddles. We have seen all kinds of saddles, the most different, from the most different countries, in this house. – (Armory?)
Sheet 12.
Today is Thursday. There is a Court ball at the emperor’s house. We went to the house of the emperor, whose name is Wilhelm. We saw a gathering of many Christians. We saw things like we have never seen! All of them, the little ones and the big ones, came to us, to Mai gasin baki, Abdurahamani and me. Carpets were laid all over the house. We saw people dancing in the emperor’s house. We saw many thousands of men and women, all friends and relatives and grandchildren and children of the emperor. We saw gold and silver objects. We saw water dancing in the emperor’s house; we do not know where it came from. We saw chairs of gold and silver, covered with velvet. What the women and men wore was all made of gold or silver or silk or velvet or diamond, which is the name of a stone more precious than gold.
Sheet 13.
Today we saw today the house of Jarima, the emperor’s son, with the name Friedrich Wilhelm. When you see his house, it is like his fathers, even so big and beautiful. We saw things we have never seen before (abin aladjem). We saw carpets, chairs made of gold. Mun gani kuranga (elevator), i.e. the way one is lowered into a deep well in Haussa. You don’t know where the people are going. We saw the son of Ubandawaki (Count Herbert Bismard), i.e. the father of horses; Tal Abihi, much like his father; we also saw the Giwa (elephant) from Germany, but not his house (enclosure?).
-Court Ball (event?) at the Crown Prince’s.-
On the same side:
We saw the forest of the Sultan Emperor. In the city is this forest. There is nothing in this forest (animal and zoological garden) that is not ‘the flesh of the forest’, (wild animals). We saw the house of the elephant, the house of the lion, the leopard, the hippopotamus, the black and white mule (zebra), the big rat (kangaroo), but we don’t have them. [We saw] The house of the hyenas, the hares, the dilla (?), a dog-like predator of great cleverness, but not the fox, which is called Kurege (?). We saw the house of the buffalo and ‘the meat of the forest’ with many horns (deer), which we did not know (recognise?). An animal like an elephant with a horn on its nose, but it was not an elephant and we do not know its name. Every animal had a house (an enclosure?). There was no animal that did not have a house (an enclosure?).
Sheet 14.
We saw a light, a light of the wind of the air (gas light) coming out of the earth, a light of an evil (mugu) brightness in truth. One light was full of a thousand lights [Fireworks]. The reason we saw this light was the emperor’s 88th birthday. We saw a lot of people, men and women. We saw a lot of horses! Some went to congratulate the Emperor, others stood and watched. The whole city was decorated with flags, with various different ones.
Sheet 15.
We saw the market house (cooking exhibition), in which there was nothing to be seen but meat, lots of meat! All kinds of poultry, beef, mutton, meat from ‘animals of the forest’. There was very little meat that was not there. There were so many different kinds that we did not know many of them. [There was] barassa (spiritual drink), [and] beer there. We also saw an axe that split wood without human help, all by itself!
Sheet 16.
We saw saussi hazo (the first word means slipping on wet paths, the second on the frost), the ice rink at the Rouffeau- Infel (in the Thiergarten). The cold (from the water) was like stone. Women and men, children and grown-ups enjoyed themselves there, skating on tire shoes. We, too, were having fun on the ice, but on a sliding chair, like children.
On the same sheet of paper: On the same sheet of paper:
We heard word from Berlin: Pos Neija (Happy New Year); the whole city, big and small, all shouted Pos Neija. We do not know where the word comes from (assali). Whether it is, as with us, the Tchika-n-zezefara*) (end of the year), we do not know.
Sheet 17.
We have seen a woman’s house in Berlin. If you do not know , you will think it is the house of a king. Her name is N. N., her mother’s name is N. She is a beautiful woman, she has beautiful teeth, beautiful eyes and a beautiful house! What is to be said about her is done.
*This time is also called Watan jifan wuta, which is the ‘Month of Fire-throwing’. It is a large festival with lots of high spirits and a lot of noise, similar to ours; the custom is to throw lightly burning materials at each other, such as dried straw, etc., which is lit. The Bornu’s catch the Fulde’s, the Fulde’s catch the Hauffa’s of the Wangara tribe, Zam-fara people catch Kano people and hold them tightly in fun until they open like a mussel. The reason for this is that, according to historical tradition, one tribe is said to have emerged from the other; in a way, this joke puts them back into the old enslavement and they have to be released.
Sheet 18.
We went to the house of Mai Kilifi, (carpet maker). We saw things we had never seen before. Many hundreds of men and women make carpets there. We saw countless carpets piled up in the house. That is his wealth.
On the same sheet: We saw the house of the owner of the printed papers. (Berliner Tageblatt). Everything was written with iron, the iron (neddewa) also folded the paper, the iron (djefowa) threw the paper, but those who picked up the paper were people. There were more than a hundred men and women working in his house. In one day he writes 2000 books in this way, or 10,000! There are rooms full of paper, printed paper, that is his wealth, his trade. This work aroused amazement in us, it was its end.
Sheet 19.
We saw the house of the fire-fighter, (Majors Witte, Finden straße, Fire Brigade.) There are about a hundred people in his house. We saw about twenty horses of the breed from Masr (Egypt). We saw the things for putting out fires. We saw the house of the ivory worker. There are more than a hundred men and women who work in fine houses: Mirrors of ivory, cans, knives, sticks, shears and necklaces. We saw the house of the blacksmiths who cut metals. They forge lamps, black iron, coat it with medicine and it shines silver. White iron (brass) they coat with medicine and it looks like gold. There are many workers in the house and things which you won’t see anywhere else.
Loose Leaves German to English Translation Annotations 