Alhaji Imam’s First Adventures: “In Search of the Water of Bagaja”, by Alhaji Abubakar Imam

Abstract

Ruwan Bagaja by Nigerian writer Alhaji Abubakar Imam (1911–1981), was first published in 1934 and is considered a classic of modern Hausa literature. In his novel, Abubakar Imam takes up the popular theme of the mythical healing water of Bagaja, in a story that integrates themes from the Hausa oral tradition with elements derived from the Middle Eastern and European traditions. The Spanish translation of the novel’s opening chapter, “Alhaji in Search of the Water of Bagaja”, is presented here. Narrated in the first person, the text describes the first adventures of the protagonist, Alhaji Imam, outlining his history and psychology. The reader is immediately immersed in a world where friendship and deception, subordination and power, and the natural and super-natural are inevitably intertwined.