Zauren Mallam Aminu Kano as a Social Repair

Crime is one of the prominent features of the city. The mitigation of crime and other social vices is a responsibility that falls not only on the shoulders of the government. The health of society is a responsibility spanning multidimensional fronts: comprising authorities with direct power, to family and residents of a community as a collective. The social health of the city is also the work of architects and planners. 

A man standing at Zauren Mallam Aminu Kano, Sudawa, Kano, 2024

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Physical planning is an important factor in influencing the social health of society and its inhabitants. Respected voices in urban planning note how a great urban environment, in terms of design and social services, can enhance people’s quality of life and foster a sense of community. I set out in this piece to use Zauren Mallam Aminu Kano as a social repair tool and planning theory for combating crimes and other social ills in our society. 

We have recently heard the gruesome murder of an entire family in Kano, first in Tudun Yola and then in Ɗorayi, by the same alleged criminals. Cities are characterized by petty and violent crimes. The job of the residents and the governments is to institute policies that combat and prevent crimes for the safety of the inhabitants and prosperity of the city. Sustainable urbanism involves governments at various levels as well as residents of the city. 

I was particularly happy weeks ago when I learned that communities around Dala have mobilized to construct police station around Kuka Bulukiya cemetery to combat persistent phone snatching that has cost countless lives of innocent passersby. The idea of constructing security outposts in crime hotspots has been a productive strategy for combating crime. It is not only fighting crime, it replaces crime with security and constant human presence and activities. It does not only prevent crime and protects lives, it brings life and economic activities to the beleaguered locations. 

My friend once took me to an area in the ancient city to pay a condolence visit. It was a long time ago I cannot now remember the name of the neighborhood. Those who know Kano intimately can piece together snippets from my narration to figure out the area. I can vaguely say that the area was around Mandawari, Ƴar Mai-Shinkafi, Gyaranya or Baƙin Ruwa or Gwauran Dutse. We walked through the alleys after the condolence and appeared at the Aminu Kano Way. 

The neighborhood has a shelter christened Zauren Mallam Aminu Kano. It is an open pavilion in an open space at the heart of the neighborhood. I was intrigued not only for the discovery, but also for the name and the social function of the place. This was the first time I got to know the place, or any shelter named Zauren Mallam Aminu Kano in the city. I began to think about the connection between the place and the famed radical politician. 

I did not ask the naming history behind the shelter, but my imagination wagered that this must be the spot where Mallam Aminu Kano hung out with friends and conducted his public life. It must be the local context where he started his political career, a gathering place for the nightly schooling and political organizing. My guessing was supported by my assumption that the place is located within the ancient city, and not far from his initial dwelling at Aisami/Sani Mainagge axis. I was intrigued and fascinated by the place for its great potential in building community. 

The Zauren Mallam Aminu Kano is a mini square and public space for the community. It enables the residents to perform social and religious functions. Residents of the neighborhood, particularly the elderly and retirees, use the pavilion to hang out. The community uses the open space to perform funeral salat for the deceased. The main street around the space serves as a collector road that receives people from nearby alleys and neighborhoods. Thus, the open space becomes vibrant with life. Residents and visitors use the space to park their vehicles. Around the square sprung up activities by informal people, vendors and small entrepreneurs who set up stalls for services and various wares, delicacies like tsire and awara and other household items that cater to the neighborhood hospitality and social needs. The shelter becomes a living room of the community. My reading is that Zauren Mallam Aminu Kano is an open space that allows residents to do things that they cannot perform in the narrow alleys of their neighborhood.

Part II

For this reason, Zauren Mallam Aminu Kano stays with me. I want to suggest an expanded version of this space be built in as many places as possible in the ancient city, its suburbs and major towns across the state. This is based on key spatial ideas for sociability and security of communities and neighborhoods. 

Ancient cities like Kano had been built around its traditional institutions. The city spread out from the Emir’s Palace, surrounded by other civic buildings such as the court and the central mosque that eventually formed the city center. Spreading in a radial pattern, subsequent expansions and settlements of the city and major towns followed the same tradition. All roads lead to the city center. And the civic or the city center is almost always located in the vicinity of the dwelling of the traditional ruler. Outside the city, the Maigari’s or Dagaci’s house sat at the center of the settlements.

The best location for the Zauren Mallam Aminu Kano is to look for the ugliest and the most dangerous part of the neighborhood and tear it down to create a large enough open space to build the shelter. This place should be the heartbeat of the area by concentrating some basic services in the building such as small local clinic, school, library, administrative offices for Mai-unguwa, Dagaci and security agents and a conference room where important community meetings and non-partisan civic engagements can take place.

A strong civic component and social life are essential. The idea is to overwhelm crime, blight and unsightly facades. The building can serve as an venue for adult literacy classes, mass education and public orientation centers for social mobilization and political awareness. As a multipurpose building, the place can host activities such as elections, immunization campaigns, skills and personal development training for local youth. 

A mosque can be located close to the shelter. Around the mosque is where the elderly sit, dine and eat. It is where they enjoy quite calm and festive hours by day and night. Zauren Mallam Aminu Kano should be the agora and living room of the community. Clusters of civic buildings, residential and commercial uses can create sociability. This is not new; it is something that needs to be consciously improved upon existing traditions. Several Hausa villages have santa or tsakar gari where you have mixed uses that draw people together. Since the shelter is located close to the mosque, it should also serve as an open space where funeral prayers can be conducted. Commercial activities can be encouraged around the area to provide a more vibrant economic life. In Kano city, many neighborhoods have ƴar kasuwa within walking distance that allows residents to make purchases for their daily needs. 

The small clinic located in the center should offer first aid services and cater to the health of the most vulnerable. It should deliver basic drugs and inexpensive medications, medical advice and other services that might not require a trip to the hospital. Local people who have training in medical fields can volunteer and operate the place. They can also request NYSC corps members to be posted there. Funding can come from donations from wealthy residents of the community. People who retired from active services from various walks of life can participate. Skilled individuals can also ask to set up offices and contribute their services to the community. Community services can serve as a clear benchmark for future political leaders. People can see what potential representatives have contributed to their local communities before they enter politics – what they have done to the people before asking for their votes.  

It would not be a bad idea to allow car owners to park their vehicles in and around the shelter. Community-owned assets such as donated vehicles for conveying the deceased, power transformer, and water sources like a borehole can be sited there. The underlying assumption is that communities would actively work to protect their assets and improve their neighborhood. Their commitment or otherwise to safeguarding their assets is a clear proof of their collective responsibility, leadership, accountability and readiness for sustainable development. 

The idea is to use Zauren Mallam Aminu Kano and make the targeted place active and vibrant with human activities. The dwelling of the traditional ruler should be sited there to continue to facilitate administrative functions and liaison with various levels of governments for record-keeping, issuing birth certificates and documents, and other civic engagements. The closest idea to this is Ofishin Wakili, which can be upgraded where they already existed. If built in magnificent architecture, places like this can become historic sites that represent the community and tradition.  

The building should house an office for joint security agencies, including the police and Hisbah. This is where disputes will first be reported. It will enhance coordination and timely reporting of suspicious activities to support early crime prevention. Emphasis is placed on civil matters and prevention of violent crimes. The activities and involvement of the security should be largely civil and minimal. The point is to increase safety through informal supervision. The security agents, the elderly and small business operators form public characters who keep an eye on the neighborhood. The retirees and the elderly also fill the void and silence when other people are at work or school. They can alert parents – and the security agents – to what is happening in the neighborhood. Sustainable urbanism can be achieved through densification of social life in hitherto dark corners without militarizing the neighborhood. The refurbishment of the neighborhood is a valued alternative to blight that provides security through communal social space. Services and buildings can be dispersed according to the needs and resources of the community. The purpose is to chase away the thugs from the heart of the community and bring light to the dark corners and crevices. In the process, services are brought closer to the people. Traditional institutions are involved more closely and meaningfully into public service for their immediate communities.

Stakeholders – government, traditional institutions and community members – should work together towards realizing the Zauren Mallam Aminu Kano as a state-supported, neighborhood-funded civic infrastructure across Kano State. Zauren Mallam Aminu Kano should be conceived as a community and family resources center for residents of the neighborhood. It should be designed as a crime prevention tool through visibility, social life and shared space that strengthens grassroots governance and access to basic services.  It is an also an embodiment of spatial implementation of good neighborliness, the warmth and the communal character of Mutumin Kirki society. 

AFCON: Spatiality and African Grassroots Football

 AFCON has just concluded. Senegal won the trophy, but many football enthusiast know that actual play of the game is only half of the big spectacle. There are many things going on in the backstage that takes time to materialize. When you look at the countries and roll the camera and see them doing well, you will patterns lock into place. There might be visible investment and development of physical infrastructure, but there is also something more to it. 

Senegal, champions of the AFCON Tournament, 2026

As a sideline to every soccer tournament, one of the things I pay attention to is the grassroots, street-level infrastructure that feeds talents to the national team. In these tournaments you would not only pay attention to the official game or what happens in the big arenas but also to the images that come out from foreign visitors depicting themselves playing outside the formal venues. The soccer crowd, wherever they are, tend to find where to play.  To host a tournament, you really need to have a solid infrastructure for the formal as well as informal arenas. But more so, this tells us stories about the status of the game, leisure and of where citizens play. 

As usual, it seems Nigeria is left behind when it comes to grassroots soccer infrastructure. Senegal, Algeria, Angola, etc, have a thriving street soccer infrastructure. This infrastructure is not formal, but they seem to enjoy a greater consensus that cuts across formal and informal divide between citizens and governments. 

In Latin America, there exit in the favelas and barrios spaces in the communities where local kids can play the game. The spaces may not be the same, may have different nomenclature, may straddle a line between the formal and informal, but they retain the same purpose and spirit.

In Senegal, they are in the form of navétanes, a semi formal regional tournament played in local spaces. These spaces are not owned by the government or private individuals, unlike say, primary school premises or other government buildings. They are simply communal spaces where the navétanes games are played. These spaces are respected by everyone, no encroachment or erecting structures, public or privately owned. Kids start their careers from their neighborhood and move progressively to regional teams and then to professional league, to the national team onward to international careers. You find similar spaces in Brazil as developing ground for talents that would later go on to dazzle global audience. 

In North Africa, they have a thriving culture of street football played in what we can call in Nigeria 7-aside stadium. The difference is that these spaces in North Africa are free and open to everyone. They sit in open spaces in the middle of neighborhoods. They key idea here is access and openness. The use of open space for soccer must not require any payment and removes any other impediments that can exclude people. A truly public space is one that allows you in without asking for a fee or proof of innocence.

In Nigeria, empty lots and vacant spaces are constantly being developed. There is no respect for spaces where kids can play. The idea is that for places where formal sporting infrastructure is not in place, small-scale people in their communities use these spaces for leisure and sporting activities. Kids will have a chance to play the game from the very young age until they dribble their way to the national team. The grassroots in many parts of the world are where players are made and imbued with the spirit of the nation before they go through academy for the refinement of their talents. 

African soccer, like their South American counterpart, is largely dependent on informal infrastructure, local people coming together to form their own infrastructure. People as infrastructure is where citizens enter into a series of temporary, makeshift arrangements with each other to provide services that authorities are unable to deliver.

By killing these spaces, Nigeria is killing her young talents. It makes it difficult for the local kids to develop interest let alone play the game and nurture their talents. Angola, not really a footballing nation, has a thriving culture of street football. I noticed from the videos I watched that street lots exist, and they are everywhere. They don't seem to be developed or encroached so rampant as we see in Nigeria. It seems these spaces are protected by consensus just like they are protected in Brazilian favelas and Argentina's barrios. 

Football is the game of the poor. Commercialize football and you create a barrier where only the rich can afford to play. Commercial football delivers more money to the pockets of few individuals without bringing much needed, collective glory to the national team. The English Premier League is the wealthiest league in the world but the country has fallen far behind other footballing nations.  Germany has academy system in place but their overall sporting culture is anchored around process that resembles socialist democratic football than individualistic, capitalist model that Nigeria tends to lean towards. One of the biggest problems that Nigeria's football faces as an institution is the seeming, increasing reliance on academy for her national talents. Academies are simply there for money. Another thing is the seeming sole reliance on foreign-based players. This is understandable for the refined talents abroad but there seems to be a problem with that in Nigeria. 

There is nothing wrong with foreign-based players populating the national team. Countries tap into their talents abroad sharpened by cutting age training models and infrastructure. One of the biggest problems to this in the case of Nigeria is that players know exactly why they're called up to the national team. They understand why and there is no confusion about the nature of the transaction. There is nothing that dilutes or softens the nature of the transaction. The country only sees them when it needs them. The country is not there when they need her and so in their bloom and glory, they may not give their all. They will not play with their blood and heart. 

Secondly, tapping into foreign players in Nigeria is not grounded in any philosophical sporting policy. For instance, what it means for a player to play for the national team? What does the national team means to them? What is that one thing that all players can understand as common language and shared values? Something like a unique national culture common among the youth? You can only find this in the street football that is played across the country. Pick that ideology and craft it into the national sports policy. What we see instead is total indifference at best if not outright obstacles thrown in the way of the nation's youth by the government and private interest groups. 

By eliminating informal spaces, we have destroyed the conviviality and socio-spatial relations that emerge from street game. Street soccer gives the manager of the national team a foundation, something to start with. The street is where every player understands what it means to play for the national team. From the ground up the Nigerian player can develop the character of the Nigerianness just as the French players are instilled with the French values and what it means to play for the national team. But since we don't have formal structure and arrangements like the French or the Germans or the English, where players are developed through various academies under the guidelines of the national football federations, the street is where our players should build their character. The Senegalese have taken the navétanes and use it as a national sports policy. It is an informal, grassroot football that develops independent of the government. The coach and players speak the same football language that came from the streets. 

By erecting structure on every available space in Nigeria, you tighten the rope for the children in local communities and make it hard for ordinary folks to make their way to the national team. So many talents would slip through the cracks before rising to the top and reaching their full potentials. We are already importing a dangerous trend from abroad where only kids from rich background would be able to play the game and make it to professional level.

And since we don't have meaningful ways in which citizens feel indebted to their governments and their countries beyond familial ties, the very few that already found their way to the highest level of the game know why they're playing. They're simply playing commercial football. They have already paid the price on the way to Europe without the aid of any national structure. When you call them up to the national team after this, they will not play with their heart and their blood.