1 A LINGUIST'S FIELD NOTES INTRODUCTION ... - Llacan - CNRS

investigate the events of 1990 for the benefit of the police. Added to this was the fact
that the Moslems of the North had developed anti-Western sentiments arising from the
Gulf War. It must be remembered that the Hausa listeners of the BBC World Service
had, by an overwhelming majority, voted Saddam Hussein Man of the Year 1990. I got
myself ready, therefore, to make use of all the treasures of tact and diplomacy at my
disposal.
EXPLORATION OF AZARE
I leave Central Hotel to go to the Teachers’ Training College in search of
Emmanuel. The Teachers’ Training College, a campus of the type one finds in the
Anglo-Saxon world, is situated about three kilometres outside Azare. New buildings
are hidden away within an immense compound that is half bush, half yam and millet
farms cultivated by the teachers and the administrative personnel accommodated on the
campus. The classes over, I am taken to Emmanuel’s residence, the boys’ quarters of a
three-storey building in which the luckier teachers have their accommodation.
Apparently, there is a serious accommodation crisis in Azare.
The door is padlocked from the outside; there is no one at home. I scribble a note,
which I place on the padlock. I come back in the evening and find myself face to face
with Emmanuel’s neighbour, who tells me that he left that same day to see me at
Ibadan. He is to arrive the following day. I am distraught just thinking about all these
useless kilometres! And travelling is so expensive for Nigerians! Emmanuel’s
neighbour offers to introduce me to other Zaar speakers living in Azare, and I decide to
go to the NITEL (Nigerian Telecommunications) office first thing the following day to
try to phone Ibadan to leave instructions for Emmanuel to be received as a guest in my
house and to return to Azare the following day.
The following morning. The NITEL office is a 5-minute walk from the hotel. A
pleasant walk under the acacias of the town, which enables me to benefit from the cool
air brought in by the storm of the previous evening. I learn from the telephone operator
that there is no direct line between Azare and Ibadan and that he must phone the Bauchi
exchange, which will call him back thereafter. The operator at the Bauchi exchange to
whom he will indicate the Ibadan number I want to call, will dial this number and will
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