After conquering TV screens in many countries worldwide, Turkish series have been translated in the Hausa language – the most spoken language in Nigeria and the second most used in Africa after Swahili – and are broadcasted on local channels in the country lately.
Nigerian Zunnurayn Abdul-Wahab is among the fans who fervently admire Turkish TV series on Nigerian channels. While satisfying his curiosity about the history of Turkey with historical TV series such as “Muhteşem Yüzyıl” ("The Magnificent Century") and “Resurrection Ertuğrul” ("Diriliş Ertuğrul"), Abdul-Wahab also learned Turkish thanks to these productions.
Speaking to Anadolu Agency (AA), Abdul-Wahab stated that he first met Turkish productions with the TV series "Adını Sen Koy" (“Prisoner of Love”), which was broadcasted on the local channel "Arewa 24" in Nigeria. Abdul-Wahab said that besides the Turkish culture and family structure described in the series, Istanbul attracted a lot of his attention.
Emphasizing that he is particularly curious about Ottoman history, he added: “Among the series I watched, I liked ‘Diriliş Ertuğrul’ the most. I learned a lot about Ottoman history thanks to this TV series. I am happy to watch them.”
Stating that he kept a book and a pen with him while watching the series, Abdul-Wahab said, "I was initially writing the words in the series in a way that I could understand myself. I was looking at the translation of these words on the internet and then try using them."
Later, Abdul-Wahab enrolled in the Turkish language course started at the newly opened Yunus Emre Institute (YEE) in the capital Abuja to improve his Turkish, and thanks to this course, he no longer had any problems writing Turkish.
Abdul-Wahab said that he learned Turkish grammar and how to construct sentences correctly during the course. In addition, he learned about Turkish culture and improved his mastery of the language. He would now like to hone his Turkish to translate new series that will be broadcast on local channels in the future.
