In the 1936 essay ‘A First Essay in Imaginative African Literature’, Dr East noted that there was a growing number of people literate in their indigenous languages, especially Hausa in the Roman script. However, there was not much reading material and literature for the people in northern Nigeria to consume in Hausa. Most publications were produced in Latin, Arabic and English at the time of his writing the essay. In the essay, Dr East notes that the director of education in Nigeria started a scheme in 1933 to produce Hausa novels that the public could easily buy. The scheme, however, faced production and distribution problems. Northern Nigeria at the time did not have books or written text in the Hausa language that was not of a religious kind. According to Dr East: 

The leaders of the jihad had destroyed the writings of their predecessors to purge the land of all memories of a more heathen past. A person capable of committing such an act of literary vandalism in the name of religion could hardly be expected to produce literature of a very imaginative kind. 

Thus, the objectives of Gaskiya Corporation went from translating books from other languages to Hausa to writing books in Hausa, publishing books for schools, and encouraging local people to write books suitable for publication. With the last objective in mind, the corporation organized a writing competition in 1931 amongst the students and staff of the training college (Katsina Teachers College) in Katsina. The competition produced five books, which were later published by the corporation and became household names in northern Nigeria. These were: Gandoki by Mallam Mohammed Bello Kagara; Ruwan Bagaja by Mallam Abubakar Imam; Shehu Umar by Mallam Abubakar Tafawa Balewa; Idon Matambayi by Mallam Muhammadu Gwarzo and Jiki Magayi by John Tafida Umaru.  

Besides the literary competition, Gaskiya Corporation regularly published Gaskiya Ta fi Kwabo, the newspaper’s first edition and monthly journal, with 5,000 copies printed and distributed. According to the Gaskiya Corporation handbook, this was the highest number of any Hausa book distributed at the time. Faru informed me that the printing press was true to its objective of printing schoolbooks. Ahmadu Bello, during his time as premier of northern Nigeria (1954-1966), promoted literacy and modernized traditional Qur’anic education in northern Nigeria. He set up schools in every region and used the press to print books on Astronomy, Physics, and Literature in Hausa. The institution named after him, Ahmadu Bello University, also used the Gaskiya Corporation printing press to publish books for the university before establishing its own printing press. According to Gaskiya Corporation’s Director Faru, ‘Sardauna described Zaria as a melting point of civilizations; Muslim, Christian and Animist civilizations.’ 

In 1953, the Northern Regional Literature Agency expanded Gaskiya Corporation’s publishing of Hausa books. It stemmed from a literacy campaign by the chief adult education officer, Mallam Ahmadu Coomassie. The agency had officers in twelve northern provinces at the time. The agency produced books in these provinces in the regions’ languages, including Fulfulde, Kanuri, Nupe, Tiv, and Yoruba. This continued while the Gaskiya Corporation published a newspaper named Nigerian Citizen.