Hausa

By Deborah Pellow and John Beierle

Afnu (the Kanuri term) or Afunu; Arna or Azna, Bunjawa, Maguzawa, (non-Muslims); Aussa, Haoussa, al Hausin.

The Hausa constitute the largest ethnic group in West Africa. The term "Hausa" actually refers to the language and, by extension, to its native speakers, of whom there are about 25 million. The Hausa are scattered across the savanna of northern Nigeria, the adjacent area of Niger, and, as a result of extensive migration, in enclaves in various African cities as far south as the Atlantic coast. The focal homeland covers an area about 640 kilometers wide, from Lake Chad to the east to the Niger River in the west. It extends from about 11 degrees to 14 degrees north latitude and from about 2 degrees to 14 degrees east longitude. The annual rainfall ranges from about 50 centimeters in the north to 100 centimeters in the south.

There are approximately 22.5 million Hausa in West Africa. According to the last census, carried out in 1963, 80 percent of the Hausa are rural, 20 percent urban. Even with the tremendous urbanization of the 1970s and 1980s, economic problems have led to return migrations to the countryside. Thus, the 80:20 ratio may still stand. Among the Hausa, there is high infant mortality. If a child survives his or her first two years, he or she will probably live to age 50. Risk decreases until one reaches middle age, but many Hausa survive into their 70s and 80s.

A Chadic language, Hausa is related to Arabic, Hebrew, Berber, and other Afroasiatic Family members. Proper tone and stress are imperative. Hausa, which was originally written in Arabic script, has a centuries-old literary tradition, but it is also the language of trade and, next to Swahili, is the most widely spoken African language.

Hausa history is one of immigration and conquest. The Hausa nation has evolved from the incorporation over hundreds of years of many different peoples who joined the original stock. They are united by a common language and adherence to a common religion, Islam. According to tradition, the Hausa people derive from the Hausa BAKWAI, the "true" seven states, of which Daura (named after its female founder) is considered the most senior. In the myth of origin, Bayajidda, the son of the king of Baghdad, arrived in Daura via Bornu. He killed the snake that occupied the well, impeding the townspeople's access to the water. As a reward, Bayajidda married the queen. Their son Bawo was the progenitor of six sons, thereby founding six states - Daura, Katsina, Zazzau (Zaria), Gobir, Kano, and Rano. Bayajidda's son by his first wife, Magira, founded Biram, the seventh state.

In fact, it is not known when the movement of peoples actually occurred; neither has the migrants' place of origin been pinpointed. The seven Habe kingdoms were formed by a coalescence of strangers with local folk. The emergence of states in Hausaland was apparently associated with the establishment of capital cities as centers of power. They were different from earlier settlements in that they were cosmopolitan, fortified, and each the seat of a king who was recognized as the superior power throughout the surrounding area.

Before 1804, Habe kings ruled over Hausaland; following 1804, the Fulani took over, and by mid-century the Hausa were stratified into three tiers: the hereditary ruling Fulani, the appointive ruling class dominated by Fulani, and the Habe commoners.

Hausa relations with others are considerable, because of their extensive involvement with trade and Islam. There is considerable exchange with the Kanuri to the east, the nomadic Tuareg, and southern Nigerians (Ibo, Yoruba); in their diaspora settlements, other ethnic groups that share their cultural orientation, such as the Wangara, the Zabarama, the Adar, the Nupe, are often lumped together with them as "Hausa."

The Hausa classify their settlements as cities, towns, or hamlets. The cities have wards for foreigners, including Tuareg, Arabs, Nupe, Kanuri, and others. The capital cities are walled, and residents live in walled compounds with interior courtyards. Those of the well-to-do are whitewashed and decorated with plaster arabesques. The women's quarters are separate. Urban compounds may house sixty to a hundred persons. Although the Hausa accord urban living the most prestige, they are primarily rural. Each village contains a capital, as well as several hamlets; the capital is divided into wards, housing families of the same occupational group. Traditional village compounds are walled or fenced; materials range from baked clay to mud or cornstalks. Compounds characteristically contain an entrance hut, an open shared cooking and work area, a hut for the compound head, and separate huts for each of his wives. Newer housing is rectangular and concrete. The number of people living in a rural compound ranges from one to thirty, the average being ten.

Agriculture is the main economic activity. Grain is the staple diet, including Guinea corn, millet, maize, and rice. The Hausa also grow and eat root crops and a variety of vegetables. Cotton and peanuts are processed and used locally, but part of the harvest is exported. The Hausa practice intercropping and double-cropping; their main implement is the hoe. The Cattle Fulani provide the Hausa with meat, yogurt, and butter.

Most men also practice a second occupation; ascriptive and ranked, these include: aristocratic officeholder, scholar, Islamic cleric (IMAM), various crafts, trader, musician, and butcher. As good Muslims, the urban women are in seclusion (rural women much less so), and therefore dependent upon their husbands for their maintenance; they are economically active from behind the compound walls, however, primarily in order to finance their daughters' dowries. Their work, which includes sewing and selling prepared food and jewelry, is an offshoot of their domestic persona.

There are full-time specialists only where there is an assured market for craft products. Men's crafts include tanning, leatherworking, saddling, weaving, dying, woodworking, and smithing. Iron has been mined, smelted, and worked as far back as there are Hausa traditions. Blacksmiths have a guildlike organization, and many are hereditary.

Trade is complicated and varied. Some traders deal in a particular market, as distinguished from those who trade in many markets over a long distance. This dual trade strategy, augmented by the contributions of the Cattle Fulani, enabled the Hausa to meet all of their requirements, even during the nineteenth century. The markets are traditional to Hausa society and carry social as well as economic significance; male friends and relatives meet there, and well-dressed marriageable young women pass through, to see and be seen. The Hausa differentiate rural from urban settlements in terms of the size and frequency of the markets.

There is also customary exchange that takes place outside of the market. Gift exchanges are practiced at life-cycle celebrations such as childbirth, naming, marriage, and death; other exchanges are framed by religion (alms, tithes, fixed festivals) and politics (expressing relations of patronage/clientage).

Hausa society traditionally observes several divisions of labor: in public administration, it is primarily men who may be appointed, although some women hold appointed positions in the palace. Class determines what sort of work one might do, and gender determines work roles. When women engage in income- producing activities, they may keep what they earn. Because of purdah, many women who trade are dependent upon children to act as their runners.

The rural householder farms with his sons' help; from the old farm, he allocates to them small plots, which he enlarges as they mature. New family fields are cleared from the bush.

Although the domestic group is based on agnatic ties, and even as Hausa society is patriarchal, descent is basically bilateral; only the political aristocracy and urban intelligentsia observe strict patrilineality, everyone else practicing bilaterality.

Hausa kinship terminology cannot be classified according to standard anthropological categories because of the number of alternative usages. For example, a man's siblings and his parallel or cross cousins are called 'YANUWA (children of my mother); cross cousins, however, are also referred to and addressed as ABOKAN WASA (joking relations), and special terms distinguishing elder and younger brother and sister may also be applied to both parallel and cross cousins.

Adult Hausa society is essentially totally married. Ideal marriage is virilocal/patrilocal, and it is polygynous: a man is allowed up to four wives at a time. The term in Hausa for co-wife is KISHIYA, from the word for "jealousy," often but not always descriptive of co-wife relations. Once men begin to marry, they are rarely single despite divorce because most are polygynous; nearly 50 percent of the women are divorced at some point, but there is such pressure to be married and have children that they tend not to stay unmarried long. Important social distinctions identify women in terms of their marital status. By custom, girls marry at the age of 12 to 14. There is some disagreement in the literature regarding the respectful nature of singlehood. Divorce is a regular occurrence, not surprisingly, given the brittle and formal relationship between spouses. Both men and women have a right to divorce, but for men it is easier. After divorce, most weaned children are claimed by their father.

Marriage is marked by bride-price, given by the groom's family to the bride, and a dowry for the bride provided by her family. Marriage is classified according to the degree of wife seclusion and according to whether it is a kin or nonkin union. Bilateral cross-cousin marriage is preferred.

The ideal household is the agnatic-based GANDU (family farm), formed by a man with his sons and their wives and children. After the senior male's death, the brothers may stay on together for a time. More frequently, each brother's household becomes a separate economic unit.

Consistent with Islamic practice, a woman can own and inherit in her own right, but her inheritance rights are subordinate to those of men. All of the wives married to a man at the time of his death are entitled, together with their children, to share one-quarter of his total estate if there are no agnatic descendants, or one-eighth of his estate if there are agnatic descendants. Women own property such as houses and land together with consanguines, even after marriage, and they inherit only half as much as their brothers.

Succession to leadership of the agnatic group and leadership of the compound is collateral. Farmland is inherited in the male line, the GANDU being collectively owned by brothers.

Women observe a postpartum taboo on sexual intercourse for a year and a half to two years, during which time the child is breast-fed. Toddlers are weaned onto soft foods and then to the standard diet. An older sister carries the infant on her back when the mother is busy, which extends into a special attachment between an adult man and his elder sister.

From infancy, boys and girls are treated differently. Boys are preferred; as they age they learn that they are superior to girls and to consequently to distance themselves from them and identify with things masculine. It is imperative for boys to separate from their mothers. Girls are trained to self-identify in terms of their sex role: domestic (female) skills are taught to young women as they mature. They are admonished to be submissive and subordinate to males. As children, boys and girls are rigidly sex-stereotyped into appropriate behavior.

One of the most salient principles in Hausa society is the segregation of adults according to gender. Throughout Hausaland, seclusion of married women is normative, and the extradomestic impact of sexual segregation and stratification is that women are legal, political, and religious minors and the economic wards of men. Although women are central to kinship matters, they are excluded from extradomestic discussion and decision making. Both within the household and in the public domain, patriarchal authority is dominant and reinforced by spatial separation of the sexes.

The senior wife of the compound head, the MAI GIDA, is the UWAR GIDA. She may settle minor disputes among residents and give advice and aid to the younger women. Domestic authority rests with the male head of compound/household. From childhood, males and females develop bond friendships with members of the same sex, a practice continued into adulthood and marked by reciprocal exchanges. Given their seclusion, women tend to formalize their bond ties more than men do. Formal relationships that emphasize differences in status (patron/client) are also established by women, as they are by men.

Organizational structure is hierarchic; the centralized kingdoms, known as emirates, are the primary groupings; districts are secondary and village areas tertiary.

The institutions of kinship, clientship, and office (and, in the past, slavery) in the emirates, have provided the fundamentals of Hausa government from the sixteenth century until the middle part of the twentieth century. Rank regulates relations between commoners and rulers.

"Traditional and modern government proceeds through a system of titled offices ..., each of which is in theory a unique indissoluble legal corporation having definite rights, powers and duties, special relations to the throne and to certain other offices, special lands, farms, compounds, horses, praise songs, clients, and, formerly, slaves" (Smith 1965, 132). In most states, major offices are traditionally distributed among descent groups, so that rank and lineage intertwine. The traditional offices differed in rewards, power, and function, and were territorially based with attendant obligations and duties. Within communities, the various occupational groups distribute titles, which duplicate the ranks of the central political system.

Clientship links men of unequal status, position, and wealth. It is a relationship of mutual benefit, whereby the client gains advice in his affairs at the minimum and protection, food, and shelter at the maximum. The patron can call upon the client to serve as his retainer.

In applying his notion of government to Kano, the Fulani religious and political leader Usman dan Fodio, when he launched his successful jihad against the king of Gobir in 1804, he followed the basic premise of a theocracy within a legalistic framework; government, and its chief agent the emir, were perceived as an instrument of Allah.

Legal affairs fall under the jurisdiction of the emir, and he is guided by Islamic law. The Quran, the word of Allah, and its HADITH, the traditions of the Prophet Mohammed, along with the dictates of secular reasoning provide answers to legal questions. The Sharia, the canon law of Islam, is fundamentally a code of obligations, a guide to ethics. Sanctions of shame and ostracism compel conformity to Hausa and Islamic custom.

When disputes arise, the Hausa may opt to go to court, submit to mediation, or leave it to Allah. The basic process involves deference to mediation by elders.

About 90 percent of the Hausa are Muslims. "The traditional Hausa way of life and Islamic social values have been intermixed for such a long time that many of the basic tenets of Hausa society are Islamic" (Adamu 1978, 9). Islam has been carried throughout West Africa by Hausa traders.

Adherents are expected to observe the five pillars of Islam - profession of the faith, five daily prayers, alms giving, fasting at Ramadan, and at least one pilgrimage to Mecca (the hajj). Within Hausa society, there are sects (brotherhoods) of adherents; of these, the Tijaniya, Qadriya, and Ahmadiyya have been important. Wife seclusion is basic to the Hausa version of Islam, although it is believed that the institution is more a sign of status than of religious piety.

Even among some Muslims, as among the Maguzawa pagans, spirit cults persist. One, the Bori, has more female than male adepts; cultists are believed to be possessed by particular spirits within the Bori pantheon.

Although such personnel as imams and teachers (MALLAMAI; sing. MALLAM) have no churchly functions or spiritual authority, they do tend to assume or accept some measure of spiritual authority in certain contexts.

Men are enjoined to attend Friday prayers at the mosque. Men and women celebrate the three main annual festivals of Ramadan, Id il Fitr, and Sallah. Life-cycle events - birth, puberty, marriage, death - are also marked.

The arts are limited to those forms allowed by Islam; the Hausa use Islamic design in their architecture, pottery, cloth, leather, and weaving. Music is an integral part of Hausa life and can be classified in terms of function and audience: for royalty, for dancing pleasure, and for professional guilds. Each category has its own instruments, which include drums as well as string and wind instruments. Poetry exists in an oral tradition, as practiced by the praise singers and the oral historians, and also in the written tradition of the learned.

There is a tricultural system that consists of strong traditional roots set in the framework of a predominantly Islamic mode, now augmented by Western medicine. The BORI spirit- possession cult is relied upon for various kinds of curing, and this involves diagnosing the particular spirit giving the sick person trouble.

Burial is in the Islamic manner. Upon death, the individual passes on into the realm of heaven (paradise) or hell, consistent with Islamic teaching.

Documents referred to in this section are included in this eHRAF collection and are referenced by author, date of publication, and eHRAF document number.

The Hausa file consists of nineteen English language documents, with a time coverage ranging from approximately 1800 to the early 1980s. Several of the documents focus on the Hausa of Zaria Province, which was the primary field locale of M.G. Smith, a social anthropologist and an outstanding authority on the Hausa. Four of the documents in the file are by M.G. Smith (Smith 1955, 1957, 1960, 1978, nos. 1, 9, 15, 22) and one by his wife, Mary F. Smith, which is a valuable and insightful autobiography of a Hausa woman who lived in both Kano and Zaria Provinces (see Baba of Karo 1954, no. 3). The works of M.G. Smith provide a very comprehensive overview of Hausa ethnography. Ethnographic topics in Smith's works range from discussions of Hausa economy and social organization to political history and development, and cooperative organizations. The documents written by other authors in this file also provide an abundance of cultural data on Hausa ethnography. These data relate generally to land use, child development, childhood activities, history, religion, kinship, economy, politics, literature, and language. In 1995-1996 six new works were added to this file, Salamone 1974, no. 19; Besmer 1983, no. 21; Smith 1978, no. 22; Works 1976, no. 23; Cohen 1969, no. 24; and Beik 1984, no. 25. Salamone's study, covering the period of 1800 to 1972, is an analysis of the mechanisms through which ethnic groups in Nigeria maintain or modify their ethnic identities. He concentrates on the Dukawa and the Gungawa of the Yauri Emirate, North-Western State, Nigeria, and on their relations with the Hausa. Besmer's study deals with the Hausa BORI cult of spirit-possession, or possession-trance. The focus here is on the cult's adepts, or trancers, and the musicians who also play an important role in trance events. Works monograph, which covers the period from 1800 to 1970, describes the culture of the Hausa in Chad. Emphasis is placed on the effects of pilgrimage (to Mecca) and trade in the formation of a distinctive Hausa culture. The document by Cohen focuses on the Hausa in the Sabo section of Ibadan, Nigeria, and their relations with the Yoruba, who are the numerically predominant group in Ibadan. The time coverage for this work ranges from 1900 to 1963. Beik presents a detailed analysis, partly historical and partly literary, of Hausa theater in Niger.

For more detailed information on the content of the individual works in this file, see the abstracts in the citations preceding each document.

This culture summary originally appeared as the article, "Hausa," by Deborah Pellow in the Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Vol. 9. 1995. John Middleton and Amal Rassam, eds. Boston, Mass.: G. K. Hall & Co. The synopsis and indexing notes were prepared by John Beierle, August 1996.

• AL MAJRAI -- beggars -- category 735

• ALKALI -- Islamic judge -- category 698

• ASALI -- descent -- category 611

• ATTAJIRAI -- merchants -- category 443

• BARAKA -- magical power -- category 789

• BARANCI -- clientship -- category 466

• BARANTAKA -- political clientage -- categories 466, 662

• BAZAWARA -- formerly married woman -- categories 548, 580

• BOKA -- medicine man -- category 793

• BORI cult -- spirit possession cult --category 794

• courtesans -- prostitutes -- category 548

• DAKUNA -- subdivisions of a Hausa lineage -- category 614

• DAM BORI --son of the BORI; male cult adept -- 791

• DARAJA -- social rank -- category 554

• DHIMMI -- tributary state -- category 636

• DODO -- evil spirit -- category 776

• DOKI -- stallion, horse; term used for a male trance medium -- category 791

• emir -- the head of the emirate -- categories 624, 643

• emirate -- state; geographical, political unit - - categories 621, 630, 640

• FATAKE - - long distance traders -- category 439

• GANDU -- ancestral land inherited through males -- category 592

• GARAJIYA -- individuals who have inherited occupations -- categories 554, 463

• GARWAYE -- a complex overlap of official jurisdictions -- category 631

• GIDAN KARUWAI -- house of prostitutes -- category 548

• GIRKA -- healing or initiation rite -- category 788

• GIRMA -- charismatic prestige -- category 554

• GODIYA -- mare; term used for a female trance medium -- category 791

• ISKOKI -- spirits -- category 776

• IYALI -- immediate family -- category 594

• IZNIN HARI -- raids -- category 721

• JANGALI -- cattle tax -- category 651

• JEKANDANCI -- administrative agency -- category 647

• JINNS -- evil spirits -- category 776

• KACIYA -- orgiastic (circumcision) dance -- categories 535, 788

• KANWAR RANA -- clientage involving women as clients -- categories 466, 562

• KARDA -- inherited, ascribed occupations - - categories 554, 643

• KARUWA -- single person, before re-marriage -- categories 548, 580

• KARUWANCI -- prostitution -- category 548

• KATSIRO -- individuals who take on achieved occupations -- categories 554, 463

• KUDIN SARAUTA -- money for office -- category 651

• LIMAN -- chief religious teacher or leader -- categories 793, 797

• MAI MIGONA --owner of the speech -- category 537

• MAIGIDA -- household or compound head; business landlords -- categories 592, 485, 463

• MALANCI -- Koranic scholarship -- category 797

• MALLAMAI -- Islamic priests or officials -- category 793

• MAROKI -- male praise singer or praise shouter -- categories 533, 537

• MASAUKI -- hostel, accommodations -- category 485

• MASU-MAGANI -- non- Islamic ritualists and magicians -- category 756

• MASUGARI -- owners of the town; ward heads -- category 622

• MASUKIWO -- groom; term used for the attendants who control and assist trancers -- category 791

• MUKADDAM -- Tijaniyya ritual master -- category 793

• MUNDAYE -- bracelets kept as liquid reserves for conversion to cash -- category 436

• MUTUMCI -- semi-independent forms of clientage -- category 466

• PURDAH -- Islamic seclusion of women -- category 562

• ROKO -- begging musician -- category 533

• RUMADA -- slave settlement -- categories 592, 567

• SADAKA -- alms -- category 735

• SARAKUNA -- chiefs or officials -- categories 622, 624

• SARAUTU -- offices of the state -- category 647

• SARKI -- a Muslim who rules an emirate consisting mainly of non-Muslims -- categories 622, 624

• SARKIN BORI -- chief of the BORI; main cult leadership position -- categories 793, 756

• SARKIN NOMA -- chief of farming -- category 624

• SARKIN ZANGO -- chief of the cattle -- category 624

• SHARI'A -- Muslim law -- category 671

• SHIGEGE -- taking on new or achieved occupations -- categories 554, 463

• TAJANIYYA order -- a Muslim sect -- category 794

• TALAKUWA -- commoners -- category 554

• TARAYYA -- a form of clientage -- category 466

• TSARANCE -- sex play short of full intercourse -- category 836

• UWAR RANA -- clientage involving women as patrons -- categories 466, 562

• WASAM BORI -- BORI rituals not involving trance -- category 788

• YAM BORI -- children of the BORI; cult adepts -- category 791

• YAN DAUDU -- male homosexuals; transsexuals -- category 838

• YAR BORI -- daughter of the BORI; female cult adept -- category 791

• ZAKKA -- grain tithe -- category 651

Adamu, Mahdi (1978). The Hausa Factor in West African History. London: Oxford University Press.

Coles, Catherine, and Beverly Mack, eds. (1991). Women in Twentieth Century Hausa Society. Madison: University of Wisconsin Press.

Hill, Polly (1972). Rural Hausa: A Village and a Setting. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.

Paden, John (1974). Religion and Political Culture in Kano. Berkeley and Los Angeles: University of California Press.

Smith, Mary F. (1981). Baba of Karo. New Haven: Yale University Press. Originally published in 1954.

Smith, M. G. (1965). "The Hausa of Northern Nigeria." In Peoples of Africa, edited by James L. Gibbs, Jr., 119-155. New York: Holt, Rinehart & Winston.