Hausa people
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| Hausa |
|---|
 |
| Total population |
|
30-35 million (Newman 2000, Schuh 2001) |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Nigeria, Niger, Ghana, Chad, Cameroon, Cote d'Ivoire, Sudan |
| Languages |
| Hausa |
| Religions |
| Islam |
The Hausa are a Sahelian people chiefly located in the West African regions of northern Nigeria and southeastern Niger. There are also significant numbers found in regions of Sudan, Cameroon, Ghana, Cote d'Ivoire, and Chad and smaller communities scattered throughout West Africa and on the traditional Hajj route across the Sahara Desert and Sahel. Many Hausa have moved to large near coastal cities in West Africa such as Lagos, Accra, Kumasi and Cotonou, as well as to countries such as Libya, in search of jobs that pay cash wages. However, most Hausa remain in small villages, where they grow crops (Hausa farmers time their activities according to seasonal changes in rainfall and temperature) and raise livestock, including cattle. They speak the Hausa language, a member of the Chadic language group, itself a sub-group of the larger Afro-Asiatic language family.
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[edit] History and culture
Kano, Nigeria is considered the center of Hausa trade and culture. In terms of cultural relations to other peoples of West Africa, the Hausa are culturally and historically close to the Fulani, Songhai, Mandé and Tuareg as well as other Afro-Asiatic and Nilo-Saharan groups further East in Chad and Sudan. Islamic Shari’a law is loosely the law of the land and is understood by any full time practitioner of Islam, known in Hausa as a Mallam (see Maulana).
Between 500 CE and 700 CE Hausa people, who had been slowly moving west from Nubia and mixing in with the local Northern and Central Nigerian population, established a number of strong states in what is now Northern and Central Nigeria and Eastern Niger. With the decline of the Nok and Sokoto, who had previously controlled Central and Northern Nigeria between 800 BCE and 200 CE, the Hausa were able to emerge as the new power in the region. Closely linked with the Kanuri people of Kanem-Bornu (Lake Chad), the Hausa aristocracy adopted Islam in the 11th century CE.
By the 12th century CE the Hausa were becoming one of Africa's major powers. The architecture of the Hausa is perhaps one of the least known but most beautiful of the medieval age. Many of their early mosques and palaces are bright and colourful and often include intricate engraving or elaborate symbols designed into the facade. By 1500 CE the Hausa utilized a modified Arabic script known as ajami to record their own language; the Hausa compiled several written histories, the most popular being the Kano Chronicle.
In 1810 the Fulani, another Islamic African ethnic group that spanned across West Africa, invaded the Hausa states. Their cultural similarities however allowed for significant integration between the two groups, who in modern times are often demarcated as "Hausa-Fulani", rather than as individuated groups and many Fulani in the region do not distinguish themselves from the Hausa.
The Hausa remain preeminent in Niger and Northern Nigeria. Their impact in Nigeria is paramount, as the Hausa-Fulani amalgamation has controlled Nigerian politics for much of its independent history. They remain one of the largest and most historically grounded civilizations in West Africa.
[edit] Religion
Hausa have an ancient culture that had an extensive coverage area, and long ties to the Arabs and other Islamized peoples in West Africa, such as the Mandé, Fulani and even the Wolof of Senegambia, through extended long distance trade. Islam has been present in Hausaland since the 14th century, but it was largely restricted to the region's rulers and their courts. Rural areas generally retained their animist beliefs and their urban leaders thus drew on both Islamic and African traditions to legitimise their rule. Muslim scholars of the early nineteenth century disapproved of the hybrid religion practised in royal courts, and a desire for reform was a major motive behind the formation of the Sokoto Caliphate.[1] It was after the formation of this state that Islam became firmly entrenched in rural areas. The Hausa people have been an important vector for the spread of Islam in West Africa through economic contact, diaspora trading communities, politics, and the forging of relationships with Ghanaian Christian girls.
Maguzawa, the animist religion, was practiced extensively before Islam. In the more remote areas of Hausaland Maguzawa has remained fully intact, but as one gets closer to more urban areas it almost totally disappears. It often includes the sacrifice of animals for personal ends, it is thought of as illegitimate to practice Maguzawa magic for harm. What remains in more populous areas is a “cult of spirit-possession” known as Bori (religion) which still holds the old religion's elements of animism and magic.[2]
[edit] Clothing
The Hausa people have a very restricted dressing code due to the fact of religious beliefs. The men are easily recognizable because of their elaborate dress which is a large flowing gown known as gare and babban riga. These large flowing gowns usually feature some elaborate embroidery designs around the neck. (See Boubou for more information). Men also wear colorful embroidered caps known as hulla. The females can be identified by their dressing codes in which they wear wrap-around rope made with colorful cloth with a matching blouse, head tie and shawl.
[edit] Food
The most common food that the Hausa people prepare consist of grains such as sorghum millet, or rice and maize which are grounded into flour for a variety of different kinds of food. Usually, breakfast consist of cakes made from grounded beans which is then fried known as kosai or wheat flour soaked for a day then fried and serve with sugar known as funkaso. Both of these cakes can be served with porridge and sugar known as coco. Lunch or dinner are usually served as heavy porridge with soup and stew known as tuwo da miya. The soup and stew are usually prepared with ground or chopped tomatoes, onions, and pepper. While preparing the soup, most of the times spices and other vegetables such as spinach, pumpkin, or okra are added to the soup. The stew is prepared with meat which ranges from goat to cow meat with the exclusion of pork due to Islamic religion restrictions. Beans, peanuts, and milk are also served as a complimentary protein diet for the Hausa people.
[edit] Population
Table of Hausa population by country[citation needed]
| Country | Population, 1000s |
|---|---|
 Algeria |
9 |
 Benin |
34 |
 Burkina Faso |
2 |
 Cameroon |
238 |
 Central African Republic |
29 |
 Chad |
158 |
 Congo |
8.1 |
 Côte d'Ivoire |
108 |
 Equatorial Guinea |
11 |
 Gabon |
8.4 |
 Gambia |
7.3 |
 Ghana |
202 |
 Niger |
5,598 |
 Nigeria |
21,000 |
 Sudan |
550 |
 Togo |
14 |
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Robinson, David, Muslim Societies in African History (Cambridge, 2004), p141
- ^ Adeline Masquelier. Prayer Has Spoiled Everything: Possession, Power, and Identity in an Islamic Town of Niger. Duke University Press (2001) ISBN 9780822326397
