Hausa people

The Hausa (autonyms for singular: Bahaushe (m), Bahaushiya (f); plural: Hausawa and general: Hausa; exonyms: Ausa; Ajami: مُتَنٜىٰنْ هَوْسَا / هَوْسَاوَا) are a native ethnic group in West Africa. They speak the Hausa language, which is the second most spoken language after Arabic in the Afro-Asiatic language family. The Hausa are a culturally homogeneous people based primarily in the Sahelian and the sparse savanna areas of southern Niger and northern Nigeria respectively, numbering around 86 million people, with significant populations in Benin, Cameroon, Ivory Coast, Chad, the Central African Republic, Togo, and Ghana, as well as smaller more recent populations in Sudan, Eritrea.

Hausa

مُتَنٜىٰنْ هَوْسَا / هَوْسَاوَا Mutanen Hausa / Hausawa
Hausa emblem is an older and traditionally established emblem of Hausa identity – the 'Dagin Arewa' or 'Northern knot' – in a star shape, used in historic and traditional architecture, design and hand-embroidery.
Hausa men
Total population
86 million
Regions with significant populations
Nigeria	71,000,000
Niger	13,800,000
Ivory Coast	1,000,000
Sudan	664,000
Cameroon	400,000^[citation needed]
Ghana	275,000
Benin	36,360
Eritrea	30,000
Togo	21,900
Gabon	17,000
Algeria	12,000
Languages
Hausa • English • French • Pidgin English
Religion
Islam
Related ethnic groups
Other Chadic-speaking peoples Chadic, Omotic-speaking peoples Omotic, Nilo-Saharans, Niger-Congo speaking peoples Niger-Congo, Nigerians

Predominantly Hausa-speaking communities are scattered throughout West Africa and on the traditional Hajj route north and east traversing the Sahara, with an especially large population in and around the town of Agadez. Other Hausa have also moved to large neighbouring coastal cities in the region such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Accra, Abidjan and Cotonou as well as to parts of North Africa such as Libya over the course of the last 500 years. The Hausa are traditionally agriculturists who live in small villages as well as in precolonial towns and cities. The Hausa aristocracy had historically developed an equestrian based culture. Still a status symbol of the traditional nobility in Hausa society, the horse still features in the Eid day celebrations, known as Ranar Sallah (in English: the Day of the Prayer). Daura is the cultural center of the Hausa people. The town predates all the other major Hausa towns in tradition and culture.

Population distribution

The Hausa have, in the last 500 years, crisscrossed the vast landscape of Africa in all its four corners for varieties of reasons ranging from military service, long-distance trade, hunting, performance of hajj, fleeing from oppressive Hausa feudal kings as well as spreading Islam.

Because the vast majority of Hausas and Hausa speakers are Muslims, many attempted to embark on the Hajj pilgrimage, a requirement of all Muslims who are able. On the way to or back from the Hijaz region, many settled, often indigenizing to some degree. For example, many Hausa in Saudi Arabia identify as both Hausa and Afro-Arab. In the Arab world, the surname "Hausawi" (alternatively spelled "Hawsawi") is an indicator of Hausa ancestry.

The homeland of Hausa people is Hausaland ("Kasar Hausa"), situated in Nigeria and Niger.

History

Daura, in Nigeria, is the oldest city of Hausaland. Historically, Katsina was the centre of Hausa Islamic scholarship but was later replaced by Sokoto stemming from the 19th century Usman Dan Fodio Islamic reform.

In the 7th century, the Dalla Hill in Kano was the site of a Hausa community that migrated from Gaya and engaged in iron-work. The Hausa Bakwai kingdoms were established around the 7th to 11th centuries. Of these, the Kingdom of Daura was the first, according to the Bayajidda legend. The legend of Bayajidda is a relatively new concept in the history of the Hausa people and is generally disregarded as myth by scholars.

The Hausa Kingdoms were independent political entities in what is now Nigeria and emerged, predominantly in the 16th century, as powerful and economically important trading states. Similarly to Bornu and other neighbouring cities, Hausa states like Katsina and Kano became major centres of long-distance trans-saharan trade with Hausa merchants specializing in producing textiles and leatherwork. The primary exports were leather, gold, cloth, salt, kola nuts, slaves, and henna with the Hausa people acting as a median of trade within West Africa. By the 14th century, Islam had become widespread in the Hausa states due to commerce, with Muhammad Korau of Gobir generally attested as the first Muslim ruler by the mid 14th century, though smaller populations of Hausas, like the Maguzawa remained followers of the traditional Hausa religion.

By the early 15th century, the Hausa were using 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. Many medieval Hausa manuscripts similar to the Timbuktu Manuscripts written in the Ajami script have been discovered recently, some of them describing constellations and calendars.

The Gobarau Minaret was built in the 14th century in Katsina. It is a 50-foot edifice located in the centre of the city of Katsina, the capital of Katsina State. The construction of the Gobarau minaret, was commissioned and designed by Muhammadu Korau (also spelled Muhammad Korau), the first Muslim ruler of Katsina to serve as a Mosque and symbolizing Katsina's early adoption of the Islamic faith. Built in traditional Hausa Tuabli architecture, the minaret served as a center for Islamic education and later as a defensive hub during wartime. The minaret is also believed to be one of West Africa's first multi-storey buildings and was once the tallest building in Katsina.

Muhammad Rumfa was the Sultan of the Sultanate of Kano, located in modern-day Kano State, Northern Nigeria. He reigned from 1463 until 1499. Among Rumfa's accomplishments were extending the city walls, building a large palace, the Gidan Rumfa, promoting slaves to governmental positions and establishing the great Kurmi Market, which is still in use today. It was once used as an international market where North African goods were exchanged for domestic goods through trans-Saharan trade. Muhammad Rumfa was also responsible for much of the Islamisation of Kano, as he got the general population to convert.

The legendary Queen Amina of Zaria ruled Zazzau sometime during mid 16th century for a period of 34 years, though there are some discrepancies about the dates of her reign. According to oral legends detailed by anthropologist David E. Jones, Amina was brought up in her grandfather's court and was carefully taught in political and military matters. Amina was 16 years old when her mother, Bakwa Turunku became queen and she was given the traditional title of Magajiya, an honorific borne by the daughters of monarchs. She is celebrated as an outstanding conqueror who extended her dominion from Kwararafa state to Nupe, the Niger and Benue rivers, subdued Bauchi and extracted tribute from Kano & Katsina while also establishing long standing commerce with the Yoruba markets of the south. Amina is credited as the architectural overseer and financier of much of the Tubali walls that surround her city, which were the prototype for the fortifications used in all Hausa states. Subsequently her name is associated widely with fortifications all over the Hausa states known as Ganuwar Amina or Amina's walls. Though not all of the city walls known as Ganuwar Amina can be attributed to her, such connections highlight her imperial successes; they also identify the 15th century as a period of intense action, akin to a revolution, in defence of the Hausa kingdoms.

In the 1836 book, Ifaq al-Maysur, authored by Sultan Muhammad Bello of Sokoto he states that, "Amina was the first to establish government among the Hausa" and she claimed ascendancy over the cities of Kano and Katsina. Since Muhammad Bello provided only limited details about Amina’s life, historians primarily rely on the Kano Chronicle —a widely cited 19th-century historical account of Kano—for more comprehensive information.

From the beginning of the 1800s, the Fulas began to migrate to Nigeria from Senegal, Mauritania and other neighbouring countries. Driven by cattle herding, trade, and environmental pressures, these nomadic groups gradually settled among the indigenous agricultural Hausa populations, often maintaining distinct clans while adopting the Hausa language and intermarrying. In the early 19th century, the Fula Islamic scholar Usman dan Fodio launched the Sokoto jihad (1804–1808), accusing Hausa rulers of practising a syncretic and corrupt form of Islam that deviated from “true” Islamic principles, including tolerance of pre-Islamic customs and unjust taxation. The successful jihad overthrew most Hausa kingdoms, establishing the Sokoto Caliphate under Fula leadership and profoundly reshaping the religious and political landscape of Nigeria. The political and social integration following the Sokoto jihad gave rise to the modern socio-political label “Hausa-Fulani”, which primarily refers to the Muslim ruling elite of northern Nigeria. Despite the widespread use of this hyphenated term—especially in modern Nigerian political discourse—the Hausa and Fulas remain culturally and genetically distinct. [1]: the Hausa are predominantly sedentary agriculturalists with ancient Chadic-language roots in the region, whereas the Fulas are historically pastoralist and trace their origins to the western Sahel, retaining a separate Fulfulde language, clan structure (lenyol) system, and higher frequencies of certain West African pastoralist genetic markers. The “Hausa-Fulani” identity is therefore largely a product of 19th-century Fula political dominance within the Sokoto Caliphate, and shared religion rather than an indication of ethnic or genetic fusion; many Fulas in Nigeria continue to identify separately as Bororo or Town Fulas, and rural Hausa communities often preserve pre-jihad culture and traditions with minimal Fula admixture.

British colonial administrator Frederick Lugard exploited rivalries between many of the emirs in the south and the central Sokoto administration to counter possible defence efforts as his men marched toward the capital. As the British approached the city of Sokoto, the new Sultan Muhammadu Attahiru I organised a quick defence of the city and fought the advancing British-led forces. The British emerged triumphant, sending Attahiru I and thousands of followers on a Mahdist hijra.

On 13 March 1903 at the grand market square of Sokoto, the last Vizier of the Caliphate officially conceded to British rule. The British appointed Muhammadu Attahiru II as the new Caliph. Lugard abolished the Caliphate, but retained the title Sultan as a symbolic position in the newly organised Northern Nigeria Protectorate. In June 1903, the British defeated the remaining forces of Attahiru I, who was killed in action; by 1906 resistance to British rule had ended with the conquest of Hadejia and the death of Sarki Muhammadu Mai Shahada of Hadejia as the last Emirate standing in Sokoto Caliphate. The area of the Sokoto Caliphate was divided among the control of the British, French, and Germans under the terms of the Berlin Conference.

The British established the Northern Nigeria Protectorate to govern the region, which included most of the Sokoto empire and its most important emirates. Under Lugard, the various emirs were provided significant local autonomy, thus retaining much of the political organisation of the Sokoto Caliphate. The Sokoto area was treated as just another emirate within the Nigerian Protectorate. Because it was never connected with the railway network, it became economically and politically marginal.

The Sultan of Sokoto continued to be regarded as an important Muslim spiritual and religious position; the lineage connection to dan Fodio has continued to be recognised. One of the most significant Sultans was Siddiq Abubakar III, who held the position for 50 years from 1938 to 1988. He was known as a stabilising force in Nigerian politics, particularly in 1966 after the assassination of Ahmadu Bello, the Premier of Northern Nigeria.

Following the construction of the Nigerian railway system, which extended from Lagos in 1896 to Ibadan in 1900 and Kano in 1911, the Hausa of northern Nigeria became major producers of groundnuts. They surprised the British authorities, who had expected the Hausa to turn to cotton production. The Hausa had sufficient agricultural expertise to realise cotton required more labour and the European prices offered for groundnuts were more attractive than those for cotton. "Within two years the peasant farmers of Hausaland were producing so many tonnes of groundnuts that the railway was unable to cope with the traffic. As a result, the European merchants in Kano had to stockpile sacks of groundnuts in the streets." (Shillington 338).

The Boko script was implemented by the British and French colonial authorities and made the official Hausa alphabet in 1930. Boko is a Latin alphabet used to write the Hausa language. The first boko was devised by Europeans in the early 19th century, and developed in the early 20th century by the British (mostly) and French colonial authorities. Since the 1950s, boko has been the main alphabet for Hausa. Arabic script (ajami) is now only used in Islamic schools and for Islamic literature. Today millions of Hausa-speaking people, who can read and write in Ajami only, are considered illiterates by the Nigerian government. Despite this, Hausa Ajami is present on Naira banknotes. In 2014, in a very controversial move, Ajami was removed from the new 100 Naira banknote.

Nevertheless, the Hausa remain preeminent in Niger and Northern Nigeria.

Subgroups of Hausa people

Hausas in the narrow sense are indigenous of Kasar Hausa (Hausaland) who are found in West Africa. Within the Hausa, a distinction is made between three subgroups: Habe, Hausa-Fulani (Kado), and Banza or Banza 7.

• "Habe" are taken to be pure Hausas. They include Gobirawa, Kabawa, Rumawa, Adarawa, Maouri, and others. These groups were the rulers of Hausa Kingdoms before the Danfodiyo revolution (Jihad) of 1804.
• "Hausa–Fulani" or "Kado" are Hausanized Fulas, people of mixed Hausa and Fulani origin, most of whom speak a variant of Hausa as their native language. According to Hausa genealogical tradition, their identity came into being as a direct result of the migration of Fula people into Hausaland occurring from the 15th century and later at the beginning of the 19th century, during the revolution led by Sheikh Usman Danfodiyo against the Hausa Kingdoms, founding a centralized Sokoto Caliphate. They include Jobawa, Dambazawa, Mudubawa, Mallawa, and Sullubawa tribes originating in Futa Tooro.
• "Banza or Banza 7" according to some modern historians are people who are of ancient tribes and extinct languages in Hausaland, of whose history little is known. They include Ajawa, Gere, Bankal, and others.

Genetics

A Hausa gurmi lute player

A man playing a garaya lute. This may be a Fulani version, as both Fulani and Hausa make the instrument.

Hausa drummer