Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century

Bibliographic Data

ID3932070
AuthorsAdeline Masquelier, Catherine Coles (0000-0001-9363-0324), Beverly B Mack, Beverly Mack
Year1995
Volume25
Issue1
Pages109
Publication date1995-02-01
Peer ReviewedYes
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueJournal of Religion in Africa (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 0022-4200 • E-ISSN: 1570-0666
PublisherJSTOR (PUBLISHER)
DOI10.2307/1581149
OpenAlexW2010370941
LanguageEN
Citations received10

The Hausa are one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa, with populations in Nigeria, Niger and Ghana. Their long history of city-states and Islamic caliphates, their complex trading economies and their cultural traditions have attracted the attention of historians, political economists, linguists and anthropologists. The large body of scholarship on Hausa society, however, has assumed the subordination of to men. This work refutes the notion that Hausa are pawns in a patriarchal Muslim society. The contributors, all of whom have done field research in Hausaland, explore the ways Hausa have balanced the demands of Islamic expectations and Western choices as their society moved from a pre-colonial system through British colonial administration to inclusion in the modern Nigerian nation. The book examines the roles of a wide variety of women, from wives and workers, to political activists and mythical figures, and it emphasizes that have been educators and spiritual leaders in Hausa society since pre-colonial times. From royalty to slaves and concubines, in traditional Hausa cities and in newer towns, from the urban poor to the newly educated elite, the invisible women whose lives are documented here demonstrate that standard accounts of Hausa society should be revised

African studies · Anthropology of religion · Archaeology · Hausa · History of religions · Linguistics · Sociology · Anthropology · Gender Studies · History · Philosophy · Religion and Sociopolitical Dynamics in Nigeria