Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century / Edition 1

by Catherine M. Coles, Beverly Mack

Overview

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 women to men.
Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century refutes the notion that Hausa women are pawns in a patriarchal Muslim society. The contributors, all of whom have done field research in Hausaland, explore the ways Hausa women have balanced the demands of Islamic expectations and Western choices as their society moved from a precolonial system through British colonial administration to inclusion in the modern Nigerian nation. This volume examines the roles of a wide variety of women, from wives and workers to political activists and mythical figures, and it emphasizes that women have been educators and spiritual leaders in Hausa society since precolonial 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 must be revised.
Scholars of Hausa and neighboring West African societies will find in this collection a wealth of new material and a model of how research on women can be integrated with general accounts of Hausa social, religious, political, and economic life. For students and scholars looking at gender and women's roles cross-culturally, this volume provides an invaluable African perspective.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780299130244
Publisher:	University of Wisconsin Press
Publication date:	09/15/1991
Series:	Wisconsin Publications in the History of Series
Pages:	310
Product dimensions:	6.00(w) x 9.00(h) x 0.90(d)

About the Author

Beverly Mack is a Professor of African Studies in the Department of African and African American Studies and the Director of the University of Kansas African Studies Center (KASC), as well as a Courtesy Professor of Religious Studies. Prior to joining KU, Professor Mack taught at Yale University (Hausa language and African literature), Georgetown University (African history), and George Mason University (African literature).

Table of Contents

	Foreword	vii
	Acknowledgments	ix
	Note on Foreign Terms	xi
1.	Women in Twentieth-Century Hausa Society	3
Part 1.	Hausa Women in Islam
2.	Islamic Leadership Positions for Women in Contemporary Kano Society	29
3.	From Accra to Kano: One Woman's Experience	50
4.	Islamic Values, the State, and "the Development of Women": The Case of Niger	69
5.	Hausa-Fulani Women: The State of the Struggle	90
Part 2.	The Power of Women
6.	Royal Wives in Kano	109
7.	Women and the Law in Early-Twentieth-Century Kano	130
8.	The Role of Women in Kano City Politics	145
Part 3.	Women in the Changing Economy
9.	Hausa Women's Work in a Declining Urban Economy: Kaduna, Nigeria, 1980-1985	163
10.	Hausa Women in the Urban Economy of Kano	192
Part 4.	Women's Voices: Feminine Gender in Ritual, the Arts, and Media
11.	Gender Relationships and Religion: Women in the Hausa Bori of Ader, Niger	207
12.	Marriage in the Hausa Tatsuniya Tradition: A Cultural and Cosmic Balance	221
13.	Women's Roles in the Contemporary Hausa Theater of Niger	232
14.	Ideology, the Mass Media, and Women: A Study from Radio Kaduna, Nigeria	244
	Glossary of Hausa and Other Foreign Terms	255
	Bibliography	261
	Contributors	289
	Index	291

Editorial Reviews

"The best scholarly collection to date on women in Africa."—Jan Vansina

From the Publisher

The author describes the traditional medical practices of the Hausa people of north Nigeria within the context of their rural village culture. Papers from two 1984 panels organized by the African Studies Association in Los Angeles, plus some invited contributions, report on original research concerning women in one of the largest and most influential ethnic groups in West Africa. The 14 studies examine women in relation to Islam, politics, economics, and the arts. Also available in paper (unseen), $19.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

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