Hausa people

“ What would have befallen the man they were dragging into the compound is uncertain. Probably killed, and so would those of his gang who participated in the scuffle. A few years ago no Hausa dare venture within many days’ journey of this Hos-Karshi bush-path. The British authorities have made the Pagans understand that [229] any attack on people passing along the main track will be severely punished, at the same time promising that their villages shall not be entered by any strangers unless they are messengers from a Resident. ”

“ Slender, fine-featured, but dark-skinned, with the profiles of Assyrian statues, the Damergu Fulani are of the Bororoji section of this interesting people which, in the course of its sojourn and gradual movement along the fringe of the Sudan from west to east, has provided the ruling class in most of the Hausa States. The recent history of Sokoto, of Katsina and of Kano is their history. Their conquest of power in Hausaland is but another instance of the ascendancy of nobility and a glaring contradiction of the Socialist theory of equal birth. ”

“ HAUSA, sometimes incorrectly written Haussa, Houssa or Haoussa, a people inhabiting about half a million square miles in the western and central Sudan from the river Niger in the west to Bornu in the east. ”

“ The people do not thank us for them. They would infinitely prefer to be without taxation and to take their chance. They say that over very large tracts of country, particularly on and around the Bauchi Plateau, they were well able to take care of themselves against Fulani, Hausa and the kind, who would not venture in the area; whilst as to fighting among themselves, why, it was that which made life worth living.
[267]
Efforts of the Residents have been to persuade unwilling tribes to accept the principle of taxation ”

“ When he and his womenkind yearn for the gee-gaws of what is termed civilisation, and he wants money to purchase them, then he will make [255] more use of the nearest Hausa market to transform his corn or other produce into cash. So far, the principal luxuries which attract most Pagans are matches and cigarettes. In some places the people are developing a taste for meat, for which, of course, money must be earned. Though sheep, goats and, in instances, cattle are bred, seldom are any killed for food. ”

“ To the French officers and to many Hausa natives they are known as downright rascals, because they are cunning and deceitful in the most unprincipled way the moment they have [233] any dealings with strangers, and I imagine that among themselves they hold belief that anyone outside their own tribe is a legitimate enemy to be overcome, if possible, by cunning artifice, since strength of arms is no longer theirs.
For my own part I found the Tuaregs of Aïr difficult people to deal with, and impossible people to rely on. ”

“ Temajegh, Hausa, Kanuri, Songhai and Arabic are spoken; even the more exceptional Fulani, Wolof and Tebu are heard, while the advent of the French garrison with its negro troops has introduced further linguistic complications, and will, of course, in time accentuate the Sudanese element in the racial composition, for at no time do the morals of the ladies of Agades appear to have been beyond reproach. The consequences of city life are felt even here in the Sahara. ”

“ In a subsequent chapter the method and manner of ruling these Pagan tribes is explained. They, unlike the Fulani, the Hausa and cognate people, have no corporate life.
A single instance is rendered to show the spirit which animates the Government of Northern Nigeria in dealing with the inhabitants of the country. ”

“ All the designs used in Hausa embroidery are obviously symbolical, and their significance and history is a subject of deep interest, but it is most difficult to acquire reliable information on the point, as the people themselves are, for the most part, hopelessly ignorant about it, and merely reproduce the same designs from generation to generation, for the excellent—and, to them, conclusive reason that their fathers and grandfathers did so! ”

“ The population of Bauchi is estimated at about 1,000,000 and is of a very various description. The upper classes are Fula, and there are some Hausa and Kanuri (Bornuese) , but the bulk of the people are pagan tribes in a very low state of civilization. Sixty-four tribes sufficiently differentiated from each other to speak different languages have been reported upon. ”

“ They are undoubtedly nigritic, though in places with a strong crossing of Fula and Arab blood. Morally and intellectually they are, however, far superior to the typical Negro. They are a powerful, heavily built race, with skin as black as most Negroes, but with lips not so thick nor hair so woolly. They excel in physical strength. The average Hausa will carry on his head a load of ninety or a hundred pounds without showing the slightest signs of fatigue during a long day’s march. When carrying their own goods it is by no means uncommon for them to take double this weight. ”

“ The Hausa attribute their superiority in strength to the fact that they live on guinea corn instead of yams and bananas, which form the staple food of the tribes on the river Niger. The Hausa carried on agriculture chiefly by slave labour; they are themselves born traders, and as such are to be met with in almost every part of Africa north of the equator. Small colonies of them are to be found in towns as far distant from one another as Lagos, Tunis, Tripoli, Alexandria and Suakin. ”

“ The Hausa Chieftains had established a nominal authority over a wide expanse of territory and were constantly at war with the aborigines on their borders. It was not, however, for warlike feats, but for their commerce, [99] farming, cotton and leather industry; for the spread of their language; for the great centres of human activity they had formed and for the fertility and prosperity of the land which they had made their home, that the Hausas were justly renowned all over Western and Northern Africa. ”

“ There are shirkers and wasters and defaulters among the Hausa carriers, as there are among bodies of men of lighter colour skin; human nature does not become perfect, whatever the externals; but treated properly—by which is meant, with tact, firmness when necessary, and consideration—my testimony is that the Hausas are as good-tempered a class as can be found anywhere, and always ready to respond to whatever call is made upon their endurance. ”

“ The inhabitants of Northern Nigeria may be broadly classed as Hausa and Pagan. Each comprises many tribes. The Hausa is generally regarded as a Mohamedan, though no more so than that everybody in England who does not attend chapel, synagogue or meeting-house is to be counted as Church of England.
The distinction between Hausa and Pagan is easily seen in dress. Any Hausa worth the name sports a flowing robe and wide linen trousers. A well-to-do man’s garments of that kind will make those of a British Jack-tar appear puny and of spider proportions. ”

“ The most important Sudanese Negro race of Northern Nigeria. Keen traders, physically well developed, they make excellent soldiers, and are largely utilised for this purpose by their British rulers. The Hausa States were over-run by the Hamitic Fulahs (q.v.) about 1800–1810, and now form part of the Empire of Sokoto. The Hausa language is the common medium of commerce in the Central Sudan.
Hawaiians. Natives of Hawaii, of brown Polynesian stock, akin to Maoris. A remarkably fine and handsome race, steadily decreasing since contact with European civilisation and diseases. ”

“ The inhabitants are mainly pure negroes such as the Durra, Batta and Dekka, speaking different languages, and all fetish-worshippers. They are often of a very low type, and some of the tribes are cannibals. Slave-trading was still active among them in the early years of the 20th century. The Fula (q.v.) , who first came into the country about the 15th century as nomad herdsmen, are found chiefly in the valleys, the pagan tribes holding the mountainous districts. There are also in the country numbers of Hausa, who are chiefly traders, as well as Arabs and Kanuri from Bornu. ”

“ The men turn from their work in the fields to bow to the white men. The Hausa villages and Fulani farms are not far from the dwelling-places of their aforetime prey, for slaves, and sworn enemies. Cultivation of the land, though not general, is fairly frequent. Pagan villages, instead of always being made in rocky heights where they were safe from the raiding Fulani horsemen, are now seen pitched lower, and not infrequently in the valleys. The British power [155] ensures them protection and peace. ”

“ The Hausa is a skilled agriculturist, who has nothing to learn in that respect from any white race. He, however, is distanced considerably by the Pagan, who tends his land cleaner. The soil is much poorer than that of the Hausa country and needs greater skill and effort for cultivation. At present the Pagan raises only sufficient for his own requirements, which besides the matter of food remain small. ”

“ The Hausa who profess Mahommedanism are extremely ignorant of their own faith, and what little religious fanaticism exists is chiefly confined to the Fula. Large numbers of the Hausa start every year on the pilgrimage to Mecca, travelling sometimes across the Sahara desert and by way of Tripoli and Alexandria, sometimes by way of Wadai, Darfur, Khartum and Suakin. The journey often occupies five or six years, and is undertaken quite as much from trading as from religious motives. Mahommedanism is making very slow, if any, progress amongst the Hausa. ”

“ Formerly no Hausa would dare to penetrate so far into the Pagan country or within a week’s march of this part. Now there is a Hausa market established within sight of the highway, for the convenience of caravans passing through.
About half-a-mile away is the Residency, a ramshackle mud dwelling not nearly as good as a farmer’s stable in England. Living in such places, out of sight and out of mind of the public at home, badly housed, these Residents are paid immeasurably less than the value of the service they render the nation. ”

“ The usual scenery of the bank is occasionally broken by a trading station, usually consisting of two or three corrugated iron sheds placed adjacent to the beach but on rising ground which the flood-level does not reach.
Standing quite alone, many miles from trading stations, are the riverside villages, enveloped on three sides by the forest. The architecture tells that the Hausa country has been left. These lower-river tribes build their oblong houses of bamboo, placed vertically. ”

“ Hausaland natives, until they reach the very lowest ebb on the shores of the desert, and cease to venture farther; while another and vastly different race, the nomad Tuaregs, take up the duel of existence against nature in the great barren sea-like wastes beyond.
Dambiri, the designation of the village, is not an unpleasant Hausa name in quality of sound, but one gets rather a set-back if inquisitive enough to inquire into the literal English translation, for the meaning of the word is, “a bush cat with a bad smell”—which, I take it, rather pointedly has reference to the Civet Cat. ”

“ They build square houses, are active traders and are ruled by independent chiefs, having no political cohesion. Among the Dualla a curious system of drum signals is noteworthy. In the coast towns are numbers of Krumen, who, however, rarely settle permanently in the country. The Fula, as also most of the Hausa, are Moslems, the other tribes are pagans. Missionary societies, both Protestant and Roman Catholic, are represented in the colony, and their schools are well attended, as are the schools belonging to the government. ”

“ He speaks Hausa colloquially and will frequently make the natives laugh by his waggisms in that tongue. I have heard him switch off his conversation with an Arab merchant to discuss matters with a French officer who could talk only in his own language. He would probably strike you as being languid and indifferent, but no Arab merchant is more alert, mentally, to the turns in a business transaction, and I happen to know that there are few, if any, individuals who look further ahead in a commercial survey. He appears to take things easily, and never hustles ”

“ The Hausa carries tremendously heavy loads, so heavy that he cannot by himself lift it to his head, and therefore he always carries a forked stick, and resting his load on this, rests it also in the fork of a tree, and so slips out from underneath it. Again and again on our way up had we come across men thus resting their heavy loads. He must walk warily too, for they say so heavy is the load that the Hausa who stubs his toe breaks his neck. Slowly he goes, for time as yet is of no consequence in West Africa. ”

“ If we have the imagination to grasp the true significance of the events which led, a century ago, to the break-up of the Hausa dynasty by the Fulani, we shall find the key to the moral side of permanently successful government in Northern Nigeria. ”

“ The greatest obstacle to its general acceptance is the institution of the Ramadan fast. In a climate so hot as that of Hausaland, the obligation to abstain from food and drink from sunrise to sunset during one month in the year is a serious difficulty. Until the last decade of the 19th century no important attempt had been made to introduce Christianity, but the fact that the Hausa are fond of reading, and that native schools exist in all parts of the country, should greatly facilitate the work of Christian missionaries. ”