Text/Yoyo
Edited/Yoyo
preface
The Hausa have traditionally inhabited the region from Mount Ayr in the north to the Jos plateau in the south, from the border of the Gubonu Kingdom in the east to the Niger Valley in the west.
Hausa has been the only known native language in this region since very early on.
As if to emphasize the importance of this language, the region does not have a specific name, just is known as Casal Hausa - the country of Hausa.
However, through immigration and assimilation, the Hausa language was used as the main communication tool in the region to the south and west.
And in the north, some non-Hausa. In particular, the Tuareg, Zabama and Fullebis entered and settled in the area.
Hausa is now the dominant language in the savannah of central Sudan. It is used by different groups.
They blended with each other in the long river of history, eventually forming a single, unique cultural identity and producing a glorious civilization.
Origins of the Hausa people
Several theories have been put forward about the origins of the Hausa, often contradictory. These theories can be summarized as follows.
The first theory, based on a misinterpretation of the legend, claims that the ancestors of the Hausa were originally Arabs from Baghdad, Iraq.
According to Abdullahi Smith, "If the legend of Bayajida has any point, it is the influence of the Bonu on the political institutions of the Hausa.
The institution of the Hausa people, which is perhaps partly evidenced by the Kanuri language in the Hausa vocabulary. Historians no longer subscribe to this theory of the origin of the Arabic language.
The second theory holds that the Hausa originally inhabited the southern Sahara Desert and later migrated south.
After entering present-day northern Nigeria, they either drove the natives back to the Bauchi Plateau.
Either they find that the area is sparsely populated and there is space for everyone to live there without the need to replace the original inhabitants.
This explains why there are now many small ethnic groups on the plateau whose languages belong to a completely different language family than Hausa.
The theory that the Hausa originated in the Sahara is credible, but not conclusive, because it is not based on any factual data and therefore remains only a hypothesis.
A third theory is diametrically opposed to this view, arguing that the ancestors of the Hausa people were hunters, fishermen and agricultural inhabitants on the west coast of Grand Lake Chad.
When the lake began to shrink eastward to its current location, these people chose to stay where they were and became settled cultivators.
Sutton summarizes his theory as follows. In short, Hausaran's history in this century has advanced westward, from Hadja-Daula-Kano to Sokoto and beyond.
Thus, he completely rejects Smith's claim of the northern (Sahara) origin of the Hausa people. However, Sutton's theory has not been conclusively proven.
A fourth theory about the origin of the Hausa was recently proposed by Adam.
The main thesis of this theory is that although the Hausa people do not have a tradition of migration from anywhere outside the Hausa region,
But locally recorded tradition says that the ancestors of the Hausa people "came out of a hole in the ground".
This type of tradition, also found in people in other parts of Africa, is interpreted to mean that the ancestors of the people are autobiotic in the region.
In this way, the origin of the Hausa must be accurately located in the territory not now known as Hausaran.
Of course, the Hausa benefited greatly from mass migration to the north and east; Later, various ethnic groups also came to Hausaland from the west to settle down.
Nothing can disprove this theory, which shows that both the Hausa language and the Hausa people first developed in the Hausa region.
However, pressure from the north led to a general southward migration of the Hausa to areas inhabited by other peoples, who gradually adopted the Hausa language and customs over the following centuries.
The birth and evolution of Hausa
The origin legend of the Hausa people tells the westward journey of Prince Baya Jeddah from Baghdad to Kanembonu.
It was there that the Mai (king) married his daughter Margira to Bayajida, but deprived him of his followers.
Bayajida fled to the West out of fear.
After some time, came to a town where the inhabitants were prevented from drawing water by a large snake. He killed the snake with his sword.
As a reward, the local queen Daula married him and gave him a concubine of the Gwari.
The son born to Daula was called Bavogari, while the second son born to him by a concubine was called Calbogari.
The city came to be known as Daoula.
Bavo had six sons, three pairs of twins, who became rulers of Kano and Daula, Gobir and Zazo (Zeg or Zaria), and Katsina and Rano, respectively.
These seven states, along with Bayajida's son and Biram, ruled by Princess Bornu, make up the seven states of the Hausa.
Calbogari's sons founded seven other states, Kebi, Zamfara, Guari, Jukun, Yoruba, Nupe, and Yaburi.
Although the legend contains some ancient details, it reflects a situation that prevailed in northern Nigeria in the 16th century.
That is, the countries that formed the Hausa ethnic group are those that have experienced centuries of successful struggle against neighboring rival groups.
The relationship between the Hausa people and the surrounding peoples
Of course, the Hausa are not the only people living in central Sudan.
Central Sudan stretches from Lake Chad in the east to the Niger Basin in the west, and from the Sahel region in the north to the Benue Basin in the south.
It was within these limits that the Hausa established ties with other peoples.
The Hausa people usually use the name Barebari to refer to all the peoples of the Kanan-Bornu Empire.
As a result, names such as Kaneb, Kanuri, Shuwa Arab, Boleva, Ngising, etc. were not widely known in Haussalam before modern times.
In Barebari, the social strata that ruled Bornu's relationship with Hausalan – rulers, merchants and Muslim clerics – were mainly Kanuri.
In Hausaland's history, the relationship with Kanem-Bornu is significant.
Because it was from this country that many important cultural elements and new ideas were borrowed that later became an integral part of Hausa culture and civilization.
Contact between Hausa and Kanuri began when the Kanuri were still in Kanem.
In the second half of the 15th century, after a long period of uninterrupted conflict, the Kingdom of Bornu finally settled down.
But the king of Bornu could hardly ignore the threat of Proud Saran, who reduced the rest of Kano and Hausalan to vassal status, so that many towns had to pay tribute to Bornunagon.
Around the same time, Katsina was somewhat subject to Bornu and forced to pay tribute to 100 slaves a year.
It is unclear how much Hausalan became dependent on Bornu as a whole, or how long it lasted.
The main development of Hausaland
【Immigration】
The main development of this period was the mass migration of peoples and groups from different directions to Hausalan at different times and for different purposes.
The regions where the Hausa region received most of the immigrants were the Sahel region in the north, the Bornu region in the east, and the Mali and Songhai empires in the west.
The categories of immigrants included herders, fishermen, farmers, merchants and traders, Muslim clerics and scholars, and some nobility.
The first immigrant herders were the Fulani, followed by the Tuareg.
Although there is a great deal of written history about the early history of the Fulani people in central Sudan, there is no universally accepted account of their migration.
【Spread of Islam】
The time when Islam was first introduced to Hausalam remains the subject of academic debate.
Many authors uncritically accept the Karno Chronicles that Islam was first introduced to the region by the Wangarava people in the mid-14th century.
Although this is the first mention of Islam in Hausa writings, it is more likely that Islam entered Haussalam much earlier.
First, Islam has existed in Kanem-Bornu since the 11th century; The Hausa people maintained constant contact with the state as early as the 14th century.
Therefore, it is all the more surprising if Islam did not reach Hausalam for a long time before the 14th century.
From linguistic evidence, Islamic influences from Kanan-Bornu have existed in Kano since early times.
Many Arabic words related to religion were introduced to Hausa through Kanuri, suggesting that Islam entered Hausa earlier from the East than from the West.
Secondly, oral traditions collected at Kano indicate that Islam existed in Kano long before the first arrival of the Wangarava people in Kano.
Political and administrative organization
Despite some regional differences, the political organization of the Hausa followed a similar pattern everywhere during its formative and later development.
They are based on a common socio-economic and cultural identity expressed in the Hausa language.
At the same time, the administrative system that emerged in the Hausa states since the 14th century bears witness to the significant influence of Kanem-Bornu, from which many institutions and functions are borrowed.
In fact, Bornu has long been a model of advanced civilization and culture, and immigrants from the Lake Chad region have strengthened its influence.
Interestingly, despite the many battles and invasions of Bornu's rulers, and the Hausa state paying tribute to Bornu, the Hausa people never considered Bornu an enemy.
On the other hand, political and administrative structures, with the exception of the highest level, are primitive and developed from local conditions.
Across the country, small rural communities are made up of families headed by a chief.
In fact, these communities are made up of small agricultural villages, which are generally small.
economic development
Hausaran's economic development potential can be summed up this way. First of all, the region has rich and well-distributed iron ore deposits.
This is indicated not only by the Carno Chronicle, but also, in the case of Kano itself, archaeological studies in other regions.
Almost all of these deposits are located very close to forest areas, where large quantities of firewood and charcoal are produced for smelting ore.
Secondly, the entire territory of Hausalan is rich and fertile in almost all areas.
Agriculture is the most important economic activity in the entire state of Hausa.
Thirdly, although there are no statistics on the population density of Hausaland, it is reasonable to assume that the country is not sparsely populated from the numerous villages and towns in the Hausa states.
The population distribution here is even, that is, the states are not all crowded into one place in Hausaland.
The fourth factor is Hausaland's geographical location. It is located between the Sahel and the Sahara in the north, and the savannah and tropical forests in the south, and therefore has the advantage of being an intermediary for the exchange of products between these regions.
Author's point of view
During this period, we did not receive any information on the actual organization of long-distance trade.
With our current level of knowledge, it can only be said that North African merchants occupied an important place in the trans-Saharan trade.
The south, and partly east-west trade, was in the hands of Hausa merchants.
Some Hausa cities became transit points for north-south trade flows, as they were terminus on the trans-Saharan route.
The ruling class of the Hausa state apparently used this booming trade to enrich itself.
It was also thanks to the boom in trade that Muhammad-Ramfa was able to carry out extensive construction projects and implement a series of administrative, political and religious reforms.
bibliography
The Hausa people, the largest ethnic group in West Africa, and their languages Wang Zhenglong, West Asia, Africa, 1982-10-28
Research on traditional building materials and their construction of Hausa ethnic group in Nigeria ZHANG Juan; ZHU Qingling; ZAH RADDEEN Ladan Yusuf Building Technology 2020-02-15
Hausa City-State Chen Fang West Asia Africa 1987-05-01