Hausa People - History and Culture

History and Culture

Kano, north Nigeria is considered the center of Ausahay trade or culture. In terms of cultural relations to other peoples of West Africa, the Hausa are culturally or historically close to the Fulani, Zarma, Kanuri and Gwari groups inhabiting the expansive Sahel region. Many Hausa have intermixed with other groups such as the Yoruba, Dagomba or Shuwa. Islamic Shari’a law is loosely the law of the land or is understood by any full-time practitioner of Islam, known in Hausa as a Ma'allam (see Maulana).

Between 500 CE and 700 CE Hausa people had been slowly moving west from Nubia and mixing in with the local Northern and Central Nigerian population, established a number of strong states in what is now Northern and Central Nigeria and Eastern Niger. With the decline of the Nok culture and Sokoto, who had previously controlled Central and Northern Nigeria between 800 BCE and 200 CE, the Hausa were able to emerge as the new power in the region. Closely linked with the Kanuri people of Kanem-Bornu (Lake Chad), the Hausa aristocracy adopted Islam in the 11th century CE. The Hausa Bakwai kingdoms were established around the 7th to 11th centuries. Of these, the Kingdom of Kano was the most important.

By the 12th century CE the Hausa were becoming one of Africa's major powers. The architecture of the Hausa is perhaps one of the least known but most beautiful of the medieval age. Many of their early mosques and palaces are bright and colourful and often include intricate engraving or elaborate symbols designed into the facade. By 1500 CE the Hausa utilized 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.

In 1810 the Fulani, another Islamic African ethnic group that spanned across West Africa, invaded the Hausa states. Their cultural similarities however allowed for significant integration between the two groups, who in modern times are often demarcated as "Hausa-Fulani" rather than as individuated groups, and many Fulani in the region do not distinguish themselves from the Hausa.

The Hausa remain preeminent in Niger and Northern Nigeria. Their impact in Nigeria is paramount, as the Hausa-Fulani amalgamation has controlled Nigerian politics for much of its independent history. They remain one of the largest and most historically grounded civilizations in West Africa.