THE HAUSAS AND THEIR EMPORIUM.
“The province of Kano is the garden of Central Africa.”—Dr.
BARTH.
It has been said of the Hausas that they are “superior both
intellectually and physically to all the natives of Equatorial Africa.”
The statement strikes one as being exaggerated. The intellectual average
of the Hausa is undoubtedly lower than that of the Fulani, who, thanks to
their genius for combination, administrative capacity, religious fervour,
fighting superiority, and moral influence, completely defeated and
subdued their former masters, although the numerical odds were greatly in
favour of the latter. Again, the physique of the Hausas, though usually
good, is certainly inferior to that of several of the Senegalese races,
the Krus, the Kaffir stock, and probably also to one or two of the Bantu
offshoots now inhabiting the basin of the Upper Congo. Much has been made
of the fact that 500 Hausas trained by British officers beat off several
thousand Fulani at Bida. But what chance have Fulani horsemen against
Maxim guns and repeating-rifles? The Baggara Arab, universally reputed
the bravest of the brave, fared no better against Macdonald’s trained
Sudanese.
These remarks are by no means put forward to depreciate the Hausa race,
which is undoubtedly a very fine one, but by way of protest against the
somewhat hysterical estimates concerning this people which find favour
among those who profess to look upon them as excellent material for
proselytising purposes, and are ever representing them to us as cruelly
oppressed, groaning under the tyrannical sway of the wicked Fulani. The
fact is, that a great deal of sentimental nonsense has been said and
written, principally by the missionary element, about the Hausas, who
are generally content with their lot, and having accepted Islam do not
suffer from the predatory incursions of the conquering race. Fulani and
Hausas grow up side by side: unions are frequent among them, and the
well-to-do Hausa enjoys a somewhat similar position in relation to the
ruling class as represented by the Fulani, as did the merchant classes in
the old days in our own country in relation to the nobility and governing
classes.
It seems fairly well established that at least a portion of the Hausa[30]
race inhabited the beautiful and mountainous region of Air or Asben, at
the time (about 700 A.D.) when the Berbers—the modern Tuareg—driven south
by Arab invaders, crossed the desert into Air and made themselves masters
of that region.[31] These Asben Hausas belonged to the family or clan of
Gober. They were the Goberawa, who claim to be the oldest and noblest
branch of the Hausa race. This claim is very generally admitted by Arabic
historians, and is expressly mentioned in the curious Fulani history
of the Sudan communicated to Clapperton by Sultan Bello, son of Othman
Fodio, in 1828.[32] Bello says of the people of Gober that they are “free
born, because their origin was from the Copts of Egypt who had emigrated
into the interior of the Gharb or Western countries.” This statement
is particularly interesting as regards the possible Semitic or Eastern
origin of the Gober family of the Hausas. Dr. Barth, whose authority in
all matters relating to the ethnology of Western Central Africa still
remains uncontested, although fifty years have now elapsed since his
wonderful series of travels was accomplished, attributed to the Goberawa
an original relationship with North Africa. The theory is borne out by
the traditions of the Hausas themselves, who trace back their descent
to a Diggera mother, the Diggera or Deggara being a Berber tribe which,
at some remote period, was predominant in the city of Daura, one of the
oldest centres of Hausa influence. To this day some of the Hausa Mallams
speak vaguely of a former relationship with the East, and Canon Robinson
during his stay in Kano was informed by “the most learned man in that
city” that the Hausas migrated in early times from the Far East, beyond
Mecca.[33] It is much to be deplored in this connection that the national
records of the Hausas should have been destroyed by the Fulani at the
taking of Katsena. Nevertheless, we may reasonably hope, now that the
relations of Northern Nigeria with the outside world are bound to become
more frequent, some further light may be shortly forthcoming which will
help to elucidate a problem fraught with great attraction to all students
of West Africa.
After their expulsion from Air by the inflowing tide of Berber
immigration, the Hausas gradually spread west and south, and in course
of time formed themselves into seven states, viz. Gober, Daura, Biram,
Kano, Rano, Katsena and Zeg-Zeg.[34] In Hausa mythology each of these
States represented one of the seven legitimate children, offspring of
the Diggera mother already alluded to, to each of whom was respectively
given a task to perform. Thus Gober was the warrior _serki-n-yaki_
(_serki_, Prince: _n_, of: _yaki_, fighting); Kano and Rano the dyers
_saraki-n-baba_ (from the abundance of indigo _marinas_ or dyeing
pits which represent one of the most considerable national industries
of the Hausas); Katsena and Daura the traders _saraki-n-Kaswa_, and
Zeg-Zeg the purveyor of slaves _serki-n-bay_ which, by the way, affords
incidental proof, if any were needed, that in the matter of slavery the
Hausas can hardly claim superior moral characteristics over their Fulani
conquerors. Disputes between these various States were frequent, and
although peopled by the same race, they were constantly in open warfare
against one another. So great, indeed, was their mutual antagonism, that
when the Fulani uprising took place in Gober, a considerable number of
Hausas, principally from the province of Zanfara, rallied round Othman’s
standard, fighting shoulder to shoulder with the Fulani against their own
compatriots.
[Illustration: A PURE-BRED KANO MAN (HAUSA)]
Prior to their more or less forced conversion by the Fulani early in
the nineteenth century, the Hausas were Pagans. True, the Hausa King
of Katsena embraced Islam about the seventeenth century, Katsena at
that period being the most flourishing city of Hausa—the “Florence of
the Hausas,” as Richardson[35] calls it—in regular communication with
Arabs from the East, and where the Hausa language attained its greatest
richness and purity of form. But the great mass of the Hausa people were
unaffected by the event. The precise nature of their rites before the
conquest remains obscure. It appears possible however that, at one time,
the Hausas, Songhays, and other tribes of the Niger Basin were snake
worshippers. The Arabic historians Ahmed-Baba, Edrizi and El-Bekri state
that in the time of the first Songhay king—placed at 679 A.D. by Dr.
Barth, at 776 A.D. by others—the natives rendered homage to serpents.
Colonel Frey,[36] in his interesting and ingenious study, suggests that
this worship may have extended to the _manatus_ or _manatee_, that
curious and somewhat uncanny creature being an inhabitant of the Niger
River.
Be that as it may, with the dawn of the nineteenth century a higher
ideal and a purer faith rose up in Hausaland, and gained ground with
marvellous rapidity. No doubt the result was not obtained without
bloodshed, without cruelty, without what Joseph Thompson called “the
terrible clamour and dread accompaniments of war.” Nevertheless, it was
accomplished, and none but the wholly fanatical will deny that the Hausas
have greatly benefited thereby. To an unbiased mind it must appeal as
little short of marvellous that, in a period comparatively so short,
a whole race should not only have been converted to Islam, but have
remained devoted to its precepts when a lapse into Paganism would have
been easy and, in a sense, natural. Apart from the added dignity which
the acceptance of Islam imparts to individuals in their intercourse with
their fellows in a pagan country, the explanation is probably to be found
in the fact that, after the Fulani had unquestionably established their
political domination over the Hausas, they none the less persistently
continued their religious propaganda by peaceful means, and that,
although a sense of security seems to have temporarily dulled their
political instincts, it has had, on the contrary, a vivifying effect upon
their religious ideals. It is, in any case, notorious that Islam, through
the medium of Fulani preachers, is steadily sweeping down the River
Niger, penetrating into pagan villages, amid the swamps and forests. The
pagan Igarras whom the Niger Company long thought would constitute a
solid bulwark and a sort of buffer-state against the invading tide, are
now being fast won over to Islam, and Fulani _fikis_ are even met with
behind Akassa, a few miles from the seaboard itself.
It is no easy matter to correctly estimate the Hausa population in
Nigeria, but of true Hausas there must probably be five or six millions,
besides the numerous half-breeds of mixed Hausa and Fulani, Hausa and
Kanuri, Hausa and Songhay, or Hausa and Tuareg blood, the latter of whom
are chiefly to be met with in the northerly districts of the Sokoto
Empire, and are of less muscular build than the true Hausas. The Hausas
are incontestably the traders of Africa. Their commercial aptitude is
renowned from the borders of the Mediterranean to the Gulf of Guinea;
from the Gulf of Guinea to the Shari; from the Shari to the Red Sea.
They are great travellers and have even been met with on the Sangha,
the Ubanghi, and the Congo. Every North African port has its colony of
Hausas. The same may be said of the West African Coast ports. There is
not an important trading centre in the Niger bend but shelters a family
or two of Hausas. Every year numerous Hausa caravans leave Nigeria for
the countries lying at the back of the Gold Coast, the Ivory Coast,
and Liberia, to gather the far-famed Kola or _guro_ nut, the fruit of
_Sterculia acuminata_, which they convey with infinite care—delicately
wrapped in leaves—and sell at an enormous profit in Kano, Gando, Zaria,
&c., from whence the nuts are again transported to Bornu, Wadai, and even
as far as Khartoum.
[Illustration: A HAUSA FROM YOLA]
If the trading instincts of the Hausas are remarkably developed, their
industrial enterprise is still more so. It may with safety be declared
that the product of their looms and dye-pits constitutes the most
extensive article in the internal commerce of the Dark Continent. Kano
is the head and centre of this intrinsically native industry, which
is unparalleled in Africa, and Kano is, and in all human probability
will continue to be, Manchester’s great rival for the African interior
markets. Kano has been termed the Manchester and Birmingham of the
Sudan, and having due regard to local circumstances and conditions, the
comparison is strictly just.
The number of Europeans who have visited Kano may still be counted upon
the fingers of both hands. Arab merchants from North and East Africa
have, however, been regular frequenters of the city since the conquest
of Hausa by Othman Fodio, and for some considerable time past Kano
has sheltered an Arab Colony with a recognised “Consul” who enjoys
considerable influence. Its resident population has been variously
estimated at thirty thousand to sixty thousand and its floating
population at sixty thousand to two millions,[37] including the most
varied elements, Hausas, Fulani, Kanuri, Baghirmis, Wadaiens, Arabs,
Tuaregs, and Jews; merchants from Egypt, Tunis, Tripoli and Fezzan,
from the Niger Bend, Adamawa and the Eastern Sudan. The city itself is
of enormous extent, containing within its encompassing wall, which is
reputed to be no less than fifteen miles in circumference, large tracts
of land under cultivation. This immense wall played an important part
in the periodic wars with Bornu at the beginning and middle of the past
century. If the citizens of Kano did not think themselves sufficiently
strong to meet their aggressors in the open, they simply shut the
gates of the city and lined the walls, and the Bornuese hosts, deeming
discretion the better part of valour, never attempted an assault. The
situation of Kano is fairly elevated and otherwise good, but is unhealthy
owing to the presence of large pools of stagnant water into which refuse
of all kinds is indiscriminately pitched. The city is divided into
different quarters, the Fulani quarter, Arab quarter, Hausa quarter, and
so forth. The market is held daily and the most bewildering diversity of
articles are always on sale: native cloths, silk embroidered _tobes_,
leather and brass ware, ivory, weapons, rough agricultural implements,
silver and brass ornaments and trinkets, antimony, ostrich feathers,
live stock—cattle, horses and sheep—and foodstuffs innumerable. Long
files of asses pass through from the distant Chad laden with natron for
Nupe, and arrive from the Niger Bend weighed down with kolas. Camels
are permanently in evidence, whether carrying on their sturdy backs
salt-cakes from Bilma or European merchandise from Tripoli. Brilliantly
attired Ghadamseen and Arab traders caracole on gaily caparisoned steeds,
and the fierce-eyed, black-lithamed Tuareg of the desert (many of whom,
by the way, are extensive property owners in Northern Nigeria) scowls
darkly from the back of his swift-footed _mehari_. In this great city
throbs and vibrates an industrial vitality unequalled in Africa.[38]