THE HAUSAS AND THEIR EMPORIUM—(_cont._)
“Travellers who have been in the country tell us that Kano,
which is the Manchester of Nigeria, has an attendance annually
at its market of over one million persons.”—_Extract from a
speech by_ Mr. CHAMBERLAIN.
The reputation of Kano as a manufacturing city is of comparatively
recent growth, and although the Hausas have manufactured cotton for a
considerable time (how long is uncertain, but we do know that their
leather-ware[39] was widely sought after as far back as the beginning
of the sixteenth century), the importance of Kano as a trading and
manufacturing emporium only dates from the Fulani conquest and the
destruction of Katsena by Bello. The Hausa cottons of Kano are in demand
throughout the whole of the Islamic world of North, West, and central
Africa. Lieutenant-Colonel Monteil, one of the few Europeans who have
visited Kano, gives it as his opinion that the inhabitants of two-thirds
of the Sudan, and nearly all the inhabitants of the Central and Eastern
Sahara, clothe themselves in Kano cottons; while Dr. Barth estimated the
annual export of cotton from Kano to Timbuctoo alone to amount in value
to some £5000. The principal cotton articles manufactured by the Hausas
at Kano are the _Tobe_ or shirt for men; the _Turkedi_ or women’s dress;
the _Zenne_ or plaid; and the black veil or litham invariably worn by
the Tuareg and very often by the Fulani, Kanuri, and Arab. The _tobes_
are dyed various colours, while the _turkedi_ are always of that deep,
dark blue obtained by repeated washings in indigo-pits for which the
province of Kano is famous. Of the plaids a large selection is produced,
varying in colour and in texture, some being composed of a mixture of
silk and cotton, others of cotton only, others again of pure silk. Dr.
Barth, speaking of this cotton industry of Kano, and remarking that the
Province which produces it is also able to supply the corn necessary for
the sustenance of its population, and possesses besides splendid pasture
land, says: “In fact, if we consider that this industry is not carried
on here as in Europe, in immense establishments, degrading man to the
meanest conditions of life, but that it gives employment and support to
families without compelling them to sacrifice their domestic habits,
we must presume that Kano ought to be one of the happiest countries in
the world; and so it is, so long as its Governor, too often lazy and
indolent, is able to defend its inhabitants from the cupidity of their
neighbours, which, of course, is constantly stimulated by the very wealth
of their country.” What the lazy Fulani Governor of Barth’s days could
not do, British power can, and indeed has; and having done so, is also
able to ensure that by judicious management the national, social life of
this interesting country shall continue in that state of happiness which
struck the great German traveller.
In addition to its cloths, Kano produces excellent leather work,
principally sandals, sword-scabbards, riding-boots, shoes, despatch-bags,
water-bottles and saddles, and annually exports large quantities of
tanned hides. The people of Kano also produce iron weapons, rough
agricultural implements and sword-hilts for German blades, which are, or
used to be, imported from the north. The following estimate of the total
trade of Kano, carefully compiled from Dr. Barth’s calculations, will
give some idea of its extent and value at the time (1851) of the German
explorer’s stay in the city. The sterling is arrived at by reckoning one
million _kurdi_ or cowries—the chief currency in Kano—at £100.
EXPORTS.
Cloths £30,000
Slaves 20,000
Sandals 1,000
Miscellaneous leather-work 500
-------
Total £51,500
=======
IMPORTS.
Kola nuts (from West Coast hinterlands) £10,000
Ivory (from Adamawa) 10,000
Salt (from the interior) 8,000
Coarse silk (_viâ_ Tripoli) 7,000
Arab dresses (from Tunis and Tripoli) 5,000
Beads (Italy, _viâ_ Tripoli) 5,000
Sword-blades (from Germany, _viâ_ Tripoli) 5,000
Manchester goods (_viâ_ Tripoli) 4,000
Muslins (England, _viâ_ Tripoli) 4,000
Rose oil (_viâ_ Tripoli) 5,000
Copper (from Wadai and Bahr-el-Ghazal) 2,000
Woollen cloths (_viâ_ Tripoli) 1,500
Spices and cloves (_viâ_ Tripoli) 1,500
Sugar (from France, _viâ_ Tripoli) 1,200
Tin 1,000
Egyptian dresses 1,000
Needles (from Germany, _viâ_ Tripoli) 800
Common paper, ditto 500
Razors (from Syria) 300
-------
Total £71,800
=======
To which might be added a transit trade in natron, passing through Kano
from Bornu on its way to Nupe, yielding about £1000 “passage-money.” The
remarkable total of £123,300 is thus arrived at.
Of late years the trade of Kano, both in respect to imports and exports,
has undergone some change, and is bound to become still more modified
as time goes on. For instance, the buying and selling of slaves is a
thing of the past, or soon will be. The imports of ivory from Adamawa
are nothing like what they were in Barth’s time. The internal salt
trade has largely been extinguished, the native article being unable to
compete with European salt. But with this exception—salt—the increased
importation of European goods into the Niger and Binue since 1880, that
is to say, since the spread of British commercial enterprise in the
Upper River and its tributary, does not appear to have affected the
caravan trade of Kano with the Tripolitan ports, _viâ_ the oases of
Bilma, Fezzan, and Murzuk. In 1897, for instance, the British Consul for
Tripoli estimated the goods sent to Sokoto (for Sokoto read the State
of Sokoto, of which the city of Kano is the commercial and industrial
centre and the terminus of the Tripoli caravans, the trade of the city
of Sokoto being insignificant) by caravan across the desert at £46,000.
These figures compared with Barth’s tables of Tripoli imported goods are
actually more considerable than the total value as estimated by Barth
half a century ago. This is a very important fact, and by bearing it well
in mind we shall avoid falling into an error which might have unfortunate
consequences. Then, again, a comparison of the articles imported in 1851
and 1897 is instructive as affording proof of the conservatism of the
African and the old-established nature of this trade.
DR. BARTH’S ENUMERATION, 1851.
Coarse silk, Arab dresses, sword-blades, Manchester goods,
muslins, rose oil, woollen cloths, sugar, spices and cloves,
needles, paper.
FOREIGN OFFICE REPORT, 1897.
Cotton and woollen cloths, silk waste, silk yarn, box rings,
beads, amber, paper, sugar, drugs, tea.
We may go even farther back than this. According to the exceedingly
interesting and minute accounts of “Shereef Imhammed” and “Ben Ali, a
Moorish trader,” given in the first published proceedings of the African
Association in 1791, the trade between Tripoli and the Kingdom of
“Cashna,” _i.e._ Katsena (Katsena being then in its prime), consisted of
the following articles:
IMPORTS TO KATSENA FROM TRIPOLI.
Red woollen caps, check linens, light coarse woollen cloths,
baiza, cowries, barakans or alhaiks, small Turkey carpets, silk
(wrought and unwrought), tissues and brocades, sabre-blades,
Dutch knives, scissors, coral beads, small looking-glasses.
EXPORTS FROM KATSENA TO TRIPOLI.
Cotton cloths, slaves, goatskins “of the red and yellow dyes,”
ox and buffalo hides, gold dust, civet.
The “slaves” item is another proof that the Hausa Kings of those days
were extensive slave dealers. It is curious to notice that in the map
attached to this old work, a reproduction of which faces page 38, Kano
does not even appear, which shows that at that period it had little or no
importance as an industrial centre.
[Illustration: HAUSA LOOM AND SPOOL]
The articles imported in 1897 were, therefore, substantially the same as
in 1851 and even in 1791. Then as now, English cotton and woollen goods
figured prominently amongst them, and it is evident that up to 1897 large
profits were to be earned by Europeans (indirectly) and Arabs (directly)
in the caravan business between North Africa and Nigeria. Seven years
after the opening in regular form of the Western fluvial route, Northern
Nigeria is seen to have been importing from Tripoli more goods than in
1851.
It is not due then to commercial development from the south, but to
another reason, that the caravan traffic with Tripoli has fallen off
since 1897. That reason is to be found in the internal political
convulsions of which the Chad basin has been the scene for the last
eight years, and to the external political confusion brought about by
the action of European Powers, or rather of one European Power—France.
When Rabah conquered Bornu in 1893-94, the Ghadamseen merchants suffered
heavy losses through the sacking of Kuka, and trade was entirely stopped
for a time. Rabah saw his mistake, and endeavoured to remedy it by
liberal promises of future support and protection. He kept his word,
and trade revived. Then came the advance of the French down the Shari,
followed by a renewed period of anarchy in Bornu, as Rabah hurriedly
flung himself across the river into Baghirmi to arrest the march of the
invaders. Under Fad-el-Allah, Bornu became a cockpit of internecine
strife. With the consolidation of French influence in a portion of the
Chad region the merchants of the north took heart of grace once more, but
the recent pillage of sundry rich caravans by the Kanem Arabs, various
confederations of Tuareg and other adherents of the Sheik-Senussi, has
demonstrated that at present the French are unable to ensure the safety
of caravans, however desirous they may be to do so. These repeated
blows have played havoc with the Nigerian-Tripoli caravan trade, and
those merchants who are still bold enough to face the risks favour the
Wadai route. In 1900 the caravan trade with Wadai was still important,
amounting in the aggregate, according to the French Consul at Tripoli, to
£210,000, imports and exports included. But it is quite certain that 1901
and 1902 will show a notable decrease of those figures.[40]
Are we to conclude, therefore, that Kano’s internal trade with the
north and east has gone never to return, and that the caravan traffic
is a thing of the past? That is the view which appears to be generally
adopted.[41] I confess that I do not share it, and it would certainly
be an immense misfortune for Kano and Northern Nigeria generally if such
were, indeed, the case. The main sources of Kano’s wealth and prosperity
do not depend upon the influx of trade from the south, but upon the
industry of its inhabitants in catering for the requirements not of
Europe but of Africa. It is a great _dépôt_ of Negroland for Negroland,
and if Kano could no longer find purchasers for her cotton and her
leather work, her prosperity must needs decrease and her wealth decline.
Now it is obviously in our interest that this should not happen. It
should be the object of our policy to maintain, strengthen and assist the
commercial and industrial position of Kano, the centre of Hausa activity,
the magnet which attracts a flow of internal commerce from all points of
the compass. How can that best be done?
In the first place, it is necessary to understand the main caravan system
of North-West Central Africa. The accompanying map (facing p. 84) shows
the principal routes, and a broad survey of the subject induces the
belief that it is the interest of both England and France to encourage
the revival of the caravan traffic between Kano (or, in other words,
Nigeria) and Kano’s interior markets, or, at any rate, to do nothing to
still further curtail it. The wider the stream of internal trade both
in and out of Nigeria the greater the prosperity of the country, and it
would be as equally pedantic for us to object if the French, who are in
more or less theoretical possession of the majority of Kano’s markets,
succeed in eventually diverting _in toto_ the caravan traffic from the
Tripoli route towards Timbuctoo and In Salah, as it would be for the
French to interfere with a possible re-opening of the long-abandoned
eastern route (not marked in the map) towards the Nile. But there should
be an understanding between the two Powers on the subject of this
internal trade, which is centuries old, and which certainly cannot be
displaced in a day; in fact, never can entirely be displaced, except by
oppressive and selfish interference, either on the part of the French or
ourselves. Any action tending to compel a diversion of trade in such
or such a direction would prove in the long run to be anything but
advantageous to the Power which attempted it. For instance, if France
were to start putting prohibitive taxes on exports and imports to and
from Kano over the frontier in order to forcibly confine the circulation
of trade to certain channels, it would lead to serious trouble with the
natives, which would cost more to cope with than any prospective profit
to be derived from such action. Similarly, if the authorities of Northern
Nigeria were to actively discourage Kano’s trade with the territories
under French protection, in order to develop Kano’s trade with the south,
it would only lead to a decrease in the productive capacity of Kano, and
consequently lessen the prosperity of Northern Nigeria as a whole.
Economic changes are bound to occur, especially when the British and
French railway systems proposing to tap the Niger valley are more
advanced, but there is plenty of scope for both to earn an honourable
livelihood, and the central fact to be borne in mind is that Kano’s
trade is, and must be, as previously stated, more of an internal than an
external one. Before Kano can purchase such cottons, woollens and other
articles as it absorbs, from the south, that is to say, from European
merchants, it must be in a position to give, in return, articles of
African produce that will pay the European merchant to buy. To suppose
that Kano will be able to do so until the iron horse has penetrated well
over the Kano side of the Niger, or until a carriage-road the model of
the one the French are building from Conakry to Futa-Jallon connects
a navigable point on the Niger with Kano, is to cherish an illusion.
Transport charges would kill any chance of profit in a transaction which
differs in every particular from the nature of Kano’s internal trade. The
one would be a direct transaction, to stand or fall on its merits; the
other can best be described as a multiplicity of transactions with the
purchasing commodity represented by native cloth, a useless article so
far as export to Europe is concerned. In fact, it is no easy matter to
determine how Kano will be able to feed a railway from the coast without
the creation of some great industry suitable for European export,
corresponding with the oil-palm industry of the coastwise regions. One
thing at least is certain, that if through extravagance in construction
and working, or other causes, the section of an eventual railway from the
coast to Kano, which passes through the oil-palm bearing regions cannot
be made to pay, the economical outlook for the railway when it leaves the
oil-palm zone is anything but cheerful. Of course, where the main purpose
is strategic, considerations other than commercial come into play, and
the matter assumes a different aspect.
To resume, it would seem really desirable that a mutual arrangement
between England and France should be arrived at as regards freedom
of circulation for the internal traffic of the Chad region. I urged
that course in the _Pall Mall Gazette_ when the negotiations for the
Convention of 1898 were pending. Recent events suggest that the proposal
might still be adopted with advantage to both parties concerned, and as
a measure both just and wise in the relation it bears to the legitimate
interests of the natives.
It remains to be said in this connection that the principal articles
imported into the Upper Niger by the Niger Company, which up to the
present has enjoyed the monopoly of the Upper Niger trade, are salt,
brass, copper and iron rods, white damask cloths, white brocaded cloths,
indigo-dyed cloths (in imitation of, but inferior to, the cloth produced
from native looms and dyed in Kano), cowries, rice, yarn and gunpowder.
The salt which is imported chiefly from England has a large sale, being
greatly superior to native manufactured salt from Bilma and the shores
of Lake Chad. The copper, brass and iron rods are chiefly used for
conversion into arrow-heads. As for the cloths, they do not equal the
products of the Kano looms, and unless of the finest white damask, are
rejected by the Mohammedans. They find, however, a ready sale among
the Pagans. These cloths are, as a rule, exchanged against ivory, gum,
bees-wax or rubber, bought by Hausa traders, who in turn take them to
Kano and there exchange them for native-made cloth.
I have entered rather fully into the trading and industrial statistics
of Kano because, apart from the interest naturally attaching to the
commercial life of one of the most flourishing cities of Africa, the
centre of a great industrial and agricultural district, a knowledge
of these particulars enables one, I think, the better to realise what
are the distinctive characteristics of the Hausa race—Kano being
pre-eminently Hausa. The Hausa is primarily and essentially the business
man of Africa. He is not and never will become a governing personality.
His aims are commercial, and he neither seeks nor desires any other
state. Of political ambition he has none, and although strongly attached
to the Mohammedan faith, and good-humouredly contemptuous of his pagan
customers, he is quite content that they should remain pagans to the
end of the chapter, willingly resigning the attractions of proselytism
into the hands of the Fulani. Withal he is a cheerful, happy-go-lucky
sort of person, generally kind to his slaves, and content to gang his
own gait in his own way. That is the natural state of the Hausa. If we
take him away from his business habits and fashion him into a soldier,
we perforce place him in the midst of artificial conditions of life,
where his individuality become lost. He is then merely interesting in the
sense that our other African levies are interesting, that is, from an
exclusively military point of view.
The Hausa can be drilled into a good soldier, and under decent treatment
will show much patient endurance and bravery. Like all Negroes, if
adequate supervision be lacking, he will take advantage of the prestige
attaching to his uniform to tyrannise over the aborigines among whom he
is quartered.
In his military capacity the Hausa has rendered good service in the Benin
and Ashanti campaigns; in the course of innumerable skirmishes on the
lower Niger, throughout the operations so admirably carried out by Sir
George Goldie against Nupe and Ilorin, and so on. It should, however, be
remembered that on those occasions where the Hausa soldier has fought
under the British flag, he has gone into battle with the consciousness
of possessing weapons which gave him an incontestable superiority over
his antagonist. He has never been called upon to face a native force
officered by Europeans, and armed with quick-firing rifles similar to
his own. His capacity to rise to the occasion if necessity demanded it
need not be queried. That is a matter upon which military men personally
acquainted with the Hausa’s qualities and defects as a fighting unit are
alone competent to give an opinion.[42] But until the Hausa has been put
to the test, it may be well not to found too high an estimate of his
military abilities, bearing in mind that, unlike the French West African
recruits, he does not come of a fighting stock.
[Illustration: HAUSAS DRILLING]
As already stated, it is in his natural sphere of commerce and industry
that the Hausa shines. In that respect he stands without a rival on
the continent in which he lives. His manufacturing skill is not only
remarkable for Africa: it puts Europe to the blush. For closeness,
durability and firmness of texture, the products of his looms and
dye-pits eclipse anything that Manchester can produce. In a land of
reputed indolence, his activity is as conspicuous as his enterprise. He
makes an ideal commercial traveller, peddling his wares over enormous
distances, and seldom failing to secure a considerable profit on his
transactions.
The Hausa has so identified himself with the commercial requirements
of a vast region that his language has, throughout it, been adopted as
the necessary vehicle of inter-communication for all that appertains to
trade and commerce. The Hausa language is _per se_ specially well fitted
for extensive propagation among African races. Reclus[43] has said of
it that by its fine sonorousness, the richness of its vocabulary, the
simplicity of its grammatical structure, and the graceful equilibrium of
its phrases, Hausa deserves to rank among the foremost languages of the
Dark Continent; and Sir Harry Johnston includes it with English, French,
Italian, Portuguese, Arabic and Swahili among the great languages of New
Africa.[44]
The first vocabulary of Hausa was compiled by Mr. James Richardson, who,
in company with Dr. Barth and Dr. Overweg, crossed the desert to Lake
Chad in 1850-51.[45] Upon his return from Africa, Dr. Barth himself
published a work upon the Hausa, Fulfulde and Kanuri[46] languages.
Messrs. Schön[47] and Krause subsequently devoted much study to the
subject, and the former issued a remarkable book on the Hausa language
in 1876, of which there appeared a revised edition in 1885. Later on,
Mr. John A. Robinson, M.A., a scholar of Christ College, Cambridge, made
further researches into Hausa during his stay at Lokoja. After his death
the Hausa Association was formed (1891) with the object of continuing
his labours, and in 1894 the Reverend Charles Henry Robinson, M.A.—now
Canon Robinson of Ripon—was despatched by the Association to Kano.
Canon Robinson and his companions Dr. Tonkin and Mr. Bonner spent three
months in Kano, and in due course the former published an account of his
experiences[48] which excited much attention, coming as it did so soon
after Lieutenant-Colonel Monteil’s remarkable journey from St. Louis
to Tripoli through Kano had revived the world’s interest in the famous
Hausa city. Since then the Hausa Association has published four works
on the Hausa[49] language. In 1897 the Cambridge University appointed a
University Lecturer in Hausa, and the authorities of Christ’s College
established a Hausa scholarship open to graduates of the University or
others who have passed an examination in at least one Semitic language.
The initiative thus displayed by the Hausa Association[50] and by Canon
Robinson is worthy of all praise, and it is greatly to be hoped that
further efforts may be forthcoming which will extend so useful a field of
inquiry to the other great languages of Northern Nigeria, Fulfulde and
Kanuri.
The Hausa language appears to belong to the Hamitic group, although
it contains numerous Semitic idioms, and also a large number of words
borrowed from the Arabic.
Some controversy exists as to whether Hausa can be properly considered a
written language or not. Canon Robinson stoutly maintains that it is, and
even goes so far as to assert that there is no race north of the Equator,
nor indeed in all Africa outside Egypt and Abyssinia, which has reduced
its language to writing, or made any attempt at the production of a
literature.[51] That is, as Americans say, a tall order, and I beg leave
to doubt the accuracy of the statement. Sufficient interest attaches to
the point to merit a cursory examination.
In the introductory remarks to his “Magana Hausa” already referred to,
Mr. Schön speaks of himself as the writer of a “previously unwritten
language”—meaning, of course, Hausa. Commenting upon that passage in
the preface to the “Hausa-English Dictionary,” Canon Robinson infers
that, when Schön wrote the words quoted above, he was probably unaware
that the Hausa possessed any kind of literature at all. That seems to
me a gratuitous assumption, for Barth, who came before Schön, and whose
works Schön would naturally have consulted, more than once declares
categorically that the Hausa language is _not_ a written language.
Yet Barth knew perfectly well that the Hausa had possessed historical
manuscripts, since he lamented their destruction by the Fulani at the
capture of Katsena, which was then, as Kano is to-day, the seat of
culture of the Hausa race. It may therefore be asserted with every
probability of exactness that Schön spoke _en pleine connaissance
de cause_ when he referred to himself as the writer of a previously
unwritten language. Now, can the existence of a certain number of
manuscripts in the Hausa language, and written in Arabic characters, be
considered sufficient proof that Hausa itself is a written language?
If so, then Fulfulde is a written language, because Bello committed
to writing in the language of his race, and in Arabic characters,
a history of the Sudan; and Kanuri is a written language, because
Koelle[52] published in 1854 a Kanuri grammar founded upon a collection
of manuscript literature in the tongue of the Kanuri and in Arabic
characters. In that case it follows that, contrary to what Canon Robinson
affirms, the Hausas are not the only African people north of the Equator,
outside Egypt and Abyssinia, who have reduced their language to writing
or aimed at producing a literature. If the first claim is tenable, if,
that is to say, Hausa is a written language, then the second claim put
forward is not tenable. I do not propose to continue this appreciation
into more technical channels, which would probably be wearisome to the
reader, and will content myself with quoting from a letter received by
me some little time ago from a British Officer then in charge of the
Military Intelligence Department of Northern Nigeria, whose knowledge
of Hausa has been officially declared to be “unique.” Being unable to
reconcile Canon Robinson’s statements that it was a written language,
with the facts as they presented themselves to me, I finally turned to my
correspondent, whose competency I was well aware no one would venture to
dispute. This is what he says:
“Robinson’s Hausa Grammar was universally pronounced a failure
by all officers of the West African Frontier Force, and they
could make no progress by using it. I have already told you
that the natives say they could not understand him. Moreover,
one hardly talks the same class of Hausa to any two Hausas
consecutively; but after a couple of minutes’ conversation
with a native one knows his dialect, and what words to use,
and how to pronounce those words, the pronunciation varying
considerably.[53] The Hausa writing, very little of which
exists, is simply Hausa written phonetically in Arabic
characters, there being no recognised way of spelling one
word, which fact alone proves how little the written language
is used. Nowadays Hausa is scarcely ever written, except
isolated words, such as ‘Sariki’ and ‘bature.’ The Hausa
writing is called ‘Ajumi,’ and when such words are used in
an Arabic letter, it is usual to prefix the word ‘Ajumi,’ in
order to warn the reader that the following words are Hausa,
not Arabic. The Arabic used is primitive, but correct. As the
Hausa vowel sounds cannot always be correctly represented by
the Arabic vowel marks, there is only the context to guide
one in many Hausa written words, and the task of spelling out
every word phonetically is a laborious one, especially when
the proper sound cannot in all cases be represented. I have
seen some of the most learned Mallams in Nigeria experience
great difficulty in reading Canon Robinson’s specimens of Hausa
literature. Canon Robinson attaches much too much importance to
the Hausa writing. The few specimens that exist are interesting
as curiosities, but the language is useless as a means of
communication.”