Hausa Women In The Twentieth Century

The Hausa are one of the largest ethnic groups in Africa, with populations in Nigeria, Niger, and Ghana. Their long history of city-states and Islamic caliphates, their complex trading economies, and their cultural traditions have attracted the attention of historians, political economists, linguists, and anthropologists. The large body of scholarship on Hausa society, however, has assumed the subordination of women to men. Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century refutes the notion that Hausa women are pawns in a patriarchal Muslim society. The contributors, all of whom have done field research in Hausaland, explore the ways Hausa women have balanced the demands of Islamic expectations and Western choices as their society moved from a precolonial system through British colonial administration to inclusion in the modern Nigerian nation. This volume examines the roles of a wide variety of women, from wives and workers to political activists and mythical figures, and it emphasizes that women have been educators and spiritual leaders in Hausa society since precolonial times. From royalty to slaves and concubines, in traditional Hausa cities and in newer towns, from the urban poor to the newly educated elite, the "invisible women" whose lives are documented here demonstrate that standard accounts of Hausa society must be revised. Scholars of Hausa and neighboring West African societies will find in this collection a wealth of new material and a model of how research on women can be integrated with general accounts of Hausa social, religious, political, and economic life. For students and scholars looking at gender and women's roles cross-culturally, this volume provides an invaluable African perspective.

This volume collects some of the best lectures at the African Literature Association's 25th annual conference held in 1999. The conference brought together for the first time a large number of scholars, creative writers and artists from Northern Africa and their counterparts from Sub- Saharan Africa. The conference and this collection highlight the inspiring and stimulating dialogue between two literary and cultural areas that have often been artificially compartmentalised. The essays draw suprising connections and illustrate the breadth and dynamism of African literature.

In an era of globalization, private markets are expected to dominate the distribution of goods worldwide. Yet surprisingly little empirical work is conducted on them. The sensitive and secret nature of trading information, the complexity of real markets and the lack of official data other than that on price can all cause problems. This book seeks to overcome these in examining arguably the most difficult markets of all - agricultural markets under conditions of underdevelopment. Case-studies from nine countries covering all three underdeveloped continents offer a comprehensive overview of the lessons to be learnt from field experience.

This collection of essays brings together for the first time a discussion on the multicultural and ethno-linguistic groupings of Nigeria. By employing historical and sociological perspectives, each chapter provides an account of the origin, beliefs, and important ceremonial and traditional practices of each group.

In Farmers and the State in Colonial Kano, Steven Pierce examines issues surrounding the colonial state and the distribution of state power in northern Nigeria. Here, Pierce deconstructs the colonial state and offers a unique reading of land tenure that challenges earlier views of the role of indirect rule. According to Pierce, land tenure was the means the colonial government used to rule the local population and extract taxes from them, but it was also a political logic with a fundamental flaw and a Western bias. In Pierce's view, colonial representations of land tenure claimed to reflect precolonial systems of rule, but instead, fundamentally misrepresented farmers' experience. He maintains that this misrepresentation created a paradox at the core of the colonial state which persists into the present and helps to explain contemporary problems in African states. In this sweeping and eloquent account of African history, readers will find an extended genealogy of land law and taxation as well as rich material on the power of indigenous knowledge and the persistence of colonial systems of rule.

This book examines the emotions expressed in Hausa women’s prose fiction in northern Nigeria, showing how Hausa Muslim women writers use fiction in their indigenous language to demonstrate and express their anger about the problems they face in a patriarchal society. Umma Aliyu Musa shows how Hausa women authors use literature as a subversive instrument to voice their anger and draw attention to their plight, and what they perceive to be unfair traditional authority in a male-dominated society. Their stories about women protagonists who rebel against existing traditional structures enable women readers to understand the anger experienced by other women who have gone through similar situations. Issues at the heart of these women's narratives include forced marriage, polygyny, family honor and the effects of love. The authors' use of metaphorical expressions of anger, particularly those registered through body parts, provides insight into Hausa women's thoughts, culture and socialization within their private spheres. Thus, writing by these women in the Hausa language creates an effective communication network that offers insight into domestic ecology as it affects women. Emotions in Muslim Hausa Women's Fiction will be of interest to scholars and students of African literature, postcolonial literature, gender studies in African society, womanism, emotions and indigenous African fiction studies.

This truly monumental work maps the literature of women's studies, covering thousands of titles and Web sites in 19 subject areas published between 1985 and 1999. Intended as a reference and collection development tool, this bibliography provides a guide for women's studies information for each title along with a detailed, often evaluative review. The annotations summarize each work's content, its importance or contribution to women's studies, and its relationship to other titles on the subject. Core titles and titles that are out of print are noted, and reviews indicate which titles are appropriate as texts or supplemental texts. This definitive guide to the literature of women's studies is a must-purchase for academic libraries that support women's studies programs, and it is a useful addition to any academic or public library that endeavors to represent the field. A team of subject specialists has taken on the immense task of documenting publications in the area of women's studies in the last decades of the 20th century. The result is this truly monumental work, which maps the field, covering thousands of titles and Web sites in 19 subject areas published between 1985 and 1999. Intended as a reference and collection development tool, this bibliography provides a guide for women's studies information for each title along with a detailed, often evaluative review. The annotations summarize each work's content, its importance or contribution to women's studies, and its relationship to other titles on the subject. Most reviews cite and describe similar and contrasting titles, substantially extending the coverage. Core titles and titles that are out of print are noted, and reviews indicate which titles are appropriate as texts or supplemental texts. Taking up where the previous volume by Loeb, Searing, and Stineman left off, this is the definitive guide to the literature of women's studies. It is a must purchase for academic libraries that support women's studies programs; and a welcome addition to any academic or public library that endeavors to represent the field.

This volume brings together insights from distinguished scholars from around the world to address the facts, fiction and creative imaginations in the pervasive portrayals of Africa, its people, societies and cultures in the literature and the media. The fictionalization of Africa and African issues in the media and the popular literature that blends facts and fiction has rendered perceptions of Africa, its cultures, societies, customs, and conflicts often superficial and deficient in the popular Western consciousness. The book brings eminent scholars from a variety of disciplines to sort out the persistent fictionalization of Africa, from facts pertaining to the genesis of powerful cultural, political or religious icons, the historical and cultural significance of "intriguing" customs (such as tribal marks), gender relations, causes of conflicts and African responses, and creative imaginations in contemporary African films, fiction and literature, among others.