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Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century » (1st Edition)

Book cover image of Hausa Women in the Twentieth Century by Catherine (Ed.) Coles

Authors: Catherine Coles (Editor), Beverly (Ed.) Mack
ISBN-13: 9780299130244, ISBN-10: 029913024X
Format: Paperback
Publisher: University of Wisconsin Press
Date Published: September 1991
Edition: 1st Edition

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Author Biography: Catherine (Ed.) Coles

Catherine Coles, formerly assistant professor of anthropology and African studies at Dartmouth College, is currently studying law.  Beverly Mack is visiting assistant professor at George Mason University, where she teaches African literature and Hausa/Fulani culture in the English Department and the Plan for Alternative General Education.

Book Synopsis

    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.

Booknews

The author describes the traditional medical practices of the Hausa people of north Nigeria within the context of their rural village culture. Papers from two 1984 panels organized by the African Studies Association in Los Angeles, plus some invited contributions, report on original research concerning women in one of the largest and most influential ethnic groups in West Africa. The 14 studies examine women in relation to Islam, politics, economics, and the arts. Also available in paper (unseen), $19.95. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Table of Contents

Forewordvii
Acknowledgmentsix
Note on Foreign Termsxi
1.Women in Twentieth-Century Hausa Society3
Part 1.Hausa Women in Islam
2.Islamic Leadership Positions for Women in Contemporary Kano Society29
3.From Accra to Kano: One Woman's Experience50
4.Islamic Values, the State, and "the Development of Women": The Case of Niger69
5.Hausa-Fulani Women: The State of the Struggle90
Part 2.The Power of Women
6.Royal Wives in Kano109
7.Women and the Law in Early-Twentieth-Century Kano130
8.The Role of Women in Kano City Politics145
Part 3.Women in the Changing Economy
9.Hausa Women's Work in a Declining Urban Economy: Kaduna, Nigeria, 1980-1985163
10.Hausa Women in the Urban Economy of Kano192
Part 4.Women's Voices: Feminine Gender in Ritual, the Arts, and Media
11.Gender Relationships and Religion: Women in the Hausa Bori of Ader, Niger207
12.Marriage in the Hausa Tatsuniya Tradition: A Cultural and Cosmic Balance221
13.Women's Roles in the Contemporary Hausa Theater of Niger232
14.Ideology, the Mass Media, and Women: A Study from Radio Kaduna, Nigeria244
Glossary of Hausa and Other Foreign Terms255
Bibliography261
Contributors289
Index291

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