The acknowledged center of Hausaland is Kano, an ancient city in northern Nigeria which has been heavily influenced by Arab culture through its cross‐Saharan trade relations with North Africa since the 14th century. Hausa‐speakers, numbering approximately 80 million, are concentrated throughout the sub‐Saharan region of West Africa. Hausa settlements can be found scattered as far to the North and East as Tripoli and Khartoum. The Hausa ethnic group is defined by Hausa language and social customs. In urban centers such as the Nigerian cities of Kano, Katsina, Zaria, and Sokoto, there has been considerable mixing of Hausa and Fulani peoples, largely as a result of resocialization following the 19th century jihad led by Shehu Usman 'dan Fodio. The jihad, through which the Shehu sought to reform Islamic practices in the region, involved the replacement of all Hausa kings with Fulani emirs who, since then, have served as traditional rulers in the region. Although Nigerian independence in 1960 technically replaced the emirs with national political leaders, in the major northern Nigerian cities, they continue to be influential and respected as traditional leaders of the Hausa‐Fulani population. Hausa social structure is often described as hierarchical, ranging from a base level that includes blacksmiths and entertainers, to royalty at the top. The majority of society are urban craftspeople and traders, and long distance trade is a hallmark of Hausa culture. Because Hausa culture is set in a savannah region, traditional crafts that make use of local resources are standard market items: woven baskets and mats, decorated gourds, leather goods, and decorated horse tackle. The rural Hausa traditionally farmed the land, while rural Fulani were pastoral people, following the movement of their cattle. Although rural populations have diminished considerably over the 20th century, some non‐Muslim Hausa can still be found, especially in remote, hilly regions of Nigeria's northeast. These people subsist primarily by hunting and farming small plots. Most individuals who now identify themselves as Hausa, however, are urban‐dwellers, English‐speaking, educated, and employed in sectors of the city as white‐collar, craft, and market professionals. Depending on her level of education, a Hausa woman, to varying degrees, will be secluded in the home, employed as a teacher, nurse, religious scholar, agricultural extension agent, or work with media such as television, radio, and the newspapers. Islam, the most important influence in Hausa culture, was introduced in the 15th century, perhaps earlier. Because of Islam and its focus on the family, Hausa culture has long adhered to customs that include gender‐specific socio‐religious obligations, the fulfillment of which mark Hausa culture. Among them are over‐arching requirements that a man support his family and act as a Muslim role model for his children, and that a woman bear and raise children as Muslim. Islam has flourished in urban areas; bringing with it a focus on literacy. It has produ...
In 1990 Jean Boyd and I began work on an edition of the works of Nana Asma'u. If not a trail of tears, finishing this proved at least to be an odyssey, taking two or three times as long as we had optimistically anticipated. In hopes of making it easier for others to be more realistic, we provide a brief account of this sojourn.Adam Jones, and especially, Knut Vikør, have provided extensive guidelines for scholars working with Arabic manuscripts and preparing them for camera ready copy. Most of the technology they describe is suited to use with Macintosh PCs, and for a long time it has been Macintosh users who have been best able to deal with Arabic script and Arabic diacriticals in the transliterated form. The comments offered here reflect experience with a PC using WP 5.2 in DOS beginning in 1990. At the time, the massive size of our collection—and the need to reproduce Arabic, Hausa, and Fulfulde in WP 5.2—meant that we faced a different set of problems than those considered by others in the field using Macintoshes. Without an upgrade to WP 6.1 Windows very late in the process, this project could not have been completed satisfactorily.
In 1995 I whined to Dave Henige about the difficulties involved in producing a 753-page volume of 383 pages of translated poetry (each including a work number, language of the original, source of the text, an historical introduction, and related text section) containing three orthographies, four languages, 947 footnotes, 241 pages of barely-arranged Arabic-script (but not all Arabic language) facsimiles, six maps, three glossaries, two works cited lists (published and unpublished), two appendices, and an index – all without a copy editor, and for a press demanding camera-ready copy from two novices an ocean apart who had access only to primitive email (remember CompuServe?) that would scramble poetic verse and jumble margins. When I finally took a breath, he smiled. Dave loves a challenge, and loves even more, passing one on. “Write about it,” he said. Suddenly I found myself signed up for the “Technical Problems in Preparing Text and Translations for Camera-Ready Copy” Historical Texts Panel at ASA's 1996 meetings. But that was not enough for Dave. He also expected an article, which I duly produced: “This Will (Not) Be Handled By the Press: Problems and Their Solution in Preparing Camera-Ready Copy for The Collected Works of Nana Asma'u, Daughter of Usman Dan Fodiyo 1793-1864” for History in Africa 25 (1998). In fact, it was Dave who rained on our anticipated title, “The Complete Works…,” dryly inquiring, “How can you be sure?” So it was “Collected Works…” instead.
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