Hausa women in the twentieth century / edited by Catherine Coles and Beverly Mack.

Format:

Book

Contributor:

Coles, Catherine M.

Mack, Beverly B. (Beverly Blow), 1952-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women, Hausa.

Muslim women.

Physical Description:

xi, 297 pages : illustrations ; 24 cm

Place of Publication:

Madison, Wis. : University of Wisconsin Press, [1991]

Summary:

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 and Western expectations and choices as their society moved from a precolonial state 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 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.

Contents:

1. Women in Twentieth-Century Hausa Society / Catherine Coles, Beverly Mack 3

Part 1. Hausa Women in Islam

2. Islamic Leadership Positions for Women in Contemporary Kano Society / Balaraba B. M. Sule, Priscilla E. Starratt 29

3. From Accra to Kano: One Woman's Experience / Deborah Pellow 50

4. Islamic Values, the State, and "the Development of Women": The Case of Niger / Roberta Ann Dunbar 69

5. Hausa-Fulani Women: The State of the Struggle / Bilkisu Yusuf 90

Part 2. The Power of Women

6. Royal Wives in Kano / Beverly Mack 109

7. Women and the Law in Early-Twentieth-Century Kano / Allan Christelow 130

8. The Role of Women in Kano City Politics / Barbara J. Callaway 145

Part 3. Women in the Changing Economy

9. Hausa Women's Work in a Declining Urban Economy: Kaduna, Nigeria, 1980-1985 / Catherine Coles 163

10. Hausa Women in the Urban Economy of Kano / Alan Frishman 192

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, Niger / Nicole Echard 207

12. Marriage in the Hausa Tatsuniya Tradition: A Cultural and Cosmic Balance / Connie Stephens 221

13. Women's Roles in the Contemporary Hausa Theater of Niger / Janet Beik 232

14. Ideology, the Mass Media, and Women: A Study from Radio Kaduna, Nigeria / Ayesha M. Imam 244.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages 261-288) and index.

ISBN:

0299130207 :

029913024X

OCLC:

23582893