Telling stories, making histories : women, words, and Islam in nineteenth-century Hausaland and the Sokoto Caliphate / Mary Wren Bivins.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Bivins, Mary Wren.

Series:

Social history of Africa

Social history of Africa, 1099-8098

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women, Hausa--Social conditions--19th century.

Women, Hausa.

Women, Hausa--Language--History--19th century.

Women, Hausa--Intellectual life--19th century.

Storytelling--Fulani Empire--History.

Storytelling.

Muslim women--Fulani Empire--Social conditions.

Muslim women.

Sex role--Fulani Empire--History.

Sex role.

Islam--Social aspects--Fulani Empire--History.

Islam.

Guizotia abyssinica.

Social conditions.

Islam--Social aspects.

History.

Intellectual life.

Fulani Empire--Social conditions.

Fulani Empire.

Nigeria, Northern--Social conditions.

Nigeria, Northern.

Northern Nigeria.

Guizotia abyssinica--Social conditions.

Physical Description:

xiii, 192 pages : map ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Portsmouth, NH : Heinemann, [2007]

Summary:

Through reconstruction of oral testimony, folk stories, and poetry, the true history of Hausa women and their reception of Islam's vision of Muslim in Western Africa have been uncovered. Mary Wren Bivins is the first author to locate and examine the oral texts of the 19th-century Hausa women and challenge the written documentation of the Sokoto Caliphate. The personal narratives and folk stories reveal the importance of illiterate, non-elite women to the history of jihad and the assimilation of normative Islam in rural Hausaland. The fascinating lives of the Hausa are captured, shedding light on their ordinary existence as wives, mothers, and providers for their families on the eve of European colonial conquest.

From European observations to stories of marriage, each entry provides a personal account of the Hausa women's encounters with Islamic reform to the center of an emerging Muslim Hausa identity. Each entry focuses on: Female historiography, The importance of oral history, New methodological approaches to the oral culture of popular Islam, The raw voice of Hausa women. This comprehensive history is easy to read and touches on an era that no other scholar has dissected.

Contents:

Women and stories, scholars and texts : women's voices in nineteenth century Hausaland and the Sokoto Caliphate

Missions to Hausaland : European observations, investigations and conversations

In praise of farming : women, food, and identity in Kasar Hausa

"A story, a story. Let it come. Let it go" : the narrative landscapes and social spaces of storytelling

"If a man does not want you" : stories of marriage and crisis in Hausa families

"Womenfolk take heed!" : Muslim wives and Hausa marriages : lessons from Sokoto

Telling stories, making history : women, narrative and historical knowledge in nineteenth century Hausaland.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [166]-184) and index.

ISBN:

9780325070131

032507013X

9780325070124

0325070121

OCLC:

77821635