Legacies of Colonialism and Islam for Hausa Woman: An Historical Analysis, 1804 to 1960

Title

Legacies of Colonialism and Islam for Hausa Woman: An Historical Analysis, 1804 to 1960

list of authors

Kari Bergstrom

Abstract

This paper looks at the effects of Islamization and colonialism on women in Hausaland. Beginning with the jihad and subsequent Islamic government of ‘dan Fodio, I examine the changes impacting Hausa women in and outside of the Caliphate he established. Women inside of the Caliphate were increasingly pushed out of public life and relegated to the domestic space. Islamic law was widely established, and large-scale slave production became key to the economy of the Caliphate. In contrast, Hausa women outside of the Caliphate were better able to maintain historical positions of authority in political and religious realms. As the French and British colonized Hausaland, the partition they made corresponded roughly with those Hausas inside and outside of the Caliphate. The British colonized the Caliphate through a system of indirect rule, which reinforced many of the Caliphate’s ways of governance. The British did, however, abolish slavery and impose a new legal system, both of which had significant effects on Hausa women in Nigeria. The French colonized the northern Hausa kingdoms, which had resisted the Caliphate’s rule. Through patriarchal French colonial policies, Hausa women in Niger found they could no longer exercise the political and religious authority that they historically had held. The literature on Hausa women in Niger is considerably less well developed than it is for Hausa women in Nigeria. This paper serves as an inquiry into the types of questions that need to be explored in future research on gender issues in Nigerien Hausaland.

Provenance

East Lansing

Publisher

Michigan State University Press

Date

2002

number of pages

22

Language

Anglais

Type

Livre

Subject

gender

law

colonialism

Hausa people

Identifier

Q117312377

iwac-reference-0000673

Spatial Coverage

Niger

issue

276