The HAUSAWA People: Life, Origin and History Of HAUSAWA.
Fun facts about HAUSAWA
They are a native ethnic group in West and Central Africa whose language Hausa language.
The Hausa male is regarded as Bahaushe while female is Bahaushiya and in its plural form is called Hausawa and general: Hausa; exonyms: Ausa; Ajami: مُوْتَانَنْ هَوْسَ).
Hausa is the second most spoken language after Arabic in the Afro-Asiatic language family.
Hausawa are a diverse but culturally homogeneous people based primarily in the Sahelian and the sparse savanna areas of southern Niger and northern Nigeria respectively.
They have a population of around 76 million people with significant indigenized populations in #Benin, #Cameroon, #Ivory Coast,#Chad, #Sudan, #Central African Republic, Republic of the #Congo, #Togo, #Ghana, #Eritrea, #Equatorial Guinea, #Gabon, #Senegal and the #Gambia.
Their population spread is as follows:
Nigeria 🇳🇬 – 57,711,000
Niger 🇳🇪- 13,070,000
Sudan 🇸🇩- 500,000
Ivory Coast 🇨🇮- 1,069,000
Cameroon 🇨🇲- 1,040,000
Chad 🇹🇩 – 298,000
Ghana 🇬🇭 – 290,000
Benin 🇧🇯- 36,360
Eritrea 🇪🇷- 30,000
Togo 🇹🇬- 22,000
Congo🇨🇬- 12,000
Outside of their native language Hausa, other languages spoken are: Arabic (Sudanese Arabic, Chadian Arabic) while English and French is also spoken as a their colonial languages.
Hausa-speaking communities are mostly all over West Africa and on the traditional Hajj route north and east traversing the Sahara, with an especially large population in and around the town of Agadez.
While other Hausawa have moved to large coastal cities such as Lagos, Port Harcourt, Accra, Abidjan, Banjul and Cotonou as well as to parts of North Africa like Libya over the course of the last 500 years.
The Hausa traditionally live in small villages as well as in precolonial towns and cities where they grow crops, raise livestock such as cattle and engage in trade.
The Hausa aristocracy had historically developed an equestrian (horse riding) based culture which is a symbol of the traditional nobility in Hausa society, the horse riding still features in the Eid day celebrations, known as Ranar Sallah (the Day of Prayer).
Daura in Northern Nigeria 🇳🇬 is the cultural center of the Hausa people and the oldest city in Hausaland.
The Hausa of Gobir, also in northern Nigeria 🇳🇬, speak the oldest surviving classical vernacular of the language.
Historically, Katsina was the centre of Hausa Islamic scholarship but was later replaced by Sokoto stemming from the 17th century Usman Dan Fodio Islamic reform.
By the early 15th century, the Hausa were using a modified Arabic script known as ajami to record their own language; the Hausa compiled several written histories, the most popular being the Kano Chronicle.
The legendary Queen Amina (or Aminatu) is believed to have ruled Zazzau between the 15th century and the 16th century for a period of 34 years.
The Hausa emblem is an older and traditionally established emblem of Hausa identity – the ‘Dagin Arewa’ or ‘Northern knot’ – in a star shape, used in historic and traditional architecture, design and hand-embroidery.
Hausas in the narrow sense are indigenous of Kasar Hausa who are found in West Africa divided between three subgroups: Habe, Hausa-Fulani (Kado), and Banza or Banza 7 ( this distinctions will be explained later in a different post)
The Hausa language has around 50 million first-language speakers, and close to 30 million second-language speakers.
Maguzanci is an African Traditional Religion that was practised extensively in Hausaland before Islam.
The Hausawa are often characterized by their Indigo blue dressing and emblems which earned them the nickname “bluemen”.
The Hausa women can be identified by wrappers called zani, made with colourful cloth known as atampa or Ankara while the men wear loose flowing gowns and trousers called Babban riga.
The Hausa culture is rich in traditional sporting events such as boxing (Dambe), stick fight (Takkai), wrestling (Kokawa).
The most famous of all Hausa street food is most likely to be Suya, a spicy shish kebab like skewered meat, its dried version is Kilishi. While “Tuwo” will pass for most popular home made food.
Hausa women are beautiful 😍
