Haoussas

The Haoussas are people of the the Sahel established in north of the Nigeria and in the east of the Niger. Important communities are also in the north of the Bénin, the Ghana and the Cameroun. Some small communities are scattered through the West Africa like on the road of the pilgrimage of Hajj which leaves West Africa while passing by the Chad and the Sudan. Much Haoussas moved towards the coastal big cities of West Africa like Lagos, Accra and Cotonou or towards the Libya, leaving to research work. However, the majority of Haoussas always live in small villages where they practice the food crop and raise cattle. The farmers haoussas regulate their agriculture according to the seasonal changes of rain and temperature. They speak the language Haoussa which belongs to the group of the tchadic Langues, under group of the family of the Afro-Asian languages.

It were powerful and plain to engage in the local conquests, the trade and the traffic of Esclave.

History and culture

Kano is regarded as the center commercial and the culture haoussa. In terms of cultural relations with the other people of West Africa, the haoussas are culturally and historically close to the Peuls, of the Sonrhaïs, the Mandé S and the Touareg S as well as other Afro-Asian groups and nilo-Saharan, more in the east, the Chad and the Sudan. They recognize the law of the Sharia.

Between 500 and 700 of our era, the haoussas which had moved slowly since the Nubie while mixing with the northern local population and centers Nigerian, established a certain number of powerful states in what is the current north and center of Nigeria and is of Niger. With the decline of the Nok and Sokoto, which had controlled the center and the north of Niger between -800 and 200, the haoussas emerged as a new power of the area. Closely dependant with the Kanuri S of the Kingdom of Kanem-Bornou (Lake Chad), the Haoussa aristocracy adopted the Islam with the XIe century. With the XIIe century, the haoussas became one of the more great power of Africa. Architecture haoussa is perhaps one of the least known, but is one of most beautiful architectures of the medieval time. Many of their first mosques luminous and are coloured and show often complex engravings or drawings symbolic systems worked out on the frontages. From 1500, the haoussas used a modified Arab writing, the Ajami, to write their language. The haoussas wrote several history of which most famous is the chronicles of Kano. In 1810, the Peuls, another African Islamic ethnos group which lived the west of Africa, invaded the Haoussas state. The cultural similarities however allowed an integration between the two groups which harmoniously mixed and are dissociated less and less. The haoussas remain preeminent with the Niger and the north of the Nigeria. Their impact in Nigeria is paramount because the Haoussas-peuls unit directed the policy of the country since its independence. They remain one of the civilizations most largely and historically enracinées in Western Africa.

Religion

The haoussas have an ancient culture which extended on a large geographical surface and which was a long time dependant on the Arab and other Islamized people of West Africa like mandés, peuls and even the wolofs of Sénégambie thanks to the trade, made on long distances. Islam is present at the haoussas since the 14th century but it was largely restricted by the capacity of the time. The rural areas generally preserved their beliefs animists; thus the urban chiefs were based on the two types of beliefs (Islamic and animists) to legitimate their capacity. The Moslem disciples of the beginning of the 19th century disapproved the hybrid religion practiced in the court royal and the desire of reform was the principal reason for the formation of the caliphate of Sokoto. It is following the creation of this state that Islam was firmly anchored in the rural areas.

Maguzawa, the religion animist, was practiced in an important way before the arrival of Islam. In the most moved back areas, this practice remained intact, but while approaching the urban centres, it disappears completely. This practice includes animal sacrifices at personal ends and its practitioners consider illegitimate the use of the magic maguzawa to make the evil. What it remains about it in the most populated zones is a worship called bori which preserves the elements animists and magic of the old religion. Classification bori of reality contains an innumerable quantity of spirits of which much has a name and has definite capacities. Whereas malamais them condemn the rites, ceremonies and beliefs Boris, the Moslem population haoussa lives in peace with the Boris. Many a Boris qualify to them-even Moslems, and much of Moslems reject total orthodoxy and are authorized to use the magic bori which they think good to move away the bad spirit from their houses. Islam and the bori are in fact complementary in the communities haoussas, because the Islamic sect Qadiriyya comprises elements of animism like the spirits called Jinn S and certain charms ( malamais ) used are regarded as magic elements. As one can conjecture it, this Islam does not follow strictly the ic writings Coran, it is thus not a orthopraxie. Instead of the Islamic law, the law haoussa takes as a starting point an Islamic practice called ijma , which means consensus . When a community agrees on a certain worship towards Allah or on the nature of god, that generally made law. Certain beliefs go even against the ic dogmas Coran, like the miracles allotted to Mahomet as well as the beliefs in saints. The Koranic practices which persisted at the haoussas are the Hajj and the five daily prayers in direction of Mecque. There exist different ritual nonKoranic the but related ones to Islam, like the port of the turban and the Djellaba. During Muslim holidays like the New Year's Day or the Mawlid, people offer themselves present.

External bonds

Article on Haoussas

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