The Economy of the Hausa People of West and Central Africa

Agriculture is the main economic activity. Grain is the staple diet, including Guinea corn, millet, maize, and rice. The Hausa also grow and eat root crops and a variety of vegetables. Cotton and peanuts are processed and used locally, but part of the harvest is exported. The Hausa practice intercropping and double-cropping; their main implement is the hoe. The Cattle Fulani provide the Hausa with meat, yogurt, and butter.

Most men also practice a second occupation; as criptive and ranked, these include aristocratic officeholder, scholar, Islamic cleric, artisan, trader, musician, and butcher. As good Muslims, the urban women are in seclusion, and therefore dependent upon their husbands for their maintenance; they are economically active from behind the compound walls, however, primarily in order to finance their daughters' dowries. Their work, which includes sewing and selling prepared food and jewelry, is an offshoot of their domestic persona.

Some of the Hausa people are involved in the Industrial Arts. There are full-time specialists only where there is an assured market for craft products. Men's crafts include tanning, leatherworking, saddling, weaving, dying, woodworking, and smithing. Iron has been mined, smelted, and worked as far back as there are Hausa traditions. Blacksmiths have a guild like organization, and many are hereditary.

Most of the Hausa people are involved in Trade. Trade is complicated and varied. Some traders deal in a particular market, as distinguished from those who trade in many markets over a long distance. This dual trade strategy, augmented by the contributions of the Cattle Fulani, enabled the Hausa to meet all of their requirements, even during the nineteenth century. The markets are traditional to Hausa society and carry social as well as economic significance; male friends and relatives meet there, and well-dressed marriageable young women pass through, to see and be seen. The Hausa differentiate rural from urban settlements in terms of the size and frequency of the markets.

Hausa society traditionally observes several divisions of labor: in public administration, it is primarily men who may be appointed, although some women hold appointed positions in the palace. Class determines what sort of work one might do, and gender determines work roles. When women engage in income-producing activities, they may keep what they earn. Because of purdah, many women who trade are dependent upon children to act as their runners.[1] Most Muslim Hausa are part-time farmers and part-time occupational specialists, while the pagan Hausa are for the most part full-time subsistence agriculturalists. Agriculture is scheduled around the May-October rainy season. Uncultivated plants are exploited as sources of fuel, thatch, food, and fiber. Raising livestock is another important feature of economic activities, and the Hausa inventory of domestic animals includes horses, donkeys, goats, sheep, and poultry. A few cattle are raised, but for the most part the Hausa get cattle and cattle products through trade with the pastoral Fulbe. Except at the elite levels or where there is sufficient market demand, occupational specialties are pursued on a part-time basis in conjunction with subsistence agriculture.

[1] World Culture Encyclopedia, "Hausa," http://www.everyculture.com/Africa-Middle-East/Hausa.html.