Hausaland Divided : Colonialism and Independence in Nigeria and Niger

How have different forms of colonialism shaped societies and their politics? William F. S. Miles focuses on the Hausa-speaking people of West Africa whose land is still split by an arbitrary boundary established by Great Britain and France at the turn of the century. In 1983 Miles returned as a Fulbright scholar to the region where he had served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the late 1970s. Already fluent in the Hausa language, he established residence in carefully selected twin villages on either side of the border separating the Republic of Niger from the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Over the next year, and then during subsequent visits, he traveled by horseback between the two places, conducting archival research, collecting oral testimony, and living the ethnographic life. Miles argues that the colonial imprint of the British and the French can still be discerned more than a generation after the conferring of formal independence on Nigeria and Niger. Moreover, such influences persist even in the relatively remote countryside: in the nature of economic transactions, in local education practices, in the practice of Islam, in the operation of chieftaincy. In Hausaland as throughout the world, the border illuminates the vital differences between otherwise similar societies. How have different forms of colonialism shaped societies and their politics? What can borderland communities teach us about nation building and group identity? William F. S. Miles focuses on the Hausa-speaking people of West Africa, whose land is still split by an arbitrary boundary established by Great Britain and France at the turn of the century. In 1983 Miles returned as a Fulbright scholar to the region where he had served as a Peace Corps volunteer in the late 1970s. Already fluent in the Hausa language, he established residence in carefully selected twin villages on either side of the border separating the Republic of Niger from the Federal Republic of Nigeria. Over the next year, and then during subsequent visits, he traveled by horseback between the two places, conducting surveys, collecting oral testimony, and living the ethnographic life. Miles argues that the colonial imprint of the British and the French can still be discerned more than a generation after the conferring of formal independence on Nigeria and Niger. Moreover, such influences persist even in the relatively remote countryside: in the nature of economic transactions, in local education practices, in the practice of Islam, in the operation of chieftaincy. In Hausaland as throughout the world, the border illuminates vital differences between otherwise similar societies. Spanning the conventional boundaries between political science, anthropology, history, sociology, and economics, Hausaland Divided will be valuable reading for Africanists, students of colonialism and its effects, and practitioners of rural development. Contents Illustrations, Maps, Tables, and Figures Preface A Note on Hausa Orthography 1. Introduction: Rehabilitating the Borderline 2. The Setting 3. Ethnic Identity and National Consciousness: Who Are the Hausa? 4. Boundary Considerations 5. Colonizing the Hausa: British and French 6. According to the Archives ... 7. Chieftaincy in Yardaji and Yekuwa 8. Arziki vs. Talauci: The Economic Comparison 9. Educating the Hausa 10. Islam: The Religious Difference 11. Village Cultures Compared 12. Transcending the Tangaraho Appendix A. Fieldwork Strategy: The Choice of a Site Appendix B. Administration of Self-Identity Surveys Appendix C. Selected Characteristics, Daura Local Government and Magaria Arrondissement, 1978–1985 Appendix D. Extracts from Anglo-French Treaties Delimiting the Nigeria-Niger Boundary, 1906–1910 Appendix E. Communique of the Nigeria-Niger Transborder Cooperation Workshop, Kano, July 2–8, 1989 Appendix F. Glossary Bibliography Index