Hausa–Fulani

Hausa–Fulani are people of mixed Hausa

and Fulani origin.[1] They are primarily
found in the Northern region of Nigeria,
most of whom speak a variant of Hausa
or Fula or both as their first language.
 Hausa-Fulani
Regions with significant populations

Nigeria

Languages

Hausa • Fula

Religion

Islam

Related ethnic groups

Other Hausa, Fulani, Kanuri, Tuareg, Shuwa

Arab, other Afroasiatic-speaking peoples

While some Fulani claim Semitic origins,

Hausas are indigenous to West Africa.[2]
This suggests that the processes of
"Hausaization" in the western Sudan
region was probably both cultural and
genetic.[3] The Hausa–Fulani identity
came into being as a direct result of the
migration of Fulani people to Hausaland
around the 14th century and their cultural
assimilation into the Hausa society. At
the beginning of the 19th century, Sheikh
Usman dan Fodio led a successful jihad
against the Hausa Kingdoms founding a
centralized Fulani Empire (anglicized as
the Sokoto Caliphate). After the jihad,
Dan Fodio encouraged intermarriage
between the immigrant Fulani and the
conquered Hausa states and locals
mainly other Hausa people; in addition,
Jobawa, Dambazawa and Sullubawa
Fulani clans originating in Futa Tooro
migrated to the region and intermarried
with the local urban mainly Hausa elite,
and were a major factor in the linguistic,
cultural and ethnic mixing of the Hausa–
Fulani people. As result of this
assimilation, Hausa–Fulani form the core
and vast majority of the populations of
Daura, Zamfara, Kano, Katsina, Zazzau,
and Sokoto.

Hausa–Fulanis primarily speak variants

of Hausa which form a dialect continuum
of more-or-less mutually intelligible
regional varieties. Hausa is spoken by
over 100 to 150 million people across
Africa, making it the most spoken
Indigenous African language and the
11th most spoken language in the
world.[4] Since the Trans-Saharan trade,
Hausa is used as a lingua franca
spanning from Agadez deep in the
Sahara Desert of Niger to Northern
Nigeria, and has many loanwords from
Arabic. For centuries, it utilized an Ajami
script which served as the basis of the
language scholarly tradition. The script
was replaced with the Latin orthography
of the Boko alphabets, after the British
conquered the Sokoto Caliphate.

Historical perspective
Medieval Arabic sources refers to the
area as Sudan or as Bilad Al Sudan
(English: Land of the Blacks; Arabic: ‫بالد‬
‫)السودان‬. This designation may have given
rise to the term Negroland which was
used by Europeans until the 19th century
to refer to the inner poorly explored area
north of the region of Guinea: consisting
of the Slave Coast, Gold Coast, Grain
Coast in West Africa.[5]

Since the populations were partially

affiliated with the Arab Muslim culture of
North Africa, they started to trade and be
referred to by the Arabic speakers as Al-
Sudan (meaning "The Blacks") as they
were considered an extended part of the
Muslim world. There are early historical
references by medieval Arab and Muslim
historians and geographers which to
refer to the Kanem-Bornu Empire as the
region's major centre for Islamic
civilization. It is likely that the medieval
Hausa Kingdoms formed trading ties
with the Bornu Empire, which became
increasingly wealthy as the main African
transshipment centre for the trans-
Saharan slave trade. Hausa rulers also
likely provided Sudanic peoples as a
tributary to the Bornu Empire in order to
avert war with the Empire.

The Sudan was gradually fulanised with

the spread of Islam from the 7th century
AD, when the liturgical language Arabic
was first brought to the Sudan via Bornu.
Until this point, the Fulani, a nomadic
ethnic group primarily traversed the
semi-desert Sahelian region, north of the
Sudan, with cattle and avoided trade and
intermingling with the Sudanic peoples.
Fulanisation was at least partly
strengthened in the rural areas in the
early 16th century with the emigration of
the settled Dambazawa wealthy trading
clan from Bornu.

The Sokoto Caliphate emerged strong

after the jihad under the leadership of
Usman dan Fodio (c. 1754–1817), whom
a council proclaimed as the Amir al-
Mu'minin or Commander of the Faithful.
The empire with Arabic as its official
language grew rapidly under his rule and
that of his descendants, who sent out
armies in every direction. The vast
landlocked empire connected the East
with the West Sudan region. As an
Islamic state, authority is derived from
piety and scholarship, thus the Sultan
sent out emirs to establish suzerainty
over the conquered territories and
promote Islamic civilization,
consolidating in order to establish
administrative structures and a ruling
elite. This settlement eventually gave rise
to the gradual cultural assimilation of the
Fulani culture by the Hausa people in
major Hausa cities (or Hausa Bakwai) of:
Daura, Hadeija, Kano, Katsina, Zazzau,
Rano, and Gobir, leading to the mass
education and promotion of Hausa
language and culture through schools
and later mass media, during the 20th
century by the British.

See also
Nigeria
portal

Fulani War
Fula people
Hausa people
Sokoto Caliphate
History of West Africa

References
1. "Hausa-Fulani" (https://rpl.hds.harvar
d.edu/faq/hausa-fulani) .
rpl.hds.harvard.edu. Retrieved
2022-09-28.
2. Bekada A, Fregel R, Cabrera VM,
Larruga JM, Pestano J, et al. (2013)
Introducing the Algerian
Mitochondrial DNA and Y-
Chromosome Profiles into the North
African Landscape (http://www.plos
one.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.13
71%2Fjournal.pone.0056775) . PLoS
ONE 8(2): e56775.
doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0056775
3. Bosch, Elena et al. "Genetic structure
of north-west Africa revealed by STR
 analysis." European Journal of
Human Genetics (2000) 8, 360–366.
Pg. 365
4. "Full List: Hausa Is World's 11th
Most Spoken Language ⋆" (https://w
ww.herald.ng/full-list-hausa/) . '.
2018-02-04. Retrieved 2020-05-26.
5. "Mercator's Chart. - David Rumsey
Historical Map Collection" (https://w
ww.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/d
etail/RUMSEY~8~1~16~10078) .
www.davidrumsey.com. Retrieved
2020-05-26.
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