CHAPTER VIII
THE HAUSAS AND THEIR EMPORIUM—(_cont._)
“Travellers who have been in the country tell us that Kano, which is the Manchester of Nigeria, has an attendance annually at its market of over one million persons.”—_Extract from a speech by_ Mr. CHAMBERLAIN.
The reputation of Kano as a manufacturing city is of comparatively recent growth, and although the Hausas have manufactured cotton for a considerable time (how long is uncertain, but we do know that their leather-ware[39] was widely sought after as far back as the beginning of the sixteenth century), the importance of Kano as a trading and manufacturing emporium only dates from the Fulani conquest and the destruction of Katsena by Bello. The Hausa cottons of Kano are in demand throughout the whole of the Islamic world of North, West, and central Africa. Lieutenant-Colonel Monteil, one of the few Europeans who have visited Kano, gives it as his opinion that the inhabitants of two-thirds of the Sudan, and nearly all the inhabitants of the Central and Eastern Sahara, clothe themselves in Kano cottons; while Dr. Barth estimated the annual export of cotton from Kano to Timbuctoo alone to amount in value to some £5000. The principal cotton articles manufactured by the Hausas at Kano are the _Tobe_ or shirt for men; the _Turkedi_ or women’s dress; the _Zenne_ or plaid; and the black veil or litham invariably worn by the Tuareg and very often by the Fulani, Kanuri, and Arab. The _tobes_ are dyed various colours, while the _turkedi_ are always of that deep, dark blue obtained by repeated washings in indigo-pits for which the province of Kano is famous. Of the plaids a large selection is produced, varying in colour and in texture, some being composed of a mixture of silk and cotton, others of cotton only, others again of pure silk. Dr. Barth, speaking of this cotton industry of Kano, and remarking that the Province which produces it is also able to supply the corn necessary for the sustenance of its population, and possesses besides splendid pasture land, says: “In fact, if we consider that this industry is not carried on here as in Europe, in immense establishments, degrading man to the meanest conditions of life, but that it gives employment and support to families without compelling them to sacrifice their domestic habits, we must presume that Kano ought to be one of the happiest countries in the world; and so it is, so long as its Governor, too often lazy and indolent, is able to defend its inhabitants from the cupidity of their neighbours, which, of course, is constantly stimulated by the very wealth of their country.” What the lazy Fulani Governor of Barth’s days could not do, British power can, and indeed has; and having done so, is also able to ensure that by judicious management the national, social life of this interesting country shall continue in that state of happiness which struck the great German traveller.
In addition to its cloths, Kano produces excellent leather work, principally sandals, sword-scabbards, riding-boots, shoes, despatch-bags, water-bottles and saddles, and annually exports large quantities of tanned hides. The people of Kano also produce iron weapons, rough agricultural implements and sword-hilts for German blades, which are, or used to be, imported from the north. The following estimate of the total trade of Kano, carefully compiled from Dr. Barth’s calculations, will give some idea of its extent and value at the time (1851) of the German explorer’s stay in the city. The sterling is arrived at by reckoning one million _kurdi_ or cowries—the chief currency in Kano—at £100.
EXPORTS.
Cloths £30,000 Slaves 20,000 Sandals 1,000 Miscellaneous leather-work 500 ------- Total £51,500 =======
IMPORTS.
Kola nuts (from West Coast hinterlands) £10,000 Ivory (from Adamawa) 10,000 Salt (from the interior) 8,000 Coarse silk (_viâ_ Tripoli) 7,000 Arab dresses (from Tunis and Tripoli) 5,000 Beads (Italy, _viâ_ Tripoli) 5,000 Sword-blades (from Germany, _viâ_ Tripoli) 5,000 Manchester goods (_viâ_ Tripoli) 4,000 Muslins (England, _viâ_ Tripoli) 4,000 Rose oil (_viâ_ Tripoli) 5,000 Copper (from Wadai and Bahr-el-Ghazal) 2,000 Woollen cloths (_viâ_ Tripoli) 1,500 Spices and cloves (_viâ_ Tripoli) 1,500 Sugar (from France, _viâ_ Tripoli) 1,200 Tin 1,000 Egyptian dresses 1,000 Needles (from Germany, _viâ_ Tripoli) 800 Common paper, ditto 500 Razors (from Syria) 300 ------- Total £71,800 =======
To which might be added a transit trade in natron, passing through Kano from Bornu on its way to Nupe, yielding about £1000 “passage-money.” The remarkable total of £123,300 is thus arrived at.
Of late years the trade of Kano, both in respect to imports and exports, has undergone some change, and is bound to become still more modified as time goes on. For instance, the buying and selling of slaves is a thing of the past, or soon will be. The imports of ivory from Adamawa are nothing like what they were in Barth’s time. The internal salt trade has largely been extinguished, the native article being unable to compete with European salt. But with this exception—salt—the increased importation of European goods into the Niger and Binue since 1880, that is to say, since the spread of British commercial enterprise in the Upper River and its tributary, does not appear to have affected the caravan trade of Kano with the Tripolitan ports, _viâ_ the oases of Bilma, Fezzan, and Murzuk. In 1897, for instance, the British Consul for Tripoli estimated the goods sent to Sokoto (for Sokoto read the State of Sokoto, of which the city of Kano is the commercial and industrial centre and the terminus of the Tripoli caravans, the trade of the city of Sokoto being insignificant) by caravan across the desert at £46,000. These figures compared with Barth’s tables of Tripoli imported goods are actually more considerable than the total value as estimated by Barth half a century ago. This is a very important fact, and by bearing it well in mind we shall avoid falling into an error which might have unfortunate consequences. Then, again, a comparison of the articles imported in 1851 and 1897 is instructive as affording proof of the conservatism of the African and the old-established nature of this trade.
DR. BARTH’S ENUMERATION, 1851.
Coarse silk, Arab dresses, sword-blades, Manchester goods, muslins, rose oil, woollen cloths, sugar, spices and cloves, needles, paper.
FOREIGN OFFICE REPORT, 1897.
Cotton and woollen cloths, silk waste, silk yarn, box rings, beads, amber, paper, sugar, drugs, tea.
We may go even farther back than this. According to the exceedingly interesting and minute accounts of “Shereef Imhammed” and “Ben Ali, a Moorish trader,” given in the first published proceedings of the African Association in 1791, the trade between Tripoli and the Kingdom of “Cashna,” _i.e._ Katsena (Katsena being then in its prime), consisted of the following articles:
IMPORTS TO KATSENA FROM TRIPOLI.
Red woollen caps, check linens, light coarse woollen cloths, baiza, cowries, barakans or alhaiks, small Turkey carpets, silk (wrought and unwrought), tissues and brocades, sabre-blades, Dutch knives, scissors, coral beads, small looking-glasses.
EXPORTS FROM KATSENA TO TRIPOLI.
Cotton cloths, slaves, goatskins “of the red and yellow dyes,” ox and buffalo hides, gold dust, civet.
The “slaves” item is another proof that the Hausa Kings of those days were extensive slave dealers. It is curious to notice that in the map attached to this old work, a reproduction of which faces page 38, Kano does not even appear, which shows that at that period it had little or no importance as an industrial centre.
[Illustration: HAUSA LOOM AND SPOOL]
The articles imported in 1897 were, therefore, substantially the same as in 1851 and even in 1791. Then as now, English cotton and woollen goods figured prominently amongst them, and it is evident that up to 1897 large profits were to be earned by Europeans (indirectly) and Arabs (directly) in the caravan business between North Africa and Nigeria. Seven years after the opening in regular form of the Western fluvial route, Northern Nigeria is seen to have been importing from Tripoli more goods than in 1851.
It is not due then to commercial development from the south, but to another reason, that the caravan traffic with Tripoli has fallen off since 1897. That reason is to be found in the internal political convulsions of which the Chad basin has been the scene for the last eight years, and to the external political confusion brought about by the action of European Powers, or rather of one European Power—France. When Rabah conquered Bornu in 1893-94, the Ghadamseen merchants suffered heavy losses through the sacking of Kuka, and trade was entirely stopped for a time. Rabah saw his mistake, and endeavoured to remedy it by liberal promises of future support and protection. He kept his word, and trade revived. Then came the advance of the French down the Shari, followed by a renewed period of anarchy in Bornu, as Rabah hurriedly flung himself across the river into Baghirmi to arrest the march of the invaders. Under Fad-el-Allah, Bornu became a cockpit of internecine strife. With the consolidation of French influence in a portion of the Chad region the merchants of the north took heart of grace once more, but the recent pillage of sundry rich caravans by the Kanem Arabs, various confederations of Tuareg and other adherents of the Sheik-Senussi, has demonstrated that at present the French are unable to ensure the safety of caravans, however desirous they may be to do so. These repeated blows have played havoc with the Nigerian-Tripoli caravan trade, and those merchants who are still bold enough to face the risks favour the Wadai route. In 1900 the caravan trade with Wadai was still important, amounting in the aggregate, according to the French Consul at Tripoli, to £210,000, imports and exports included. But it is quite certain that 1901 and 1902 will show a notable decrease of those figures.[40]
Are we to conclude, therefore, that Kano’s internal trade with the north and east has gone never to return, and that the caravan traffic is a thing of the past? That is the view which appears to be generally adopted.[41] I confess that I do not share it, and it would certainly be an immense misfortune for Kano and Northern Nigeria generally if such were, indeed, the case. The main sources of Kano’s wealth and prosperity do not depend upon the influx of trade from the south, but upon the industry of its inhabitants in catering for the requirements not of Europe but of Africa. It is a great _dépôt_ of Negroland for Negroland, and if Kano could no longer find purchasers for her cotton and her leather work, her prosperity must needs decrease and her wealth decline. Now it is obviously in our interest that this should not happen. It should be the object of our policy to maintain, strengthen and assist the commercial and industrial position of Kano, the centre of Hausa activity, the magnet which attracts a flow of internal commerce from all points of the compass. How can that best be done?
In the first place, it is necessary to understand the main caravan system of North-West Central Africa. The accompanying map (facing p. 84) shows the principal routes, and a broad survey of the subject induces the belief that it is the interest of both England and France to encourage the revival of the caravan traffic between Kano (or, in other words, Nigeria) and Kano’s interior markets, or, at any rate, to do nothing to still further curtail it. The wider the stream of internal trade both in and out of Nigeria the greater the prosperity of the country, and it would be as equally pedantic for us to object if the French, who are in more or less theoretical possession of the majority of Kano’s markets, succeed in eventually diverting _in toto_ the caravan traffic from the Tripoli route towards Timbuctoo and In Salah, as it would be for the French to interfere with a possible re-opening of the long-abandoned eastern route (not marked in the map) towards the Nile. But there should be an understanding between the two Powers on the subject of this internal trade, which is centuries old, and which certainly cannot be displaced in a day; in fact, never can entirely be displaced, except by oppressive and selfish interference, either on the part of the French or ourselves. Any action tending to compel a diversion of trade in such or such a direction would prove in the long run to be anything but advantageous to the Power which attempted it. For instance, if France were to start putting prohibitive taxes on exports and imports to and from Kano over the frontier in order to forcibly confine the circulation of trade to certain channels, it would lead to serious trouble with the natives, which would cost more to cope with than any prospective profit to be derived from such action. Similarly, if the authorities of Northern Nigeria were to actively discourage Kano’s trade with the territories under French protection, in order to develop Kano’s trade with the south, it would only lead to a decrease in the productive capacity of Kano, and consequently lessen the prosperity of Northern Nigeria as a whole.
Economic changes are bound to occur, especially when the British and French railway systems proposing to tap the Niger valley are more advanced, but there is plenty of scope for both to earn an honourable livelihood, and the central fact to be borne in mind is that Kano’s trade is, and must be, as previously stated, more of an internal than an external one. Before Kano can purchase such cottons, woollens and other articles as it absorbs, from the south, that is to say, from European merchants, it must be in a position to give, in return, articles of African produce that will pay the European merchant to buy. To suppose that Kano will be able to do so until the iron horse has penetrated well over the Kano side of the Niger, or until a carriage-road the model of the one the French are building from Conakry to Futa-Jallon connects a navigable point on the Niger with Kano, is to cherish an illusion. Transport charges would kill any chance of profit in a transaction which differs in every particular from the nature of Kano’s internal trade. The one would be a direct transaction, to stand or fall on its merits; the other can best be described as a multiplicity of transactions with the purchasing commodity represented by native cloth, a useless article so far as export to Europe is concerned. In fact, it is no easy matter to determine how Kano will be able to feed a railway from the coast without the creation of some great industry suitable for European export, corresponding with the oil-palm industry of the coastwise regions. One thing at least is certain, that if through extravagance in construction and working, or other causes, the section of an eventual railway from the coast to Kano, which passes through the oil-palm bearing regions cannot be made to pay, the economical outlook for the railway when it leaves the oil-palm zone is anything but cheerful. Of course, where the main purpose is strategic, considerations other than commercial come into play, and the matter assumes a different aspect.
To resume, it would seem really desirable that a mutual arrangement between England and France should be arrived at as regards freedom of circulation for the internal traffic of the Chad region. I urged that course in the _Pall Mall Gazette_ when the negotiations for the Convention of 1898 were pending. Recent events suggest that the proposal might still be adopted with advantage to both parties concerned, and as a measure both just and wise in the relation it bears to the legitimate interests of the natives.
It remains to be said in this connection that the principal articles imported into the Upper Niger by the Niger Company, which up to the present has enjoyed the monopoly of the Upper Niger trade, are salt, brass, copper and iron rods, white damask cloths, white brocaded cloths, indigo-dyed cloths (in imitation of, but inferior to, the cloth produced from native looms and dyed in Kano), cowries, rice, yarn and gunpowder. The salt which is imported chiefly from England has a large sale, being greatly superior to native manufactured salt from Bilma and the shores of Lake Chad. The copper, brass and iron rods are chiefly used for conversion into arrow-heads. As for the cloths, they do not equal the products of the Kano looms, and unless of the finest white damask, are rejected by the Mohammedans. They find, however, a ready sale among the Pagans. These cloths are, as a rule, exchanged against ivory, gum, bees-wax or rubber, bought by Hausa traders, who in turn take them to Kano and there exchange them for native-made cloth.
I have entered rather fully into the trading and industrial statistics of Kano because, apart from the interest naturally attaching to the commercial life of one of the most flourishing cities of Africa, the centre of a great industrial and agricultural district, a knowledge of these particulars enables one, I think, the better to realise what are the distinctive characteristics of the Hausa race—Kano being pre-eminently Hausa. The Hausa is primarily and essentially the business man of Africa. He is not and never will become a governing personality. His aims are commercial, and he neither seeks nor desires any other state. Of political ambition he has none, and although strongly attached to the Mohammedan faith, and good-humouredly contemptuous of his pagan customers, he is quite content that they should remain pagans to the end of the chapter, willingly resigning the attractions of proselytism into the hands of the Fulani. Withal he is a cheerful, happy-go-lucky sort of person, generally kind to his slaves, and content to gang his own gait in his own way. That is the natural state of the Hausa. If we take him away from his business habits and fashion him into a soldier, we perforce place him in the midst of artificial conditions of life, where his individuality become lost. He is then merely interesting in the sense that our other African levies are interesting, that is, from an exclusively military point of view.
The Hausa can be drilled into a good soldier, and under decent treatment will show much patient endurance and bravery. Like all Negroes, if adequate supervision be lacking, he will take advantage of the prestige attaching to his uniform to tyrannise over the aborigines among whom he is quartered.
In his military capacity the Hausa has rendered good service in the Benin and Ashanti campaigns; in the course of innumerable skirmishes on the lower Niger, throughout the operations so admirably carried out by Sir George Goldie against Nupe and Ilorin, and so on. It should, however, be remembered that on those occasions where the Hausa soldier has fought under the British flag, he has gone into battle with the consciousness of possessing weapons which gave him an incontestable superiority over his antagonist. He has never been called upon to face a native force officered by Europeans, and armed with quick-firing rifles similar to his own. His capacity to rise to the occasion if necessity demanded it need not be queried. That is a matter upon which military men personally acquainted with the Hausa’s qualities and defects as a fighting unit are alone competent to give an opinion.[42] But until the Hausa has been put to the test, it may be well not to found too high an estimate of his military abilities, bearing in mind that, unlike the French West African recruits, he does not come of a fighting stock.
[Illustration: HAUSAS DRILLING]
As already stated, it is in his natural sphere of commerce and industry that the Hausa shines. In that respect he stands without a rival on the continent in which he lives. His manufacturing skill is not only remarkable for Africa: it puts Europe to the blush. For closeness, durability and firmness of texture, the products of his looms and dye-pits eclipse anything that Manchester can produce. In a land of reputed indolence, his activity is as conspicuous as his enterprise. He makes an ideal commercial traveller, peddling his wares over enormous distances, and seldom failing to secure a considerable profit on his transactions.
The Hausa has so identified himself with the commercial requirements of a vast region that his language has, throughout it, been adopted as the necessary vehicle of inter-communication for all that appertains to trade and commerce. The Hausa language is _per se_ specially well fitted for extensive propagation among African races. Reclus[43] has said of it that by its fine sonorousness, the richness of its vocabulary, the simplicity of its grammatical structure, and the graceful equilibrium of its phrases, Hausa deserves to rank among the foremost languages of the Dark Continent; and Sir Harry Johnston includes it with English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Arabic and Swahili among the great languages of New Africa.[44]
The first vocabulary of Hausa was compiled by Mr. James Richardson, who, in company with Dr. Barth and Dr. Overweg, crossed the desert to Lake Chad in 1850-51.[45] Upon his return from Africa, Dr. Barth himself published a work upon the Hausa, Fulfulde and Kanuri[46] languages. Messrs. Schön[47] and Krause subsequently devoted much study to the subject, and the former issued a remarkable book on the Hausa language in 1876, of which there appeared a revised edition in 1885. Later on, Mr. John A. Robinson, M.A., a scholar of Christ College, Cambridge, made further researches into Hausa during his stay at Lokoja. After his death the Hausa Association was formed (1891) with the object of continuing his labours, and in 1894 the Reverend Charles Henry Robinson, M.A.—now Canon Robinson of Ripon—was despatched by the Association to Kano. Canon Robinson and his companions Dr. Tonkin and Mr. Bonner spent three months in Kano, and in due course the former published an account of his experiences[48] which excited much attention, coming as it did so soon after Lieutenant-Colonel Monteil’s remarkable journey from St. Louis to Tripoli through Kano had revived the world’s interest in the famous Hausa city. Since then the Hausa Association has published four works on the Hausa[49] language. In 1897 the Cambridge University appointed a University Lecturer in Hausa, and the authorities of Christ’s College established a Hausa scholarship open to graduates of the University or others who have passed an examination in at least one Semitic language. The initiative thus displayed by the Hausa Association[50] and by Canon Robinson is worthy of all praise, and it is greatly to be hoped that further efforts may be forthcoming which will extend so useful a field of inquiry to the other great languages of Northern Nigeria, Fulfulde and Kanuri.
The Hausa language appears to belong to the Hamitic group, although it contains numerous Semitic idioms, and also a large number of words borrowed from the Arabic.
Some controversy exists as to whether Hausa can be properly considered a written language or not. Canon Robinson stoutly maintains that it is, and even goes so far as to assert that there is no race north of the Equator, nor indeed in all Africa outside Egypt and Abyssinia, which has reduced its language to writing, or made any attempt at the production of a literature.[51] That is, as Americans say, a tall order, and I beg leave to doubt the accuracy of the statement. Sufficient interest attaches to the point to merit a cursory examination.
In the introductory remarks to his “Magana Hausa” already referred to, Mr. Schön speaks of himself as the writer of a “previously unwritten language”—meaning, of course, Hausa. Commenting upon that passage in the preface to the “Hausa-English Dictionary,” Canon Robinson infers that, when Schön wrote the words quoted above, he was probably unaware that the Hausa possessed any kind of literature at all. That seems to me a gratuitous assumption, for Barth, who came before Schön, and whose works Schön would naturally have consulted, more than once declares categorically that the Hausa language is _not_ a written language. Yet Barth knew perfectly well that the Hausa had possessed historical manuscripts, since he lamented their destruction by the Fulani at the capture of Katsena, which was then, as Kano is to-day, the seat of culture of the Hausa race. It may therefore be asserted with every probability of exactness that Schön spoke _en pleine connaissance de cause_ when he referred to himself as the writer of a previously unwritten language. Now, can the existence of a certain number of manuscripts in the Hausa language, and written in Arabic characters, be considered sufficient proof that Hausa itself is a written language? If so, then Fulfulde is a written language, because Bello committed to writing in the language of his race, and in Arabic characters, a history of the Sudan; and Kanuri is a written language, because Koelle[52] published in 1854 a Kanuri grammar founded upon a collection of manuscript literature in the tongue of the Kanuri and in Arabic characters. In that case it follows that, contrary to what Canon Robinson affirms, the Hausas are not the only African people north of the Equator, outside Egypt and Abyssinia, who have reduced their language to writing or aimed at producing a literature. If the first claim is tenable, if, that is to say, Hausa is a written language, then the second claim put forward is not tenable. I do not propose to continue this appreciation into more technical channels, which would probably be wearisome to the reader, and will content myself with quoting from a letter received by me some little time ago from a British Officer then in charge of the Military Intelligence Department of Northern Nigeria, whose knowledge of Hausa has been officially declared to be “unique.” Being unable to reconcile Canon Robinson’s statements that it was a written language, with the facts as they presented themselves to me, I finally turned to my correspondent, whose competency I was well aware no one would venture to dispute. This is what he says:
“Robinson’s Hausa Grammar was universally pronounced a failure by all officers of the West African Frontier Force, and they could make no progress by using it. I have already told you that the natives say they could not understand him. Moreover, one hardly talks the same class of Hausa to any two Hausas consecutively; but after a couple of minutes’ conversation with a native one knows his dialect, and what words to use, and how to pronounce those words, the pronunciation varying considerably.[53] The Hausa writing, very little of which exists, is simply Hausa written phonetically in Arabic characters, there being no recognised way of spelling one word, which fact alone proves how little the written language is used. Nowadays Hausa is scarcely ever written, except isolated words, such as ‘Sariki’ and ‘bature.’ The Hausa writing is called ‘Ajumi,’ and when such words are used in an Arabic letter, it is usual to prefix the word ‘Ajumi,’ in order to warn the reader that the following words are Hausa, not Arabic. The Arabic used is primitive, but correct. As the Hausa vowel sounds cannot always be correctly represented by the Arabic vowel marks, there is only the context to guide one in many Hausa written words, and the task of spelling out every word phonetically is a laborious one, especially when the proper sound cannot in all cases be represented. I have seen some of the most learned Mallams in Nigeria experience great difficulty in reading Canon Robinson’s specimens of Hausa literature. Canon Robinson attaches much too much importance to the Hausa writing. The few specimens that exist are interesting as curiosities, but the language is useless as a means of communication.”