East African Scholars Journal of Education, Humanities and
Literature
Abbreviated Key Title: East African Scholars J Edu Humanit Lit
ISSN: 2617-443X (Print) & ISSN: 2617-7250 (Online)
Published By East African Scholars Publisher, Kenya
Volume-5 | Issue-3 | Mar- 2022 | DOI: 10.36349/easjehl.2022.v05i03.004
*Corresponding Author: Abdulbasir Ahmad Atuwo 87
Department of Nigerian Languages Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto
Review Article
Seeing is believing: Identifying A True Hausa Man
Abdulbasir Ahmad Atuwo
1*
, Dano Balarabe Bunza
1
1
Department of Nigerian Languages Usmanu Danfodiyo University, Sokoto
Article History
Received: 11.02.2022
Accepted: 18.03.2022
Published: 22.03.2022
Journal homepage:
https://www.easpublisher.com
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Abstract: Hausa people are among the popular communities in Africa due to
their eminence in trade, scholarship, military service such as the world wars,
leadership, and politics in media/journalism, in academics, etc. These factors,
however, influenced the acceptability of the Hausa Language as a good area of
study in many Nigerian Universities. Hausa is also studied in American,
German, Asian, and Universities. This paper concentrated more on trying to use
some factors to identify who is a Hausa man? Where is he located? What are his
features and behaviors? The factors used by this paper include: Place identified
as Hausaland, his facial marks, his clothes or dress, his dietary habits, his
physical features, his body gestures, and his uniqueness of specializing in a
dangerous occupation.
Keywords: Hausa, Hausa Man, Hausa People, Hausa Community.
Copyright © 2022 The Author(s): This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International
License (CC BY-NC 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial use provided the original
author and source are credited.
INTRODUCTION
God the Almighty, in His compassionate and
exceptional attribute of will, created mankind in two
pairs, man and woman, and made them live together
and assist one another as partners in life. God created
Adam and his wife, Eve in paradise, but was later sent
down on earth because they committed an offense.
Their generation continued to multiply in diversity all
over the world in different colors, languages, shapes,
and environments. This transformed to what today is
regarded as the human world population contained in
four geographical global continents: Europe, the Middle
East, Asia, and Africa. God the Almighty gave his
reason for creating mankind in diversity and with
differences as indicated in the Glorious Qur‟an.
“O mankind! We created you from a single (pair) of a
male and a female. And we made you into nations and
tribes, that ye may know each other (Not that ye may
despise each other). Verily the most honored of you in
the sight of God is (he who is) the most righteous of
you. And God has full knowledge and is well
acquainted (with all things)”. (49:13)
It, therefore, went down to tribes like Hausa
communities as part and parcel of hundreds of
thousands of other world communities. Each of these
communities has a language that possessed some
unique features that can be identifiable by its native
speakers and other people. This paper discussed issues
that can be used in identifying Hausa man.
Hausa communities were among the popular
tribes in the African ethnic groups, especially in Sub-
Saharan communities identified as hardworking, honest,
and frank. They were people found in West Africa and
have a strong belief in search. The search could be for
wealth, education (either Islamic or Western), medicine
or professional skills and that is why Hausa
communities can be found in different parts of the
world.
The word “Hausa” connotes language which
refers to the spoken language or area of studies or
geographical location in Northern Nigeria in West
Africa. Linguistically, it is classified as one of the
Chadic family language members. The other Chadic
language family includes; Kare-kare, Ngizim, Miya,
Bolanci, Bade, Tera, Margi, Mandara, Bura, Angas,
Kanakuru, Bacama and so on [
1
].
This interpretation is commonly perceived and
propagated by Hausa oral singers e.g. in Ahmadu
Bello‟s song by Musa Ɗanƙwairo, he used the term
Hausa:
1
. Bunza, A.M. (1989) Hayaki Fid da na Kogo. M.A.
Dissertation, Department of Nigerian
Languages, Bayero University Kano (p. 3-4).